DISINFO: Fresh FBI document reveals that CIA backed those responsible of the 9/11 attacks

DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS

DISINFO: Fresh FBI document reveals that CIA backed those responsible of the 9/11 attacks

SUMMARY

An extraordinary legal document revealed that two of the attackers had a much closer relation to the CIA that what was previously known. They were closely monitored by the CIA and could have been recruited by the agency much earlier than the moment when they helped to crash two Boeing 767 planes against the World Trade Center.

The court file contains extensive testimonies of several FBI investigators who maintain that the US intelligence agency has obstructed the official investigation of the terrorist attack in order to hide its connections with Al Qaeda.

RESPONSE

This is a gross distortion of facts aiming to promote the narratives that the 9/11 attacks were an inside job and that the US supports terrorism. The document this disinformation story refers to was not created by the FBI, nor it states what this disinformation story claims.

The document is the of declaration of Donald Canestraro, an investigator of the Office of Military Commissions in 2021, who took sworn declaration to several anonymous FBI agents, members of the 9/11 Commission and other officials who investigated the attacks. This document, originally obtained by US site Spytalk, was used in a legal case in Guantanamo Bay for 9/11 defendants. The testimonies of US officials in the document pointed to some obstruction by the CIA when FBI agents tried to investigate Al Qaeda members Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Mihdhar, who ended up taking part at the 9/11 plane hijackings. Mostly, they highlight some elements that were already known, such as the lack of coordination between different US intelligence and law enforcement agencies -including evidence of CIA withholding relevant information prior to the attacks- and the still unclear role that Saudi intelligence played in the plot.

When they presented this affidavit, lawyers for 9/11 defendants stated: “People in a position to know have suggested that the CIA concealed information about Hazmi and Mihdhar’s travel because the CIA wanted to recruit them through Saudi intelligence”, which is a serious allegation that has been denied by the CIA. But none of the US officials quoted in the affidavit affirms that CIA “backed” these terrorists, as this disinformation story falsely states. The allegation that operations with bank accounts and real estate in San Diego were done “at the CIA’s request” doesn’t appear in the document either, and has been disingenuously added to reinforce the narrative about a CIA collaboration in the 9/11 attacks.

See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that 9/11 was planned by the US to use it as a pretext to attack Afghanistan, that 9/11 was not orchestrated by Al Qaeda and the US only profits from it, that the US government silenced hackers that threatened to expose its involvement on 9/11 attacks, or that US authorities are supporting the terrorists who destroyed American skyscrapers on 9/11.

Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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