The US has marked with commemorative events the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. The country’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has made public one of a number of documents linked to the investigation of the crimes at the request of the families and survivors, American broadcaster CNN reports.
The FBI document, released on Saturday, September 11, is from 2016 and still contains significant redactions. It provides details of the FBI’s work to investigate the alleged logistical support that a Saudi consular official and a suspected Saudi intelligence agent in Los Angeles provided to at least two of the men who hijacked planes on September 11, 2001.
Information in it details multiple connections and witness testimony that prompted FBI suspicion of Omar al-Bayoumi, who was purportedly a Saudi student in Los Angeles but whom the FBI suspected to be a Saudi intelligence agent. The FBI document describes him as deeply involved in providing «travel assistance, lodging and financing» to help the two hijackers.
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A number of family members and survivors of the 9/11 attacks commented that the document «puts to bed any doubts about Saudi complicity in the attacks.»
Although fifteen of the 19 al Qaeda group terrorists, who hijacked four planes on September 11, 2001, were Saudi nationals, Saudi Arabia as a country has denied national-level complicity in the attacks and welcomed the decision to release the documents of investigation, CNN reports.
On September 11, 2001, 2 977 victims and 19 terrorists died as passenger planes were hijacked and crushed into the World Trade Centre buildings in New York and the US Department Pentagon building in the state of Virginia. One passenger plane crashed into a field in the state of Pennsylvania and, according to investigators, the hijackers had failed in their plan to crush it into one of the top US government buildings.
US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin has made a commemorative speech from the Pentagon. In it, Austin pledged to continue to support the people affected by the attacks and continue to protect the American nation in the US and abroad. US Secretary of Defence’s address in video is available here.
You are welcome also to see a video, where a survivor of the Pentagon attack speaks about her experience on September 11, 2001.