9/11 & Saudi Arabia9/11 Report’s 28-page classified section will clear Saudi Arabia: CIA director

CIA director John O. Brennan said that if the still-classified twenty-eight pages of the 9/11 Commission Report are published, they will clear Saudi Arabia of any involvement in the terrorist attack.

Brennan told Saudi-owned Arabiya TV: “I think the 28 pages will be published, and I support their publication. Everyone will see the evidence that the Saudi government had nothing to do with it.”

In May the U.S. Senate passed a bill allowing families of the 9/11 victims to pursue legal action against Saudi Arabia, but the White House has said it would veto the bill.

The New York Daily News reports that Saudi Arabia denies providing any support for the nineteen hijackers – fifteen of whom were Saudi citizens.

Saudi Arabia objects to the bill passed by the Senate, and some Saudi officials have said the government might sell up to $750 billion of Saudi investments in American assets if bill became law.

Brennan called the 28-page section merely a “preliminary review,” but on earlier occasions said it should not be made public because it contained information which had not been vetted, and which would not do much more than fuel unfounded rumors. 

In his Arabiya TV interview, he said: “It was found later, according to the results of the report, that there was no link between the Saudi government as a state or as an institution, or even senior Saudi officials, to the September 11 attacks.”

On instructions of the White House, Brennan’s office is reviewing the material to see whether it can be declassified.

Former Florida Senator Bob Graham, who co-chaired the congressional inquiry into the 9/11 attacks, said the White House would likely make a decision this month on whether it would release the classified pages.

Graham told ABC News: “The 28 pages primarily relate to who financed 9/11; they point a very strong finger at Saudi Arabia as being the principal financier.

“The position of the United States government has been to protect Saudi Arabia.

“At virtually every step of the judicial process, when the United States government was called upon to take a position, it has been a position adverse to the interests of United States citizens seeking justice, and protective of the government which, in my judgement, was the most responsible for that network of support.”

If evidence showing a link between Saudi Arabia and the 9/11 attackers emerges – in the 28-page section or in other sources — families of victims would be able to sue Saudi Arabia in U.S. courts.