Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw) Weekend Contributor
In light of the recently observed 13th anniversary of the events on 9/11/01, I read an article this week that caught my eye. According to reports, there is a 28 page section of the 9/11 Commission report that has never been released publicly and remains secret to this day. Indeed, Congressmen must go through numerous security reviews before they can read the document in a secure room in Washington, D.C.
What kind of secret and clandestine information can be found in such a guarded document? Since it is top-secret, we can only go by the reviews of people who have read the report. What is found in that report may surprise you in light of its level of secrecy.
“On the bottom floor of the United States Capitol’s new underground visitors’ center, there is a secure room where the House Intelligence Committee maintains highly classified files. One of those files is titled “Finding, Discussion and Narrative Regarding Certain Sensitive National Security Matters.” It is twenty-eight pages long. In 2002, the Administration of George W. Bush excised those pages from the report of the Joint Congressional Inquiry into the 9/11 attacks. President Bush said then that publication of that section of the report would damage American intelligence operations, revealing “sources and methods that would make it harder for us to win the war on terror.”
“There’s nothing in it about national security,” Walter Jones, a Republican congressman from North Carolina who has read the missing pages, contends. “It’s about the Bush Administration and its relationship with the Saudis.” Stephen Lynch, a Massachusetts Democrat, told me that the document is “stunning in its clarity,” and that it offers direct evidence of complicity on the part of certain Saudi individuals and entities in Al Qaeda’s attack on America. “Those twenty-eight pages tell a story that has been completely removed from the 9/11 Report,” Lynch maintains. Another congressman who has read the document said that the evidence of Saudi government support for the 9/11 hijacking is “very disturbing,” and that “the real question is whether it was sanctioned at the royal-family level or beneath that, and whether these leads were followed through.” Now, in a rare example of bipartisanship, Jones and Lynch have co-sponsored a resolution requesting that the Obama Administration declassify the pages.” Readersupportednews
In the current political climate, any issue that has some bi-partisan support should be looked at more closely. If the accounts of Rep. Jones and Rep. Lynch are to believed, what would be the possible reasons why these 28 pages have not been fully declassified? In a town like Washington, D.C., it seems like it doesn’t take much to classify information and keep it from public dissemination. However, once something is classified, it often takes years and in many cases, decades to get the information into the American public’s hands. So, in one sense, Washington doesn’t need real reasons before it classifies documents.
As someone who has witnessed a military accident report kept classified for approximately 50 years, this 13 year period of time does not sound so bad. But when we find out that the report may have been classified to prevent embarrassment to the Saudi royal family and our Government, 13 years sounds like 12 years too long. Even the Saudi’s have called for the full release of the secret 28 pages.
“Twenty-eight blanked-out pages are being used by some to malign our country and our people,” Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who was the Saudi Ambassador to the United States at the time of the 9/11 attacks, has declared. “Saudi Arabia has nothing to hide. We can deal with questions in public, but we cannot respond to blank pages.” RSN
According to Philip Zelikow, the Director of the 9/11 Commission Staff, the 28 pages were merely unvetted reports and accusations. “According to Zelikow, what they found does not substantiate the arguments made by the Joint Inquiry and by the 9/11 families in the lawsuit against the Saudis. He characterized the twenty-eight pages as “an agglomeration of preliminary, unvetted reports” concerning Saudi involvement. “They were wild accusations that needed to be checked out,” he said.
Zelikow and his staff were ultimately unable to prove any official Saudi complicity in the attacks. A former staff member of the 9/11 Commission who is intimately familiar with the material in the twenty-eight pages recommends against their declassification, warning that the release of inflammatory and speculative information could “ramp up passions” and damage U.S.-Saudi relations.” RSN
If indeed the information could ramp up passions, according to Mr. Zelikow, is that enough to keep it under top-secret wraps for 13 years? It could be argued that hiding the information from the public actually causes more problems than the ones that Mr. Zelikow is trying to avoid. Secrecy tends to fan the flames of conspiracy theorists. If the Saudi’s are calling for the information that is considered to be harmful to Saudi relations, why should the information still be hidden from public inspection?
Thomas Kean, the former Chairman of the 9/11 Commission has read the report and he does not understand why it is still kept secret. Of course, he also is confused why the interviews of Former President, Bill Clinton and then current President George W. Bush and his Vice President, Dick Cheney are also still kept secret.
