Investigators have traced the funding for the Sept. 11 attacks to al-Qaida accounts in Pakistan, a top FBI counterterrorism official told a Senate panel Thursday. Officials did little to clarify the Saudi role in the funding. John S. Pistole, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division, said that investigators have “traced the origin of the funding of 9/11 back to financial accounts in Pakistan, where high-ranking and well-known al-Qaida operatives played a major role in moving the money forward, eventually into the hands of the hijackers located in the U.S.” Pistole did not specify in his testimony to the Senate Governmental Affairs committee how those accounts in Pakistan were funded. The FBI has estimated the Sept. 11 attacks cost between $175,000 and $250,000. That money, which paid for flight training, travel and other expenses, flowed to the hijackers through associates in Germany and the United Arab Emirates. Those associates reported to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who managed much of the planning for the attacks from Pakistan, U.S. officials said. Full Story
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