Expanding Campaign for Release of the 28 Pages

New events have occurred this week in the campaign to force the U.S. Government to declassify and disclose to the public, the 28-page chapter of Congress’s report on the September 11, 2001, attacks which was withheld when the report was published in December 2002.

On Tuesday, U.S. Senator Bob Graham (ret.) was interviewed by Larry King on King’s Internet-TV show PoliticKING to urge release of the chapter. Graham co-chaired the joint US Senate and House of Representatives Intelligence Committees’ investigation of U.S. agencies’ failure to prevent the attacks, the subject of the report. In his introduction, King said that Graham is seeking disclosure of the 28 pages, because he says they implicate Saudi citizens in helping the terrorists who attacked the US.

King’s first question was why the 28-page section is classified. “It’s a mystery to me,” Graham said, and confirmed that he’s read the chapter, and helped write it, but cannot discuss the details, because it’s classified. However, he said, it’s been reported that it concerns who financed the attacks, and implicates Saudi Arabia. To flesh this out, he discussed at some length, events that were not in the 28 pages but about which much is known: the actions of Saudi agents and two of the 9/11 hijackers in San Diego. After he mentioned funds transferred by the wife of Saudi Ambassador Bandar, King said he knows Prince Bandar, and asked why Bandar would get involved in this. Graham sketched out a hypothesis that Osama bin Laden had demanded — under threat of launching an insurrection in Saudi Arabia — that the Saudi Royal Family provide assistance from Saudi intelligence assets in preparing the 9/11 attacks.

The previous day, Jerusalem Post columnist Michael Freund quoted Sen. Graham‘s April 17 opinion piece published in the Tampa Bay Times, about the “unanswered question” of whether the 9/11 hijackers while in the US acted alone, or whether others facilitated them; Freund noted that Graham and others say there is a host of evidence that “senior figures from Saudi Arabia financed and assisted the atrocity.” Freund also endorsed Graham’s efforts to get the 28 pages released, quoting Graham that “Saudi Arabia was the home of al-Qaeda and was instrumental in the creation of ISIS.” These, he quoted Graham, “are the poisonous fruits that have grown from our refusal to sanction the kingdom for what it did.”

Freund concluded his article, “… the Saudis must finally be made to understand that they cannot continue to spread extremism and intolerance with impunity. Release the 28 pages from the 9/11 report, President Obama, and let the public decide for itself if Saudi Arabia is truly worthy of being called ‘friend’ or ‘foe.'” Freund is described as having “served as Deputy Communications Director in Israeli Prime Minister’s Office under Binyamin Netanyahu during his first term,” 1996-1999.