WASHINGTON - The recently declassified information from a 2002 Congressional report on the 9/11 attacks, dubbed the “28 pages”, reveals an indirect link between an alleged Al-Qaeda operative and a company associated with a key member of the Saudi royal family, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, CNN has reported.

The report reveals that a phone log maintained by the alleged senior Al-Qaeda operative, Abu Zubaydah, who was captured in Pakistan in 2002, included the unlisted phone number for a Colorado company associated with Prince Bandar, a former Saudi ambassador to the United States, as well as the phone number of a bodyguard working at the Saudi Embassy in Washington at the time.

Prince Bandar, who was highly regarded in Washington, was close to the Bush family, especially the elder George HW Bush during the lead-up to the Gulf War against Iraq in 1991, in which Riyadh viewed the Iraqi aggression as a threat and supported the subsequent US military action.

“Both of those (phone) numbers were unpublished, so they had to have gotten into Zubaydah’s phone book through a personal contact who knew what those numbers were and what they represented,” said former US Senator Bob Graham, co-chair of the Congressional commission that compiled the 28 pages, according to CNN.

The CIA and FBI had concluded that there was no evidence anyone from the Saudi royal family knowingly provided support for the 9/11 attacks.

But Graham insisted the indirect connection to the respected former Saudi ambassador was “one of the most stunning parts of the investigation” and worthy of pursuing further.

Bandar was the Saudi ambassador to the US from 1983 to 2005, during the Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush, Bill Clinton and George W Bush administrations. He later served as secretary general of Saudi Arabia’s National Security Council and head of Saudi Arabia’s General Intelligence Presidency, the equivalent of the CIA, until last year.

Bandar "is probably the most effective ambassador in Washington ever. Full stop," former CIA analyst Bruce Riedel said. "He was highly regarded by every president."

"Bandar was in the Bush White House, I would say, every other day and in some periods every day. It was a very, very close relationship," Riedel added. "And I think the president and Bandar genuinely liked each other."

Saudi authorities have denied allegations on their involvement in the September 2001 incidents in which nearly 3,000 people were killed in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers involved in the 9/11 attacks were Saudi nationals.