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Shaun Heasley / Getty Images file
Former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, left, greets former Sen. Bob Graham in a Dec. 17, 2004 file photo. Graham, who co-chaired the joint congressional investigation of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, says the FBI did not inform his panel or a separate investigation co-chaired by Keane, about suspicious contacts between Saudi citizens living in Florida and some of the 9/11 hijackers.
Former Florida Sen. Bob Graham, who co-chaired Congress’ Joint Inquiry into the 9/11 terrorist attacks, has seen two classified FBI documents that he says are at odds with the bureau’s public statements that there was no connection between the hijackers and Saudis then living in Sarasota, Fla.
“There are significant inconsistencies between the public statements of the FBI in September and what I read in the classified documents,” Graham said.
“One document adds to the evidence that the investigation was not the robust inquiry claimed by the FBI,” Graham said. “An important investigative lead was not pursued and unsubstantiated statements were accepted as truth.”
Whether the 9/11 hijackers acted alone, or whether they had support within the U.S., remains an unanswered question -- one that began to be asked as soon as it became known that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens. It was underlined when Congress’s bipartisan inquiry released its public report in July 2003. The final 28 pages, regarding possible foreign support for the terrorists, were censored in their entirety -- on President George W. Bush’s instructions.
More than a decade after the Sept. 11 attacks, former Sens. Bob Graham of Florida and Bob Kerrey of Nebraska have filed affidavits in a lawsuit filed by victims' family members saying they believe the Saudi government may have played a role in the plot.
Graham said the two classified FBI documents that he saw, dated 2002 and 2003, were prepared by an agent who participated in the Sarasota investigation. He said the agent suggested that another federal agency be asked to join the investigation, but that the idea was “rejected.”
Graham attempted in recent weeks to contact the agent, he said, only to find the man had been instructed by FBI headquarters not to talk.
FBI: 'No credible evidence'
The FBI-led investigation a decade ago focused on Abdulaziz al-Hijji and his wife, Anoud, who moved out of their home in the upscale, gated community of Prestancia, near Sarasota, and left the country in the weeks before 9/11. The couple left behind three cars and numerous personal belongings, such as furnishings, clothes, medicine and food, according to law enforcement records. After the 9/11 attacks, a concerned neighbor contacted the FBI.
Broward Bulldog
Abdulazziz al-Hijji in a photo taken when he lived in Sarasota, Fla.
Analysis of Prestancia gatehouse visitor logs and photographs of license tags showed that vehicles driven by several of the future hijackers had visited the al-Hijji home at 4224 Escondito Circle, according to a counterterrorism officer and former Prestancia administrator Larry Berberich. If that did occur, it will feed into suspicions that the hijackers had Saudi support -- a suspicion held by some official investigators but played down by the 9/11 Commission.
Al-Hijji, who now lives and works in London, recently called 9/11 “a crime against the USA and all humankind” and said he was “saddened and oppressed by these false allegations.” He also said it was “not true” that Mohamed Atta and other 9/11 hijackers visited him at his Sarasota home.
The FBI has backed up al-Hijji. After initially declining to comment, the bureau confirmed that it did investigate but said it found nothing sinister. Agents, however, have refused to answer reporters’ specific questions about its investigation or its findings about the Prestancia gate records.
The FBI reiterated its position in a Feb. 7 letter that denied a Freedom of Information Act request seeking records from its Sarasota probe. The denial said their release “could constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”
“At no time during the course of its investigation of the attacks, known as the PENTTBOM investigation, did the FBI develop credible evidence that connected the address at 4224 Escondito Circle, Sarasota, Florida, to any of the 9/11 hijackers,” wrote records section chief David M. Hardy.
Hillsborough County Jail
Booking photo of Wissam Hammoud.
Newly released Florida Department of Law Enforcement documents, however, state that an informant told the FBI in 2004 that al-Hijji had considered Osama bin Laden a “hero” and may have known some of the hijackers. The informant, Wissam Hammoud, also said al-Hijji once introduced him to Adnan El Shukrijumah, an ex-Broward County resident and suspected al-Qaida operative on the FBI’s Most Wanted list.
