Wednesday, July 20, 2016

The 28 Pages that Damn Saudi Arabia

By A.J. Caschetta

  • More puzzling than the elusive pages from the Congressional 9/11 inquiry is why Obama released them, and specifically, why now.
  • The president apparently believes it will burnish his legacy, embarrass his enemies and make permanent his diplomatic "accomplishments" with Iran. Reminding Americans of Saudi Arabia's Al-Qaeda connections, shortly after the one-year mark of the Iran nuclear deal and before the 15-year mark of 9/11, might also continue to desensitize us to the dangers posed by Iran.
  • Americans suddenly flush with a renewed indignation against the Saudis might not run into the arms of the Iranian mullahs, but some might get distracted from their equally-deserved indignation about Iran's ongoing missile tests, the steady progress Iranian scientists are making at the nuclear plant in Parchin, and their anger at having been lied to again and again.
The White House has finally released the 28 pages that were removed from the 2002 Congressional inquiry into the 9/11 attacks. They reveal an intricate web of Saudi nationals radiating outwards from Prince Bandar (right), supplying assistance to Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdar, two of the 9/11 terrorists.
After keeping them secret for 14 years, the White House has finally released the 28 pages that were removed from the 2002 Congressional inquiry into the 9/11 attacks and withheld from the final 9/11 Commission Report. More puzzling than the elusive pages is why Obama released them, and specifically, why now.
The administration claims that the 28 pages clear the Saudis because they provide no conclusive evidence of their involvement in 9/11. The media echo chamber followed the administration's lead: Time, Al Arabiya, NBC, the Associated Press and many others reported that the pages contained "no smoking guns." But there are smoking guns. Those smoking guns expose the Saudi government as a sponsor of terrorism, and, by proxy, improve Iran's standing in the Middle East.

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