Congress releases secret '28 pages' on alleged Saudi 9/11 tiesBy Jim Sciutto, Ryan Browne and Deirdre Walsh, CNN Updated 10:44 PM ET, Fri July 15, 2016 Washington (CNN)A long-classified U.S. report released Friday found that some of the 9/11 hijackers were in contact with and received support from individuals likely connected to the Saudi government.
Known as the "28 pages," the secret document was part of a
2002 Congressional Joint Inquiry into the Sept. 11 attacks
and has been classified since the report's completion,
despite repeated calls for its release. The document, which
the administration finally delivered to Congress earlier
Friday, actually contains 29 pages of material, plus a
letter from then-CIA Director George Tenet.
"While in the United States, some of the September 11
hijackers were in contact with, and received support or
assistance from, individuals who may be connected to the
Saudi Government," the document says.
The pages also say that the inquiry obtained information
"indicating that Saudi Government officials in the United
States may have other ties to al-Qa'ida and other terrorist
groups," but the commission that authored the document
acknowledged that much of the info "remains speculative and
yet to be independently verified."
Saudi Ambassador to the United States Abdullah Al-Saud put
out a statement after the document's release Friday
welcoming its publication, though he didn't address the
details it contains.
"Several government agencies, including the CIA and the
FBI, have investigated the contents of the '28 Pages'
and have confirmed that neither the Saudi government,
nor senior Saudi officials, nor any person acting on
behalf of the Saudi government provided any support or
encouragement for these attacks," he said. "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 United States."
"It should be clear that this Joint Inquiry has made no
final determinations as to the reliability or
sufficiency of the information," the report says.
On the one hand, the report notes, it is possible
that these kinds of connections could suggest
"incontrovertible evidence that there is support for
these terrorists within the Saudi Government. On the
other hand, it is also possible that further
investigation of these allegations could reveal
legitimate, and innocent, explanations for these
associations."
The report also criticizes the lack of effective
intelligence-sharing in the U.S. government,
highlighting an episode where a CIA memorandum
"which discusses alleged financial connections
between the September 11 hijackers, Saudi Government
officials, and members of the Saudi Royal Family"
was placed into an FBI case file and never forwarded
to FBI headquarters until the memo was discovered by
the inquiry.
It also says there was a lack of emphasis on
intelligence-gathering directed at Saudis in the
U.S. in the time before the attacks.
"Prior to September 11th, the FBI apparently did not
focus investigative resources on [redacted] Saudi
nationals in the United States due to Saudi Arabia's
status as an American 'ally.'"
But the report also references instances where the
Saudi government was "uncooperative" in
counterterrorism investigations before and after
9/11.
"A number of FBI agents and CIA officers complained
to the Joint Inquiry about a lack of Saudi
cooperation in terrorism investigations both before
and after the September 11 attacks," citing one New
York FBI agent who said "the Saudis have been
useless and obstructionist for years."
The report details one post-9/11 episode in which an
FBI agent couldn't get the Saudi government to
provide information on Saudi nationals despite
providing copies of the subjects' Saudi passports.
Under pressure from the victims' families and
lawmakers, President Barack Obama said in April his
administration would declassify the 28 pages.
Sources told CNN ahead of the report's release that
intelligence and law enforcement agencies and the
State Department had all reviewed and approved the
release of the pages with "minimal redactions." But
the report Congress put out had multiple inked-out
sections.
Still, the release of the pages on Friday was
welcomed by New York Sen. Charles Schumer, who has
co-sponsored a bill that opens the door for families
of 9/11 victims to sue foreign states and financial
partners of terrorism.
"Preliminary readings show that there may well have
been Saudi involvement in the terror of 9/11 both in
the Saudi government and within the Saudi country,
within Saudi Arabia," he told reporters in New York.
"The families who I have fought for long and hard
now will be able to go to court, and soon, and if
the Saudi government was complicit in 9/11 they
should pay the price to the families who deserve
justice," he continued. "And they should pay the
price so no other government will think of playing
footsie with terrorists the way the Saudi government
may well have done in 2001."
Jerry Goldman, a lawyer who represents families of
victims in a class-action suit seeking to sue Saudi
Arabia, said ahead of the report's release that his
clients were pleased the pages were being made
public. "The families are happy just as the American
people should be happy that information that has
been kept hidden for well over a decade is finally
coming to light," he said.
One of those who looked forward to reading the pages
is Terry Strada, who has been pushing for the right
to sue Saudi Arabia over its alleged involvement in
the attack. Her husband, Tom, was working on the
104th floor of the North Tower when the planes
struck. The couple's third child had been born just
four days earlier.
"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,"
Strada said.
Also welcoming the report's release was former
Senate Intelligence Chairman Bob Graham, who has
long called for the documents to be made public.
"The information in the 28 pages reinforces the
belief that the 19 hijackers -- most of whom spoke
little English, had limited education and had never
before visited the United States -- did not act
alone in perpetrating the sophisticated 9/11 plot,"
Graham said in a statement. "It suggests a strong
linkage between those terrorists and the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia, Saudi charities, and other Saudi
stakeholders. The American people should be
concerned about these links."
The Saudi government itself had repeated called for
the pages to be made public so that it could respond
to any allegations, which it has long called
unfounded.
"We've been saying since 2003 that the pages should
be released," said Nail Al-Jubeir, director of
communications for the Saudi Embassy, ahead of
Friday's developments. "They will show everyone that
there is no there there."
After the pages were posted online Friday afternoon,
the U.S. Office of the Director of National
Intelligence released a statement saying that their
declassification and release did not constitute a
national security risk.
But it noted that the decision to authorize the
release "does not indicate the Intelligence
Community's agreement" with the report's "accuracy
or concurrence with any information it contains."
In the wake of the release, the chairman and ranking
member of the House Intelligence Committee issued a
joint statement endorsing the declassification of
the pages.
Chairman Devin Nunes added, however, that "it's
important to note that this section does not put
forward vetted conclusions, but rather unverified
leads that were later fully investigated by the
Intelligence Community."
Sens. Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein, the chair
and top Democrat of the Senate Intelligence
Committee, issued a statement that they agreed with
the decision to declassify the report. But they
cautioned, "These pages include unconfirmed
allegations and raw reporting and have been the
subject of conspiracy theories for years."
They called on the public to review related
documents from the director of national intelligence
that "debunk many of the allegations contained in
the declassified section of the report."
The concluded, "We need to put an end to conspiracy
theories and idle speculation that do nothing to
shed light on the 9/11 attacks."
http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/15/politics/congress-releases-28-pages-saudis-9-11/index.html |