So, What Was in Those 28 Pages?
Friday, the Obama Administration released the remaining 28 pages of the 9/11 Commission Report—with a few national security-related redactions—to the House Intelligence Committee.
The committee has made the pages immediately available to the public. You may read them in their entirety by clicking here.
As expected, the pages detail the potential connection between the 9/11 hijackers and elements of the Saudi Arabian government. It also points out deficiencies in U.S. intelligence gathering related to the Saudi kingdom because of its relationship as an “ally.”
Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals.
“Releasing the contents of the 28 pages will answer some of the many questions that remain,” U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), who has led the charge in Congress to make the document public, said. “It may help us at last hold those who are responsible accountable.”
According to the newly released pages, members of the 9/11 Commission urged the U.S. intelligence community to investigate at least two individuals that FBI sources indicated might be spies for Saudi Arabia and funneled cash to the terrorists. They are:
- Osama Bassnan—the FBI and CIA suspected he may have been in contact in San Diego with two of the 19 hijackers. The FBI “confirmed” his wife received money directly from the wife of the then-Saudi Ambassador to the United States.
- Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan—at the time of the 9/11 attacks, he was the Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. He also has particularly close ties to the Bush family, which may have been a factor in the decision to release the information.
The release of the 28 pages followed months of lobbying and pressure from relatives of those killed in the 2001 terrorist attacks. Former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.), who helped draft the congressional report, also championed their release to the public.
