International, Politics, Society

Lawmakers Pressure The Obama Administration To Release 28 Pages From The 9-11 Report That Reportedly Implicates Saudi Arabia

Abdullah_of_Saudi_ArabiaPresident_Barack_ObamaThe 9-11 Report was criticized by many as crafted by the Commission to avoid any real criticism of individuals in prior administrations. Carefully selected by the two parties, the Commission was composed of highly reliable and connected individuals that avoided assigning responsibility despite the obvious intelligence indicating a pending attack. There was one section of the Report however that was notably sealed and kept from the public. Twenty-eight mysterious pages that the Bush and Obama Administrations did not want the public to see. It was reportedly a section containing incriminating informative linking Saudi Arabia even more closely to the 9-11 terrorists. The government refused to let the public know the degree to which one of our closest allies bore responsibility for the worst attack on U.S. soil in our history. Now, thirteen years later, Commission members are finally pushing for the release of the 28 pages against the resistance of the Obama Administration, which has one of the worst records in modern history in barring public access to information.

Officials familiar with the 2003 report say that the 28 pages of redacted information raises questions over whether Saudi officials were involved in assisting Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar upon their arrival in Los Angeles in Jan. 2000. Given the highly political and highly edited language of the report, any direct finding of responsibility would be viewed as a notable departure and reflect substantial evidence of complicity.

There has long been questions about how two Saudi nationals so quickly secured housing and flight lessons upon their arrival despite their poor language skills and experience with the United States. Moreover, both al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar met at the King Fahad mosque in Culver City with Fahad al-Thumairy, “a diplomat at the Saudi consulate known to hold extremist views.” Notably, this Saudi diplomat was such an extremist that, despite the desire of Saudi Arabia to have him represent their country, he was denied reentry to the U.S. in 2003 for suspected terrorist ties.

Thumairy appeared to be a “a ghost employee with a no-show job at a Saudi aviation contractor outside Los Angeles while drawing a paycheck from the Saudi government”, according to media reports. Then there is Thumairy’s to Omar al-Bayoumi, a Saudi who became the hijackers’ biggest benefactor. Bayou was viewed as a Saudi agent before the attacks and had contact with the terrorists. Both Bayoumi and Thumairy, two extremists with connections to the hijackers, met at a Saudi consulate office on the morning of Feb. 1, 2000 and then had lunch “at a Middle Eastern restaurant on Venice Boulevard.”

The Saudis have long denied such support as “myths.” What is really shocking however is not the Saudi denials (given the Kingdom’s denial of free speech and criticism of the government), but the refusal of the Bush and Obama Administrations to allow the public to know the truth for over a decade despite this country’s loss and suffering as a result of the attacks.

59 thoughts on “Lawmakers Pressure The Obama Administration To Release 28 Pages From The 9-11 Report That Reportedly Implicates Saudi Arabia”

  1. The reason that people believe there is a differecne between Republicans and Democrats is propaganda.

    Propaganda has been used successfully to hide the fact that Saudi Arabia is implicated in 9/11. There were warnings of attack to Clinton and Bush. Clinton is not a Republican to my knowledge yet he ignored the warning as Bush did. After the fact, Obama, a Democrat has protected Bush, a Republican, in every possible way.

    I hope someday people will understand this fact. More importantly, I hope they will see that the “war on terror” is a fiction/pretext designed to profit a few, already wealthy groups, while at the same time stripping Americans of our rights.

  2. PhillyT:

    I do agree with you on many things, but you’ve lost me on this one.

    What criticism of Obama do you believe to be unwarranted? What efforts do you believe that Obama has made to create bipartisan support, and work across the aisle? Because I have seen Obama repeatedly bashing Republicans on TV, while simultaneously bemoaning a lack of cooperation and civility. Of course Republicans will oppose Democratic policies. They are opposing parties. Do you believe that a Democrat majority Senate would work with minority Republicans on limiting abortion, freedom of religion, reigning in spending, reforming benefit systems, or developing domestic oil? Of course not, and they don’t. Every president in history has had to lead a country of opposing political parties. And yet our own President said he “had a phone and a pen” and didn’t make any effort to move across the aisle.