“Thomas Kean remembers finally having the opportunity to read those twenty-eight pages after he became chairman of the 9/11 Commission—“so secret that I had to get all of my security clearances and go into the bowels of Congress with someone looking over my shoulder.” He also remembers thinking at the time that most of what he was reading should never have been kept secret. But the focus on the twenty-eight pages obscures the fact that many important documents are still classified—“a ton of stuff,” Kean told me, including, for instance, the 9/11 Commission’s interviews with George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Bill Clinton. “I don’t know of a single thing in our report that should not be public after ten years,” Kean said.” RSN
When one remembers the turmoil and destruction and the emotional outpouring that were a result of the actions of the terrorists on 9/11, I can understand why the information was initially classified. However, after a year or two the citizens of this country deserved a full and complete record of what the 9/11 Commission did or did not find. A link to the “full” Commission report can be found here.
While there can be valid reasons for a government to classify information and hide it from its own citizens, that information needs to be disseminated as soon as possible. Thirteen years for information that may just “ramp up passions”, is not a valid time frame. This information and all of the information left out of the 9/11 Commission Report should be declassified as quickly as possible, with no redactions.
Any and all information that concerns one of the most important days in our country’s history should be in the people’s hands. Without it, a skeptical citizenry will make up its own mind and Washington, D.C. may not like their answer.
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“oldfox33
Some strange thinking in this space. Someone has Obama protecting and conniving with Cheney and defense contractors.”
What has the very ineligible Obama got to do with the de facto amorphous governing group? What collection of intelligent people would leave governance to a failed, empty suit, affirmative action poster boy-cum-community organizer who has never had a job, and a vote of the masses?
Let’s ask JFK if he was the real government. The de facto government has promulgated tales that counter the legitimate conspiracy theories, demonstrating their concern, providing evidence of the original conspiracy. The problem is that no opposing unit can coalesce in an environment of confusion. Theory, counter theory and counter-counter theory will buy you 50+ years and who will care then?
John, I retrieved your comment at 2:44.
Jim22 and Aridog, I understand what you are saying. But, still, I like to listen to everyone. That doesn’t mean I believe everyone. But I still maintain that we will never know the entire scope of that whole tragedy. It will be interesting to see the report and read between the lines.
Why is President Transparency classifying so much and affirming that material classified by his predecessors when nothing in the report could possibly endanger us or compromise national security. I spent way to much time in the Army realm to not know that a substantial amount of items classified are done so for spurious reasons fitting individual agendas….while oddly some materials and publications simply say FOUO or Not for Dissemination that should actually be classified. The fact that budgetary information is in the FOUO category always puzzled me….it is the tax payers money and in most cases the budgets are for administrative matters and hardly “black” anything. Spend enough time in a structured bureaucracy and you become numb, or irritated at some of the secrecy that is unnecessary…and trust me, I know what necessity looks like.
rafflaw, I have another missing comment after the 1:46 p.m by Aridog
Would you be able to find it?
I was, at first, surprised to learn that Obama had simply ignored the 9/11 Families request for the information. That’s a real slap in the face to them and the rest of the American public.
But indeed, given Obama’s constant protection of his predecessors and his current alliance with Saudi Arabia, it does make a sickening kind of sense.
Jill…I agree that the full 28 pages should be published and promptly. 13 years plus is nonsense…and there is nothing possibly that should prevent the publishing of the entire report. It just feeds the conspiracists with loony theories. If there really was collusion with KSA, of any kind, I’d say it is time we are told about it, given currents events these days. Our offices in NYC were in Tower 7 and at Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn….and a Caven Point New Jersey…who were on scene within an hour of the impacts. Close as they were to what happened not one of them, and none of the people I dealt with in them, said anything worthy of classification.
No matter what anyone thinks happened with this building or that, the fact remains that the American public and the 9/11 Families are not in full access of known truth.
There is no reason why we should not have the missing 28 pages put into the public domain, immediately. Enough stalling, we all deserve the truth.
Thanks rafflaw.
Jill,
I retrieved your comment above from the spam filter. .
As for the WTC and 9/11…what Jim22 said is what happened. Planes hit the buildings and the rest follows on logically. I watched the second plane strike, and closed circuit TV in my Army office, and my experience with photography informs that it would have been impossible to fabricate that in such a short period of time….something several “truthers” assert…that it was Hollywood style produced yada yada. Yawn. Period. I won’t bother to repeat my prior post on another thread about the civil, mechanical, and architectural engineers my office sent to the WTC site for analysis, including the integrity of the slurry wall under pinning the place.
The KISS principle usually is the best way to look at events….plus Ocham’s Razor.
Saudi Arabia’s relationship with the USA has always been a conundrum in my mind. In late 1990 I was offered a private sector job, in a defense industry, paying well in to 6 figures, plus sundry premiums for location and so forth. I turned it down, though it was far better dollars than my current job at the time, because it required I live in Saudi Arabia for an indefinite length of time…and I just cold not do that. Given I live in a solidly Arabic neighborhood I just knew too much about KAS. No thank you. Never mind that had I taken it, I would have been up to my armpits in Desert Storm as Armor raced across the desert in the famed left hook.
