Willmaierica's Untitled

FBI investigated Sarasota Saudis in 9/11 attacks 

By Anthony Summers and Dan Christensen

Published: Thursday, September 8, 2011 at 10:56 a.m.

Excerpts :

“… In addition, three of the four future hijackers had lived in Venice — just 10 miles from the house — for much of the year before 9/11. Atta, the leader, and his companion Marwan al-Shehhi, had been learning to fly small airplanes at Huffman Aviation, a flight school on the edge of the runway at Venice Municipal Airport.

“A block away, at Florida Flight Training, accomplice Ziad Jarrah was also taking flying lessons. All three obtained their pilot licenses and afterwards, in the months that led to 9/11, spent much of their time traveling the state, including stints in Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale and Delray Beach, among other areas.”

                                                                    * * * *

“…The links were not just to Atta and his hijack pilots, the agent said, but to 11 other terrorist suspects, including Walid al-Shehhri, one of the men who flew with Atta on the first plane to strike the World Trade Center.

“Another was Adnan Shukrijumah, a former Miramar, Fla., resident identified as having been with Atta in the spring of 2001. Shukrijumah is still at large and is on the FBI’s Most Wanted list…”

                                                                    * * * *

“…The counterterrorism agent said Ghazzawi and al-Hiijjii had been on a watch list at the FBI and that a U.S. agency involved in tracking terrorist funds was interested in both men even before 9/11.

‘464 was Ghazzawi’s number,’ the officer said. ‘I don’t remember the other man’s number…’ “

                                                                    * * * *

“…During an interview on Sunday, Graham said he was surprised he wasn’t told about the probe when he was co-chairman of Congress’ Joint Inquiry into 9/11 — even though he was especially alert to terrorist information relating to Florida…”

‘At the beginning of the investigation,’ he said, ‘each of the intelligence agencies, including the FBI, was asked to provide all information that agency possessed in relation to 9/11.’

“The fact that the FBI did not tell the Inquiry about the Florida discoveries, Graham says, is similar to the agency’s failure to provide information linking members of the 9/11 terrorist team to other Saudis in California until congressional investigators discovered it themselves.”

“The Inquiry did nevertheless accumulate a ‘very large’ file on the hijackers in the United States, and later turned it over to the 9/11 Commission. ‘They did very little with it,’ Graham said, ‘and their reference to Saudi Arabia is almost cryptic sometimes. … I never got a good answer as to why they did not pursue that.’ ….

                                                                    […and…]

“The final 28-page section of the Inquiry’s report, which deals with ‘sources of foreign support for some of the September 11 hijackers,’ was entirely blanked out. It was kept secret from the public on the orders of former President George W. Bush and is still withheld to this day, Graham said…

“The grounds for suppressing the material, Graham believes, were ‘protection of the Saudis from embarrassment, protection of the administration from political embarrassment … some of the unknowns, some of the secrets of 9/11’….

Information: www.BrowardBulldog.org. 

Go Bulldogs.