News   /   Interviews

9/11 report remains secret to protect Saudi Arabia: Analyst

This file photo shows the 9/11 event.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Brian Becker, member of the ANSWER Coalition in Washington, and Michael Lane, founder of American Institute for Foreign Policy in Washington, about a number of US lawmakers calling on the White House to declassify documents that could expose Saudi Arabia’s role in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Becker says the United States has been obviously protecting Saudi Arabia, adding that it has treated Riyadh as a privileged and pampered ally in the oil-rich and geo-strategically important region of the Middle East.

He also contends that it is quite “extraordinary” that the 28-page document remains classified 15 years after the 9/11 attacks.

The 28-page report is part of a larger joint congressional report on 9/11, called the Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities, which was released in 2002.

“If they [President Obama and the Homeland Security] do not release the pages, then the entire world public opinion and of course American public opinion will think, well there is something that’s been hidden and what could that something be except Saudi connection of some type to the 9/11 hijackers,” he says.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Becker argues that the Saudi government has not been part of the US team in the last couple of years and it has pursued a more “independent regional strategy.”

He goes on to say that President Obama could certainly be using the possible disclosure of these 28 pages to pressure the Saudis into lining up behind US policy goals in Syria and the broader Middle East.

“I think the Obama administration does not want to break with the Saudis. It is trying to discipline the Saudis and trying to make the Saudis pay a price and demonstrate to them that a greater price can be made if the Saudis do not toe the American government line,” he says.

Lane, for his part, believes that if these files are ever declassified and released, it will be shocking to many Americans what they might contain.  


Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk

SHARE THIS ARTICLE
Press TV News Roku