I simply still do not know how to deal with KSA…for now they are relatively stable, but in the back of my mind I suspect that could erupt in to chaos sooner than later. As the USA, we’ve mucked in too many places now, from Egypt in favor of Morsi (an obscenity to anyone who knows Egypt’s history going back thousands of years), as well as Libya recently(Qaddafi was better than what came next), and now Syria (Assad is better than what is growing now … we intervened clandestinely…we really do NOT know WTF we are doing there … stuck in the mindset of 1941-1945 as we are it seems) . We didn’t “create” Iraq as it is defined today, that was the San Remo Accords of 1920….but we did not remedy the imbalances there either when we invaded and defeated Saddam.
rafflaw, I posted additional information which will not go through. Are you able to retrieve it?
Thanks,
Jill
“On three separate occasions, 9/11 Families United for Justice Against Terrorism has sent letters to President Obama, asking him to declassify the 28-page finding on foreign government support of the 9/11 hijackers. Each letter takes a slightly different approach to pleading for the release of the redacted section of a joint House/Senate intelligence study, but one thing they share in common is the response from the president and the White House: complete silence.
One would think an organized group of 9/11 family members would at least merit the courtesy of a presidential reply—if only to say he had received their letter and would give due consideration to their request. Instead, Obama has opted to ignore them, despite the fact that he has reportedly twice promised 9/11 families he would declassify the 28 pages.
The group sent its first letter on June 20, 2013, and never heard back. The group tried again on May 9, 2014—just ahead of the dedication of the 9/11 Museum in New York. Again, silence. Still determined, the organization sent a third letter on June 24 of this year that has likewise gone unanswered.”
http://28pages.org/2014/09/07/letters-from-911-family-group-to-obama-go-unanswered/
slohrss29 – “Well, there are a lot of scientists and engineers who think the otherwise. I don’t know, but since I am not a scientist or engineer, I’ll at least listen to what they have to say. I do know the buildings were designed for that exact possibility though.
At lot of things happened that day. I guess we’ll never know the complete truth.”
slohrss29, What happened that day was terrorists hijacked 4 planes (two 767’s and two 757’s) and tried to crash them into targets. The two 767’s were successful in hitting the twin towers. After hitting the towers, the buildings fell after structural integrity was compromised. The first tower to fall was actually the second one hit, but it was hit lower so the above mass was higher.
How do you know that the buildings were designed to be hit by a plane that wasn’t even designed yet?
Don’t fall for the dreams of the conspiracist. Remember, the burden of proof is on them not on us to disprove any dreamed up thought they want to promote.
The pages never should have been classified. They will be released because the MSM smells W blood. If only their diligence were nonpartisan we would have a much better govt.
Some strange thinking in this space. Someone has Obama protecting and conniving with Cheney and defense contractors. Someone else fails to recognize diplomatic immunity in NY for traffic infractions alleged against the head of Saudi Intelligence and Ambassador to the U.S. Another theorist asserts that the populace of totalitarian, arch Defender-of-the-Faith, Saudia would so vastly appreciate our unilateral delivery of them from barbaric feudalism to British-style parliamentary monarchy (with no better backstory than Lawrence of Arabia), that they’ll all follow our late friend King Hussein into Sandhurst, take an American wife, become a ham radio operator, a civic-minded resident of a palace in Palm Beach, and take up fighter piloting on the weekends.
Not one of this learned assembly has brought in Percy Sutton, the shocking, famously submissive bow (as France laughed in the background), the sealed, expunged, and lost academic records, the forged citizenship, and the massive circumstantial evidence that Occidental, Harvard, and Harvard Law student Obama became a (not so very deep) covert agent of the Saudi Intelligence System who seems to have infiltrated this nation higher and deeper than any other foreign force EVER including Philby and McLean!
Delusionary tunnel vision inside the Beltway truly is a severe mental illness completely detached from the reality on the ground.
Well, there are a lot of scientists and engineers who think the otherwise. I don’t know, but since I am not a scientist or engineer, I’ll at least listen to what they have to say. I do know the buildings were designed for that exact possibility though.
At lot of things happened that day. I guess we’ll never know the complete truth.
It amazes me to hear semi intelligent people talk about the towers not coming down from airplanes hitting them. Then again, maybe they aren’t so intelligent.
An uninformed electorate cannot ever make informed voting decisions.
I’ll do some research…. Somebody always knows somebody…. This is incredulous…..