GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba — The Justice Department asked a federal court for permission to publish FBI documents that may show links between the Saudi government and the al Qaeda hijackers behind 9/11, with the new filing coming two days before the 20th anniversary of the terror attacks.
Families of the 9/11 victims have sought a host of details tied to possible Saudi government involvement in the attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 Americans. Last week, President Joe Biden issued an executive order directing the DOJ to declassify information stemming from an FBI inquiry dubbed Operation Encore, which ended in 2016.
U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss’s Thursday court filing asked the judge “to allow the United States to publicly disclose certain analysis discussing grand jury materials” tied to the FBI’s Saudi-9/11 investigation. Although the information was previously deemed privileged and confidential, Strauss asked for “expedited consideration” of her request because of Biden’s executive order.
It was not immediately clear what the documents would reveal. Strauss said some information that could be declassified includes phone records, but any public disclosures are still subject to redactions under the Privacy Act.
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On Friday afternoon, Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn granted the Justice Department’s request to release more information, with the court docket stating simply: “ORDER granting … Letter Motion for Discovery. The FBI’s application is granted in full.”
Although Saudi Arabia has repeatedly denied any involvement in the 9/11 attacks, some probable links have already been reported. Omar al Bayoumi, said to have been a former Saudi intelligence officer, and Fahad al Thumairy, a former Saudi Consulate official, allegedly had contacts with Khalid al Mihdhar and Nawaf al Hazmi, two of the 15 Saudis among the 19 hijackers.
Mihdhar and Hazmi, who went on to be the “muscle” hijackers on the plane that crashed into the Pentagon, went to training camp in Afghanistan and were selected by Osama bin Laden for the 9/11 hijacking operation. They were the first hijackers to enter the U.S., arriving in Los Angeles in January 2000. The two met Bayoumi at a Los Angeles restaurant early the next month, and he reportedly helped the duo open bank accounts and rent apartments in the same complex as him in San Diego.
Biden’s order required Attorney General Merrick Garland to release applicable declassified documents to the public over the next six months. He said the declassification effort must include further scrutiny of the April 2016 FBI document and a review of the 2021 FBI electronic communication closing Operation Encore this year.
“When I ran for president, I made a commitment to ensuring transparency regarding the declassification of documents on the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America,” Biden said. “As we approach the 20th anniversary of that tragic day, I am honoring that commitment.”
An August statement signed by nearly 1,800 people personally affected by 9/11 said that “we cannot in good faith, and with veneration to those lost, sick, and injured, welcome the president to our hallowed grounds” — the nation’s 9/11 memorials — “until he fulfills his commitment” to release more information about the attacks. They called upon Biden to “authorize the release of all documents and information to the 9/11 community that our government has accrued in its investigation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”
Former Attorney General William Barr opposed releasing further 9/11-related documents in an April 2020 court filing, saying it could “cause significant harm to the national security.”
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FBI Special Agent Stephen Moore, who led a Los Angeles task force investigating 9/11, said in a 2017 sworn affidavit that “I concluded that diplomatic and intelligence personnel of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia knowingly provided material support to the two 9/11 hijackers and facilitated the 9/11 plot” and that his colleagues agreed with him.
