November 24, 2002	Sunday	Ramazan 18, 1423

WASHINGTON: The FBI said on Friday that it has investigated two Saudi Arabian men who provided assistance to at least two of the Sept 11 hijackers, a disclosure that comes amid fierce debate in the intelligence community over whether the investigation of the men also points to disturbing new links between the attacks and the Saudi government.

Government sources said there are some indications that high-level Saudi officials were providing money to the two men, who in turn helped San Diego-based hijackers become established in the United States by making rent payments and providing other assistance.

But congressional and Justice Department sources said there is major disagreement among intelligence and law enforcement officials over whether the Saudi sponsors knew that the funds were ultimately being used to assist Al Qaeda operatives.

One congressional source said that remains a central and unresolved question for the joint congressional panel conducting an ongoing probe of intelligence failures surrounding the Sept 11 attacks.

The possibility of Saudi government links to the hijackers is sensitive for the Bush administration, which values the oil-rich Gulf state as an important ally, one that is even more important as the US government contemplates a war with Iraq.

The matter has become a source of significant friction between congressional investigators and the Justice Department. Senator Bob Graham, D-Fla., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has been pressuring the Justice Department for weeks to declassify new information and evidence surrounding the Sept 11 attacks.

In recent interviews, Graham has refused to discuss the nature of that evidence, but sources have said that it relates to connections between the San Diego hijackers and a foreign government. The San Diego hijackers were both Saudi citizens.

But a Justice Department official said the FBI has been aware of the evidence since shortly after the Sept 11 attacks, and is convinced that it does not point to Saudi complicity in the attacks.

“It’s a suspected linkage that isn’t true,” the official said, adding that the matter is so sensitive that many believe even airing the suggestions of Saudi links will significantly hamper the “war on terrorism”.

The FBI declined official comment on Friday, citing its ongoing investigation into terrorism. Spokesman Steven Berry, reading from a prepared statement, said that the FBI is investigating the two men who assisted the terrorists, Osama Bassnan and Omar Al Bayoumi. The bureau noted that it previously charged both men with visa fraud but said: “For obvious reasons, the FBI does not divulge details of its pending investigations.”

But two high-ranking FBI officials said this week that there was no evidence that hijackers Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi received financial support from any foreign power while they lived in San Diego.

The sources said the FBI investigated at least two individuals who provided some financial assistance to the Almihdhar and Alhazmi, but determined that those individuals had for years routinely provided foreign nationals from Arab countries with modest assistance in assimilating to the United States.

Likewise, sources said, the FBI investigation found no conclusive evidence that Al Bayoumi or Bassnan were aware of the planned attacks.

After reviewing the investigative reports, the sources said, counter-terrorism experts in the Attorney General’s office and other agencies, including the CIA and Defence Criminal Investigative Service, long ago concurred with the FBI’s conclusion.—Dawn/The Los Angeles Times News Service.