U.S. Declassifies “28 Pages” on Saudi Involvement in 9/11

After years of campaigning by many organizations, including CSI, the United States on Friday finally opened up the infamous “28 pages” of the 2002 Congressional 9/11 investigation, which had been classified since the report’s initial release. As was widely reported, the previously-classified materials provide strong evidence of Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the 9/11 attacks, the worst jihad attack in American history, in which almost 3,000 people perished. (You can read the 28 pages here.)

Among the findings:

  • Omar al-Bayoumi, a likely Saudi intelligence officer on the payroll of the Saudi ministry of defense, provided financial help and help finding an apartment to two of the 9/11 hijackers.
  • Osama Bassnan, a Saudi national who received regular payments from the prominent Saudi leader Bandar bin Sultan, lived near the two hijackers and bragged to an FBI source that “he did more for the hijackers than al-Bayoumi did.”
  • “In testimony and interviews, a number of FBI agents and CIA officers complained to the [inquiry] about a lack of Saudi cooperation in terrorism investigations both before and after the September 11th attacks.”

The full story of Saudi involvement in the 9/11 attacks has yet to be written, but it is abundantly clear that Saudi Arabia, one of the U.S.’s closest allies in the Middle East, plays a principle role in the spread of Islamic terrorism and extremism throughout the world.

In 2009, Hillary Clinton wrote in a secret memo that, “Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide.” Saudi Arabian arms and weapons have helped al Qaeda and other groups in Syria in their campaign to overthrow the Syrian government and cleanse Syria of non-Sunnis. And Saudi support for Islamic extremist preachers, textbooks and evangelists has helped spread intolerance for Christians, Shi’ites, women, and other groups throughout the Islamic world.

CSI reiterates its call for the U.S. to do everything in its power to restrain the influence of its Islamic supremacist allies, and work for the protection of Christians and other religious minority communities in the Middle East.