U.S. judge orders release of FBI records in Sarasota probe that may tie Saudi royals to 9/11 hijackers

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Kudos to the Florida Bulldog website who have been pursuing this story for years. One might be puzzled as to why the media has no interest in it but they are so thoroughly corrupt, it is now to be expected.

Related:

Florida: Judge blasts FBI for failing to produce records on Saudi family in touch with 9/11 hijackers that fled U.S. just before 9/11

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Why is the FBI covering up for 911 Saudi jihadists?

“20th hijacker” says “Saudi prince” aided his jihad activities

U.S. judge orders release of FBI records in Sarasota probe that may tie Saudi royals to 9/11 hijackers

By Dan Christensen, FloridaBulldog.org, August 26, 2019:

A federal judge has ruled the FBI unlawfully withheld from the Florida Bulldog key sections of records of its investigation of a Saudi family that fled Sarasota two weeks before the 9/11 attacks – leaving behind cars, clothes, furniture, food and other belongings.

The Bulldog sued the FBI for the records in 2012 after reporting that Abdulaziz and Anoud al-Hijji, who lived in a gated community near Sarasota, had ties to several of the 9/11 hijackers, an al Qaeda figure and the Saudi royal family. The Bulldog, working with Irish author Anthony Summers, had revealed that the FBI had investigated the family in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks but never disclosed its investigation to Congress or the 9/11 Commission.

The FBI responded quickly to that Bulldog report from 2011 with press releases denying its investigation had found any connections between the al-Hijjis and the hijackers, and claiming it turned over its work to Congress.  The Bulldog suit under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) then forced the FBI to cough up records of the investigation.

The FBI turned over to the Bulldog just 81 pages of heavily-censored memos and notes, a fraction of the paperwork that’s typically generated in such investigations.  An April 16, 2002, memo included in the release showed, however, that at least one unnamed FBI agent had found “many connections” between the al-Hijjis and the 9/11 hijackers.  The FBI blacked out the entire last paragraph of that memo on national security grounds.

Abdulaziz al-Hijji’s father-in-law is Esam Ghazzawi, a rich Saudi Arabian businessman with ties to the kingdom’s ruling House of Saud and international and American political leaders.

Seven year fight

For seven years, the Bulldog has been fighting to unveil that paragraph, as well as other withheld information, on grounds that they might shed light on whether the Saudi government was complicit in 2001 with the 9/11 hijackers, a position that thousands of 9/11 victim families and survivors have taken in lawsuits against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

U.S. District Judge George Daniels has focused a large and important New York case on 9/11 hijacker connections to probable Saudi agents in San Diego.  To date, he has held that evidence the hijackers may have been assisted by possible Saudi agents elsewhere in the U.S. was too tenuous even to explore.

U.S. District Judge William J. Zloch

The new, Aug. 22 ruling by Fort Lauderdale Senior U.S. District Judge William J. Zloch rejects the FBI’s claim that the withheld paragraph would reveal secret techniques and procedures.  Zloch also ordered the release of an FBI “analyst’s note” from 2011 which appears to comment on the April 16, 2002 “many connections” memo.

“This material is highly relevant to plaintiff’s request,” Zloch wrote about the hidden note.

The judge has granted the FBI a chance to appeal his order before it must release the information.  The FBI has not yet said whether it will appeal.  The Bulldog’s lawyers, led by Miami attorney Thomas Julin, also are evaluating whether to appeal.

Many FBI records to remain hidden

Zloch also upheld many of the FBI’s other redactions and declined to order the release of all FBI records of its Sarasota investigation.  Also not be released under the judge’s order are 80,266 classified pages of FBI 9/11 records produced for his private review.

Again and again in his 95-page order, Zloch otherwise upheld the FBI’s contentions that it had thoroughly searched its files for requested records,  correctly withheld what was exempt from disclosure and made public what it could about its investigation of the al-Hijjis.

