A question of complicity
What role did Saudi officials play with the plotters of the 9/11 terrorist attacks?
Senior U.S. intelligence officials are pressing congressional investigators preparing a final report on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks not to include any information about alleged Saudi government assistance to some of the 19 hijackers, government officials say.
The report includes new information that is "not hard enough to take to court," one official cautioned, but it has persuaded some members of the House and Senate intelligence committees conducting the investigation that officials of the Saudi government were involved in the terrorist attacks. Last year, the congressional panel discovered that money from a bank account of the wife of the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, ended up supporting two of the 9/11 hijackers. Prince Bandar later said he and his wife would not knowingly assist terrorist activities. There also have been persistent reports that Saudi charities and members of the royal family have funneled money to terrorists, including Osama bin Laden. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were of Saudi origin.
The new information in the congressional report, from intelligence sources, indicates that Saudi officials may have provided logistical support for the hijackers. "It is very sketchy information, inconclusive by a long shot," says a government official, adding that both the CIA and the FBI have been urging congressional officials not to include "highly speculative information" in the report, expected to be released in early July.
A draft of the 900-page report includes the names of several Saudi officials who allegedly helped the hijackers. Officials declined to reveal to U.S. News the identity of the Saudi officials. However, one senior American official, who has not seen the report, says that in the past the United States has developed intelligence linking members of the Saudi National Guard and the Air Force, not high-level officials, to al Qaeda.
Other U.S. officials acknowledge that the CIA and the FBI have been pressing the congressional panel not to include in the report classified intelligence on the Saudis--even though much of it has already been made public in news reports. There is concern, says one official, that the panel will include "inaccurate and inadequate information." At best, adds a second official, the intelligence information in the congressional investigation shows "associations with people who were associated with the [hijacking] plan."
Congressional and administration intelligence officials are debating what sections of the report can be declassified and included in the version to be made available to the public. A Saudi Embassy spokesman, Nail al-Jubeir, says there was "no Saudi government involvement in 9/11 that we know of."
Stepping up. Separately, al-Jubeir acknowledges that his country has been paying the legal fees for Saudi-born citizens who have been detained by U.S. law enforcement agencies investigating the 9/11 attacks. But, he adds, the government pays the legal bills of Saudi citizens detained in any country.
The debate over how to handle information pertaining to the alleged Saudi involvement with the hijackers is the last issue to be resolved before the congressional report is published, officials say. Sen. Bob Graham, cochairman of the inquiry, and several other members are pressing to declassify some information; the intelligence community doesn't want the panel to disclose any classified information.
The new intelligence about the Saudis, if published, could prompt another wave of outrage at the government in Riyadh. Last month's car bombings in the Saudi capital are believed to have been the work of al Qaeda. The bombings killed 34 and wounded more than 200. U.S. officials warned that intelligence showed a high possibility of an attack in Saudi Arabia and urged a tightening of security at the facilities later attacked. The Saudis, U.S. officials say, took only cursory action. Since then, however, the Saudis have been more aggressive in tracking down and exposing terrorist cells, U.S. officials say. "Saudi Arabia is stepping up big-time," says a senior official. "They have been really kicking major ass."
With David E. Kaplan
This story appears in the June 30, 2003 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.