US continuing ‘massive cover-up’ on 9/11 to hide own failures, justify war on terror: Whistleblower

The United States is still continuing its "massive cover-up" over the September 11, 2001 attacks in order to hide its own failures and to use the incident as a pretext to launch and justify wars in the Middle East, says a prominent American peace activist and FBI whistleblower.

Coleen Rowley, a former FBI special agent and division counsel, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Thursday, after US President Joe Biden directed the Justice Department and other agencies to review and release certain documents related to the FBI's investigation of the 9/11 that killed thousands of Americans.

The documents reportedly contain evidence of Saudi involvement in the strikes.

“I think there has been a massive cover-up about 9/11 for these last 20 years for a whole range of reasons including US government officials wanting to use 9/11 as a pretext to launch wars and government destabilization operations in the Mid-East as well as to protect their relationship with certain members of the Saudi Government (aka the Royal Family),” Rowley said.

“Officials also wanted to keep secret all kinds of wrongful and unethical actions (to include having instituted illegal torture programs) as well as committing other government mistakes and failures that are embarrassing to US officials,” she added.  

Biden orders release of 9/11 documents linked to Saudi involvement

Biden has directed the Justice Department and other agencies to review and release certain documents related to the FBI

Rowley further expressed doubt that the Americans and the victims’ families will ever receive the full documentation despite Biden’s order to declassify the withheld files, given the fact that the FBI has claimed it has lost certain important photographs, records and other evidence. 

She further urged the victims and their lawyers to file a complaint to have the FBI investigated for “mishandling this important evidence.”

“It's unbelievably sad and nearly incomprehensible why and how the US government has not only denied these victims any justice, in part, it's believed to protect certain Saudis but has also withheld documents and information from these victims' families for two decades,” she said.   

Families of victims of the attacks have for years pushed the US government to declassify and make public more information about the 9/11 incident, which was a series of strikes that killed nearly 3,000 people and caused about $10 billion worth of property and infrastructure damage in the United States.

US officials assert that the attacks were carried out by 19 al-Qaeda terrorists but many experts and independent researchers have raised questions about the official account.

They believe that rogue elements within the US government orchestrated or at least encouraged the 9/11 attacks in order to accelerate the US war machine and advance the Zionist agenda.

Biden on Friday signed an executive order directing the Justice Department and other federal agencies to begin a review of documents and release declassified information over the next six months.

Successive US administrations have refused to release the classified documents because they reportedly could expose a potential link between Saudi Arabia and the 9/11 attacks. Fifteen out of 19 alleged 9/11 attackers were Saudi nationals.

Several US senators and House lawmakers have been calling for the disclosure of 28 pages that purportedly contain evidence of Saudi involvement in financing and backing the alleged 9/11 hijackers. The pages were extracted from a 2002 Congressional inquiry into the September 11, 2001 attacks.

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Elsewhere in her remarks, Rowley denounced as “totally wrong” the US' so-called war on terror in Afghanistan, arguing that Washington should have proceeded through legal channels and cooperation with the Taliban and Pakistan to seek Osama Bin Laden as well as the other 9/11 perpetrators. 

There are indications the Taliban did not want war and would have cooperated via legal channels, she said, adding that most of the prisoners that were rendered to and held for years at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp were innocent and not in any way involved in the 9/11 attacks.

“Of course this unjustified war ended as a terrible failure, causing immense destruction and taking thousands of lives, including many innocent people. In my opinion, it succeeded only in enriching the US-NATO weapons makers and further empowering the military-industrial complex,” she said in conclusion.    

The United States and its NATO allies invaded Afghanistan in 2001 under the pretext that the Taliban militants were harboring al-Qaeda. The invasion removed the Taliban from power but it worsened the security situation in the country. Two decades later, the Taliban are now poised to run the country again. 

Rowley famously wrote a May 2002 memo to then FBI Director Robert Mueller exposing some of the FBI’s pre-9/11 conduct. She was then named one of TIME magazine’s “Persons of the Year." She says the reason she became a whistleblower was to try and reveal some truth to the poor victims of the 9/11 attacks.

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