Saudi support for the 9/11 hijackers should preclude a relationship between the U.S. and Saudi governments.
The 28 Days Later movies chronicle the breakdown of society after a deadly virus leaks into the world. “28 Pages” is about the breakdown in national security that sowed the seeds for the worst outbreak (9/11) ever of the deadly virus of terrorism.
On the occasion of President Obama’s upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia, 60 Minutes did a segment on the infamous 28 pages that were excised from the report of the Joint Congressional Inquiry into the 9/11 attacks and then classified. Called a “void in the history of 9/11” by the New Yorker, they deal with Saudi support for the 9/11 hijackers, most of whom were Saudis.
Bob Graham, as you may recall, was a Democratic senator from Florida and the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, as well as co-chair of the bipartisan joint congressional inquiry into intelligence failures surrounding the attacks. He appeared on 60 Minutes to urge the U.S. government to release the pages in question. As one of the few who has seen them, he believes they go a long way to showing how the Saudi government, as well as wealthy individuals in Saudi Arabia, contributed to the attacks.
From the transcript of the show:
Graham and others believe the Saudi role has been soft-pedaled to protect a delicate relationship with a complicated kingdom where the rulers, royalty, riches and religion are all deeply intertwined in its institutions.
It is time we get it through our heads once and for all that the Saudis are not our friends. Not only have they funded terrorism for years, either directly or indirectly, but they constitute an ongoing fly in the ointment in our relations with Iran. Also, the United States has let itself get sucked into supporting the Saudis in its war on Yemen — the savageness of which is only exceeded by its senselessness. The United States doesn’t even need their oil anymore.
