Alwaght- the US this week has published a document containing the Saudi officials’ names and background connected with the September 2011 hijackers.
“File 17”, a secret document that lists more than three dozen Saudi nationals with connections to the 9/11 terror attack was declassified by the Obama administration this week.
The document, File 17, is considered to be a sneak peek to the still-secret 28 pages of congressional inquiry into the September 11 hijackings.
“Much of the information upon which File 17 was written, was based on what’s in the 28 pages,” said former Democratic Sen. Bob Graham of Florida, co-chairman of the congressional inquiry.
He deems the hijackers had an extensive Saudi support system while they were in the US.
"File 17 said, 'Here are some additional unanswered questions and here is how we think the 9/11 Commission, the FBI and the CIA should go about finding them,'" said Graham.
The document offers clues on what might be in the missing pages of the bipartisan report and is likely to renew calls by legislators to pass a law providing the family members of the 9/11 victims the right to sue the Saudi government.
At the time of the 9/11 Commission, former President George W. Bush moved to classify the 28-page tome of Saudi terror secrets claiming it was necessary to protect intelligence sources and methods.
Two years ago, under pressure from the families of those killed or injured on Sept. 11, and others, President Barack Obama ordered a declassification review of the 28 pages.
File 17, first disclosed by 28pages.org, an advocacy website, names people the hijackers were in contact with in the US before the attacks. Some were Saudi diplomats, raising questions about whether Saudi officials knew about the plot.
Although the 9/11 Commission’s final report found "no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded [al Qaida]," the report also said that "this conclusion does not exclude the likelihood that charities with significant Saudi government sponsorship diverted funds to al-Qaida."
