NY Senator Gillibrand Ups the Ante on Obama; Demands Release of 28 Pages Now!

Democratic New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, already a co-sponsor of the Senate bill to declassify the 28 pages of the 2003 9/11 Commission report, which dealt with Saudi Arabia’s role in that attack on the United States, told CBS News Monday that President Barack Obama should release those still-classified 28 pages before he goes to visit Saudi Arabia ten days from now.

Gillibrand has read those pages, CBS News reported, and “she said that the 9/11 families she represents deserve to read them, too — before the President travels to the Middle East next week.”

“If the President is going to meet with the Saudi Arabian leadership and the royal family, they think it would be appropriate that this document be released before the President makes that trip, so that they can talk about whatever issues are in that document,” Sen. Gillibrand told CBS.

Obama stalled. The White House told CBS News on Monday that “the declassification review is under way and that the administration hopes to complete it by the end of Mr. Obama’s presidency,” the Florida Bulldog reported early Tuesday morning.

With the heat on, Brett Holmgren, a senior policy adviser to the assistant to the President for Homeland Security, called former Sen. Bob Graham on Tuesday to tell him that the declassification review of the 28 pages will soon be completed, Graham told the Tampa Bay Times. Graham reported that he asked Homgren how soon he could expect a decision, and he was told “one or two months.” He added, the Tampa paper reported, that given the recent publicity about the classified 28 pages, including 60 Minutes’ April 10 story, “the decision-makers at the White House have realized the public cares about it and there is an urgency to come to a decision.”