President Obama Comments On Secret 9/11 Material

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WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama says the top-ranking U.S. intelligence official is reviewing material in a Sept. 11 report that has been kept secret, and could possibly recommend its declassification.

President Obama made the assertion on "CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley."

A controversy lingers surrounding 28 pages of material in government documents amid speculation Saudi Arabia may have been involved in some way in the Sept. 11, 2001 attack against the United States.

In an interview with CBS News' Charlie Rose, the president was asked if he has read the 28 pages.

"I have a sense of what's in there. But this has been a process which we generally deal with through the intelligence community and Jim Clapper, our director of national intelligence, has been going through to make sure that whatever it is that is released is not gonna compromise some major national security interest of the United States. My understanding is that he's about to complete that process," Mr. Obama told Rose.

CBS' "60 Minutes" recently aired a story highlighting the 28 pages and it also featured interviews with current and former members of Congress, U.S. officials, members of the 9/11 Commission and families of the terrorist attacks. Former Sen. Bob Graham helped author the report that the 28 pages appears in and while he declined to detail that section, he told "60 Minutes" that that portion could highlight possible Saudi support for the 9/11 hijackers. He also suggested that it sheds light on a network of people he believes supported the hijackers in the U.S.

Nearly 3,000 people perished in the attack as hijacked planes flew into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon. A third hijacked plane crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

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