Last September, FBI spokesmen also disputed Graham’s assertion that Congress was never told about the Sarasota investigation.
That prompted Graham to ask the FBI for assistance in locating in the National Archives the Sarasota-related files that were allegedly turned over to Congress. Instead, after what Graham said were two months in which the FBI was “either unwilling or unable” to help find the records, the bureau suddenly turned over two documents to the Senate Intelligence Committee, which Graham once headed and where he still has access. It is those documents that Graham has said are inconsistent with the FBI denials.
Meeting abruptly canceled
Graham shared this development with the Obama White House, which responded by setting up a meeting between Graham and FBI Deputy Director Sean Joyce. According to the former senator, Joyce told Graham he “didn’t want to talk” about the Sarasota episode. Graham said he was assured, however, that he would shortly be shown material that supported the FBI’s denials, and a further meeting was arranged with an FBI aide.
In December, Graham said, the scheduled meeting was abruptly canceled and he was told he would be allowed no further access to FBI information about Sarasota.
Graham believes the joint congressional inquiry into the 9/11 attacks was not the only national investigative body kept in the dark about Sarasota. He said the co-chairs of the later 9/11 Commission, Republican Thomas Kean and Democrat Lee Hamilton, have told him they also were unaware of it.
Kean, a former New Jersey governor, told Graham the commission would have “worked it hard,” because the hypothesis that the hijackers completed the planning alone was “implausible,” the former senator said.
Kean did not return several phone messages seeking comment. But Hamilton, a former Indiana congressman, confirmed this month that he learned nothing about the Sarasota matter while serving as vice-chair of the 9/11 commission.
Graham sees the information now emerging about Sarasota as ominously similar to discoveries his inquiry made in California. Leads there indicated that the first two hijackers to reach the U.S., Saudis Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, received help first from a diplomat at the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles and then from two other Saudis, one of whom helped al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi find a place to live. Multiple sources told investigators they believed both the latter Saudis had been Saudi government agents.
Later, when 9/11 Commission staff gained limited access to these individuals in Saudi Arabia, the aides’ reaction was caustic. One memo described the testimony of one of them as “deceptive ... inconsistent ... implausible.” The testimony of another displayed an “utter lack of credibility,” it said.
Graham is troubled by what he sees as FBI headquarters’ apparent effort to conceal information, including the fact that al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi lived for months in California in the home of a paid FBI informant. Even when that emerged, the FBI denied his inquiry access to the informant. Graham wonders if that was merely because of the bureau’s embarrassment, or because the informant knew something that “would be even more damaging were it revealed.”
The newly surfaced FDLE documents containing informant Hammoud’s troubling 2004 information about al-Hijji have reinforced Graham’s concerns because they conflict with the FBI’s public statements.
Hammoud’s statement that al-Hijji introduced him to Saudi terror suspect Shukrijumah is consistent with the report that Prestancia gate logs showed Shukrijumah had visited the al-Hijji house – and buttresses longstanding official suspicion that he was linked to the hijackers. When Mohamed Atta visited a federal immigration office in Miami to discuss a visa problem in May 2001, a 9/11 Commission footnote reports, a man who closely resembled Shukrijumah accompanied him.
Graham sees what he believes to be the suppression of evidence pointing to Saudi support for the 9/11 hijackers as arising from the perceived advantages to the West, at the time and now, of keeping Saudi Arabia happy.
In late December, the U.S. announced a new $30 billion defense deal with the Saudis.
“This agreement serves to reinforce the strong enduring relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia,” said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Andrew Shapiro. “It demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a strong Saudi defense capability as a key component to regional security.”
Graham said he was taken aback by that announcement.
“I think that in the period immediately after 9/11 the FBI was under instructions from the Bush White House not to discuss anything that could be embarrassing to the Saudis,” he said. “It is more inexplicable why the Obama administration has been reticent to pursue the question of Saudi involvement. For both administrations, there was and continues to be an obligation to inform the American people through truthful information.”
