The co-chair of a joint congressional investigation that penned a report at the center of the unfolding controversy over Saudi Arabia’s suspected connection to the 9/11 attacks revealed Sunday he felt that “all the evidence points to” the shadowy kingdom having aided the terrorists responsible for the devastating act that killed nearly 3,000 people.
“To me, the most important unanswered question of 9/11 is did these 19 (hijackers) conduct this very sophisticated plot alone, or were they supported? I think it’s implausible to think that people who couldn’t speak English, had never been in the United States before, as a group were not well-educated could have done that,” former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.), who helped author the 2002 report based on a joint House and Senate Intelligence Committee probe into the attacks, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“So who was the most likely entity to have provided them that support?” Graham continued. “All the evidence points to Saudi Arabia. We know that Saudi Arabia started Al Qaeda. It was a creation of Saudi Arabia.”
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
The front page of the New York Daily News for April 17 about Saudi Arabia’s King Salman’s threat to sell off up to $750 billion of his country’s U.S. assets.
Graham’s report, which comprised 850 pages, contained a 28-page section — which remains classified — that many have speculated contains damning information connecting the 9/11 hijackers, 15 of 19 whom were Saudi citizens, to the Saudi government.
PRESIDENT OBAMA MEETS WITH SAUDI ARABIA’S KING SALMAN
But when asked whether he felt the still-classified documents would reveal a connection between the attackers and the Saudi government, or simply “wealthy individuals who happen to be Saudi,” Graham demurred.
“That is a very murky line. Saudi Arabia has made it murky by its own legal action. Whenever a U.S. group sues a Saudi Arabian entity, whether it’s a bank, a foundation, a charity, immediately, the defense of sovereign immunity is raised,” Graham said. “The Saudis don’t recognize the difference between a royal decision and a societal decision in the same way that other countries might. So I think it covers a broad range, from the highest ranks of the kingdom through these, what would be private entities.”
The former lawmaker has repeatedly pressed for the declassification of those pages — a call echoed in recent months by the families of 9/11 victims and a request being considered by President Obama.
Opponents of releasing the documents have argued that their revelations could irreparably harm relations between the two traditionally allied nations — a possibility Graham wouldn’t deny.
When asked what the potential damage of the papers’ release would be to the U.S.-Saudi relationship “on a scale of one to ten,” Graham, who left Capitol Hill in 2005, replied bluntly and specifically: “7.838.”
“So you think it will have a high level negative impact,” host Chuck Todd replied.
“Yes,” Graham said.
The documents were originally classified by the George W. Bush White House, but even one former administration official suggested Sunday that the U.S. should “just make all 28 pages public.”
OBAMA, KING SALMAN COMPLETELY AVOID DISCUSSING 9/11 BILL DURING MEETING
RAINIER EHRHARDT/AP
John Bolton, Bush’s Ambassador to the U.N. from 2005-2006, said the Saudi Arabian government has agreed to make pages with suspected damning information public.
“Let’s see what’s in there and then we can talk about it,” John Bolton, Bush’s Ambassador to the U.N. from 2005-2006 said on “The Cats Roundtable” on AM 970.
“I think it’s important to note that the Saudi government itself has said for 10 or 12 years now that they agree to make the pages public, so I don’t know what the Obama administration’s hold-up is. I think the sooner we get them out and let the American public see them, the better off we’ll be,” he said.
The White House said last week that Obama has asked for a declassification review of the 28 pages but that a decision was in the hands of the Department of National Intelligence.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
The front page of the New York Daily News for April 21 shows President Obama visiting King Salman — and avoiding the 9/11 topic.
But in a press conference with reporters last week deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes also suggested in thinly veiled language that the White House believed the still-classified documents don’t contain anything damning.
EXPLAINER: SAUDI ARABIA’S INVOLVEMENT IN THE 9/11 ATTACKS
The ongoing discussion over the documents comes as Congress is considering a controversial proposed bill that would allow the families of 9/11 victims the right to sue the Saudi government for any role it may have played in the terror attacks.
The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, which passed the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this year, would take away immunity from foreign governments in cases “arising from a terrorist attack that kills an American on American soil.”
The Saudi Arabian government has threatened to sell $750 billion in Treasury securities and other assets in the United States should the U.S. Congress pass the legislation.
Obama — who sat down with Saudi King Salman last week during an ill-timed 24-hour trip to the kingdom but completely avoided discussing the bill — has opposed the bill, prompting anger among the kin of those who died in the horrific terror act.
