Rep. Stephen Lynch said in a statement he was "especially happy for the families of the victims." | Getty Secret document shows spy agencies worried about Saudi role in 9/11

Congress on Friday released a long-awaited section of a 2002 probe dealing with the alleged role of Saudi Arabia in the 9/11 attacks— a document that laid out suspicions about potential connections between some of the hijackers and individuals affiliated with the Saudi government, including at least two who may have been spies.

The so-called 28 pages, which have developed an almost mythical status in some circles, describe numerous clues and indications that appear to suggest links between a handful of Saudis in the United States and two of the hijackers. They also detail concerns about Saudi-funded mosques preaching extremism; raise questions about Saudi-linked money laundering that led to alleged support of terrorist groups; and even delve into the phone book of an Al-Qaida operative.


One of the individuals cited in the previously classified material is Osama Bassnan, who the FBI and CIA suspected may have been in contact in San Diego with two of the 19 hijackers — 15 of whom were Saudi nationals. The document states that the FBI "confirmed" that Bassnan's wife received money directly from the wife of Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, then the ambassador to the United States.

But the partially redacted material, contained within a massive report put together by a special congressional investigative panel more than a decade ago, also makes clear that it is merely a catalog of suspicions, and that it does not make definitive conclusions about the Saudi role. In subsequent years, U.S. officials have repeatedly said they've found no evidence that the Saudi government sponsored the 2001 attacks or that senior Saudi officials were involved.

"These pages, while they don't shed any new light or change any of the conclusions about responsibilities for the 9/11 attacks, they are consistent with the commitments to transparency that the administration has tried to apply to even sensitive national security issues," Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said Friday.

Still, the fact that it has taken the U.S. government more than a decade to release this section has frustrated many parties. Friday's release by the House Intelligence Committee follows many months of vetting by the Obama administration and growing demands by relatives of those killed in the 2001 attacks, former Florida Sen. Bob Graham, a Democrat who helped draft the full congressional report, as well as other critics of the Saudis.

Bandar's prominence in the document could explain the reticence of the Bush administration and then the Obama administration to clear the release of the unproven allegations. Bandar was particularly close to former President George W. Bush and his family, and Saudi Arabia is considered a critical U.S. ally in the Middle East.

Some lawmakers said they hoped the release of the material would quiet people's concerns.

"We need to put an end to conspiracy theories and idle speculation that do nothing to shed light on the 9/11 attacks,” Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the respective chairman and vice chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said in a joint statement applauding the document's release.

But others said their concerns were only heightened.

"These new revelations are a chilling description of Saudi ties to terrorists, Saudi payments to terrorists, and Saudi obstruction of U.S. anti-terrorism investigations. While the pages do not reach a conclusion regarding Saudi involvement in the 9/11 attacks, they provide more than enough evidence to raise serious concerns," said U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), an advocate of a measure making it easier for relatives of 9/11 victims to sue the Saudis.

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Adel Al-Jubeir, held a news conference in Washington on Friday where he welcomed the release of the pages, noting that subsequent investigations have cleared the Saudis of any role in the attacks.

“The matter is now finished," he asserted. "We hope that with the release of these pages the aspersions that have been cast against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia over the past 14 years will come to an end and we hope that we can focus on moving forward in a cooperative way.”

The newly released section of the congressional report states that, while in the United States, “some of the Sept. 11 hijackers were in contact with, and received support or assistance from, individuals who may be connected to the Saudi government,” and that, according to FBI sources, two of those individuals may have been Saudi intelligence officers.

The report also says that the intelligence community has information indicating that “individuals associated with the Saudi government in the United States may have other ties to Al-Qaida and other terrorist groups,” but it stresses that much of that information has not been verified.

The newly released material devotes special attention to Bassnan and another Saudi national named Omar al-Bayoumi, both of whom were suspected to be Saudi intelligence agents. Bassnan "may have been in contact" with Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, two of the hijackers, the report notes. The FBI found evidence that Bassnan's wife received a monthly stipend of $2,000 from Princess Haifa, the wife of Prince Bandar, and that at least once, in 1998, Bassnan received a check directly from Bandar.

"Bassnan's wife was allegedly receiving the funding for 'nursing services' but, according to the [redacted] document, there is no evidence that Bassnan's wife provided nursing services," the congressional inquiry notes.