Anthony Summers is co-author, with Robbyn Swan, of “The Eleventh Day: The Full Story of 9/11 & Osama bin Laden.” Dan Christensen edits the Miami-area investigative Website Broward Bulldog, in which this article first appeared.
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The MOST DANGEROUS PEOPLE in the world are those who scoff at so called CONSPIRACY THEORIES!
The enemy knows that the BIGGER THE LIE the more people will reject conspiracy as if it is only "theory."
God knows our own government will never LIE or do evil things for gain...right?
Our politicians will never LIE...right?
I don't blame those who scoff CONSPIRACY THEORIES because they are only protecting themselves from being labelled as NUTs...I blame MEL GIBSON & the role he played in his movie CONSPIRACY THEORY because after that movie it became popular for frightened people to simply crap on those who spoke-out against the huge number of LIES.
Now more than ever conspiracies are being perpetrated and the evil ones know that the majority of our citizens will excuse it away...while others only care about sports & a paycheck & can careless...others think someone else will fix it.
Well now that Validar Putin is back in power USA will pay...how's that for CONSPIRACY THEORY...USA is goin down...our enemy is in country by the millions they do not have to get here...they are here. RED CHINA has it's own port in & out of this country.
If the Bureau has nothing to hide then show the documents. And as far as "unwarranted invasion of personal privacy", they justifiably have the right to look up peoples asses in the interest of national security both before and after the fact.
It been my opinion that saddam hussien was not a loyal muslim radical, but a typical dictator concerned only with his own wealth and power. I always thought he could be groomed into a covert asset because with a few military gifts from us he could be the one dealing with Iran as he did in the past.
We could have focused all of our efforts into afghanistan/pakistan and routed out taliban & alqueda forces and maybe tagged bin laden in half the time and left.
Iran would still be facing off with Iraz instead of the U.S., we might not be involved in any conflict and prepped for new ones with fresh trained combat experienced manpower...instead of two ten year wars that seem to never end or progress. Exhausted soldiers with foour or five tours and more on the way.
The entire anti terrorist conflict has been mismanaged. We have made great success but only by brute force and overkill. We should have achieved the same goals with half the manpower and time.
"The final 28 pages, regarding possible foreign support for the terrorists, were censored in their entirety -- on President George W. Bush’s instructions"
Another example of the the Bush Administrations attempt to cover up for their partners in crime Saudis. Its all about the rich multinational Oil Men sticking together, even at the expense of the American electorate that put them in office. What a shame.
Yes, but we cannot get partisan on this matter because there are too many from both that have willingly participated to conceal hate crimes that were ordered by these men. And I would be proud to testify to what I have witnessed on behalf of my nation for my children's future to be secure.
We cannot have the Executive Branch and its agencies superempowered by an oligarchy that seeks to control the nation. That is imbalance of authority and not at all within the limits of duty for that branch.
Even the Dept. of Homeland Security has failed to protect certain families of Jewish ancestry in extreme favor of Islamic citizens or immigrants.
What I have witnessed is outrageous.
It was a cover up plain & simple. Look at the DECADES long standing relationship between the Bush Family, Bin Laden family and Saudi oil industry. Its not partisan to admit these facts as truth
dom08. How do you explain the apparent implication that Mr Obama has continued to cover this up for the past 3 years?
According to the article Bob Graham said "It is more inexplicable why the Obama administration has been reticent to pursue the question of Saudi involvement. For both administrations, there was and continues to be an obligation to inform the American people through truthful information."
Is Mr Obama a "partner in crime" or one of the "rich multinational Oil Men"?
As I said...
and have evidence thereof - an FBI stated unequivocally to me that, "We run the nation now..." and agencies in the northeast from the two bureaus northward have concealed evidence on hate crimes committed by persons against New England families of Jewish ancestry.
I wasn't blowing smoke.
I NEVER make a claim I cannot substantiate to the public.
So, former Senator Graham's statements do not surprise me at all. In fact, I think I will send this to those I believe should be investigating our entire Executive Branch.
It was a cover up plain & simple. Look at the DECADES long standing relationship between the Bush Family, Bin Laden family and Saudi oil industry. Its not partisan to admit these facts as truth.
