Congress' "28 pages" on Saudi ties to 9/11 released

Twenty-eight pages of a 2002 congressional report on the September 11, 2001 terror attacks -- a section that could shed light on any alleged Saudi ties to the terrorist attack -- were released Friday and posted to the House Intelligence Committee's website.

The newly declassified document, with light redactions, names people the hijackers associated with before they carried out the attacks, killing nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and on a plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. It identifies individuals who helped the hijackers get apartments, open bank accounts, attend local mosques and get flight lessons. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals and several were not fluent in English and had little experience living in the West.

The findings of the inquiry remained inconclusive about Saudi government connections, however, with the report noting, that "on the one hand, it is possible that these kinds of connections could suggest, as indicated in a [redacted] dated July 2, 2002, 'incontrovertible evidence that there is support for these terrorists with 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."

Later investigations found no evidence that the Saudi government or senior Saudi officials knowingly supported those who orchestrated the attacks. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir said he can only hope that the aspersions cast against the Saudi government throughout the past 14 years draw to an end, but he also recognized that people's mindsets may remain unchanged.

"There are still people in the U.S. and around the world who don't think the moon landing took place," he told a group of reporters at the Saudi embassy in D.C. "So it doesn't matter how persuasive one can be in order to convince people of it. But, we have the facts, and the facts points to one direction, and the facts are very clear."

But lawmakers and relatives of victims, who don't think all Saudi links to the attackers were thoroughly investigated, campaigned for more than 13 years to get the final chapter of the 2002 congressional inquiry released.

Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Richard Burr, R-North Carolina, and ranking member Dianne Feinstein, D-California, weighed in on the release of the 28 pages Friday afternoon.

"We agree with the decision to declassify more than two dozen pages of information from a 2002 congressional report on the 9/11 attacks. These pages include unconfirmed allegations and raw reporting and have been the subject of conspiracy theories for years," Burr and Feinstein said in a joint statement. They urged the public to read the reports of follow-up investigations by the CIA and the FBI debunking the allegations of Saudi ties, adding "we need to put an end to conspiracy theories and idle speculation that do nothing to shed light on the 9/11 attacks."

Several investigations into 9/11 followed the congressional inquiry, which released its report - minus the secret chapter - in December 2002. The most well-known investigation was done by the 9/11 Commission, led by former Gov. Tom Kean, R-New Jersey, and former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Indiana.

Kean and Hamilton said the 28 pages were based almost entirely on raw, unvetted material that came to the FBI. They said the material was then written up in FBI files as possible leads for further investigation.

They said the commission and its staff spent 18 months investigating "all the leads contained in the 28 pages, and many more." The commission's 567-page report, released in July 2004, stated that it found "no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded" al-Qaida. "This conclusion does not exclude the likelihood that charities with significant Saudi government sponsorship diverted funds to al-Qaida."

Some critics of the commission's work say the commission failed to run down every Saudi lead and say various agencies obstructed its work. Kean and Hamilton also complained that various government agencies withheld relevant information.

Rep. Stephen F. Lynch, D-Massachusetts, a longtime advocate of the declassification, said the release allows for greater transparency about the investigation into 9/11. "Releasing the contents of the 28 pages will answer some of the many questions that remain," Lynch said. "It may help us at last hold those who are responsible accountable."

CBS' "60 Minutes" aired a story in April on the top-secret pages, including interviews with current and former members of Congress, U.S. officials, members of the 9/11 Commission and families of the terrorist attacks. Former Florida Sen. Bob Graham, who helped write the report, said that the pages could help illuminate the network of people he believes supported the hijackers in the U.S.