Dan Christensen Reports on the Secrecy in Investigation of Saudi Arabian Involvement in 9/11

Sept. 11, 2020 (EIRNS)—Dan Christensen, the intrepid Florida Bulldog investigative reporter who has done so much to piece together the evidence of Saudi involvement in 9/11, wrote an article on Sept. 10 about the history of the personal injury and wrongful death lawsuit wending its way through the U.S. District Court in New York City.

The lawsuit was made possible by the enactment of the 2016 Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), passed on Sept. 28, 2016 by a nearly unanimous Congressional vote to override Obama’s veto. Little is known about the progress of the lawsuit, due to the extreme secrecy measures demanded by FBI and Justice Department. Twelve batches of records have been released by the FBI in response to subpoenas, but the plaintiffs’ attorneys must keep them from the public record. In contrast, 25,000 pages of material was turned over to the lawyers defending accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed! Some of the arguments for material being classified a state secret are themselves considered secret, and the plaintiffs’ attorneys cannot see the reasoning. Nearly the entirety of this legal process is being conducted under absolute secrecy, under the auspices of Obama Executive Order 13526.

A key focus is Operation Encore, an FBI investigation into Saudi involvement in 9/11 first reported by the Florida Bulldog. A redacted version of a 2012 report on that operation, released in 2016, showed that charges were being considered against suspects for providing material support to hijackers. Three subjects of the probe were Fahad al-Thumairy, the imam at King Fahd mosque in the Los Angeles area who met with two of the hijackers, suspected Saudi agent Omar al-Bayoumi, and a third man whose name was released only later due to an FBI clerical error—Mussaed Ahmed al-Jarrah, who worked at the Saudi Embassy from 1999 to 2000.

A contemporary report was released by EIR on Dec. 19, 2016 about the Operation Encore declassification.