In an exclusive report by SpyTalk’s Seth Hettena, new revelations have emerged suggesting potential involvement of the CIA and Saudi government in the 9/11 attacks.
The report details allegations from anonymous former FBI agents and interviews conducted with whistleblowers by attorney Vincent Canestraro, who represents a defendant at Guantanamo Bay.
The findings raise questions about the CIA’s knowledge of the first two hijackers to arrive in the United States, as well as the role of Saudi Arabia in supporting the attackers.
According to Hettena, former White House counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke claimed that the CIA had recruited two of the hijackers for an operation in 2000.
The CIA’s Inspector General, however, has concluded that the agency’s failure to pass information on the hijackers to the FBI was a result of poor implementation, guidance, and oversight.
Canestraro’s court filing in Guantanamo also raises long-standing questions about the Saudi government and its connections to the 9/11 plot.
Hettena’s report states that newly declassified documents reveal that the Saudi government knew more about the arrival of the hijackers in America than it had previously disclosed to the FBI.
One interviewee, identified as CS-8, told Canestraro that “diplomatic pressure” was exerted on the FBI not to investigate the Saudi government’s connections to the attacks.
Hettena’s report uncovers details about the role of the Saudi Embassy in the U.S. in funding and creating Islamic organizations tied to extremism.
The Saudi government and its embassy in Washington played a key role in “the funding and creation of a multitude of Islamic organizations, offices, imams, and other religious figures within the US—many of which were involved with militant ideology,” according to a 2021 FBI memo cited in the report.
The militant network in Southern California was found to be run by Musaed al-Jarrah, a key figure in the investigation of Saudi government ties to the 9/11 plot.
The 2021 FBI memo states that Jarrah was a “controlling, guiding, and directing influence on all aspects of Sunni extremist activity in Southern California.”
Jarrah left the United States in 2006 and continued working for Prince Bandar in the Saudi National Security Ministry in Riyadh.
In his report, Hettena claims that the 9/11 Commission avoided addressing these issues when interviewing Prince Bandar in 2003.
However, 20 years after the tragic events, an anonymous FBI agent has come forward, suggesting that there is still evidence implicating Saudi Arabia and the CIA that remains hidden from the public.
Canestraro told SpyTalk, “There are files in the government’s possession that neither the military commissions nor the general public have seen regarding Saudi Arabia’s potential role in 9/11. These files should be at a minimum released to the military commissions.”
