With legal charges brought against them by the families of victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks, the airline companies claimed that even if they had multiplied the number of safety measures, the attacks would have succeeded anyway.

According to their lawyers, the lack of response on the part of the authorities is enough to account for the heavy casualties incurred that day. To substantiate their arguments, the attorneys requested the appearance in court of certain FBI agents.

In fact, after 9/11, the FBI carried out a broad investigation into the attacks. The evidence gathered would indicate that on that day the government failed to follow the statutory procedures that would have prevented the multiplication of the attacks.

However, following the intervention of U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Judge Alvin Hellerstein barred the hearing of the FBI agents, thwarting the chances of the airline companies to further elaborate their defense. The hearing has been rescheduled for the 28th of July.

Seven years after those criminal acts, the FBI investigation, comprising 155,000 pieces of incriminating evidence and 167,000 official interrogation reports, has as yet to be examined in court. Their content has been revealed in connection with the trials of other related cases [1] and through declarations made to the press by FBI agents, who have asserted that their investigation belies the government’s version of the 9/11 events [2].

Contradicting the statements by CIA officials and successive Attorneys General, the FBI has consistently refused to attribute the responsibility for the 9/11 attacks to Ossama Bin Laden whose name does not, consequently, appear in the FBI wanted list related to those attacks.

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[1] For example, during the trial against French national Zacarias Moussaoui who was charged with conspiracy with a view to participating in the highjacking of American Airlines flight 93, the FBI refuted the telephone conversations between passengers in the highjacked planes and their loves ones on the ground. The officials under oath stated that – in light of their investigation – such calls, so often alluded to, never took place and are mere fabrications.

[2] « 41 U.S. Counter-Terrorism and Intelligence Agency Veterans Challenge the Official Account of 9/11», by Alan Miller, Voltaire Network, 19 Mai 2009.