911 Victims' Kin Seek U.S. Watchdog Quiz On 'Lost' FBI Evidence

Family members of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 airplane terrorist attacks asked a U.S. government watchdog on Thursday to investigate their suspicions that the FBI lied about or destroyed evidence linking Saudi Arabia to the hijackers.

Photo Insert: An FDNY fire engine makes its way through the debris of the World Trade Center.

The request in a letter to Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz said "circumstances make it likely that one or more FBI officials committed willful misconduct with intent to destroy or secrete evidence to avoid its disclosure." FBI declined to comment on the letter, Jan Wolfe and Mark Hosenball reported for Reuters.

The latest in a series of requests over the 20 years since Islamist militants crashed civilian airliners in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania, seeks evidence including phone records and a videotape of a party in California attended by two of the hijackers more than a year before the attacks.

"Given the importance of the missing evidence at issue to the 9/11 investigation, as well as the repeated mishandling by the FBI of that evidence, an innocent explanation is not believable," said the letter, signed by about 3,500 people - families of victims, first responders, and survivors.

It asked Horowitz to investigate FBI statements made in response to a subpoena from the families that the agency "lost or is simply no longer able to find key evidence about the individuals who provided substantial support inside the U.S. to the 9/11 hijackers."

Saudi Arabia has said it had no role in the hijacked plane attacks. The Saudi embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"Our government is either lying about the evidence it has or it is actively destroying it, and I don't know what's worse," Brett Eagleson, son of Sept. 11 victim Bruce Eagleson, said in an interview.

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