Washington DC, Asharq Al-Awsat—Saudi Arabia’s government did not provide support for Al-Qaeda nor had any involvement with the terror group prior to the 9/11 attacks, recently declassified documents by the CIA have revealed.

The once-secret documents, released on Friday, said an investigation carried out by the CIA’s inspector general in 2005 on the agency’s performance prior to and after the 9/11 attacks “encountered no evidence that the Saudi government knowingly and willingly supported Al-Qaeda terrorists.”

Saudi Arabia has long denied any involvement with Al-Qaeda and has itself been targeted several times in terror attacks in recent years, with Al-Qaeda either claiming responsibility for the attacks or being linked with them.

The newly released documents also stated that individuals from various CIA departments had told the investigating team “they had not seen any reliable reporting confirming Saudi government involvement with and financial support for terrorism prior to 9/11.”

The 2005 investigation followed a joint congressional inquiry which concluded that the US intelligence community did not have a viable strategy for dealing with the threat posed by Al-Qaeda prior to and following the 9/11 attacks.

The documents present the findings of the investigation, an abridged version of which was released in 2007.

The report states that “concerning certain issues, the [investigating] team concluded that the [CIA] and its officers did not discharge their responsibilities in a satisfactory manner” prior to and after the 9/11 attacks.

However, despite highlighting a host of “systemic problems” in the agency’s Al-Qaeda strategy—including not acting on warnings received prior to 9/11 of an impending attack—it also said the shortcomings were not the result of any misconduct by CIA employees.