“In this case, there has been much speculation about what the FBI had done with respect to the subjects of an alleged investigation. But, the Court has neither heard nor seen any evidence that Plaintiffs contentions about the FBI’s actions are accurate,” Zloch wrote.

“The Court assures Plaintiffs that the files do not contain any documentary evidence that belies the representations of Defendants…The Court recognizes that this conclusion cannot quench the thirst for answers.”

Mohamad Atta Florida driver's license information
9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta’s Florida driver’s license information

Questions about the FBI’s Sarasota probe are legion:

Where are the reports and memos that typically document FBI investigations, including agency “FD 302” reports of interviews with witnesses and subjects? Why do the FBI’s own internal documents flatly contradict the FBI’s public assertions that no connection was found to the 9/11 plot? Why did the FBI assert national security to withhold information? Where is evidence that should have been routinely collected by FBI agents, including gatehouse and telephone records that the law enforcement source who disclosed the existence of the investigation said revealed connections to Mohamed Atta and other terrorist figures? Why weren’t Congress and the 9/11 Commission made aware of what happened in Sarasota?

Do records exist, or don’t they?

Answers may well lie behind a veil of secrecy so bizarre that it allows the FBI to say that certain sensitive records don’t exist when in fact they do exist.

That authority was granted in a 1986 amendment to the Freedom of Information Act that incorporated an “exclusion” that allows the FBI to treat classified records about foreign intelligence or counterintelligence, or international terrorism, as “not subject to the requirements” of the act. Justice Department guidelines say that means that those who request excluded records can be told, “there exist no records responsive to your FOIA request.”

When the law is invoked, the government often submits a secret declaration with the court explaining its claim. That appears to be what happened before Judge Zloch. Previously, the FBI filed two confidential declarations by Records Section Chief David Hardy. Copies were not provided to Florida Bulldog.

That scenario also tends to explain Zloch’s observation that “a court’s evaluation of a FOIA request in no way tasks the court with determining whether an agency has performed its duties, other than the search at hand, with due care.”

Bob Graham
Former Sen. Bob Graham

Zloch explained he was looking narrowly for “some indication that documents exist and that a search has not located them because it has been too deficient or scanty to do so. Instead, what has emerged is that Plaintiffs believe the FBI should have performed an investigation, not that it has done so and has concealed the related documents.”

The FOI lawsuit was filed in 2012 by Broward Bulldog Inc., parent of Florida Bulldog, after the FBI refused to release any information about its long-hidden Sarasota investigation, except to say that it had found no ties to the 9/11 plot and claim that it had notified Congress – a claim long disputed by former Florida Sen. Bob Graham, co-chair of Congress’s Joint Inquiry into 9/11.

Zloch’s highly detailed order, which took seven years to produce, followed his earlier criticism of the FBI. In 2014, Zloch ordered the FBI to do a more thorough records search after it failed to convince him it had done so in response to the Bulldog’s FOIA request concerning its investigation of apparent pre-9/11 terrorist activity in Sarasota. The judge’s order led the FBI to turn over to him the 80,000 pages that it said were the sum of all 9/11 records maintained in its Tampa field office.

Zloch’s order says he “made certain that an incredibly thorough search was undertaken” and observed that he treated the Bulldog’s concerns about the FBI’s search for records “with the utmost gravity” as he examined “in camera, page-by-page, the universe of documents that were searched by Defendants.

“The court cannot provide, nor would be at liberty to divulge, any specific answers to the lingering questions Plaintiffs may have about this investigation, which will surely remain long after the above-styled cause,” Zloch wrote.

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MAS
MAS
4 years ago

“Oh what tangled webs we weave when first we practice to deceive” Sir Walter Scott

The deep state is as tangled as a Black Widow web…

John Acord
John Acord
4 years ago

Lest we forget there were no Afghans or Iraqis on the planes, but there were Saudis and Egyptians, all subscribers to Saudi Arabia’s state sponsored and funded Wahhabi sect of Islam.

