Since the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001, allegations of Saudi government involvement in the attacks have been made, with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia regularly denying such claims.
The 9/11 Commission Report, issued by the 9/11 Commission on July 22, 2004, "found no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded Al Qaeda" to conspire in the attacks,[1] or that it funded the attackers; however, according to the BBC, the report identified Saudi Arabia as the primary funding location for Al-Qaeda,[2] and that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens.[3]
In 2012, the FBI stated that it had evidence that Saudi diplomat Fahad al-Thumairy, a Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs official and radical cleric who served at the King Fahd Mosque in Los Angeles, and Omar al-Bayoumi (OAB), a suspected Saudi government agent, had supported the 9/11 hijackers. In 2021, the FBI stated that Omar al-Bayoumi was a Saudi intelligence agent with ties to 9/11 hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar when they initially entered into the US. In 2022, the FBI stated that "there is a 50/50 chance al-Bayoumi had advanced knowledge the 9/11 attacks were to occur". Al-Bayoumi also helped the hijackers find housing in San Diego. Al-Bayoumi stated that he simply befriended the hijackers and also denied being a Saudi government agent. The Saudi government also denied that Al-Bayoumi was an agent.
The Saudi government had broad immunity from lawsuits in the US under the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act until it was amended in 2016 by the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA). In 2018 a federal judge ruled that a lawsuit brought forward by survivors of, and the families of victims of, the 9/11 attacks, had "a reasonable basis" under JASTA and allowed it to move forward.[4]
Investigations and reports
2004 – 9/11 Commission Report
The 9/11 Commission's final report, the 9/11 Commission Report, published in July 2004 at the request of Bush administration and the U.S Congress, concluded that there was "no evidence" linking Saudi Arabian government or its senior officials to the September 11 attacks.[5][6]
The Commission noted the presence of numerous private donors and sources of fundraising in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States for Al-Qaeda before 9/11.[7]
April 2016 – The 28 pages
The alleged Saudi role in the September 11 attacks gained new attention after Bob Graham and Porter Goss, former U.S. congressmen and co-chairmen of the congressional inquiry into the attacks, told CBS in April 2016 that the redacted 28 pages of the congressional inquiry's report refer to evidence of Saudi Arabia's substantial involvement in the execution of the attacks,[8][9][10] and calls renewed to have the redacted pages released.
The panel's findings 'did not discover' any role by 'senior, high-level' Saudi government officials, but the "commission's narrow wording", according to critics, suggests the possibility that "less senior officials or parts of the Saudi government could have played a role".[11] Florida Democratic Senator Bob Graham, who chaired the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence at the time of the report said in his sworn statements that "there was evidence of support from the Saudi government for the terrorists."[12]
In 2017 a New York lawyer, Jim Kreindler, said that he had found "a link between Saudi officials and the hijackers."[13][14]
July 2016 – File 17
In July 2016, the U.S. government released a document, compiled by Dana Lesemann and Michael Jacobson,[15] known as "File 17", which contains a list naming three dozen people, including Fahad al-Thumairy, Omar al-Bayoumi, Osama Bassnan, and Mohdhar Abdullah, which connects Saudi Arabia to the hijackers. According to the former Democratic US Senator Bob Graham, "Much of the information upon which File 17 was written was based on what's in the 28 pages."[16]
2017 'dry-run' lawsuit
According to the New York Post in 2017, the Saudi embassy in Washington DC was accused of performing a "dry run" by paying two Saudi nationals, al-Qudhaeein and Hamdan al-Shalawi, "living undercover in the US as students, to fly from Phoenix to Washington," two years before the attacks.[17] According to journalist Rachael Revesz, "evidence submitted" to a lawsuit against the Saudi government claimed that the Saudi embassy in Washington DC may have funded flights to these students in 1999 to research about the flight deck security. Specifically, the suit, citing the FBI documents, alleges the Saudi government funded two individuals who asked flight attendants technical questions and tried to enter the cockpit of a domestic flight in the US, which caused the flight to make an emergency landing in Ohio and the individuals to be interrogated by the FBI. The two individuals were later released after initial interrogation by the FBI.[18] Mentioning FBI documents, the complaint alleged that the students were part of a network of Saudi Arabian agents in the US, and "participated in the terrorist conspiracy". The documents stated that Qudhaeein and Shalawi were trained in Afghanistan at the same time with some other al-Qaeda operatives that participated in the 9/11 attacks and that "both worked for and received money from the Saudi government, with Qudhaeein employed at the Ministry of Islamic Affairs."[17]
2020 FBI file release
In April 2020, the FBI neglected to redact one of the several instances of the Saudi diplomat name, Mussaed Ahmed al-Jarrah (MAJ), in a court filing in the lawsuit brought by 9/11 families. Over the course of 1999–2000 MAJ was a mid-level Saudi Foreign Ministry official who was working in the Saudi Embassy in Washington, DC. Former embassy officials said MAJ reported to the Saudi ambassador to the U.S, Prince Bandar, and managed employees of the Ministry of Islamic Affairs at Saudi-funded mosques and Islamic centers.[19][20]
