Did Saudis in US help hijackers? FBI reveals first declassified 9/11 document

Highlights

1. The FBI has commenced declassifying the files on 9/11 terror attack.
2. The declassifying of the documents coincided with the 20^th anniversary of the terror attacks
3. The documents reveal the logistical support provided to two of the Saudi hijackers in the build-up to the terrorist operation

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) overnight released a newly declassified document about the 9/11 terror attacks, as the world marks 20^th anniversary of gruesome attacks that left around 3,000 people dead.

The revelation comes in form of a 16-page document, which come out as the first investigative record to be made public since the US President Joe Biden ordered a declassification review of files about 9/11 last week through an executive order.

The documents reveal the details about the logistical support provided to two of the 19 Saudi hijackers in the build-up to the terrorist operation.

The heavily edited document gives a summary of the investigative agency’s interview in 2015 with a man who had regular contact with Saudi nationals living in the states. The man is alleged to have aided the duo of Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar – the first hijackers to arrive in the US.

The documents blows the lid off the contacts that the hijackers had with their Saudi associates in the US. However, it does not provide any evidence hinting that senior Saudi government officials were complicit in the attacks.

The dispatch of the documents came in soon after former US Presidents Barack Obama and George W Bush joined the current US President Joe Biden in a show of solidarity to mark the two decades of the terror strikes.

Earlier last month, the families of the terror attack victims issued a statement which said that President Biden would not be welcome at any memorial events till the documents remained classified – a move that is seen to have prompted the President’s order to declassify the files.

Bottom Line:

It is good that more and more things are becoming public on 9/11 terror attacks. The strikes by terrorists from Al-Qaeda have been the defining moment and rallying point in global polity for two decades, before the COVID-19 pandemic took the centre stage.