PRESS RELEASE
Sen. Bob Graham: FBI Lied on the 28 Pages
April 28, 2016 (EIRNS)—Former U.S. Senator Bob Graham stated that the FBI lied to Congress about 9/11, and called for the reopening of the 9/11 investigation, on NPR’s "Morning Edition" in an interview with Lourdes Garcia-Navarro today. "Morning Edition" is the number-one morning "drive time" program in the United States. Here is the transcript of the interview:
LGN: Families of the victims of the 9/11 attacks are awaiting a White House decision whether to declassify 28 pages of documents from the 9/11 Report. They hope these pages will support allegations of Saudi involvement with the hijackers. This matters right now because there is a bill before Congress that could allow the families to sue the Saudi government (Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, S. 2040). Former Sen. Bob Graham co-chaired the Joint Congressional Inquiry into 9/11.
Sen. Graham: The reason why the 28 pages are so important is that they were the conclusion of the Congressional Inquiry into 9/11; as to how was that plot financed; who paid for it, and while I can’t discuss the details of that chapter, they point a strong finger at Saudi Arabia.
LGN: What kinds of connections are we talking about?
Sen. Graham: What we do know publicly was that there were agents of the Saudi government who assisted at least two of the hijackers who lived in San Diego; provided them with financial support; with anonymity; with a place to live, and with flight lessons, and protected them—in one case, for over a year.
The FBI has turned over to a Federal court, through a FOIA case, 80,000 pages involving an investigation that took place in Sarasota, Florida of the relationship between Mohammed Atta, the leader of the 19 hijackers and two of his henchmen, and a prominent Saudi family which had lived in Sarasota for six years. Two weeks before 9/11 they left, under what were described as urgent conditions to return to Saudi Arabia, creating the inference that they were tipped off and decided that they would be better off someplace else than in Sarasota when 9/11 occurred.
LGN: Another investigation, though—the 9/11 Commission— found no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution individually funded any of the 9/11 attackers.
Sen. Graham: It was a very crafted sentence, that said something to the effect that there was no evidence the senior leadership of Saudi Arabia was involved.
LGN: That’s the Royal Family?
Sen. Graham: Yes.—involved, and that leaves a lot of range for other representatives of the Saudi government to have played a role. Saudi Arabia uses the principle of sovereign immunity—that you can’t sue the king, because the king can do no wrong—to apply to virtually every entity within Saudi Arabia.
LGN:Do you believe consecutive Administrations have been protecting the Saudi royal family against the interests of United States citizens?
Sen. Graham: Yes, and I think it has been more than a coverup. I think it has been what I call aggressive deception. There are instances in which the FBI has publicly released statements which I know from personal experience were untrue: They stated in this Sarasota situation that they had completed this investigation; that the investigation determined that there were no connections between the hijackers and the prominent Saudi family; and that they had turned over all this information to both the Congressional Inquiry and the 9/11 Citizens Commission.
I know for a fact that none of these three statements are true.
LGN: Let me get this right, sir—You are alleging that the FBI deliberately lied about this issue, and there has been a coverup...
Sen. Graham (interrupting): It’s more than a coverup. The FBI has misstated what is in their own records relative to the situation in Sarasota.
LGN: What do you think needs to happen?
Sen. Graham: I think we need to have a general reopening of the investigation into 9/11. Both the Congressional investigation and the 9/11 Commission Investigation acted under tight time restraints which precluded the full inquiry that needs to be held when the 9/11 issue is reopened.
LGN: Thank you, Sen. Graham.
