CIA director: Don’t release '28 pages', they implicate Saudis

CIA Director John Brennan testifies before the US Senate Intelligence Committee on February 9, 2016. (AFP photo)

John Brennan, the director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), has said that it would be a mistake to release the 28 classified pages from the 9/11 Commission report because they contain "un-vetted" information that could implicate Saudi Arabia in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

A number of former and current congressmen have called on the White House to declassify the document that sheds light on the Saudi royal family’s possible complicity in the 9/11 attacks.

They say it proves two Saudi nationals who were behind the September 11 incidents received support and assistance from Riyadh while in the United States.

In an interview with NBC News on Sunday, Brennan said, “This chapter was kept out because of concerns about sensitive methods, investigative actions, and the investigation of 9/11 was still underway in 2002.”

The CIA chief said releasing the 28-page classified document would give ammunition to those who want to tie the terrorist attacks to Saudi Arabia.

"I think some people may seize upon that uncorroborated, un-vetted information…to point to Saudi involvement, which I think would be very, very inaccurate," he said.

"I think there's a combination of things that are accurate and inaccurate [in the report]," Brennan said.

"I think the 9/11 Commission took that joint inquiry and those 28 pages or so and followed through on the investigation and then came out with a very clear judgment that there was no evidence that ... Saudi government as an institution or Saudi officials or individuals had provided financial support to al-Qaeda,” he claimed.

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

The September, 11, 2001 attacks, also known as the 9/11 attacks, were a series of strikes in the US which killed nearly 3,000 people and caused about $10 billion worth of property and infrastructure damage.

US officials assert that the attacks were carried out by 19 al-Qaeda terrorists – 15 of them were Saudi citizens -- but many independent researchers have raised questions about the official account.

They believe that rogue elements within the US government orchestrated the 9/11 attacks in order to accelerate the US war machine and advance the Zionist agenda.

Analysts argue that Saudi Arabia only played a minor role in 9/11, but the operation was essentially carried out by Israeli and American intelligence agencies to destroy the seven countries in five years, that were enemies or threats to the Zionist regime.

According to American political analyst Mark Gelnn, the media frenzy over Saudi Arabia’s possible role in the 9/11 attacks is aimed at distracting people from much deeper involvement of Israel as the truth would endanger its existence.

“I believe that the entire operation is one that is rooted in distracting people away from what the truly problematic elements are with regards to 9/11,” Glenn told Press TV last week. “And I believe this revolves all around Israel’s role in 9/11.”

“This entire operation that Saudi Arabia is being center-staged as the true subject of these 28 pages that have been kept hidden from the American people, this is just, as I said, an operation aimed at distracting people away from the more damning and problematic information where Israel is actually the centerpiece of the discussion,” the analyst stated.

“If the American people were to find out what happened and how Israel was directly involved in 9/11, it would obviously change the political landscape vis-à-vis America and her support for Israel” in such a radical way that would be considered an “existential threat” to the Tel Aviv regime, he added.

Former US Senator Bob Graham

Former US Senator Bob Graham, however, says he believes the 28-page classified document shows the 9/11 hijackers were "substantially" supported by the Saudi government, as well as wealthy Saudi nationals.

"I think it is implausible to believe that 19 people, most of whom didn't speak English, most of whom had never been in the United States before, many of whom didn't have a high school education — could've carried out such a complicated task without some support from within the United States," Graham said in April.


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