The October 2012 FBI update to the FBI's own investigation of possible Saudi involvement in the 9/11 attacks stated that FBI agents had uncovered evidence that Saudi diplomat Fahad al-Thumairy, a Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs official and radical cleric who served as the imam of the King Fahd Mosque in Los Angeles, and Omar al-Bayoumi (OAB) a suspected Saudi government agent, had been tasked to support the 9/11 hijackers by another individual; referred to as MAJ, whose name was redacted in the October 2012 update document in all but one instance.[20] FBI agents suspected that MAJ had directed crucial support towards two of 9/11 hijackers; Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, who participated on 9/11 in the hijacking of American Airlines Flight 77.[21][20] After Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi arrived in Los Angeles on January 15, 2000; FBI agents suspected that they were allegedly assisted by Saudi diplomat Fahad al-Thumairy and by OAB, with OAB finding them an apartment, lending them money and setting them up with bank accounts. According to a sworn statement from former LA-based FBI agent Catherine Hunt; during the investigation by the 9/11 Commission the FBI believed that MAJ was engaged in supporting and maintaining al-Thumairy.[22][20][19]
On September 11, 2020, US Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn ordered two members of the Saudi royal family, including Prince Bandar bin Sultan, to answer questions raised by the 9/11 lawsuit. The victims have called it a turning point in a long-running lawsuit. Relatives of the September 11 attack victims claim that the agents of Saudi Arabia knowingly supported al-Qaeda and its leader Osama bin Laden, before hijacking and crashing the planes into New York's World Trade Center Twin Towers.[23]
2021 FBI file release
On September 11, 2021, following an executive order by Joe Biden, the FBI started releasing a series of redacted documents which were related to alleged links of Saudi officials to 9/11 attacks, over a period of six months.[24]
The first of these documents, a 16-page FBI report dated to 2016, is heavily redacted. The document found no evidence linking the Saudi government to the September 11 attacks. The document asserted that Omar al-Bayoumi was a frequent visitor to the Saudi Consulate in Los Angeles who had provided "significant logistical support" and financial assistance to 9/11 hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar upon their arrival in the US.[24]
Welcoming the release of the document,[25] the Saudi Embassy in Washington DC issued a statement: "No evidence has ever emerged to indicate that the Saudi government or its officials had previous knowledge of the terrorist attack or were in any way involved in its planning or execution.. Any allegation that Saudi Arabia is complicit in the September 11 attacks is categorically false".[26]
2022 FBI file release
The United States Justice Department admitted on March 10 that it would miss a deadline specified by President Joe Biden's executive order to examine and reveal records from the FBI's investigation into the attack.[27]
In March 2022, the FBI declassified a 510-page report about 9/11 that it produced in 2017. The report found that "there is a 50/50 chance al-Bayoumi had advanced knowledge the 9/11 attacks were to occur," from the two Islamists he befriended that were involved in plotting 9/11. Al-Bayoumi also helped the Islamists find housing in San Diego.[28] In response, 9/11 Commission chairman and former New Jersey governor Tom Kean said that "If that's true I'd be upset by it", adding, "The FBI said it wasn't withholding anything and we believed them."[28]
Al-Bayoumi stated that he didn't know anything about the hijackers' plans and just befriended them after randomly meeting them. Saudi Arabia stated that al-Bayoumi was not an agent of theirs.[29]
Aftermath
The Saudi government has long denied any connection.[30] Relatives of victims have tried to use the courts to hold Saudi royals, banks, or charities responsible, but these efforts have been thwarted partly by the 1976 Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.[11] According to Gawdat Bahgat, a professor of political science, following the September 11 attacks the so-called "Saudi policy of promoting terrorism and funding hatred" faced strong criticism by several "influential policy-makers and think-tanks in Washington".[31]
According to Caleb Hanna, the US government collaborated with Saudi Arabia in suppressing the revelation of evidence related to alleged Saudi links to the attacks, denying FOIA requests and allegedly supplying inside information to the lawyers representing the Saudis involved. Bob Graham characterised the strategy as not a 'cover up' but "aggressive deception".[13]
JASTA
In March 2016, Saudi Arabia threatened the Obama administration to sell US$750 billion worth of American assets owned by Saudi Arabia if the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) designed to create an exception to the 1976 Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act was enacted, which caused fears of destabilizing the US dollar.[11] U.S. president Barack Obama also warned against "unintended consequences", while other economic analysts believed that this action would damage the Saudi government.[32]
In March 2018, a US judge allowed a suit to move forward against Saudi Arabia brought by 9/11 survivors and victims' families, that the government should pay billions of dollars in damages to victims. The lawsuit is still ongoing as of 2024.[4]
Operation Encore
Operation Encore was a secret FBI investigation launched in 2007 to investigate the alleged links of Saudi officials to the September 11 hijackers.[33][34][35] According to The New York Times, "circumstantial evidence" was uncovered but no direct links were established.[36] Potential leads were not initially pursued and some FBI agents believe that the CIA interfered with its attempt to place two Saudis under surveillance.[36]