The long-concealed “28 pages” – which detail the Saudi Arabian government’s ties to the 9/11 plane hijackers – could be released as early as Friday, according to CNN.
Advertisement
“The twenty-eight pages”, as they are commonly known, were redacted from the almost 900-page report of the Joint Congressional Inquiry into the 9/11 attacks by the George W. Bush administration, which claimed revealing the papers “would make it harder for us to win the war on terror”.
However, Sen. Bob Graham, a leader of Congressional Inquiry and chairman of the Senate Intelligence committee, said he sees “a direct line between some of the terrorists who carried out the September 11 attacks and the government of Saudi Arabia”.
Saudi Arabia has been calling for the release of the chapter since 2002 to respond to any charges and punish any guilty parties.
“These pages, while they don’t shed any new light or change any of the conclusions about responsibilities for the 9/11 attacks, they are consistent with the commitments to transparency that the administration has tried to apply to even sensitive national security issues”, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters.
“The FBI believes that they investigated all of these leads in the years after 9/11”.
Later investigations found no evidence that the Saudi government or senior Saudi officials knowingly supported those who orchestrated the attacks.
September 11 families made clear the pages’ release would not stop their push for the legislation.
In 2014, President Barack Obama ordered a declassification review of the redacted chapter under the mounting public pressure.
Asked whether the report exonerated the kingdom, he said: “Absolutely”. “We hope the release of these pages will clear up, once and for all, any lingering questions or suspicions about Saudi Arabia´s actions, intentions, or long-term friendship with the USA”, he said.
As such, the public release of these suppressed pages is unlikely to precipitate major changes in the relationship between the United States and the Saudi government.
The sealed pages are also of particular interest to certain families of 9/11 victims who are seeking financial compensation, via civil lawsuits, from the Saudi government.
Intelligence agencies, law enforcement, and the State Department have all finally reviewed and approved the release of the pages with “minimal redactions”, CNN reported today (Thursday).
CIA Director John Brennan has been against releasing the pages, while in April U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper called the release a “realistic goal”.
Other official U.S. investigations found no evidence Saudi government officials supported the attackers. “The American people deserve this just as much as the 9/11 families deserve it, but we’re the ones that are suffering by not having them released”. They feel unseen evidence in these documents pointing to Saudi involvement could bolster their case. “Well, we’re now well beyond that date and no decision as to whether a decision is going to made has been released”.
Advertisement
The 9/11 commission did, however, fault Saudi Arabia’s government for at least tolerating and indirectly helping to spread radical Islamic ideologies – the type of philosophies that ultimately led to the attacks and the numerous terror plots around the world that followed – by funding mosques and other venues that preached more radical shades of Islam.
