Story highlights
- The secret document was part of a 2002 congressional investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks
- The Saudi government has long called allegations of involvement unfounded
Washington (CNN)A
long-classified U.S. report released Friday found that some of the 9/11
hijackers were in contact with and received support from individuals
likely connected to the Saudi government.
Known
as the "28 pages," the secret document was part of a 2002 Congressional
Joint Inquiry into the Sept. 11 attacks and has been classified since
the report's completion, despite repeated calls for its release. The
document, which the administration finally delivered to Congress earlier
Friday, actually contains 29 pages of material plus a letter from
then-CIA Director George Tenet.
"While
in the United States, some of the September 11 hijackers were in
contact with, and received support or assistance from, individuals who
may be connected to the Saudi Government," the document says.
The
pages also say that the inquiry obtained information "indicating that
Saudi Government officials in the United States may have other ties to
al-Qa'ida and other terrorist groups," but the commission that authored
them acknowledged that much of the info "remains speculative and yet to
be independently verified."
Saudi
Ambassador to the United States Abdullah Al-Saud put out a statement
after the document's release Friday welcoming its publication, though he
didn't address the details it contains.
"Several
government agencies, including the CIA and the FBI, have investigated
the contents of the '28 Pages' and have confirmed that neither the Saudi
government, nor senior Saudi officials, nor any person acting on behalf
of the Saudi government provided any support or encouragement for these
attacks," he said. "We hope the release of these pages will clear up,
once and for all, any lingering questions or suspicions about Saudi
Arabia's actions, intentions, or long-term friendship with the United
States."
"It should be clear that
this Joint Inquiry has made no final determinations as to the
reliability or sufficiency of the information," the report says.On the one hand, the report
notes, it is possible that these kinds of connections could suggest
"incontrovertible evidence that there is support for these terrorists
within the Saudi Government. On the other hand, it is also possible that
further investigation of these allegations could reveal legitimate, and
innocent, explanations for these associations."
The
report also criticizes the lack of effective intelligence-sharing in
the U.S. government, highlighting an episode where a CIA memorandum
"which discusses alleged financial connections between the September 11
hijackers, Saudi Government officials, and members of the Saudi Royal
Family" was placed into an FBI case file and never forwarded to FBI
headquarters until the memo was discovered by the inquiry.
It
also says that there was a lack of emphasis on intelligence-gathering
directed at Saudis in the U.S. in the time before the attacks.
"Prior
to September 11th, the FBI apparently did not focus investigative
resources on [[redacted]] Saudi nationals in the United States due to
Saudi Arabia's status as an American 'ally.' "
But
the report also references instances where the Saudi government was
"uncooperative" in counterterrorism interrogations both before and after
9/11.
"A number of FBI agents and
CIA officers complained to the Joint Inquiry about a lack of Saudi
cooperation in terrorism investigations both before and after the
September 11 attacks," citing one New York FBI agent who said "the
Saudis have been useless and obstructionist for years."
The
report details one post-9/11 episode where an FBI agent couldn't get
the Saudi government to provide information on Saudi nationals despite
providing copies of the subjects' Saudi passports.
Under
pressure from the victims' families and lawmakers, President Barack
Obama said in April his administration would declassify the pages.
Sources
told CNN ahead of the report's release that intelligence and law
enforcement agencies and the State Department had all reviewed and
approved the release of the pages with "minimal redactions." But the
report Congress put out had multiple inked-out sections.
Still,
the release of the pages on Friday was welcomed by New York Sen.
Charles Schumer, who has co-sponsored a bill, co-sponsored that opens
the door for families of 9/11 victims to sue foreign states and
financial partners of terrorism.
"Preliminary
readings show that there may well have been Saudi involvement in the
terror of 9/11 both in the Saudi government and within the Saudi
country, within Saudi Arabia," he told reporters in New York.
"The
families who I have fought for long and hard now will be able to go to
court, and soon, and if the Saudi government was complicit in 9/11 they
should pay the price to the families who deserve justice," he continued.
"And they should pay the price so no other government will think of
playing footsie with terrorists the way the Saudi government may well
have done in 2001."
Jerry
Goldman, a lawyer who represents families of victims in a class-action
suit seeking to sue Saudi Arabia, said ahead of the report's release
that his clients were pleased. "The families are happy just as the
American people should be happy that information that has been kept
hidden for well over a decade is finally coming to light."
One
of those who looked forward to reading the pages is Terry Strada, who
has been pushing for the right to sue Saudi Arabia over its alleged
involvement in the attack. Her husband, Tom, was working on the 104th
floor of the North Tower when the planes struck. The couple's third
child had been born just four days eariler.
"The
American people deserve this just as much as the 9/11 families deserve
it, but we're the ones that are suffering by not having them released,"
Strada said.
The Saudi government
itself had repeated called for the pages to be made public so that it
could respond to any allegations, which it has long called unfounded.
"We've
been saying since 2003 that the pages should be released," said Nail
Al-Jubeir, director of communications for the Saudi Embassy, ahead of
Friday's developments. "They will show everyone that there is no there
there."
After the pages appeared
online Friday afternoon, the Office of the Director of National
Intelligence released a statement saying that their declassification and
release did not constitute a national security risk.
But
it noted that the decision to authorize the release "does not indicate
the Intelligence Community's agreement" with the report's "accuracy or
concurrence with any information it contains."
In
the wake of the release, the chairman and ranking member of the House
Intelligence Committee issued a joint statement endorsing the
declassification of the pages.
Chairman
Devin Nunes added, however, that "it's important to note that this
section does not put forward vetted conclusions, but rather unverified
leads that were later fully investigated by the Intelligence Community."
Sens.
Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein, the chair and top Democrat of the
Senate intelligence committee issued a statement of their own, saying
that they agreed with the decision to declassify the report. But they
warned, "These pages include unconfirmed allegations and raw reporting
and have been the subject of conspiracy theories for years."
They
called for the public to review related documents from the director of
national intelligence that "debunk many of the allegations contained in
the declassified section of the report."
The
concluded, "We need to put an end to conspiracy theories and idle
speculation that do nothing to shed light on the 9/11 attacks."
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