    Also, there is no difference between Republicans and Democrats in their fight against Supreme Court picks. Because the SCOTUS legislates from the bench, it has a direct and extreme impact on law in America. That is why there is hysteria and angst every time a President picks a nominee, especially when he is a lame duck.

    http://www.politico.com/story/2007/07/schumer-to-fight-new-bush-high-court-picks-005146

  3. The American ego, both collective as well as individual, has become the source of America’s woes. The dysfunctions found in its political system, education system, health care system, tax system, etc., have clouded a once clear vision of reality. Some try and equate the validity and worth of America to the game of hockey, a Canadian invention, from a country that still provides 50% of the players; Canada a country with 10% of the population of the US. Perhaps it is this dysfunctional perspective that provides a clue. Well, when you’re number one, you’re number one.

  6. Operation Northwoods

    I highly recommend a visit to Wikipedia to read up on it.

    Gulf of Tonkin Incident

    Then there is this
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8932197/Pearl-Harbour-memo-shows-US-warned-of-Japanese-attack.html
    Pearl Harbour memo shows US warned of Japanese attack
    On the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbour, the attack that propelled America into the Second World War, a declassified memo shows that Japanese surprise attack was expected.

    The Lusitania

    They keep selling the American people one lie after another for over 100 years, just to get us into profitable wars.

    Smedley Butler warned us long ago.

  8. If the Sauds are responsible for this, that means one day we will make the House of Saud tremble.

    If the prophecies came true, the Sauds will be brought to their knees quickly and bemoaning of the loss of their one city and their precious, oil-rich fields. Guess which city will be hit on that ‘fateful day’?

    I’ll give you several clues. It’s all in there.

    And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.

    And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more: The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men. And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all. The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, And saying, Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls! For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off, And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city! And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

    NOTE: If you can’t figure this out, ask me and I’ll give you the answer.

  9. “It’s liberals who are to blame, they just wanted to protect their fanatic Muslim friends, so they could continue destroying America and turning it into an evil, gay loving paradise. Also, if you don’t realize Obama caused 9/11 in order to make Republicans look bad and steal the presidency 7 years later, you’re just a socialist tool.”

  10. Paul.
    True. People who think Americans are racists, have no idea how bad the racism is elsewhere in the world. The Saudis are some of the worst.

  11. Well Karen, while you and I agree on things from time to time, we are on opposite ends of this one. The Republicans and their news network, Faux News, have attacked Obama, his wife, his children, at every turn. The president may not have been the best political negotiator, (I think he was pretty bad at it actually), but he has made every effort to work with the Republicans, who have shunned him at every turn. Up to and including his nomination of a very moderate SCOTUS nominee.

    Can’t win em all

  12. I disagree that the UAE is one of our closest allies. That would be Canada, UK, France… We have a long history of ignoring abuses in order to retain coveted access for our military to the ME, as well as keeping OPEC flowing. The UAE is a fair-weather ally to us in order to maintain a lucrative customer base, as well as receive our tech, such as a state of the art missile defense system. Meanwhile, it views the West as generally offensive, but an acceptable playground for royals for whom Sharia Law does not apply.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if Saudi officials were involved in the finance and logistics, given the widespread nature of anti-Western sentiment. Charity is a requirement of Islam, as it is in many faiths. Terrorists and extremists take advantage, and funnel millions through charities that appear respectable on the surface. Some donors are well aware of where their money goes, and some are not. I sincerely doubt that every single government official in the UAE share Western values and cherish our alliance, in the land where they chop the heads off gays, stone women, and deny a single Jew to set foot in their country. From there, it is not a stretch that there are extremists who participated. I am very curious what will be revealed to public scrutiny, or if it’s just a red herring.

    PhillyT:

    “Clearly the only reason President Obama kept them from being published is because the republicans would be screaming TREASON and POLITICS at the top of their whiny lungs.” I disagree. Obama seems to never let an opportunity pass to bash Republicans or blame them for the worlds’ problems, all while bemoaning the loss of civility and bipartisan cooperation. If he had proof that this was all the Republicans’ fault, and only theirs, he would be gleefully blowing up the wire.

  13. The “dancing Israelis” that were never actually dancing is simply disinformation spread by the CIA in an attempt to take the attention away from the real planners of the 911 attacks. (As you will see later in my post, Israel actually WARNED the US Government about the pending attacks.) Yes, certainly, the Saudis were involved, and these blocked papers may demonstrate that. But you can be assured that any papers implicating the CIA and other members of the US Government have been destroyed. The 911 crimes could obviously NEVER have been allowed to happen unless there was, at a minimum, cooperation from within the US Government. But when all leads are followed, the 911 crime had to involve the CIA, leaders in the US military, and key players in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

    Consider all the warnings that the US Government received, but not only failed to act on any of them, but took deliberate steps to BLOCK any Government employees that attempted to do their jobs to follow-up on any of the plethora of leads of the pending attacks.