Bandar comes up again in another context as well. The materials, citing the FBI, describe how several U.S. phone numbers were discovered in the phone book of Abu Zubayda, a senior al-Qaeda operative. One of the numbers belongs to the ASPCOL Corporation in Aspen, Colo. ASPCOL, U.S. officials found, is an "umbrella corporation that manages the affairs of the Colorado residence of Prince Bandar." Another number found in Abu Zubayda's effects belonged to a man who was reportedly a bodyguard at the Saudi embassy in Washington, according to one section with significant redactions.

Abu Zubayda was captured in Pakistan in 2002 and is held at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Al-Bayoumi, according to what FBI files "suggested" at the time, may have provided substantial assistance to the hijackers after they arrived in San Diego. His role was reportedly flagged in part because his salary increased substantially during much of the time that the hijackers were in the U.S., a salary coming from a company that reportedly had ties to the al-Qaida. But, again, much of the information appears circumstantial at best; it also could reflect the fact that the Saudi community in the United States is relatively small and tight-knit, and people who encountered the hijackers may have done so purely for social reasons without knowledge of their intentions.

Another person mentioned is Fahad Al-Thumairy, who was a Saudi consular official and an imam at the King Fahad mosque in Culver City, California, which "is widely recognized for its anti-Western views," according to the document released Friday. U.S. officials were reportedly unable to prove Al-Thumairy was tied to the plot itself.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, in its own statement, pointed out that the 9/11 Commission looked into the questions raised by the newly unveiled section and concluded there was no basis to blame the Saudi government. It also said that some of the material was redacted "because the document includes discussion of properly classified matters the disclosure of which would still cause significant harm to national security."

Among people who have demanded the release of the material are relatives of 9/11 victims who hope to sue Saudi Arabia over any alleged part it played in the attacks, which were masterminded by the Al-Qaeda terrorist network and its late leader Osama bin Laden, himself a Saudi.

They and other detractors argue that the real reason that the section was shielded from public view is that both the Obama and Bush administrations have not wanted to anger the Saudis. The kingdom, which practices and promotes a highly conservative brand of Islam blamed for inspiring many terrorists, has long occupied a special status in U.S. foreign policy. The country’s role as a leading oil producer and its relative stability in an increasingly chaotic Middle East have long made it a strategically important ally for the United States.

The members of Congress involved in putting together the report wrote in the now-unclassified section that they were struck by apparently how little time pre-9/11 the FBI and the CIA had devoted to looking into Saudi support for terrorist activities across the globe. One reason that the FBI did not focus resources on Saudi nationals in the United States, according to a partially redacted section, was “due to Saudi Arabia’s status as an American ‘ally,’” the inquiry found.

“Only recently, and at last in part due to the Joint Inquiry’s focus on this issue, did the FBI and the CIA establish a working group to address the Saudi issue,” the report states. “In the view of the Joint Inquiry, this gap in U.S. intelligence coverage is unacceptable given the magnitude and immediacy of the potential risk to U.S. national security.”

In recent months, the Saudis have come under unusual pressure in the U.S. Earlier this year, the Senate passed a bill that made it easier for 9/11 victims to sue the Saudis, but the measure — which had strong bipartisan support — has yet to be taken up in the House. The White House also has reportedly stopped transferring cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen, where a U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition is fighting rebels that overthrew the government.

The lawyers for a group of 9/11 victims' families trying to sue the Saudis said the material, which actually runs 29 to 30 pages depending on how it's counted, offered further evidence that the courts needed to get involved.

"There can be no doubt that the withholding of the 28 pages for all of these years, and the continued withholding of this other evidence, has deprived the American public of the truth and inhibited the public debate that is so essential to our democracy," the attorneys said in a statement. "It also has unfairly disadvantaged the 9/11 families and victims, and aided the government of Saudi Arabia, in the long pending legal disputes."

Ahead of the release of the document, lobbyists and other allies of the Saudis in Washington have been pushing a public relations campaign highlighting Saudi efforts to battle terrorist groups including Al-Qaeda, which the Saudi royal family sees as a threat to its rule.

Rep. Stephen Lynch, a Massachusetts Democrat who has led the charge in Congress to make the document public, aid in a statement he was "especially happy for the families of the victims."

"Releasing the contents of the 28 pages will answer some of the many questions that remain," Lynch said. "It may help us at last hold those who are responsible accountable."

"This is a victory for the principle that, for citizens to make informed judgments about their government’s foreign and national security policies, they must have access to as much information as possible," added Brian McGlinchey, director of 28pages.org, an activist hub that has agitated for the document's release. "“We look forward to studying the 28 pages, with a wary eye on remaining redactions that may still keep important information out of public view.”

Bryan Bender and Bianca Padro contributed to this report.