Clinton, Sanders support bill to allow families of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia

Clinton, Sanders turn on Obama by supporting bill to allow families of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia

BY REUVEN BLAU
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Updated: Sunday, April 17, 2016, 10:04 PM

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JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES

Hillary Clinton disagrees with Obama over allowing families of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia.


The two Democratic presidential candidates are in outright rebellion against the Obama administration’s efforts to scuttle a bill that would allow families of loved ones killed in the 9/11 attacks to sue Saudi Arabia.

The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, which passed the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this year, would take away immunity from foreign governments in cases “arising from a terrorist attack that kills an American on American soil.”

Initially, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders said they were unfamiliar with the legislation even though it has been pending for weeks. But then both issued strong statements Sunday backing the legislation co-sponsored by New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, and Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican.

LUPICA: OBAMA MUST STAND UP TO SAUDI ARABIA

“Obviously, we’ve got to make anyone who participates in or supports terrorism pay a price, and we also have to be aware of any consequences that might affect Americans, either military or civilian or our nation,” Clinton said on ABC’s “This Week.”

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MATT ROURKE/AP

Bernie Sanders also supports the bill endorsed by Sen. Chuck Schumer.


Later, her campaign released a more definitive statement saying families and victims of terror need to “hold accountable those responsible. As President, she’d work to Congress on that end.”

Sanders also first said he needed time to review the legislation and then issued a statement staunchly supporting the bill.

“I support legislation by Sen. Chuck Schumer that would allow Americans, including the families of victims of the 9/11 attacks, to use U.S. courts to determine if foreign entities are culpable for terrorist attacks in the United States and seek restitution for the damages and lives lost,” it said.

He went a step further, urging the Obama administration to “declassify the 28-page conclusion of the 9/11 Commission Report on the potential sources of foreign support received by the hijackers.”

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MICHAEL SPRINGER/GETTY IMAGES

Former Florida Sen. Bob Graham says Saudi Arabia’s threat to pull $750 billion from the U.S. economy “says something about Saudi Arabia’s involvement in 9/11.”


SAUDI ARABIA THREATENS TO PULL $750B FROM U.S. ECONOMY IF CONGRESS ALLOWS THEM TO BE SUED FOR 9/11 TERROR ATTACKS

The Saudi Arabian government has threatened to sell $750 billion in Treasury securities and other assets in the United States should the U.S. Congress pass a bill that could hold the kingdom responsible for any role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to a New York Times report. It’s a move many of the 9/11 families see as blackmail.

Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia.

Former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, who co-chaired a joint congressional investigation into the attacks, charged Saudi officials were worried their ties to the World Trade Center terrorists would be revealed during a trial if the bill were passed.

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HO/REUTERS

Saudi Arabia has threatened to pull $750 billion from the U.S. economy if Congress passes a bill that could hold the kingdom responsible for any role in the Sept. 11 attacks.


“I think the action by Saudi Arabia is reprehensible and also very revealing,” the Florida Democrat told the Daily News Sunday. “They are so fearful of what would emerge if there were to be a full trial. That says something about Saudi Arabia’s involvement in 9/11.”

Graham, who left Capitol Hill in 2005, also slammed the Obama administration.

“I think it’s even more objectionable that the U.S. government has been supporting Saudi Arabia and erecting roadblocks to the passage of the legislation.”

Outraged 9/11 family members struggled to understand why Obama was lobbying against the legislation.

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THEODORE PARISIENNE/FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

New York Sen. Chuck Schumer co-sponsored the bill.


“It certainly is a shock that our government would try to block our path to justice for the murder of my husband and 3,000 others,” said Monica Gabrielle, 64, whose husband, Richard, 50, died on 9/11.

“All that we want is for the truth to come out and to be able to use that truth in the court of law,” added Mindy Kleinberg, whose husband, Alan, 39, did not survive the attacks.

The Obama administration’s position “defies logic” and puts the Saudi government ahead of American citizens, she added.

Thousands of outraged 9/11 family members have been trying for years to persuade the U.S. government to release those 28 pages and to sue Saudi Arabia.

In September a U.S. judge dismissed claims against Saudi Arabia by families of victims of the attacks, saying that the kingdom had sovereign immunity from damage claims.