    General Warnings

    1. In late 2000, British investigators teamed up with their counterparts in the Cayman Islands and began a year long probe of three Afghan men who had entered the Cayman Islands illegally. [Miami Herald, 9/20/01, Los Angeles Times, 9/20/01] In June 2001, the Afghan men were overheard discussing hijacking attacks in New York City, and were promptly taken into custody. This information was forwarded to US intelligence [Fox News, 5/17/02]. In late August 2001, shortly before the attacks, an anonymous letter to a Cayman radio station alleged these same men were al-Qaeda agents “organizing a major terrorist act against the US via an airline or airlines.” [Miami Herald, 9/20/01, Los Angeles Times, 9/20/01, MSNBC, 9/23/01]

    2. In late July 2001, Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil learned that Osama bin Laden was planning a “huge attack” on targets inside America. The attack was imminent, and would kill thousands, he learned from the leader of the rebel Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which was closely allied with al-Qaeda at the time. Muttawakil sent an emissary to pass this information on to the US Consul General, and another US official, “possibly from the intelligence services.” Sources confirmed that this message was received, but supposedly not taken very seriously, because of “warning fatigue” arising from too many terror warnings. [Independent, 9/7/02, Reuters, 9/7/02]

    3. Also in late July 2001, the US was given a “concrete warning” from Argentina’s Jewish community. “An attack of major proportions” was planned against either the US, Argentina, or France. The information came from an unidentified intelligence agency. [Forward, 5/31/02]

    4. An undercover agent from Morocco successfully penetrated al-Qaeda. He learned that bin Laden was “very disappointed” that the 1993 bombing had not toppled the World Trade Center, and was planning “large scale operations in New York in the summer or fall of 2001.” He provided this information to the US in August 2001. [Agence France Presse, 11/22/01, International Herald Tribune, 5/21/02, London Times, 6/12/02]

    5. Hosni Mubarak, then President of Egypt, maintained that in the beginning of September 2001 Egyptian intelligence warned American officials that al-Qaeda was in the advanced stages of executing a significant operation against an American target, probably within the US. [AP, 12/7/01, New York Times, 6/4/02] He learned this information from an agent working inside al-Qaeda. [ABC News, 6/4/02]

    Many warnings specifically mentioned a threat coming from the air:

    1. In 1999, British intelligence gave a secret report to the US embassy. The report stated that al-Qaeda had plans to use “commercial aircraft” in “unconventional ways,”“possibly as flying bombs.” [Sunday Times, 6/9/02] On July 16, 2001, British intelligence passed a message to the US that al-Qaeda was in “the final stages” of preparing a terrorist attack in Western countries. [London Times, 6/14/02] In early August, the British gave another warning, telling the US to expect multiple airline hijackings from al-Qaeda. This warning was included in Bush’s briefing on August 6, 2001. [Sunday Herald, 5/19/02]

    2. In June 2001, German intelligence warned the US, Britain, and Israel that Middle Eastern terrorists were planning to hijack commercial aircraft and use them as weapons to attack “American and Israeli symbols which stand out.” Within the American intelligence community, “the warnings were taken seriously and surveillance intensified” but “there was disagreement on how such terrorist attacks could be prevented.” This warning came from Echelon, a spy satellite network that is partly based in Germany. [Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 9/11/01, Washington Post, 9/14/01]

    3. In late July 2001, Egyptian intelligence received a report from an undercover agent in Afghanistan that “20 al-Qaeda members had slipped into the US and four of them had received flight training on Cessnas.” To the Egyptians, pilots of small planes didn’t sound terribly alarming, but they passed on the message to the CIA anyway, fully expecting Washington to request information. “The request never came.” [CBS, 10/9/02] Given that there were 19 hijackers and four pilots (who trained on Cessnas) in the 9/11 plot, one might think this would now be a big news item. But in fact, the information has only appeared as an aside in a CBS “60 Minutes” show about a different topic.

