New evidence connects Saudi Arabian government to 9/11 attacks

Fresh information allegedly connecting the government of Saudi Arabia and the 9/11 terror attacks has been released.

Officials have revealed that the flight certificate of Al-Qaeda bomb maker Ghassan Al-Sharbi was discovered hidden in an envelope from the Saudi embassy in Washington when they arrested him in 2002.

Al-Sharbi is believed to have learned how to fly with the hijackers but did not take part in the attacks. Shortly before his arrest, he buried a bundle of documents, which is believed to have included the certificate.

The cache was discovered by US authorities and details, written in a memo known as Document 17 in 2003, were released without fanfare by investigators last year. They were only brought to the public’s attention when an activist discovered them and wrote about them on his website earlier this week.

The release has fuelled concerns the Saudi government may have been linked to the coordinated attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people.

Activist Brian McGlinchey claimed the details would lead to people questioning the extent government individuals were involved, according to The Times.

He said: ‘The envelope points to the fundamental question hanging over us today: to what extent was the 9/11 plot facilitated by individuals at the highest levels of the Saudi government?’

The claims are highly significant as President Obama arrived in Saudi Arabia this morning so he could meet with officials.

The talks come at a critical time in the U.S.-Saudi relationship, with 9/11 victims’ families again pushing Congress for the right to sue Saudi Arabia over the death of their loved ones.

Previous court decisions have ruled that there is insufficient evidence to find Saudi Arabia culpable in the terror attacks, which is why they are now calling for the release of 28 classified pages from the 9/11 congressional report which is believed to show a stronger connection to Saudi funding of the attacks.

This has put Obama in a difficult position, with 9/11 families accusing him of siding with the Kingdom and Saudi officials threatening to sell hundreds of billions of dollars of American assets if Congress passes a bill that would allow the government to be sued over the attacks.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir has said his country would sell up to $750 billion in US treasury securities and other assets before the bill puts them in jeopardy.

The administration has tried to stop Congress from passing the legislation, a bipartisan Senate bill. Earlier this week, Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary indicated that President Obama would veto any such legislation.

Stepping off the tarmac at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Obama was greeted on a red carpet by Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the governor of Riyadh, as opposed to the king himself.

Saudi state television did not immediately air Obama’s arrival, which was unusual since right before Air Force One landed, State TV showed King Salman greeting other senior officials from Gulf nations arriving for the Gulf Cooperation Council summit.

Mustafa Alani, a security analyst at the Gulf Research Center, said the decision to send a lower ranking official to greet Mr Obama was intended to send a clear message that they have little faith in him.

‘He will find a leadership that’s not ready to believe him,’ he said. ‘The Saudis had disagreements with previous presidents. Here you have deep distrust that the president won’t deliver anything.’

There have long been questions over the country’s involvement in the attacks, which saw hijackers ambush four passenger jets and crash them into the World Trade Center towers in New York, the Pentagon and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Fifteen of the nineteen men who hijacked four planes and flew them into targets in New York and Washington in 2001 were Saudi citizens, though the country has always denied having any role in the attacks.

A U.S. commission established in the aftermath of the attacks also concluded there was no evidence of official Saudi connivance. However, the White House has been under pressure to declassify a 28-page section of the report that was never published on the grounds of national security.

President Obama will decide whether to declassify the sealed documents by June. During an interview with Charlie Rose this week, he said that James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence, was nearly done with a review of the documents to ensure that whatever is made public does not damage US national security interests.

‘I have a sense of what’s in there’, Mr Obama told Rose.

Donald Trump, the Republican presidential frontrunner, believes the pages should be released.

‘I think I know what it’s going to say,’ Mr Trump said on Fox & Friends. ‘It’s going to be very, very profound, having to do with Saudi Arabia and Saudi Arabia’s role on the World Trade Center, and the attack.’

Former US Senator Bob Graham earlier this month said Saudi officials are against the bill that would make it easier for families to sue.

‘They are so fearful of what would emerge if there were to be a full trial, he said. ‘That says something about Saudi Arabia’s involvement in 9/11.’

[su_note note_color=”#fefccb”]The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Libyan News’s editorial policy.[/su_note]