MuhamMUDTheFakeProphet
MuhamMUDTheFakeProphet
4 years ago
Reply to  John Acord

Do other sects of islum follow a different set of tenets of the Jew hating, fascist death cult? Maybe they have a different set of holey books?

John Acord
John Acord
4 years ago

The only difference is the wahabis are more likely to chop off your head if you do not exhibit the proper respect for the Great Pedophile.

MuhamMUDTheFakeProphet
MuhamMUDTheFakeProphet
4 years ago
Reply to  John Acord

Blasphemers and heretics have been killed in Pakistain and Bangladesh as well. Christians in the former, atheists in the latter.

Drew the Infidel
Drew the Infidel
4 years ago
Reply to  John Acord

These guys sound like they never read the 9/11 Commission Report.

My contention has always been, why is everyone so insistent that Trump drop the hammer on the Saudis over the Khashoggi murder after the way Bush 43 ran interference for them on 9/11?

minted
minted
4 years ago

Lying, muslim terrorist F I L T H:
Palestinian children dress as terrorists and put on a play about attacking Israelis – complete with weapons, a drone and body cameras – as proud parents watch at graduation ceremony
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7403163/Palestinian-children-dress-terrorists-play-attacking-Israelis.html

Suresh
Suresh
4 years ago
Reply to  minted

Nothing new.

Dems were paid by Iranian lobbyists to support Nuke deal http://tinyurl.com/mcake4d

And their holdovers still support it.

Its all about money. Anyone pays them they will sell out American interests.
china, Iran, qatar even pukistan know it and they have been screwing up America for decades now

ladywarrior
ladywarrior
4 years ago
Reply to  Suresh

You are right…..but sadly you have to include the Bushs and the RINOs in with that group….

Suresh
Suresh
4 years ago
Reply to  ladywarrior

No. RINO’s or Bush were not involved in supporting Iran nuke deal.

ladywarrior
ladywarrior
4 years ago
Reply to  Suresh

Sorry…I consider Lurch John Kerry…a major RINO….

Suresh
Suresh
4 years ago
Reply to  ladywarrior

If Kerry is RINO , I’m not sure what u mean by RINO.

ladywarrior
ladywarrior
4 years ago
Reply to  Suresh

oops….sorry….sometimes the RINOs look so much like the Dimms that I forget Kerry is a Dimm…my apologies.

John Acord
John Acord
4 years ago
Reply to  Suresh

Your right about that.The RINOs would of made the mullahs pay them instead Nf the us paying the mullahs. That’s he difference between a RINO and a Bushite and the Commiecrats. t

Suresh
Suresh
4 years ago
Reply to  John Acord

No. you clearly did not read the article I posted . Dems were paid by mullahs to support nuke deal.

John Acord
John Acord
4 years ago
Reply to  Suresh

Correct.I was making an attempt at sarcasm

John Acord
John Acord
4 years ago
Reply to  ladywarrior

Yes, but you gotta hand it to them, They hold out longer and get 3X the payoff.

rambler
rambler
4 years ago

May???? How about should? The saudi fingerprints were all over 9/11.

MuhamMUDTheFakeProphet
MuhamMUDTheFakeProphet
4 years ago

Who can’t trust the rotten Fecal Bureau of Islamisation in the 21st century? They should really be changing their motto because it violates truth in advertising laws.

Drew the Infidel
Drew the Infidel
4 years ago

Agreed. An agent in AZ sent a memo to FBI hq pointing out his suspicions about the large number of Middle Eastern males taking flight lessons there. The official explanation is that the memo was “lost”.

John Acord
John Acord
4 years ago

Yes, Mohammad Al-Terrari, Chief of the anti Terrorism Division lost it, or so it was reported.

dylan thomas
dylan thomas
4 years ago

pamela, the saudis may be all over this, but those two towers were brought down by implosion from timed explosives set within the building, as was the 50-story Tower 7 that wasn’t damaged by the 2 planes. the planes were a diversion. the real story is who brought those buildings down and why.