    4. In late summer 2001, Jordan intelligence intercepted a message stating that a major attack was being planned inside the US and that aircraft would be used. The code name of the operation was Big Wedding, which did in fact turn out to be the codename of the 9/11 plot. The message was passed to US intelligence through several channels. [International Herald Tribune, 5/21/02, Christian Science Monitor, 5/23/02]

    5. Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly stated that he ordered his intelligence agencies to alert the US in the summer of 2001 that suicide pilots were training for attacks on US targets. [Fox News, 5/17/02] The head of Russian intelligence also stated, “We had clearly warned them” on several occasions, but they “did not pay the necessary attention.” [Agence France-Presse, 9/16/01] The Russian newspaper Izvestia claimed that Russian intelligence agents knew the participants in the attacks, and: “More than that, Moscow warned Washington about preparation for these actions a couple of weeks before they happened.” [Izvestia, 9/12/02]

    6. Five days before 9/11, the priest Jean-Marie Benjamin was told by a Muslim at an Italian wedding of a plot to attack the US and Britain using hijacked airplanes as weapons. He wasn’t told time or place specifics. He immediately passed what he knew on to a judge and several politicians in Italy. Presumably this Muslim confided in him because Benjamin has done considerable charity work in Muslim countries and is considered “one of the West’s most knowledgeable experts on the Muslim world.” [Zenit, 9/16/01] Benjamin has not revealed who told him this information, but it could have come from a member of the al-Qaeda cell in Milan, Italy. This cell supplied forged documents for other al-Qaeda operations, and wiretaps show members of the cell were aware of the 9/11 plot. [Los Angeles Times, 5/29/02, Guardian, 5/30/02, Boston Globe, 8/4/02] For instance, in August 2000, one terrorist in Milan was recorded saying to another: “I’m studying airplanes. I hope, God willing, that I can bring you a window or a piece of an airplane the next time we see each other.” The comment was followed by laughter [Washington Post, 5/31/02]. In another case in January 2001, a terrorist asked if certain forged documents were for “the brothers going to the United States,” and was angrily rebuked by another who told him not to talk about that “very, very secret” plan. [Los Angeles Times, 5/29/02] In March 2001, the Italian government gave the US a warning based on these wiretaps. [Fox News, 5/17/02]

    Israel gave the US several specific warnings of the 9/11 attacks.

    1. In the second week of August 2001, two high-ranking agents from the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, came to Washington and warned the CIA and FBI that 50 to 200 al-Qaeda terrorists had slipped into the US and were planning an imminent “major assault on the US” aimed at a “large scale target” [Telegraph, 9/16/01, Los Angeles Times, 9/20/01, Ottawa Citizen, 9/17/01 Fox News, 5/17/02]. Near the end of August, France also gave a warning that was an “echo” of Israel’s. [Fox News, 5/17/02]

    2. In October 2002, the story broke in Europe and Israel that on August 23, 2001, the Mossad had given the CIA a list of 19 terrorists living in the US. The Mossad had said that the terrorists appeared to be planning to carry out an attack in the near future. It is unknown if these are the same 19 names as the actual hijackers, or if the number is a coincidence. However, the four names on the list that are known are names of the 9/11 hijackers: Nawaf Alhazmi, Khalid Almihdhar, Marwan Alshehhi, and Mohamed Atta. [Die Zeit, 10/1/02, Der Spiegel, 10/1/02, BBC, 10/2/02, Ha’aretz, 10/3/02] These are also probably the four most important of the hijackers (and two of the pilots). From them, there were many connections to the others. The CIA had already been monitoring three of them overseas the year before, and two, Alhazmi and Almihdhar, were put on a watch list the same day the Mossad gave this warning. [AFP, 9/22/01, Berliner Zeitung, 9/24/01, Observer, 9/30/01, New York Times, 9/21/02]

  15. LOL! Being lectured to by a Canadian telling we superior Americans how we would be better served. Canada would be better served if just ONE of their hapless NHL team could make the playoffs. Just one! There are SIXTEEN slots in the Stanley Cup. JUST ONE!!

  16. Yes, Paul. He bowed to them out of respect. But Bush was the one who walked hand in hand with the king and he’s the one that let all their people leave the country the day after 9/11.

    1. phillyT – odd though, the king did not bow to him out of respect.

  17. By all means let’s blame the Clintons, let’s blame President Obama, but we should never blame President Cheney or his puppet George W.

    What a crock. This lands squarely in the lap of the Bush family and their generational ties to the House of Saud. Bush had plenty of warning that the attacks were being planned and he did nothing.

    Clearly the only reason President Obama kept them from being published is because the republicans would be screaming TREASON and POLITICS at the top of their whiny lungs.

  18. Explanation of the law and policy, fact basis of Operation Iraqi Freedom. On the law and the facts, the decision for OIF was correct.

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