The FBI in a recent court filing accidentally released the name of a former Saudi Embassy official in Washington who is suspected of helping two al-Qaida hijackers in the Sept. 11 terror attacks, reports Yahoo News.
The document, filed in April but unsealed last week, revealed Mussaed Ahmed al-Jarrah’s name. He worked at the Saudi embassy in Washington, D.C., in 1999 and 2000. His whereabouts are currently unknown.
The declaration was filed in federal court by Jill Sanborn, the assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division, in response to a lawsuit by families of 9/11 victims who accuse Saudi Arabia’s government of involvement in the attacks.
Yahoo journalist Michael Isikoff knew immediately the disclosure was a mistake.
“When I noticed that the declaration included this information, I contacted the FBI for comment. Because I knew that the Justice department and the Trump administration had been going to extraordinary lengths to keep all of this under wraps," he told al Jazeera.
"In fact, both Attorney General William Barr and the Acting Director of the National Intelligence Richard Grennell had filed motions with the court saying that any information relating to the Saudi embassy official and all internal FBI documents about this matter were so sensitive; they were state secrets, that means if revealed they could cause damage to the national security."
Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the attacks, and fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.