I think this is a classic example of U.S. business and the needs of political donors trumping national security. Clearly, the investigation into the U.S.-based Saudi contacts should be released. Obviously, the wealthy Saudi man in Florida knew what was coming or he and his family wouldn't have fled without telling friends and neighbors, leaving everything behind. But the U.S. was about to sign an arms deal with the Saudis, and the government (and the businesses involved) didn't want to lose out on the tens of Billions they were going to (and DID) make.
It's deeper than that, the US is friends with Saudi's that rule the country for all kinds of reasons, but money, oil and power are the main ones.
We attacked Afghanistan and Iraq after a bunch of Saudi Arabians attacked us because we simply couldn't attack Saudi Arabia, there is no big conspiracy, the oil has to keep flowing, at all costs, even if the people who died on Sept 11th go unavenged.
This is why billionaires donate millions to both political parties. So on those rare occasions where their businesses are threatened, they can yank that leash. That's why Bush insisted the Saudi-Florida connection not be pursued, and that's why it continues under President Obama. The presidents and the parties in power may change, but the political donors never do. That's why we need true campaign finance reform. So the safety of Americans don't take a backseat to international business deals.
Obviously any Saudi who fled the US in a hurry prior to 9/11 should be suspect. Obviously the Bush family has been connected to the House of Saud for decades and neither 41 or 43 should have been installed in the Oval Office.
Everyone wants their lights to go on when they come home at night, it's not Bush's fault or anyone elses, it is what it is.
What is our fault is we have let a few powerful people enslave us with worthless pieces of paper.
It goes beyond the Bush family, because President Obama won't pursue it either. That's the point. The current President gets as much money from oil and military manufacturers as Bush did. Those companies contribute to both parties, because no party remains in power indefinitely. A big arms deal that would generate billions was on the table, and an investigation into the Saudis would have put the brakes on that. This is why PACs are dangerous. It allows the richest people to directly control the actions of the leaders of both parties.
doesn't
The article says information was censored by the Bush administration. Someone needs to ask Cheney what's going on. He was the one pulling the puppet strings.
Hells fire, we still don't know the truth about the Kennedy assasination. I agree with SomewhereUSA, get out of the middle east, all those people are barbarians including the Isreali's. They care more about their various gods than they do each other as human beings..........so get out of the way and let them blow each other up, they will no matter what we do or say.
In case you haven't been watching the news, US Christians have killed more innocent people over the last 10 years of war than Muslims or Jews combined.
Christians are the barbarians. We are killing everyone not them, we are in TWO wars right now in the world (one we just pulled out of recently after a decade) name me one other country in the world that is even in one war right now?
Why do you think Russia and China want us to knock it off? It's cause all this killing has to stop.
The entire middle east stays at war with someone all the time. I don't care for christians either but in this country they don't rule the government like in muslim countries.
Are you out of your mind??? The USA is being destroyed in the same way Rome was by right-wing conservative Cristian religious fanatics.
Every Constitutional right an American has:
The Right to pursue happiness (like marrying who you want)
The Right to own a gun (conservatives have made everything a crime and everyone a criminal so no one can own a gun anymore)
The Right to liberty (ya know, to go where you want when you want for whatever reason you want, go try hanging out at your local "public" park at 1a.m. and see if the police don't tell you to go somewhere else)
The conservatives in the USA hate EVERYONE, and they are trying to bring back slavery, take the right of choice away from women, they would take the right to vote away as well if giving the chance, they are so mad a man of color is President that they are willing to see the US burn (just like Rome did) out of spite.
They are much more evil than Jews or Muslims and the USA has big problems with it's religious fanatics, we are just in denial about it.
Just ask Jesse Ventura. He'll know.
Its no secret the Bushes are good friends with Saudi royalty..its obvious they are trying to protect them. Stifling investigations, censoring the last 28 pages of a report on foreign involvement? I believe this is treason.
The government....especially FBI, police, etc......tell you what they want you to hear and think. It happens at a local, state, national and international level. There is little you can believe anymore that is real truth. They don't think we can handle the truth.....sounds like a movie, huh.
