As part of
a federal lawsuit that aims to hold the government of Saudi Arabia responsible
for 9/11, the United States Justice Department will work towards providing the
families of victims with more information about the run up to the attacks.

The government
made the disclosure in a two-page letter filed in the federal court in
Manhattan earlier this month. This comes after longstanding criticism from
relatives of victims that the government was keeping crucial details from them
in the name of national security.

In a letter, nearly 1,800 families, victims and first responders objected to US
President Joe Biden attending September 11 memorial events as long as key
documents remained classified.

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“We
appreciate that President Biden recognizes that long-standing questions about
the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the worst-ever terrorist attack on
American soil remain unanswered, but nobody should be fooled by this
half-hearted, insufficient commitment to transparency,” said Terry Strada,
whose husband, Tom, died when a hijacked plane flew into the World Trade
Center.

She said
the announcement only applies to a limited “subset of cherry-picked
documents that the FBI has already identified for review.”

A
long-running lawsuit accusing Saudi Arabia of being complicit in the attacks
advanced significantly this year with the questioning under oath of former
Saudi officials. Those depositions, however, remain under seal and the U.S. has
withheld a trove of other documents as too sensitive for disclosure.

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In its
letter Monday, the department said that the FBI had recently concluded an
investigation that examined certain 9/11 hijackers and potential
co-conspirators, and that it would now work to see if information it had
previously determined could not be disclosed may instead be shared. It did not
reveal in the letter any findings of that probe, which it has referred to as
the “Subfile Investigation.”

“The FBI
will disclose such information on a rolling basis as expeditiously as
possible,” the Justice Department said. The department said in a separate
statement Monday that the FBI was newly reviewing the documents for information
that could be shared with the families despite prior court rulings
“upholding the government’s privilege assertions.”