The DOJ-FBI have it both ways: “Ain’t nothing here, but the ‘nothing’ is highly classified & sensitive”

Once upon a time there lived a Saudi Clan in a city called Sarasota in the United States. The clan was visited by Mohamed Atta—the government-designated top hijacking terrorist who according to the government led the largest terrorist event in United States’ history—known as 9/11. The clan’s Sarasota house was visited by this lead hijacking terrorist not once, not twice, but many times. The clan also had visits from two other US government-designated 9/11 hijacking terrorists—Marwan Al-Shehhi, who supposedly crashed United Airlines Flight 175 into the South Tower, and Ziad Jarrah, who was supposedly at the controls of United Airlines Flight 93 when it crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.

Are you with me so far? Let’s simplify and sum this up so far for the sake of our simplicity-loving majority: Three 9/11 hijacking terrorists visited a Saudi Family in Sarasota repeatedly before 9/11.

About a month before September 11, 2011, after government-confirmed multiple visits by the three 9/11 hijacking terrorists, this Saudi clan hurriedly left their Sarasota home, went to the airport, and left the country—mysteriously and in a hurry. I say hurriedly and mysteriously because: They left behind their fully-furnished luxury house, their three luxury cars, their luxury refrigerator filled with food, their furniture and clothing, and while their luxury swimming pool water was still circulating. They left everything behind and flew to Saudi Arabia-in panic mode. And they never came back.

Let me quickly cite mainstream media reports-articles and government confirmation before our simplicity-loving and government-trusting majority categorize this tale as a ‘conspiracy’ and stop reading the remainder.

In February 2012 the UK Telegraph reported the following:

A Saudi Arabian accused of associating with several of the September 11 hijackers and who disappeared from his home in the United States a few weeks before the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, is in London working for his country’s state oil company.

. . .

Security records of cars passing through a checkpoint at the Prestancia gated community indicated that Mr. al-Hijji’s home, 4224 Escondito Circle, had been visited a number of times by Mohamed Atta, the leader of the 19-strong hijack team, who piloted American Airlines Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Centre in 2001.

The logs also indicated that Marwan Al-Shehhi, who crashed United Airlines Flight 175 into the South Tower, and Ziad Jarrah, who was at the controls of United Airlines Flight 93 when it crashed in a field in Pennsylvania, had visited the house. All three men had trained to fly at Venice Airport, which is 19 miles from Sarasota.

. . .

Abdulaziz al-Hijji and his wife Anoud left three cars at their luxurious home in a gated community in Sarasota, Florida—one of them new—and flew to Saudi Arabia in August 2001. The refrigerator was full of food; furniture and clothing were left behind; and the swimming pool water was still circulating.

. . .

You see, the tale I recounted was confirmed and reported by mainstream media outlets like Telegraph UK, Miami Herald, Seattle Times, Tampa Bay Times, and almost all major mainstream outlets-albeit with their usual shallow and never-to-be-truly investigated modus operandi. Here is a report by Seattle Times confirming the FBI’s confirmation and report on this never-truly investigated case:

A Saudi family who left their Sarasota, Fla.-area home weeks before 9/11 had “many connections” to “individuals associated with the terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001,” according to newly released FBI records.

. . .

The records cast new light on one of the remaining unresolved mysteries regarding Florida’s many connections to the 9/11 attacks: What went on before the attacks at the home of Abdulaziz al-Hijji and his family?

. . .

I hope having presented the discredited and disgraced US media confirmation of our tale (so far) persuades our government-trusting and simplicity-loving majority to continue reading.

Despite all the evidence, all the confirmation and even some media exposure no one in our government ever bothered to truly investigate this case. The little poking around they did- which produced damning evidence, resulted in no ‘real report.’ This significant real-life tale with significant connections to the biggest terror event in the history of the USA never made its way into any of the pseudo investigative government reports-9/11 Commission or Senate-House investigations or reports.

The clan continued to live happily after, not in Saudi Arabia but in England:

A decade after the world’s worst terrorist attack, which claimed the lives of 3,000 people, Mr. al-Hijji is resident in London, working for the European subsidiary of Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state oil company. Described as a career counsellor, he is based in the offices of Aramco Overseas Company UK Limited and lives in an expensive flat in central London.

Now back to the US government part of this story. The FBI has played this massive cover-up in their usual way: Putting damning evidence-reports and statements out confirming the case, and simultaneously denying the case and its intimate connections to 9/11, allow me to illustrate:

Confirmation- A US counter-terrorist agent told The Daily Telegraph: “The registration numbers of vehicles that had passed through the Prestancia community’s north gate in the months before 9/11, coupled with the identification documents shown by incoming drivers on request, showed that Mohamed Atta and several of his fellow hijackers, and another Saudi suspect still at large, had visited 4224 Escondito Circle.”