Ban Islam
Ban Islam
4 years ago
Reply to  dylan thomas

Retard, all of these nonsensical claims were debunked by real scientists.
All the damage/destruction was caused by the 9/11 attack, it was an Islam job.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a6384/debunking-911-myths-world-trade-center/

ladywarrior
ladywarrior
4 years ago
Reply to  dylan thomas

….we know why…..and thanks to the Bush Cabal, Brennan and Clapper…we’ll probably never know all of the story…..

I suspect that the reasons Brennan and Clapper have never gone to prison is because they have major dirt on the Bush and Clinton Cabals…..when you read Peter Schweitzer’s book: “Clinton Cash”….you immediately realize that they are untouchable by the laws because of what they know about them and visa-versa. It’s one really big snake pit up there in the D.C. Swamp and the Military/Industrial Complex…..just like former President Eisenhower warned us in his farewell speech….

Commissioner Gordon
Commissioner Gordon
4 years ago
Reply to  dylan thomas

If you had any knowledge of building construction whatsoever, you would not be making these outrageously false claims. The towers came down from the burning fuel that melted the structural steel because the fireproofing came off in the collision, as simple as that! That is the singular reason that new high rise buildings are being built with vastly hardened stair & elevator cores and the structural elements enclosed in concrete.

MuhamMUDTheFakeProphet
MuhamMUDTheFakeProphet
4 years ago
Reply to  dylan thomas

What a half wit. A fully laden 757 has more mass than two school buses. Now imagine these school buses traveling 400 MPH and hitting a building simultaneously then igniting tens of thousands of gallons of jet fuel.

patd
patd
4 years ago

I thought that there was a determination that saudi assholes could be sued over 9/11…what happened to that?

ladywarrior
ladywarrior
4 years ago
Reply to  patd

….all these years later…..still ongoing in the courts….you hear something about it every now and then….but the courts keep it stalled….

Roma Mikhasev
Roma Mikhasev
4 years ago

YES!

MTC
MTC
4 years ago

I’ll never forget 9/11, nor will I forget the POS culprits. >:(

PS-The FBI also needs to get more proactive in tracking down Yaser Said.
https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/yaser-abdel-said

ladywarrior
ladywarrior
4 years ago

We can thank GW and Papa Bush for this headline…..all planes were ordered grounded….except two….one leaving from New York loaded with Saudi royals and one leaving from Florida….loaded with Saudi royals…..some reporter went to the mansion in Florida and got pictures of what they left there…..the place looked liked burglars had tossed it….they left in a very big hurry….

We all knew about this at the time, but the Bush Cabal did a big, big hush job on it…and threatened some reporters if they didn’t drop it…..then GW went to the heart of the destruction and gave a speech amid the rubble and said, “Islam is a religion of peace.” Liar, Liar, pants on fire. He dam well knew better.

Then came the “monitoring” of Americans being spied on….even what library books they were checking out…..Brennan, Clapper, all of the intelligence agencies spying on Americans….not the “foreigners” here.

The FBI tried to monitor some “foreigners” in New York, but was slapped down by CAIR and the Left as Islamaphobic and the courts ordered them to stop…..

I shed no tear when Papa Bush died….

Rivia
Rivia
4 years ago

Exactly 2 weeks before 9/11 the 2 neighbours that lived across from me, whom were very wealthy Saudis, abruptly took their kids out of school without any explanation, abandon their houses and cars. They just left their cars in the driveways. (They were brothers). And they buggered off back to Saudi Arabia. As time progressed we soon learned that some 20+ Saudi families in my area had literally taken off, as fast as they could. Leaving ALL possessions behind.
The one Saudi person whom I later met would only say that only the very wealthy Saudis live outside of the country. and that all information, and anything to do with Saudi Arabia is shared and known equally by ALL of those whom are abroad. The Saudis and the Yemeni are as thick as thieves and 1,000 times more dangerous.

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