Under the title "Document on September Attacks Confirms: No Evidence of Saudi Involvement," the Al Arabiya website reported that after years of secrecy, the FBI released a recently declassified 16-page document concerning the period leading up to the September 11 terrorist attacks. These redacted pages provided no evidence of any involvement by the Saudi government in those horrific attacks that resulted in around 3,000 deaths. Additionally, a U.S. government committee found no evidence that Saudi Arabia funded al-Qaeda, which was then provided safe haven by the Taliban in Afghanistan, according to what the Reuters agency reported on Sunday, based on the revelations from that document.
Saudi Reaction to the Document Release
It is notable that many current and former Saudi officials have repeatedly affirmed that the government had no connection to these terrorist attacks. The Saudi embassy in Washington stated in a release a few days prior (September 8) that the Kingdom has always advocated for transparency concerning the events of September 11 and welcomes the publication of the declassified documents by U.S. authorities related to those attacks. They considered that the document to be disclosed, like previous investigations including the 9/11 Commission, showed no evidence at all indicating that the Saudi government or any of its officials had prior knowledge of the terrorist attacks or were involved in any way in planning or executing them.
