What is the FBI hiding in
redacted 9/11 slide show documents?
A COPY of the FBI’s internal
presentation on the 9/11 attacks is riddled with blacked out words and is
missing nine pages.
Marnie O’Neill@marnieoneill7
news.com.auJULY 26, 20176:53PM
MISSING pages from a heavily
censored internal FBI report on 9/11 contain explosive information on Saudi
Arabia’s role in the 2001 terrorist attack, according to a group of
investigative journalists.
The declassified version of
a slide show titled “Overview of the 9/11 Investigation” was published by
Florida Bulldog, a non-profit investigative journalist outfit, after it sued
the
FBI for the records in 2015.
The FBI made the
presentation to the 9/11 Review Commission in secret on April 25, 2014.
But the agency redacted 13
pages and completely deleted an additional nine pages from the report, which
was believed to have originally contained around 60 pages, before releasing it
in March.
The document, released under
America’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was also obtained by public records
database Government Attic, which posted it online yesterday.
According to Florida
Bulldog, which has conducted a long-running investigation into Saudi Arabia’s
possible link to the West’s most notorious terrorist attack, the censored pages
detail “the transfer of money prior to and funding of the attacks”.
Some of the slides released
are blank except for their tantalising titles which include “Funding of the
9/11 Attacks”; “Early to Mid-2001: Additional Funding”; “August 2011: Reserving
9/11 Tickets”; and “KSM (Khalid Sheikh Mohammed) Non-Immigrant Visa Application”.
Of the 19 hijackers who
crashed planes into New York’s Twin Towers and the Pentagon in Virginia, 15
were Saudi Arabian.
In documents tendered to
court earlier this year, Florida Bulldog alleged the FBI improperly redacted
key intelligence related to the funding of the 9/11 attacks.
In May, Miami judge Cecilia
Altonaga ruled the document should be largely opened for public inspection,
after the FBI failed to establish Freedom of Information Act Exemption 7(E)
applied. The exemption applies when the information would “disclose techniques
and procedures for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions”.
But the FBI asked her to
reconsider, arguing that while the document doesn’t discuss techniques, it
could still reveal some techniques used. As an example it cited a photograph
taken from a security camera which could reveal the camera’s location unless
redacted.
On July 6, Judge Altonaga
had a change of heart, siding with the FBI and reversing her May decision,
dismissing Florida Bulldog’s application for a Freedom of Information Act
trial.
“The court sees no need for
further facts to be elicited at trial,” she said.
The pages exempt from
disclosure include two slides titled “Funding of the 9/11 Attacks” and “Early
to Mid-2001 Additional Funding” and others that currently appear blank under
the headings: “Early to Mid-2000: Pilots/Intended Pilots Arrive U.S.”;
“Investigative Findings regarding hijacker Identification”, “Financial”, “Early
to Mid-2001: Non-pilots arrive U.S.”,‘July-August 2001: Knife Purchases” and
“August 2001: Reserving 9/11 Tickets” as well as four pages titled, “Ongoing
Investigation”.
Lawyers for Florida Bulldog
have indicated they may challenge the ruling in the Supreme Court.
Florida Bulldog co-founder
and editor Dan Christensen says the FBI’s grounds for continuing to withhold
information on the 9/11 attacks are weak and make no sense. He addressed the
agency’s concerns, including the mysterious redacted photograph, in an article
posted on his website last month.
But he believes the real
reason for the FBI’s secrecy relates to questions about who financed the 9/11
attacks.
Survivors and relatives of
the almost 3000 victims are currently engaged in a fraught civil litigation
with Saudi Arabia amid accusations that the kingdom and its official charities
were among those who supplied funds. The country has denied any wrongdoing.
“Another page the FBI wants
to remain hidden ‘contains specific factors deemed pertinent in the analysis of
the actions of the hijackers’ concerning financial transactions before
September 11, 2001,” Christensen said.
“(According to the FBI)
disclosure of this information would reveal what the FBI already knows about
the hijackers’ financial actions and how they were able to stay ‘under the
radar’.”
FBI record chief David M
Hardy expanded on this in his submission to keep the reacted and missing pages
secret.
“The release of this
information would reveal sensitive details about how much money was being moved
around, when it was being moved, how it was being moved, the mode of transfer
and locations the FBI had detected movements in,” Mr Hardy told the court in
his sixth court declaration in June.
“Disclosure of this
information would provide a playbook to future subjects on how much money one
can move around in certain forms without attracting attention.”
Christensen claims the FBI
has also redacted details relating to:
*The types of weapons and
identification the conspirators carried;
*The timing of the arrival
of the pilots, intended pilots and conspirators in the US;
*Information about when the
conspirators moved to their respective departure cities and the timing of their
plane ticket purchases;
* A timeline of telephone
records and money transfers between conspirators; and
*Information about previous
flights the conspirators took before the attacks to include the collection and
timing and locations of flights.
“One page, withheld in full,
‘is a photo taken by a security camera’. The FBI does not identify the photo’s
subject, the date it was taken or its general location,” Christensen said.
“This was withheld because
the release of this picture would disclose the location of the security camera
at the site where the photo was taken. The disclosure would allow future
subjects to know where to find the security camera so as to avoid the area in
which the camera points, thereby circumventing detection or the ability for the
FBI and law enforcement to try to obtain an image of the subject.
“Two more pages from the
overview section about the FBI’s ‘ongoing investigation,’ also completely
withheld, contain “information about a conspirator and his actions taken in
preparation for the attacks. This is sensitive information, which if revealed, would
put at risk the collection techniques used to obtain such information. It also
reveals sensitivities that future subjects could exploit in the future while
planning and performing an attack.”
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