Congress releases missing 9/11 report pages

WASHINGTON, DC – On Friday, Congress released 28 formerly classified pages of the 9/11 Commission Report, pertaining to possible Saudi government involvement in the events leading up to the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

Preceded by a memorandum from then Director of the Central Intelligence Agency George Tenet, the combined findings from the CIA and Federal Bureau of Investigation indicates that 9/11 hijackers in the United States had direct contact with and some financial assistance from Saudi government officials.

In particular, the report points to alleged Saudi Intelligence officer Omar al-Bayoumi as having met with and assisted hijackers Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi in San Diego in February 2000. At that time, al-Bayoumi was receiving a monthly salary from a company named “Erean,” affiliated with the Saudi Ministry of Defense. According to the report, the hijackers stayed with al-Bayoumi at his apartment, where he threw the men a welcome party.

The hijackers also met with Shaykh al-Thumairy, an accredited diplomat with the Saudi Consulate in Los Angeles.

The FBI’s findings also indicate that several Saudi Naval officers were in contact with the hijackers. Officer Lafi al-Harbi made telephone contact with hijackers Khalid al-Mindhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi on nine occasions between March 11 and March 27, 2000. In addition the FBI discovered that Abdullah Saleh Bakala, private pilot for the Saudi Royal family, was close personal friends with hijackers Ahmed al-Ghamdi and Hamza al-Ghamdi.

Of note, the FBI details that a telephone book was recovered from senior al-Qaida coordinator Abu Zubaida in March 2002 by U.S. Forces. The book contained the telephone numbers of several U.S.-based Saudi officials, including the number for the ASPCOL Corporation in Aspen, Colo.

According to the FBI’s Denver Office, ASPCOL is an umbrella corporation that manages the affairs of the Colorado residence of Prince Bandar, the then-Saudi ambassador to the U.S. Additionally, the Colorado Secretary of State’s office had no record of ASPCOL, or Scimitar Security, the firm protecting the ambassador. Due to “sensitivity” in the matter, the FBI suspended their investigation of ASPCOL until further direction from FBI Headquarters.

The report goes on to note the Saudi government’s general reluctance to cooperate with U.S. investigation into the 9/11 attacks, including one official who faked an illness to avoid an interview, then promptly left the United States.

The entire report is available to the public at intelligence.house.gov.