Actually don't think they think we can't handle the truth.........think they know we would storm the capital if we knew the truth..........CYA is their game.
Minority culture is extremely different from mainstream american culture...
Mainstream culture totally ignores its neighbors. I'll ignore you if you ignore me. There are exceptions but not that many.
I experienced minority culture in college. I attended a black university because I was white and totally broke. I went on a full-ride minority scholarship. Don't tell me about how expensive college is. You CAN get an education if you are willing to do what you have to do!
When I saw another white person, we would ALWAYS stop and talk. We had a bond from just being a minority. I would think that any ethnic minority group in any location, would naturally BOND, and help each other. You would invite others to your home because you have a bond. You would let others borrow your car, because you have a bond. Just because people "meet" for dinner, does not make them all bad or all conspiracy activists.
So, I would urge people to be calm and not jump to conclusions about all Saudis, or all Afgans, or all Iranians...
They LIE ! and why are they lieing ? Why would they lie about no connection between the hijackers and Saudis ?
Im not a truther ... but I fully believe that either the CIA or someone in the defense industry discovered this plan and made sure it happened AND enhanced it by striking the pentagon.
Just find it way too hard to believe that of the all the cameras around the pentagon, that not one got a shot of the "plane" that hit the pentagon (only one that shows nothing) ... and ZERO debris that could be associated with a "plane" the size of a 757.
Way too many discrepancies to trust the government agencies involved or the defense industry.
Check this video .. but make your own conclusion. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2361717427531377078
I personally don't think anyone should be surprised about the government covering up and lying to the public. There was absolutely too much money to be ill gotten. And you should know good and well that the FBI is never going to release the actual investigation because they would most likely be charged with treason. Covering up one of the biggest atrocities to ever happen to this country is appalling. Lord forbid our government be honest and forthright about terrorists. I don't think people care which countries it originates from, the bottom line is we shouldn't be in bed with them. It makes us just as bad, if not worse, then the terrorist scum we're supposed to be fighting.
Bring out an old can of beans to get us off the subject of the Obama scandals. It is funny that Obama wants the truth told to the American people....why the heck don't he start telling it then....fast and furious would be a good start....then how he is behind OWS and the chaos in the Middle East and when we get the truth there we will go futher.
Only a neo-con would call 911 a can of beans. The truth means nothing, only the means to an end. If we bomb Iraq, the Americans will all forget about what really happened. And, Bush 43 even screwed that one up. He is the fool of the world.
More proof that Bush/Cheney are war criminals.
Don't worry about 911 its done and over with, and everything that happened afterwards was a huge lie.
I am not saying that the US did its own people in directly, but they sure as hell did not tell the full truth to the US people of how, who, or what was used to take down all those buildings that horrible day.
The war in Iraq had nothing to do with 911, and if OSBL was the reason to go to war in Afghanistan well they have killed this mastermind more then 8 times since that day so my question is why the hell are they still over there?
Then Obama takes out Libya for what reason?
I still can't figure that one out other then the leader of that country did not want to use US currency any longer so now he is dead, kind of like the leader of Iraq when he decided to start trading in Euro's instead of US dollars and next thing you know he is deader then a door-nob.
This all has to do with oil, and currency wars plus the high demand to control and steal these nations vaults of pure gold reserves.
Now we see what the US did during the revolutions across the Middle East and just handed these people not democracy, but a worse dictatorial regime.
Somewhat like the new brotherhood revolutionary rebels that are now killing, raping, and fighting over who gets what in the now toppled burnt out US NATO led air strikes on that once prosperous nation, you may not think there leader was a wonderful guy, but he was much more giving then what they have now.
Then we look at this blood bath in Syria, and wonder why the US is not attacking them like all these other countries that did nothing to provoke such an attack.
Then we now have the new leader of the North Korean nation, or little fat brother to big boss China doing what ever it FN feels like, yet no one is attacking them, I wonder why?
China maybe?
Now we have the mother f----ker of all wars about to begin with Israel, and Iran.
