Newly-released records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request contradict
the 9/11 Commission’s report on the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and raise fresh questions
about the role of Saudi government officials in connection to the hijackers.
Questions Wire
target="_blank">http://www.unansweredquestions.org/
.
FBI documents contradict 9/11 Commission
report
by Larisa
Alexandrovna
target="_blank">http://rawstory.com/news/2008/FBI_documents_contradict_Sept._11_Commission_0228.html
Hijacker had post-9/11 flights scheduled,
files say
Newly-released records obtained through a
Freedom of Information Act request contradict the 9/11
Commission’s report on the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and
raise fresh questions about the role of Saudi government
officials in connection to the hijackers.
The nearly 300
pages of a Federal Bureau of Investigation timeline used by
the 9/11 Commission as the basis for many of its findings
were acquired through a FOIA request filed by Kevin Fenton,
a 26 year old translator from the Czech Republic. The FBI
released the 298-page “hijacker timeline” Feb. 4.
The
FBI timeline reveals that alleged hijacker Hamza Al-Ghamdi,
who was aboard the United Airlines flight which crashed into
the South Tower of the World Trade Center, had booked a
future flight to San Francisco. He also had a ticket for a
trip from Casablanca to Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia.
Though referenced repeatedly in the footnotes of the
final 9/11 Commission report, the timeline has not
previously been made available to the public.
The FBI
timeline is dated Nov. 14, 2003 but appears to have been put
together earlier (since the last date mentioned in the
document is Oct. 22, 2001) and was provided to the 9/11
Commission during its 2003 investigation. The final
Commission report cites the FBI timeline 52 times.
Post
Sept. 11, 2001 flights
The FBI timeline reveals that
Al-Ghamdi, the alleged United hijacker, was booked onto
several flights scheduled for after the 9/11 attacks, a
piece of information not documented in the Commission’s
final report. According to the FBI timeline, Al-Ghamdi was
booked on another United Airlines flight on the very day of
the attack.
On page 288 under an entry pertaining to “H
AlGhamdi,” the FBI timeline reads: “Future flight.
Scheduled to depart Los Angeles International Airport for
San Francisco International Airport on UA 7950.”
The
sourcing reads simply: “UA passenger information.”
The timeline similarly documents Al-Ghamdi’s bookings
for several other post 9/11 flights, including one on Sept.
20, 2001 from Casablanca, Morocco to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
and another on Sept. 29, 2001 from Riyadh to Damman, Saudi
Arabia. (FBI Timeline 2, p. 296 under “H Alghamdi”)
No additional information or explanation is offered in
the FBI timeline itself.
The Saudi connection
In
January 2000, then-FBI Director Louis Freeh and CIA Director
George Tenet attended regular briefings as Malaysian
intelligence conducted surveillance of a “terrorist summit
meeting” in Kuala Lumpur. Among the attendees were Nawaf
al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, two men who would later
allegedly hijack American Airlines Flight 77 and crash it
into the Pentagon.
A week after the Malaysian summit,
al-Mihdar and al-Hazmi traveled to the United States.
According to the 9/11 Commission report, they arrived in Los
Angeles on Jan. 15 and “spent about two weeks there before
moving to San Diego.” (9/11 Commission report, p. 215,
chapter 7). The footnote for this item shows that the
Commission relied on a different FBI report, “`Summary
of Pentbom Investigation,’ Feb.29, 2004 (classified
version), p.16.”
But the FBI timeline contradicts this
claim, placing the alleged hijackers in San Diego with
specific details. According to the timeline, the two men
resided in Apartment 152 at Parkwood Apartments, San Diego,
from Jan. 15 through Feb. 2, 2000.
“A rental
application shows that before renting Apartment 150 Parkwood
Apartments on 02/05/2000, AL-MlHDHAR and Nawaf Alhazmi
alleged that they resided with [REDACTED] from 01/15/2000 to
02/02/2000 at Apartment 152 of the same apartment
complex,” page 52 of the
target="_blank">FBI timeline reads.
Two pages later,
the same apartment complex is noted again, this time with
its full address: “AL-MIHDHAR and Nawaf Alhazmi resided at
Parkwood Apartments, located at 6401 Mount Ada Road,
Apartment 150, San Diego, CA. [REDACTED] was the co-signor
and guarantor on the lease agreement for this apparement.
The rental application shows that before renting Apartment
150, AL-MIHDHAR and Nawaf Alhazmi resided with [REDACTED].”
(A photograph of apartment 152 appears atop this article. An
image of apartment 150 appears on page 2.)
In other words,
according to the only public account, both Al-Mihdhar and
Hazmi were in San Diego, not Los Angeles, contrary to the
Commission’s report.
Why did the Commission use an
alternate source for the whereabouts of the two men, when
the FBI’s own timeline said they were in San Diego by Jan.
15, the same day as their arrival in the US?
Paul
Thompson, author of the
target="_blank">The Terror Timeline: Year by Year, Day by
Day, Minute by Minute: A Comprehensive Chronicle of the Road
to 9/11–and America’s Response, has been wading through
the FBI timeline since its release. His preliminary analysis
can be found at the website of the
target="_blank">History Commons (formerly known as the
Center for Cooperative Research).
Thompson believes that
the possible motive for the Commission to alter the dates is
to obscure official Saudi ties to the hijackers.
He
points to the redaction of the name of a person who is a
known employee of a Saudi defense contractor, Omar
al-Bayoumi, who lived at the same location.
“We know
it’s Bayoumi,” said Thompson, “because after 9/11, the
Finnish Government mistakenly released a classified FBI list
of suspects that showed Bayoumi living in apartment #152 of
Parkwood Apartments.” That information is
target="_blank">available here.
“But also important
is that it strongly suggests that the hijackers already had
a support network in Southern California before they
arrived,” Thompson continued.
“In the official
version of the story now, the hijackers drift around L.A.
listlessly for two weeks before chancing to come across
Bayoumi in a restaurant [according to Bayoumi’s
account],” Thompson added. “Whereupon he’s an incredible
good Samaritan and takes them down to San Diego, pays their
rent, etc.”
“But from the FBI’s timeline, we now know
the hijackers started staying at Bayoumi’s place on Jan. 15
- the very same day they arrived,” Thompson says. “So
obviously they must have been met at the airport and taken
care of from their very first hours in the US. That’s huge
because the FBI maintains to this day that the hijackers
never had any accomplices in the US.”
Robert Baer, a
former CIA case officer in the Middle East whose
target="_blank">See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground
Soldier in the CIA’s War on Terrorism became the
inspiration for the award winning film
target="_blank">Syriana, concurs with Thompson’s view.
“There are enough discrepancies and unanswered
questions in the 9/11 Commission report that under a
friendly administration, the 9/11 investigation should be
re-opened,” Baer wrote in an email message Tuesday night.
“Bayoumi clearly offered material assistance to [the
9/11 hijackers].”
READ THE DOCUMENTS:
target="_blank">PDF pages 1-105,
target="_blank">PDF pages 106-210,
target="_blank">PDF pages 211-297.
Larisa
Alexandrovna is managing editor of investigative news for
Raw Story and regularly reports on intelligence and national
security stories. Contact:
target="_blank">larisa@rawstory.com.
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