Secret chapter of 9/11 inquiry released after 13-year wait

However, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the USA says they welcome the release of the information.

Graham said he thinks the report should have the United States rethink it’s relationship with Saudi Arabia. The document details a number of alleged instances wherein individuals linked to the Al Saud family may have assisted or provided financial support to the al Qaeda operatives who committed the terrorist attacks. “On the other hand, it is also possible that further investigation of these allegations could reveal legitimate, and innocent, explanations for these associations”.

The report falls short of directly condemning the Saudi government for the 9/11 terror attacks, saying numerous connections between the Saudi government and the September 11 terrorists is circumstantial.

After declassifying the documents, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said: “This material was investigative material that was reviewed and followed up on by the independent 9/11 Commission”.

In another case, an unidentified Saudi man was on a State Department watch list but was able to evade scrutiny by both the Customs Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service because he was traveling with a Saudi prince named Khalid al-Bandar, the documents show.

Fifteen of the 19 hijackers in the 9/11 attacks were identified as Saudi nationals.

A reported Saudi interior ministry official who stayed in September 2001 at the same Virginia hotel as Hazmi denied knowing the hijackers.

With only occasional redactions, the declassified document is one chapter in a longer 2002 congressional inquiry and it describes those with Saudi ties who allegedly assisted the hijackers prior to the attack that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania.

Pelosi told reporters that they will be released later in the day pending agreement by the committees of jurisdiction. But the report Congress put out had multiple inked-out sections.

A lightshow in NY pays tribute to the 9/11 victims.

Al-Qudhaeein and an associate were headed for a party at the Saudi embassy in Washington D.C., according to the report. It suggests “Saudi Government money was being laundered through” the mosque. It was released hours later on the website of the House Intelligence Committee. “The families are happy just as the American people should be happy that information that has been kept hidden for well over a decade is finally coming to light”. Families of victims of the attack have pushed legal efforts against Saudi Arabia.

“It is going to increase the questioning of the Saudis’ role supporting the hijackers”, Mr Graham said.

“We hope that with the release of these pages, the aspersions that have been cast against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia over the past 14 years will come to an end” and “we can focus on moving ahead”, Adel Al Jubeir said.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Friday that the release of the 28-page chapter is “imminent”.

“The decision to authorize the release of this information is not an endorsement of, or concurrence in, its accuracy or reliability”, according to the office.

California representative Devin Nunes emphasized that the evidence presented in the pages constitute “unverified leads that were later fully investigated by the intelligence committee”.