Denial & Cover up- Mr. al-Hijji’s account is supported by the FBI, which has stated: “At no time did the FBI develop evidence that connected the family members to any of the 9/11 hijackers . . . and there was no connection found to the 9/11 plot.’’

Let’s run this again, starting with confirmation:

An April 16, 2002, FBI report says “repeated citizen calls” led to an inspection of the home by agents of the Southwest Florida Domestic Security Task Force. “It was discovered that the (family name deleted) left their residence quickly and suddenly. They left behind valuable items, clothing, jewelry and food in a manner that indicated they fled unexpectedly without prior preparation or knowledge,” the report says. “Further investigation of the (name deleted) family revealed many connections between the (name deleted) and individuals associated with the terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001.”

. . .

A Saudi family who left their Sarasota, Fla.-area home weeks before 9/11 had “many connections” to “individuals associated with the terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001,” according to newly released FBI records.

. . .

And follow it up with denial:

The FBI said Thursday that it had interviewed members of a Saudi Arabian family that left Sarasota shortly before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and found no evidence they were connected to the hijackers or the terror plot. In what he called a statement “to correct the public record,” Steven Ibison, special agent in charge of the Tampa office, took issue with a recent story that claimed the FBI found “troubling ties” between the hijackers and the al-Hijji family, the residents of a home in a gated Sarasota community.

Please be my guest and in your spare time comb through all the FBI reports and statements on this case to date. You are guaranteed to find: tons of evidence and confirmation followed by a few tons of denial. That’s the good ol’ boy FBI for you.

Of course no matter the connections of this case to Saudi Arabia, and regardless of the clan’s current resident in our brother-nation the United Kingdom, our State Department has had zero to do with the entire case.

As for our disgraced media—even the simplest question has not been asked to date: Why would they, Abdulaziz al-Hijji and his wife, leave a luxury house with all its furniture, three cars, almost all their clothing items and more behind- very hastily?!

All this brings me to the latest development in the case which has been completely ignored by the US media:

A senior FBI official has told a Fort Lauderdale federal judge that disclosure of certain classified information about Saudis who hurriedly left their Sarasota area home shortly before 9/11 “would reveal current specific targets of the FBI’s national security investigations.”

. . .

The government’s latest court filings, thick with veiled references to foreign counterintelligence operations and targets, deepen the mystery about a once-secret FBI investigation of Esam and Deborah Ghazzawi and their tenants, son-in-law and daughter, Abdulaziz and Anoud al-Hijji. The filings by Miami Assistant U.S. Attorney Carole M. Fernandez also seek to justify in the name of national security numerous deletions of information from FBI records about the decade-old investigation that were released recently amid the ongoing litigation.

. . .

One thing we must all credit our Department of Justice and the FBI for is this: consistency. In this case, the consistency in having it both ways-confirm and deny. Also the consistency in feeling no shame in engaging in confirmation and denial simultaneously:

The FBI later confirmed the existence of the probe, but said it found no evidence connecting the Ghazzawis or the al-Hijjis to the hijackers or the 9/11 plot.

. . .

The newly released FBI records contradict the FBI’s public denials. One dated April 4, 2002 says the investigation “revealed many connections” between the Saudis who fled Sarasota and “individuals associated with the terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001.”

. . .

For months, the FBI claimed it had no responsive documents regarding its Sarasota investigation. But on March 28, Hardy unexpectedly announced the Bureau had located and reviewed 35 pages of records. It released 31 of them.

. . .

That is right. The DOJ-FBI confirms the existence of evidence and reports connecting the Sarasota Saudi clan to 9/11, and claims that these reports are extremely sensitive and highly classified. They say ‘there ain’t nothing here,’ and that there were no connections between the Sarasota Saudi clan and 9/11, and at the same time they claim that this “nothing” is highly classified and sensitive.

This is another case among hundreds that have been placed in the US Government Black Hole. This is a tale among a dozen others that have been censored and covered up by the United States government. Is this a conspiracy? Put all these cases, including the latest on the Sarasota Saudi Clan, in one place, and can you tell me it isn’t? Our simplicity-loving government-trusting and mainstream media-following majority has half of it right. It is a conspiracy. What they don’t have is the other half: A conspiracy, not one concocted by outside theorists, but a massive one carried out by our very own government.

Sibel Edmonds is the Publisher & Editor of Boiling Frogs Post, where this article was originally published, and the author of the Memoir Classified Woman: The Sibel Edmonds Story. She is the recipient of the 2006 PEN Newman’s Own First Amendment Award for her “commitment to preserving the free flow of information in the United States in a time of growing international isolation and increasing government secrecy” Ms. Edmonds has a MA in Public Policy and International Commerce from George Mason University, a BA in Criminal Justice and Psychology from George Washington University.