PRESS RELEASE
Saudis in a Panic over 9/11 and 28 Pages
May 24, 2016 (EIRNS)—The Saudis are in a panic over the mounting pressure on the Obama Administration to release the 28-page chapter from the original Joint Inquiry into 9/11, and the building momentum for passage of the JASTA (Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act) bill in the House of Representatives.
The Hill published a lengthy account, today, of the frantic battle playing out on Capitol Hill, where Rep. Ted Poe (R-Tex.) held hearings Tuesday on whether there is evidence of Saudi complicity at any level in the 9/11 attacks. The Hill reported that Senators Chuck Schumer and John Cornyn are aggressively working with House counterparts to make sure that the JASTA bill comes to a vote before the Congress recesses this summer, and passes it with a veto-proof majority. The Senate recently passed JASTA by unanimous consent.
The New York Times today published an interview with former Senator Bob Graham, who chaired the Joint Inquiry and has been the driver behind the effort to declassify the 28 pages. He told the Times’ Carl Hulse that he is worried, following his recent meeting with Director of National Intelligence Gen. James Clapper, that the Administration is engaging in an elaborate stall, aimed at ultimately blocking the release of the devastating chapter. “I am just worried,” he told Hulse. “We have been at this for 13 years now.”
At the Poe-chaired hearing today, former 9/11 Commissioner and Republican Member of Congress Tim Roemer testified,
“I am strongly in favor of declassifying this information as quickly as possible. The 9/11 families deserve it. The American people deserve it. We have the right to transparency and sunlight, not the darkness.”
Both subcommittee chairman Poe and Democrat Brad Sherman came out during the hearing demanding the release of the 28 pages. Republican Dana Rohrabacher was blunt:
“The Saudis and the Saudi Royal family have been right up to their eye-balls in terrorist activity and supporting the terrorist activity of radical Islamic forces in the Middle East. It’s up to us to call the truth.”
