Lawsuit seeks disclosure of FBI 9/11 files

MIAMI — A lawsuit seeking disclosure of FBI files that may detail a U.s.-based support network for the 9/11 hijackers has reached a federal appeals court, which is being asked by a Florida online publication to order a Freedom of Information Act trial on the dispute.

The case centers around reporting published by floridabulldog.org on the FBI’S investigation into a Saudi family that abruptly left its home in a gated Sarasota community two weeks before the 2001 terror attacks. One FBI document written in 2002 that was disclosed in court said agents had found “many connections” between the family and some of the hijackers who took flying lessons at a nearby airport, including ringleader Mohamed Atta.

Later, however, the FBI disputed its own document, telling a 9/11 review commission in 2015 that it was “poorly written and unsubstantiated.”

The former Sarasota residents, Saudis Abdulaziz and Anoud alhijji, have denied having connections with or supporting the hijackers. They now live overseas.

And the FBI’S position is that it doesn’t have to explain why it discounts its 2002 memo, despite details that were reported by the Bulldog and other media a decade after the attacks.

Those 2011 stories on the Al-hijjis focused on how neighbors had reported that they abruptly moved out of their home in an upscale, gated Sarasota community before the 9/11 attacks, leaving behind cars, clothes, furniture and even a refrigerator full of food. The possible connections to hijackers include gate records indicating some had visited the home as well as telephone calls involving them.

The FBI has asserted seven exemptions to the FOIA requirements, including that releasing the files would endanger national security and expose law enforcement techniques.