“They couldn’t meet the high standards of the law,” said Graham, noting he has submitted an affidavit in support of the families.

rblau@nydailynews.com

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/worl...icle-1.2604613

Saudi Arabia Warns of Economic Fallout if Congress Passes 9/11 Bill

Terror victims win Supreme Court judgment against Iran

Sheriff Bill Gore Discusses Connections Between San Diego-based Saudi Arabian Terrorists and 9/11

Gore, former head of FBI’s San Diego division, said there are still unanswered questions

By JW August and Mari Payton

President Obama's visit to Saudi Arabia comes as questions are being raised by some 9/11 victims' families about the Saudi government's possible role in supporting the 9/11 hijackers. There's also a renewed push to make public, 28-pages of a congressional report on the attacks. NBC 7 Investigates Reporter Mari Payton spoke to San Diego Sheriff Bill Gore and has the latest. (Published Wednesday, April 20, 2016)
"I wouldn’t be surprised if there were still people in the FBI and around the country working the investigation of the 9/11 attacks,” San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore told NBC 7 Investigates.

When asked to elaborate, he said, he believes there are still questions to answer. "Knowing how the FBI works and how investigations continue on until you have left no stone unturned.”

Gore was the head of the San Diego division of the FBI at the time of the terrorists attacks in 2001.

One element of the investigation that has gained attention recently is a classified 28-page section of the joint inquiry report issued in December 2002 by the House and Senate intelligence committees.

Gore said he hasn’t read the classified pages but has firsthand knowledge of many of the details surrounding the events of that day.

"I don’t think there is any mystery to the fact that a lot of funding came from very wealthy Saudi's,” Gore said. “But, to say that 9/11 was directed by the Saudi Government, I think it's kind of stretch."

Gore ran the FBI office in San Diego for six years.

"We were never told by FBI headquarters, the White House, the State Department or the CIA to stop investigating something or that we were getting too close to a particular target," Gore said.

Even, when it came to the Saudi government.

"I was never directed to do anything different,” Gore said. “To pull back on any leads; stop any investigations that pertained to Saudi Arabia."

He said the local office did a professional and thorough job, chasing 8,000 leads in the three months after the 9/11 attacks. Still, he said, there are some unanswered questions.

Gore said he believes there are Saudi elements with San Diego connections that remain unclear. Including, who in San Diego helped two of the hijackers Nawar al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Midhar.

Both men were from Saudi Arabia and were responsible for flying one of the passenger airplanes into the Pentagon on 9/11.

"There was a lot of people locally who befriended them,” Gore said. “They came here (San Diego) as college students. They didn’t speak English. They wanted to take flight lessons as we all know, so, there was a lot of people who took them in as foreigners, as part of the Saudi community (in San Diego.)"

One of those people is Omar al Bayoumi, a mid-level employee of a Saudi airline.

Gore said al-Bayoumi helped the hijackers settle in San Diego in January 2000. He said there was speculation about whether al-Bayoumi worked for the Saudi government.

According to Gore, al-Bayoumi helped hijackers al-Hazmi and al-Midhar by facilitating the deposit on their San Diego apartment but did not pay their rent.

[IMG]http://media.nbcsandiego.com/images/621*349/4e6bf1e653528.image+copy.jpg[/IMG]

Suspected hijackers on American Airlines Flight 77. Top row, from left are, Khalid Almihdhar, Majed Moqed and Nawaf Alhazmi, Bottom row, from left are, Salem Alhazmi and Hani Hanjour.

Some of the names of the 19 suspected hijackers have slightly different spellings and others have additional names added, compared to the list released by the FBI on Sept. 14, 2001. FBI Director Robert Mueller said the FBI is confident that the names and photos were the identities the hijackers had before entering the United States. (AP Photo/FBI, HO)
Photo credit: (AP Photo/FBI, HO)


He had a very high profile in the community, frequently throwing parties, Gore said, "almost like a social chairman. A very suspicious character, suspicious to a lot of people."

Gore said the San Diego FBI office flew agents to London after al-Bayoumi was found there. He was interviewed by the agents and New Scotland Yard investigators but they couldn’t find anything to charge him with.

According to several published reports, he is now living somewhere in Saudi Arabia.

While talking to NBC 7 Investigates the sheriff made it very clear: the entire Saudi community in San Diego was not to blame.

"I don't want to paint a broad brush of the Saudi community in San Diego," he said.

Gore said he believes there still remains work to be done, continuing the job the local FBI office began 15 years ago this coming September.

There still may be those "we need to arrest, charge and bring to justice," he said.

Published at 6:25 AM PDT on Apr 21, 2016

NBC 7 Investigates is working for you. If you have more information about this or other story tips, contact us: (619) 578-0393,NBC7Investigates@nbcuni.com. To receive the latest NBC 7 Investigates stories subscribe to our newsletter.

