Image Credits: Gage Skidmore, Wiki Commons.
Redacted pages thought to hold key info about Saudi involvement in attacks
Senator Rand Paul is on board with an ongoing effort to release government documents pertaining to the 9/11 attacks that have thus far remained secret on “national security” grounds.
The 28 pages of documents are thought to contain information relating to the direct involvement in the attacks of senior figures in the Saudi Arabian government.
“We cannot let page after page of blanked-out documents be obscured by a veil,” Paul said at a Capitol press conference on Tuesday.
“Information revealed over the years does raise questions about [Saudi Arabia’s] support, or whether their support might have been supported to these al Qaeda terrorists,” Paul noted.
The Senator was surrounded by families of victims of the terror attacks, as well as other lawmakers who are campaigning for the documents to be made public.
“We owe it to these families, and we cannot let this lack of transparency erode trust and make us feel less secure.” Paul added.
“We all are calling today for the release of these 28 pages,” the Senator said, adding “We’re going to try the normal legislative procedure first and see how it goes. But I will bring it up with the president and ask him directly to do this.”
Paul has introduced legislation called the “Transparency for the Families of 9/11 Act,” that would force the Obama administration to disclose the pages, which were extracted from a congressional inquiry into the attacks in 2002 and made secret by the Bush government.
Other lawmakers, including Rep. Walter Jones and Sen. Ron Wyden signed on to Paul’s bill as cosponsors. The two have been campaigning for a number of years to have the 9/11 information uncovered.
Former Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.), who oversaw the Congressional inquiry, and is adamant that there is a Saudi related cover up, said “The 28 pages are very important and will, I think, inform the American people and, in so doing, will cause the American government to reconsider the nature of our relationship with Saudi Arabia,”
“But beyond that, these are emblematic of a pattern of withholding information unnecessarily and to the detriment of the American people.” Graham added.
The section of the inquiry, titled “Finding, Discussion and Narrative Regarding Certain National Security Matters,” is thought to have been held back by both the Bush and Obama administrations “for fear of alienating an influential military and economic partner rather than for any national security consideration,” the New York Times reported earlier this year.
CNN also reported in February that the 28 pages “focus on the role of foreign governments in the plot.”
Barack Obama previously promised families of 9/11 victims that he would declassify the pages. “And he hasn’t kept his word,” Rep. Jones told The Daily Beast.
“I don’t know if it might be embarrassing to the Bush administration, how close they were to the Saudi family,” Jones said. “I just don’t know. I can’t put my fingers on it.”
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Steve Watson is a London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’ Infowars.com, and Prisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham, and a Bachelor Of Arts Degree in Literature and Creative Writing from Nottingham Trent University.
http://www.infowars.com/rand-paul-joins-fight-to-release-secret-911-documents/