Today, Congress declassified the much hullabalooed 28 pages of their inquiry into the 9/11 attacks, which detail all the ways officials in the Saudi government may have aided in the attacks.
Honestly, after all the hype, they were kind of a let down. They’re mostly speculative and incomplete.
You can read them yourself at the link, but among the highlights are:
A telephone number found in the phone book of al-Qaeda operative Abu Zubaida, who was captured in Pakistan in March 2002, was for an Aspen, Colo., corporation that managed the “affairs of the Colorado residence of the Saudi Ambassador Bandar,” the documents show. (Via USA Today)
[Ambassador] Prince Bandar bin Sultan’s wife, Princess Haifa bin Sultan. Princess Haifa sent $75,000 to Osama Basnan, a Saudi national living in the US at the time, allegedly for medical treatment for Basnan’s wife. Some of the money ended up in the hands of Omar al-Bayoumi, another Saudi national who, along with Basnan, helped two 9/11 hijackers, Nawaf al-Hamzi and Khalid al-Mindhar, when they first arrived to the US in 2000 to settle in Los Angeles. Bayoumi threw the two hijackers a welcome party, cosigned their lease, and “tasked” another Saudi, Modhar Abdullah, with helping them find flight schools. (Via VICE)
So some connections, some possible funneling of money. It’s all very circumspect at best, but it is nonetheless intriguing.
Regardless, the White House said that this has shut the door on speculation that the Saudis did 9/11.
[This does] not change the assessment of the U.S. government that there’s no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded Al Qaeda,” Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said on Friday.
Well, okay then. I shall stop speculating cough cough they did it.
[Via the New York Times]