The FBI document does not contain evidence of the Saudi government’s involvement in the September 11 attacks | FBI

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The FBI released a recently declassified 16-page document relating to logistical support provided to two Saudi hijackers in the run-up to the September 11 terrorist attacks. The document describes the contacts the kidnappers had with Saudi partners in the United States, but it does not provide any evidence that the Saudi government was complicit in the plot.

The document, released on the 20th anniversary of the attacks, is the first investigative record to be revealed since President Joe Biden ordered a classified review of material that for years kept out of public view.

Biden has faced pressure in recent weeks from families of the victims, who have long sought the records while pursuing a lawsuit in New York alleging that senior Saudi officials were complicit.

The Saudi government has long denied any involvement. On Wednesday, the Saudi embassy in Washington said it supported declassifying all records as a way to “permanently end baseless allegations against the kingdom.” The embassy said any allegation that Saudi Arabia was complicit was “categorically false”.

Biden last week ordered the Justice Department and other agencies to conduct a review to declassify investigative documents and release as many as they can over the next six months.

The 16 pages were released Saturday night, hours after Biden attended the 9/11 memorial events in New York, Pennsylvania and Northern Virginia. Relatives of the victims had earlier objected to Biden’s attendance at ceremonial events as long as the documents were kept secret.

The heavily redacted record released on Saturday describes a 2015 interview with an individual who was applying for US citizenship and years earlier had frequent contact with Saudi nationals who investigators said provided “significant logistical support” to many of the hijackers.

The documents are being released at a politically sensitive time for the United States and Saudi Arabia, two countries that have forged a strategic, albeit difficult, alliance, especially on counterterrorism matters.

The Biden administration in February released an intelligence assessment implicating Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the 2018 killing of US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey, but it drew criticism from Democrats for avoiding direct punishment of the crown prince himself.

Regarding the events of 9/11, there was speculation of official involvement shortly after the attacks, when it was revealed that 15 of the 19 attackers were Saudis. Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda at the time, was from a prominent family in the kingdom.

The United States has investigated some Saudi diplomats and others with ties to the Saudi government who knew the hijackers after they arrived in the United States, according to already declassified documents.

However, the 9/11 Commission report found “no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded” the attacks orchestrated by al-Qaeda. But the committee also indicated a “possibility” that Saudi government-sponsored charities would do so.

The special scrutiny focused on the first two hijackers to arrive in the United States, Nawaf Al-Hazmi and Khaled Al-Mihdhar. In February 2000, shortly after arriving in Southern California, they came across at a halal restaurant a Saudi national named Omar al-Bayoumi who helped them find and rent an apartment in San Diego, had connections to the Saudi government, and had earlier lured the FBI. audit.

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