Iran, Turkey media: US revealed Saudi official linked to 9/11
Iran’s Fars News and Turkey’s Anadolu, both of which tend to represent the government’s official view, highlighted a report that asserts the US mistakenly revealed the name of a Saudi official linked to 9/11 hijackers.
“The FBI leaked the identity of a Saudi official at the Saudi Embassy in Washington who allegedly supported two al-Qaeda operatives during the incident,” Fars News reported.
A mistake was made in a declaration by an FBI official in relation to a “lawsuit by families of 9/11 victims who say the Saudi government was involved in the attacks,” Anadolu reported.
According to a Turkish media report, a filing was released in April and unsealed last week.
“Mussaed Ahmed al-Jarrah was mistakenly named in the declaration,” Anadolu reported. “Al-Jarrah was a mid-level Saudi Foreign Ministry official who was assigned to the Saudi Embassy in Washington, DC, in 1999 and 2000. He was in charge of supervising the activities of Ministry of Islamic Affairs employees at Saudi-funded mosques and Islamic centers in the US, according to the report. The authorities believe that Al-Jarrah instructed two people – Fahad al-Thumairy, a cleric; and Omar al-Bayoumi, a suspected Saudi agent – to help two of the hijackers settle in the US in January 2000 ahead of the attacks.”
The whereabouts of Jarrah are unknown, Anadolu reported. It postulated he may be in Saudi Arabia.
Turkey’s interest in highlighting this is due to Turkey’s current government being an implacable foe of Riyadh.
Turkey also accuses Saudi Arabia of involvement in killing a dissident in Turkey in 2018. Turkey is a key ally of Qatar and works with Iran. Iran also opposes Saudi Arabia and seeks to embarrass Riyadh.
Iran’s Fars News said the US inadvertently revealed “one of the most sensitive secrets of the US government about the 9/11 attacks.” Jarrah was a “cultural adviser from 1999 to 2000” in Washington, it reported.
This took place more than 20 years ago. Iran’s media said this is the first time a connection has been made between “the hijackers and the Saudi Embassy.
The revelation, which a senior US government official confirmed was done unintentionally, appears to raise questions about Saudi Arabia’s possible connection to the terrorist attack. It also highlights the unusual efforts of senior Trump administration officials in recent months to prevent the publicity of domestic documents related to the incident, Fars News reported.
The story is now making its way into English media in the UK and elsewhere. Al Jazeera in Qatar also picked up the story on Tuesday. Al Jazeera and Qatar’s government also are critical of Saudi Arabia and want to harm Riyadh’s reputation in Washington.
The US Department of Justice under President Donald Trump still was refusing to open FBI files despite the civil lawsuit by 9/11 victims, ProPublica reported in April.
The department asserted it was a state secret. In 2019, reports indicated the US would reveal key names. “A 2012 report by the FBI said the agency was investigating Fahad al-Thumairy and Omar Ahmed al-Bayoumi, Saudi nationals who had allegedly helped the attackers,” ABC reported at the time. “Al-Thumairy is a former Saudi consulate official, and Mr al-Bayoumi was once suspected of being a Saudi intelligence officer.”
It appears efforts have been made to make sure that at least some of this information will remain behind closed doors. A Wikipedia link for Al-Thumairy takes one to a page about 9/11 “conspiracy” theories.
Despite almost two decades and changes in leadership in both the US and Saudi Arabia, there still are concerns that controversial documents or previously classified briefings related to 9/11 might be revealed.
The US was very reticent after 9/11 to cast any blame on its allies where the hijackers may have come from or on countries, such as Pakistan, that supported the Taliban and religious extremism and harbored terrorists and anti-American extremists. Saudi Arabia cracked down on extremists and al-Qaeda after 9/11, and there were a wave of attacks in the kingdom.
A terrorist attack, which al-Qaeda in Yemen took responsibility for, targeted the US Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida, in 2019 and was carried out by a Saudi national. In the wake of it, other Saudi cadets were sent home. The US and Saudi Arabia appeared to have not identified the shooter’s growing extremist views.