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US government releases secret chapter from 9/11 report

White House says 28 formerly classified pages of report on 9/11 attacks show NO evidence of Saudi complicity... despite FBI linking Saudi spies to two of the hijackers

Documents suggest a myriad of links between Saudi officials and hijackers

Two of the 9/11 terrorists were possibly in contact with two Saudi officials

The pair of hijackers were on the plane flown into the Pentagon and were also said to be linked to Saudi naval officers

Pages say bin Laden's half-brother, Abdullah, worked in Saudi embassy

A close associate of Abdullah was likely in contact with another two of the hijackers, who flew into the World Trade Center

Abdullah was the president of a Muslim youth group which the FBI believed had 'connections to terrorist organizations'

One Saudi linked to a hijacker 'feigned a seizure' while being interviewed before fleeing hospital and the country, FBI said

President George W. Bush classified the chapter of the report, possibly to protect Saudi Arabia - a close ally of the U.S.

By OLLIE GILLMAN and DANIEL BATES and GEOFF EARLE, DEPUTY U.S. POLITICAL EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 18:04 GMT, 15 July 2016 | UPDATED: 23:45 GMT, 15 July 2016

The 28 formerly classified pages of the 9/11 report have been released, revealing a myriad of supposed links between the hijackers and Saudi officials.

The documents say two of the hijackers were 'in contact with, and received support or assistance from, individuals who may be connected to the Saudi government'.

It also states that the FBI and CIA were aware of possible links between terrorists Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi and two Saudi government officials, one of whom had connections to the Saudi ambassador to the U.S.

Both al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 - the plane that was crashed into the Pentagon.

The declassified pages also suggest that Osama bin Laden's half-brother, Abdullah, worked for the Saudi Embassy in Washington, DC, and was in charge of an organization believed to support terror.

They also reveal that the FBI had evidence suggesting a 'close associate' of Abdullah was in contact with Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi, who were on board the planes flown into the World Trade Center.

Despite the vast collection of evidence, the White House say the documents show no evidence of Saudi involvement in the attacks on September 11, 2001, in which 2,997 innocent people died.

Scroll down to read the 28 pages

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The 28 formerly classified pages of the 9/11 report have been released, revealing a myriad of supposed
links between the hijackers and Saudi officials. Above, the Twin Towers on the day of the 2001 attacks

The report lays bare the sheer number of links between the hijackers and prominent Saudis that were deemed worthy of further examination by the FBI and CIA.

The report states that Osama bin Laden's half-brother, Abdullah bin Laden, claimed that he worked as an administrative officer in the Saudi Embassy in Washington, DC.

FBI files cited in the report say Mohammed Rafique Quadir Harunami - an associate of Abdullah - was in contact with 9/11 hijackers Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi.

Atta was on board American Airlines Flight 11 when it crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, while al-Shehhi was on United Airlines Flight 175 when it hit the South Tower.

The FBI believed Abdullah had 'a number of connections to terrorist organizations', according to the report.

He was president and director of the World Arab Muslim Youth Association, which the FBI believed was 'closely associated with the funding and financing of international terrorist activities'.

According to a CIA paper in 1998, the group had links to Hamas, Algerian extremists and militants in the Philippines.

The previously secret pages include a finding that while in the U.S., ‘some of the September 11 hijackers were in contact with, and received support or assistance from, individuals who may be connected to the Saudi Government'.

The pages provide information from FBI sources that ‘at least two of those individuals were alleged by some to be Saudi intelligence officers.’

Although the report said the information had ‘yet to be verified’ at the time, it was also in the possession of the intelligence community.

It also cited information that people ‘associated with the Saudi Government’ in the U.S. ‘may have other ties’ to Al Qaeda.

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The documents also reveal that the FBI had evidence suggesting a 'close associate' of
Osama bin Laden's half-brothers was in contact with hijackers Mohamed Atta (left) and Marwan al-Shehhi (right)


The documents state that in March 2002, U.S. security officers obtained the telephone book of Abu Zubaida - a key al-Qaeda operative.

Several of the numbers discovered linked back to the U.S., including the number for ASPCOL Corporation in Aspen, Colorado.

ASPCOL is the umbrella corporation that manages the affairs of the Colorado residence of Prince Bandar, the Saudi ambassador to the United States.

The report makes clear that a later investigation found that 'CIA traces have revealed no direct links between numbers found in Zubaida's phone book and numbers in the United States'.

The report also states that the FBI discovered that a man named Saleh al-Hussayen, who appeared to work for the Saudi Interior Ministry, stayed at the same hotel in Virginia as hijacker al-Hazmi.