This war if and when it begins, will bring the US in direct confrontation with Russia, and perhaps even China and lets not forget Pakistan, since the US so clearly made them out to be the big OSBL aid and put them on the front lines and pages of all international news.
I don't think that Pakistan really likes the US that much, and after that little seal 6 team adventure (scam) they more then dislike the US even more right about now, and I can't say I blame them given the way it was done, and the fact that it was most likely another BS lie.
OSBL was reported to be dead many years before, and this was reported by many people who were in the high ranks of the US government, as with many others.
So now we turn a new page and direct our war mongering BS onto Iran.
This war if and when it should begin, and that should be anytime from today up to the next 4-6 months at best.
Russia with there wonderful new elected Putin, who would of guessed?
I am sure that the US will get tossed into a very dangerous stand-off with Russia when this war on Iran begins.
Once again the US is getting involved with something that should be left up to Israel to take care of, this is there problem not anyone else s.
We are heading for a possible nuclear stand-off if this bloody mess gets out of control, and the way these 2 nations hate one another I am sure it will get ugly real fast.
I have a message for the president of the United States........Stop all these f----king wars before we end up with a real nuclear hit.
Later....
the government has covered up so much in the last 200 years "for our own good" why we would we be surprised to find a cover up involving 911? A government that will use its own people as unsuspecting guinea pigs for whatever use they please is not a government we should trust.
the first two hijackers to reach the U.S., Saudis Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, received help first from a diplomat at the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles and then from two other Saudis, one of whom helped al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi find a place to live. Multiple sources told investigators they believed both the latter Saudis had been Saudi government agents. //the first two were from Saudi backed by Saudi Government agents. It sounds like a Saudi conspiracy not Afghanistan or Iraq. Maybe this was a ploy to get us to fight for the Saudi. Welcome to the NWO !
How come dumb FUX NEWS fans don't know anything about how Bush stole the election in 2000, the Bush big oil and gas connections and his administration's disastrous actions that destroyed America???
They don't know because they are the sheep being led to the slaughter. They are afraid of the truth, because when they look in the mirror, they see lies and deceit and wars perpetuated for all the wrong reasons. They stick their head in the sand to avoid the truth. Brave American service men & women who've given their lives for a country who cant admit its prejudice against a President of a different color...Very sad indeed. Just look back at those Bush Family ties to the Saudis. It is not a new relationship.
Again, when young George Bush was elected he had no 'platform' to stand on. He knew nothing really about foreign or domestic policies. Then all os a sudden we had '9/11' and he had direction and a platform. Hmmmm, so who had the knowledge and connections, contacts, etc with Saudi or any other middle eastern country??? Who was in the weapons mfg business with a Saudi Billionaire?? Its all about money, power and control of people...Wake up America, do you not realize that there are people in the government, our government, that control what happens. Do some simple research, like who controls money, and look up the names of the founders of the Federal Reserve Bank. Look up the name of recent and past politicians who have been in office before young George Bush. Did you ever ask yourself why our 'air defence system' did not react to the out of flight path planes?? Maybe it was down at the time under maintenance... and if it was, who would have known about that timing?? We have become a society of people that do not think. We are becoming like sheep and are just herded along by those in 'power'. What we have right now in political office, like it or not, is the best available, and a darn sight better than what we have had for a while. Personally I place politicians in the 'bad lawyer who cant find legitimate work' category and vote for what I see and the 'least bad' of what is available. What we have right now is more honest than what I have seen in the past 16 or so years. Think on it.
Could that be why so many in high positions don't like our "community organizer" black President? They sure want him gone in the worst way. Maybe he won't play ball but they can't risk a race war to get rid of him other than at the ballot box. Lots of maybe's swirling around today.
So, it's been more than 10 years. How about uncensoring those last 28 pages?
Analysis of Prestancia gatehouse visitor logs and photographs of license tags showed that vehicles driven by several of the future hijackers had visited the al-Hijji home at 4224 Escondito Circle.The FBI has backed up al-Hijji even though they had evidense from the pictures Hmmm the trail goes cold from there...He lied and they knew it !
This has "witch hunt" written all over it.