TAMPA, Fla. — Twenty years after the Sept. 11 attacks, more than 80,000 records compiled by the Tampa FBI Field Office remain classified.
Newly declassified documents are pointing to a possible secret Saudi support network for the hijackers.
Soon after the attacks, the FBI uncovered that 15 of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia.
The late Florida Sen. Bob Graham, who served on the committee that investigated 9/11, believed neither Congress nor the public received the full truth about how Saudis living in Florida may have helped the hijackers.
"Did these 19 people, most of whom did not speak English, most of whom had never been in the United States before, most of whom were not well educated, did they carry out this sophisticated task alone? Or did they have some form of support while they were in the United States?"Graham said during a 2016 speech at the National Press Club.
Saudis fled Sarasota days before the attacks
Documents released years after 9/11 confirmed the FBI investigated how a prominent Saudi family that lived in the gated Prestancia neighborhood in Sarasota fled their home days before the attacks, leaving behind jewelry, clothing and even food.
A memo from an agent released years later said they had "many connections" to the hijackers.
A chartered flight out of Tampa
Two years after 9/11, it emerged that other Saudi citizens left Tampa immediately after the attacks.
Three young men with connections to the Saudi Royal Family took a chartered flight from a private hangar at Tampa International Airport on Sept.13, 2001— just hours after the FAA reopened airspace.
The men were identified as students between the ages of 18 and 20 who lived in a condo complex on Harbour Island in Tampa.
A former Tampa police officer and a retired FBI agent reportedly flew with them to
Lexington, Kentucky.
There, they joined Saudi Prince Ahmed bin Salman—the brother of the current Saudi king—who was in Kentucky attending a thoroughbred horse sale that was canceled due to the attacks.
His horse, War Emblem, would go on to win the Kentucky Derby the following year.
"It's been my dream to win it here with Americans. I dedicate this to all the Saudi Arabian people," Prince Ahmed bin Salman said as he hosted the trophy after his Kentucky Derby win.
He died later that year.
An FBI flight log shows 14 Saudis flew out of Lexington on September 16, 2001, including those three students—identified as Ahmad Al Hazmi, Fahad Al Zeid and Tala Al Mejrad—along with the prince and a sultan.
Saudi Ambassador helped evacuate 142 Saudis from the U.S.
Those passengers were among 142 Saudis evacuated from the U.S. after 9/11, with help from a prominent Saudi official.
"The then Saudi ambassador, a guy named Bandar, Prince Bandar, he's a member of the royal family. He was at the White House," investigative reporter Dan Christensen said.
White House photos show Bandar dressed in Western clothing repeatedly meeting with top officials. One photo shows him on the White House porch days after 9/11.
"He's got a cigar in his hand and kind of looks like he owns the joint," Christensen said.
"President Bush is there. Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, was there. Dick Cheney was there," Christensen said.
Declassified records reveal Saudi intelligence asset aided hijackers
New information released by the Biden administration in 2021shows a man named Omar Al-Bayoumi—whom the FBI describes as a Saudi intelligence asset—offered financial support to two of the 9/11 hijackers in California.
"All the records that were related to a thing called Operation Encore, which was the FBI's second secret investigation into the Saudi connection to 9/11," Christensen said.
A home video seized from Al-Bayoumi's apartment appears to show him conducting surveillance of the U.S. Capitol more than a year before the attacks and reporting back to others about security measures. A sketch from his notebook shows a plane descending into a target.
"The Capitol was, you know, the most significant structure in the country," Christensen said.
Experts believe the Capitol was the intended target of United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers fought back against hijackers.
Victims' families push for more declassified records
Families of 9/11 victims have sued the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, claiming the country bore responsibility for the attacks —allegations Saudi officials have repeatedly denied. Those families are now asking for more government records to be declassified.
"That is where we may ultimately get the, you know, some of the answers that we really seek here. The key one is, did Saudi Arabia finance the attacks on the United States?" Christensen said.
More than 80,000 FBI records from the Tampa Field Office remain classified 25 years after the attacks.