When al-Hussayen was questioned by the FBI, he denied knowing the hijackers but agents believed he was 'being deceptive'.

He then 'either passed out or feigned a seizure requiring medical treatment', the report states, citing FBI intelligence.

After several days in hospital, he 'managed to depart the United States despite law enforcement efforts to locate and re-interview him'.

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The documents state that the FBI and CIA were aware of possible links between Khalid al-Mihdhar
(left) and Nawaf al-Hazmi (right) and two Saudi government officials


The FBI documents reviewed for the report also suggest that 'several Saudi naval officers were in contact with the September 11 hijackers, specifically al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi.

One officer, Lafi al-Harbi, phoned the pair nine times during a 17-day period in March 2000, the once-classified report says.

Among the most chilling pages in the documents one which relates to Osama Bassnan, who the documents identify as a financial supporter of two of the 9/11 hijackers in San Diego.

It states that he had made ‘laudatory’ remarks about bin Laden and, according to an informant, spoke of him ‘as if he were a God’.

During the early 1990s Bassnan had heard that the US government had stopped foreign students from getting visas to America.

But this did not bother him as there were ‘already enough Muslims in the United States to destroy the United States and make it an Islamic State within 10 to 15 years’.

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Attack: Both al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi hijacked Flight 77 - the plane that was crashed into the Pentagon

The FBI were also investigating a terrorist suspect with 'close ties' to a member of the Saudi royal family, the report states.

The suspect - whose name is redacted - was an employee of Saudi Arabian Airlines and came under investigation after his contact details were found in Zubaida's phone book, according to the newly declassified documents.

Another terrorist suspect who was interrogated at Guantanamo Bay told U.S. security officials that the suspect with supposed links to Saudi royals had a 'source of income through a Saudi prince' named Khalid al-Bandar.

The detainee at Guantanamo - who is not named in the report - said the other suspect did administrative jobs for the prince and his grandmother, and also traveled with him to Europe and the U.S., allowing him to avoid proper customs checks.

The FBI also feared that the man and others were 'using their status as Saudi Arabian Airlines employees as a cover to enable them to tansport weapons in and ut of the United States', the pages say.

The declassified documents also make clear that the in the years before 9/11 the Saudi government repeatedly blocked efforts by the American authorities to investigate bin Laden.

A veteran New York FBI agent is quoted as saying the Saudis had been ‘useless and obstructionist for years’ - but there was nothing they could do about it.

According to a 1996 memo from the CIA unit set up to look into bin Laden, the Saudis refused to help because ‘bin Laden had too much information about official Saudi dealings with Islamic extremists in the 1980s for Riyadh to deliver him to US hands’.

The FBI highlighted the case of Madani Al-Tayyib who was bin Laden’s financier and managed all of his expenses during the 1990s.

According to the documents, the Saudis ‘continually refused’ requests from the US to interrogate him.

Incredibly, the Saudis said at one point he was ‘just a poor man who who lost his leg. He doesn’t know anything’.

Despite the long list of connections, later investigations found no evidence that the Saudi government or senior Saudi officials knowingly supported those who orchestrated the attacks.

Terry Strada, ‎National Chair of the 9/11 Families & Survivors United for Justice Against Terrorism, had campaigned for the 28 pages to be declassified.

Ms Strada, whose husband Tom died on 9/11, told Daily Mail Online: 'This is just the tip of the iceberg. It might answer 100 questions but it asks 1,000 more.

'I still don't know why they decided to declassify this in the first place, and there should be no redactions. 'We should be getting transparency on this.

'I would still like a full independent judicial committee to look into the links between the Saudi government and 9/11.

'We deserve to have it'.

Former President George W. Bush classified the chapter to protect intelligence sources and methods and perhaps to avoid upsetting Saudi Arabia, a close U.S. ally.

President Barack Obama ordered a declassification review of the chapter, which Congress released on Friday.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the report 'does not change the assessment of the U.S. government that there’s no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded Al Qaeda'.

Former Democratic Senator Bob Graham of Florida, who co-authored the 2003 report and pushed for the release of the classified material, told ’60 Minutes’ in April he believed Saudi Arabia was ‘substantially’ behind the attack.

Pressed on whether that meant the government, rich people, charities, he replied: ‘All of the above.’

Declassified 9-11 Report Pages uploaded by DailyMail.com on Scribd


White House says 28 formerly classified pages of report on 9/11 attacks show NO evidence of Saudi complicity... despite FBI linking Saudi spies to two of the hijackers