The Saudi embassy in Washington, D.C. issued a statement following yesterday’s release of findings by the Justice Department and the FBI, in which Attorney General William P. Barr and FBI Director Christopher Wray announced “significant developments” in the FBI’s investigation of the December 6, 2019 shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola that killed three U.S. sailors and severely wounded eight other Americans.
The Attorney General and FBI Director called out Apple, Inc. for declining to help with the investigation.
“Thanks to the great work of the FBI – and no thanks to Apple – we were able to unlock Alshamrani’s phones,” said Attorney General Barr. “The trove of information found on these phones has proven to be invaluable to this ongoing investigation and critical to the security of the American people. However, if not for our FBI’s ingenuity, some luck, and hours upon hours of time and resources, this information would have remained undiscovered. The bottom line: our national security cannot remain in the hands of big corporations who put dollars over lawful access and public safety. The time has come for a legislative solution.”
On January 13, 2020, Attorney General Barr announced that the shooting was “an act of terrorism and publicly asked Apple to help the FBI access the locked contents of two iPhones belonging to the deceased terrorist Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani. The company declined to do so.”
In response to the news release and investigation update on the situation, the Saudi embassy in Washington issued a statement expressing its “sincerest condolences to the American people on the tragedy that unfolded in December at Pensacola, Florida.”
The Saudi Embassy “welcomes the announcement by U.S. law authorities of the recovery of critical intelligence from the assailant’s telephones…As Attorney General William P. Barr and FBI Director Christopher Wray noted, Saudi Arabia has fully cooperated with U.S. law enforcement on the investigation, and we are continuing to provide full support to our American counterparts. We also have been coordinating with our American partners to better protect American and Saudi citizens from terrorist threats.”
“It is important to note that the military training the U.S. provides to Saudi military personnel has enabled Saudi soldiers, pilots and sailors to fight along their American counterparts and against our common foes,” the Embassy statement said. “Our close intelligence and counterterrorism cooperation has saved lives in the United States, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, and undoubtedly made the world a safer place. Approximately 28,000 Saudis have undergone military training in the U.S. over the course of several decades.”
“As this attack tragically reminds us, the extremists and terrorists that threaten both our nations will not stop in their efforts to target innocent people. At this very moment, Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, ISIS and other extremist groups are trying to use the extraordinary challenge of the covid-19 pandemic to elevate their profiles, spread their hateful propaganda and mobilize new global threats. We must stay on guard and never let up in our efforts to defeat terrorism,” the statement said.
