US to reveal Saudi official allegedly tied to 9/11 attackers

The US Justice Department has said that it would unmask the long-protected name of a Saudi official who allegedly had ties to the Al-Qaeda perpetrators of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Responding to years of pressure from families of the victims of the attacks, the FBI and the Justice Department decided to declassify the name of the Saudi official "in light of the extraordinary circumstances of this particular case."

The case has long threatened to embarrass the Saudi government, which has repeatedly denied links to Al-Qaeda, and leave it exposed to claims of damages that could reach into the billions of dollars.

The person was the third of three main Saudi officials referred to in an FBI report into the attacks as having allegedly assisted some of the attackers after they arrived in the United States.

In all 19 men, 15 of them Saudis, took part in the plot to hijack four airliners and crash them into New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon and possibly the White House or ...