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      Long-Classified Pages on Foreign 9/11 Support Could be Released Soon

   by VOA News

   Only a select group of U.S. officials have read the highly classified
   document.  The text has been locked in a secure area of the U.S.
   Capitol building since a joint congressional committee crafted it in
   2002.  Bills in both the Senate and House of Representatives and people
   who helped write it are calling for its release.

   Nearly 15 years after terrorists hijacked four passenger jets and
   crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon
   outside Washington, D.C. and a farm field in Pennsylvania, 28 pages
   detailing foreign support for the attackers could soon be made public.

   Despite its classified status, those familiar with the chapter have
   made enough allusions to its connections with Saudi Arabia for people
   to wonder about what exact link the document may suggest.

   Former Senator Bob Corker, who was a part of the joint committee, said
   Sunday during an interview on NBC's Meet The Press the pages should be
   released to end debate over what they contain and let the American
   public make up its own mind about the contents.  When asked if the
   release would have a high-level negative impact, Corker said yes.

   He said whether the 19 hijackers, 15 of whom were Saudi citizens, had
   any outside help is the most important outstanding question related to
   the September 11, 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.

   "I think it's implausible to think that people who couldn't speak
   English, had never been in the United States before, as a group were
   not well-educated, could have done that," he said.  "So who was the
   most likely entity to have provided them that support?  And I think
   that all of the evidence points to Saudi Arabia."

   Former President George W. Bush ordered the 28 pages to be classified
   and not included in the 828-page congressional report that was released
   to the public.  His successor, Barack Obama, has ordered his
   intelligence team to review the chapter, and Corker said he hopes the
   text will be made available when a decision is made by June.

   Obama's Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said last week he
   expects "there will be some degree of declassification that provides
   more information."  But he did not speak to the timing and cautioned
   that the work of the joint congressional commission and the subsequent
   9/11 Commission have given a "definitive statement" determining that
   Saudi Arabia did not have an intent to support al-Qaida.

   U.S.-Saudi relations have come under heightened focus with Obama's
   visit there last week and his public criticism that the kingdom is not
   doing enough to address terrorism in its own region.

   Another member of the congressional commission, former Representative
   Tim Roemer, said last week that the group "did not exonerate the
   Saudis," and that the pages should be declassified.

   "The Saudis won't relish the renewed spotlight, and it could strain
   relations with a valued ally with whom we have sometimes experienced a
   turbulent partnership," he wrote in RealClearPolitics.  "But we have
   more to fear from secrecy and conspiracy theories than pursuing
   transparency and truth, and the 9/11 families deserve to have the
   fullest possible record available from past investigations."

   The 9/11 Commission Report, which was published in 2004, calls Saudi
   Arabia a "problematic ally in combating Islamic extremism."  In
   addition to citing a cooperation failure among U.S. security agencies,
   the report notes a failure in U.S.-Saudi cooperation in sharing
   intelligence information or disrupting al-Qaida's finances.

   It also offers varied explanations as to why so many of the 9/11
   hijackers were Saudis.  The report says Ramzi Binalshibh, a Guantanamo
   Bay detainee described as the "coordinator" of the attacks, explained
   the choice of the hijackers as a deliberate message to the Saudi
   government about its relationship with the United States.

   But the next paragraph cites 9/11 "mastermind" Khalid Shaikh Mohammed
   denying that theory.  Instead, Mohammed says the number of Saudis
   involved in the attacks was a reflection of the high percentage of
   recruits in al-Qaida training camps who came from Saudi Arabia.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/long-classified-pages-on-foreign-9-11
   -support-could-be-released-soon/3301200.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/long-classified-pages-on-foreign-9-11-support-could-be-released-soon/3301200.html