Dan Christensen and Anthony Summers of BrowardBulldog.org have been literal bulldogs in pushing the U.S. for information about the activities of 9/11 hijackers in Florida — and how much the U.S. knew. For years, the FBI has been denying they even investigated Florida connections. Fascinating:
Freshly released, but heavily-censored FBI documents include tantalizing new information about events connected to the Sarasota Saudis who moved suddenly out of their home, leaving behind clothing, jewelry and cars, about two weeks before the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The documents were released to BrowardBulldog.org Monday amid ongoing Freedom of Information Act litigation. The news organization sued in 2012 after being denied access to the Bureau’s file on a once secret investigation focusing on Abdulaziz al-Hijji, his wife, Anoud and her father Esam Ghazzawi, an advisor to a Saudi prince.
An FBI letter accompanying the documents, the fourth batch to be released since the suit was filed, cites national security and other reasons to justify why certain information was withheld. The letter does not explain why the documents were not previously acknowledged to exist.
One FBI report, dated April 3, 2002 recounts a chilling discovery made by the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office on Halloween 2001.
Deputies were called after a man with a Tunisian passport was observed disposing of items in a dumpster behind a storage facility he’d rented in Bradenton.
The man’s name is blanked out, but the report says authorities who searched the dumpster found “a self-printed manual on terrorism and Jihad, a map of the inside of an unnamed airport, a rudimentary last will and testament, a weight to fuel ratio calculation for a Cessna 172 aircraft, flight training information from the Flight Training Center in Venice and printed maps of Publix shopping centers in Tampa Bay.”
The Flight Training Center is where 9/11 hijack pilot Ziad Jarrah, who was at the controls of United Flight 93 when it crashed in Shanksville, Pa, took flying lessons.
The three paragraphs that follow are completely blanked out. The reasons cited include information “specifically authorized under criteria established by [presidential] executive order to be kept secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy.”
The documents were located via court-ordered text searches using the names of the al-Hijjis and Ghazzawi. U.S. District Judge William J. Zloch is currently reviewing more than 80,000 pages of 9/11 records.
Miami First Amendment attorney Thomas Julin represents BrowardBulldog.org.
“This release suggests that the FBI has covered up information that is vitally important to public safety,” said Julin. “It’s startling that after initially denying they had any documents they continue to find new documents as the weeks and months roll by. Each new batch suggests there are many, many more documents.”
“There needs to be a full scale explanation of what’s going on here,” said Julin.
The report of the Bradenton incident includes information about the al-Hijjis. The excisions, however, keep secret how what happened there ties back to the al-Hijjis.
The same is true about another FBI document dated Feb. 2, 2012.
On that day, FBI offices in Tampa and Charlotte received information from Washington stamped “secret” stating that a “person of interest” in the FBI’s massive 9/11 investigation had returned to the United States.
The person, whose name is redacted, was reported to be “traveling to Texas and LA for business/tourism.” The person apparently told authorities upon entering the country that he could be reached in Charlotte. He provided a phone number “associated with furniture manufacturers in North Carolina,” the report says.
Details about that were blanked out. But the report also says, “Tampa is notified that a person of interest to Tampa regarding the PENTTBOMB investigation has a valid visa for re-entry into the U.S.” PENTTBOMB is the FBI’s code name for its 9/11 investigation.
Thanks to Attorney April Cockerham.
18 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals. Bin Laden was a Saudi citizen. The neo-cons wanted a “Pearl Harbor-type” event to take place in America. What we, as mushrooms, are suppose to believe is that neither the US nor Saudi Arabian intelligence knew what al-Qaeda was up to. We know that the Saudis funded bin Laden’s operations in Afghanistan. We also know that the Saudis and bin-Laden had a falling out over US troops being allowed to build military bases in Saudi Arabia. Infidels. We also know that bin Laden threatened to have the King killed because of his policy. Are we to believe that Saudi intelligence wasn’t keeping a close eye on what bin Laden was up to? Are we also to believe that American intelligence didn’t know exactly what Saudi intelligence knew and more? Then there’s the fact that bin Laden’s number 2 man is an Egyptian. Are we to believe that the police state of Egypt with its vast intelligence apparatus wasn’t tracking this guy? Who, by the way, is still alive. This whole episode smells to high heaven.
Um, yep., what is that theory again? Damn, pay Sadam, then hang him, pay and arm Bin Laden, feed him to the fish……cause as much disruption around the world and play The Lone Ranger to fix it: The Neo Con Theory of World Dominance. Putin doesn’t have a chance!