Redacted 28 Pages of the 9/11 Report – The Story that is Not Going Away:

Dear Commons Community,

On April 24, 2016, the Obama administration announced that it would likely soon release at least part of a 28-page redacted portion of the congressional inquiry into 9/11.  It is alleged that this portion may shed light on possible Saudi connections to the attackers.  As reported by the AP:

“The documents, kept in a secure room in the basement of the Capitol, contain information from the joint congressional inquiry into “specific sources of foreign support for some of the Sept. 11 hijackers while they were in the United States.”

Bob Graham, who was co-chairman of that bipartisan panel, and others say the documents point suspicion at the Saudis. The former Democratic senator from Florida says an administration official told him that intelligence officials will decide in the next several weeks whether to release at least parts of the documents. The disclosure would come at a time of strained U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia, a long-time American ally.

“I hope that decision is to honor the American people and make it available,” Graham told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “The most important unanswered question of 9/11 is, did these 19 people conduct this very sophisticated plot alone, or were they supported?”

Yesterday (May 13, 2016], it was reported that John F. Lehman, former secretary of the Navy under Ronald Reagan and Republican commissioner behind the 9/11 report, in an interview with the Guardian, called for full disclosure commenting:

“There was an awful lot of participation by Saudi individuals in supporting the hijackers, and some of those people worked in the Saudi government,” Lehman said in an interview, suggesting that the commission may have made a mistake by not stating that explicitly in its final report. “Our report should never have been read as an exoneration of Saudi Arabia.”

He was critical of a statement released late last month by the former chairman and vice-chairman of the commission, who urged the Obama administration to be cautious about releasing the full congressional report on the Saudis and 9/11 –“the 28 pages”, as they are widely known in Washington – because they contained “raw, unvetted” material that might smear innocent people. …

Lehman said Kean and Hamilton’s statement that only one Saudi government employee was “implicated” in supporting the hijackers in California and elsewhere was “a game of semantics” and that the commission had been aware of at least five Saudi government officials who were strongly suspected of involvement in the terrorists’ support network.”

If true, the release of the 28 pages—which could come as early as June—would put enormous public strain on our alliance with Saudi Arabia and call into question why our government for so long has run cover for the Saudis. It will be most embarrassing to President George W. Bush and the members of his administration at the time of the report.

We will know more if and when all of the 28 redacted pages are made public.

Tony

 

 

Comments are closed.