20 years after the most dreaded terrorist attack ever on America, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has made public some such confidential documents, in which it has been said that the link between Saudi Arabia and the attackers have been talked about. The document states that the kidnappers were in contact with their Saudi accomplices in the US, but there is no evidence that senior Saudi officials were also involved in the plot.
The documents were released on Saturday, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, following orders from President Joe Biden, which were kept secret for years. The 16-page document is the extract of a 2015 interview by the FBI of a man who was in contact with Saudi nationals in the US who helped the plane hijackers enter the country before the attack.
An April 4, 2016 memo reported that Omar Byumi, then a student but a possible operative of Saudi intelligence, had links to two al-Qaeda terrorists involved in plane hijacking to hit targets in New York and Washington. Were. The documents, based on interviews with a confidential source in 2009 and 2015, mention contacts and meetings between Bayumi and two hijackers Nawaf al-Hajmi and Khalid al-Midhar. Both of them immigrated to Southern California in the year 2000 before the terrorist attacks.
The documents also confirmed their links to the Imam of the King Fad Mosque in Los Angeles, Fahad al-Thumairi, and a Saudi consulate official. The document states that telephone numbers linked to the source indicated contacts with several people who assisted Hajmi and Midhar during their stay in California, including Byumi and Thumari, and the source himself. The source told the FBI that Byumi had a high status at the Saudi consulate.
It further talks of meetings and phone conversations between Alwar al-Alaki of Bayumi and Thumari. The US-born cleric had become a prominent figure in al-Qaeda before being killed in a drone strike in Yemen in 2011. However, the documents do not reveal any direct link between these hijackers and the Saudi government.
The families of those killed in the attack have pressured Biden to release the document in recent weeks. They have long been seeking to release records that could prove helpful in their ongoing trial in New York. They allege that senior Saudi officials were complicit in the attacks.
The Saudi Arabian government has denied any involvement in the attacks. The Saudi embassy in Washington said on Wednesday that it supports the release of all documents so that baseless allegation against its government are put to an end forever. These documents have been made public at a time when relations between the US and Saudi Arabia are going through a critical period.
In February, the Biden administration released an intelligence assessment of the involvement of Saudi Arabia's Walihad Mohammed Salman in the 2018 murder of US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi. However, he was criticized by Democrats for avoiding direct punishment to the royal member.
Relatives of victims said the release of documents related to the 9/11 attacks on the US was a useful step in their efforts to link the attack to Saudi Arabia. Brett Eagleson, who lost his father Bruce in the World Trade Center attack, said the release of the FBI document intensified his desire to reach the truth and seek justice. "The facts and findings revealed in the FBI investigation will validate our argument for fixing the responsibility of the Saudi Arabian government for the 9/11 attacks," Jim Kreinder, the victims' lawyer, said in a statement.
