Give us 9/11 truth
Kin rage that feds won’t tell full role of Saudi Arabia
Survivors and relatives of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks left Manhattan Federal Court on Friday furious at the Department of Justice for withholding information about Saudi Arabia’s role in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people.
The government has refused to name a key Saudi official investigated by the FBI, and has also refused to release a 16-page document they believe provides a definitive account of Saudi Arabia’s role.
“How is that transparency for families? For America?” 9/11 survivor Tim Frolich said outside of court.
“How is that acceptable? That’s the FBI and Saudis basically tied at the hip.”
The survivors seek the information in connection with a lawsuit filed in 2003 that complains Saudi Arabia helped coordinate the Al Qaeda attack. In 2016 the FBI closed an investigation into the attacks, and wrote a 16-page report that remains secret.
The legal team that brought the lawsuit says the report is a key piece of evidence in their case.
“There is a 16-page document reviewing, recapping, summarizing what Saudi officials did as accomplices to the Al Qaeda 9/11 plot and the government is saying, ‘We’re not giving it to you. We’re keeping it secret,” said plaintiffs’ lawyer Jim Kreindler.
Most of the 9/11 attackers were from Saudi Arabia. The government has released a redacted version of a 2012 report that showed two people possibly linked to the Saudi government, Fahad al-Thumairy and Omar alBayoumi, were investigated for assisting the hijackers.
The name of a third man also investigated by the feds was redacted from the report, leading survivors to believe he is a high-ranking government official in Riyadh.
Twenty-five 9/11 survivors and relatives of survivors met President Trump on Sept. 11 of this year. The next day, Attorney General Bill Barr decided to disclose the name of the third man just to the survivors’ attorneys. The public still does not know the man’s identity.
“Our government, the Department of Justice, just admitted they have evidence about the third man, and they’re not releasing it,”
Frolich said.
“How is that acceptable? How is that the FBI protecting us?”
The name likely would have remained completely under wraps were it not for the meeting with Trump, Kreindler said. Lawyers for the plaintiffs are now seeking more information about the third man.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Normand said the government was not invoking state secrets lightly.
“We categorically deny there’s been any effort to mislead or be evasive,” she said.
Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn seemed sympathetic, cautioning the audience of survivors and 9/11 families that “very intense public safety and national security concerns” were involved in the case.