On July 15, the Obama administration declassified a document known as ‘the 28 pages’ that contained secret information about one of the most shocking terrorist events in human history,  the 9/11 attack.

The report is now accessible to the public and is part of all the material linked to the investigation of the hijackers that executed the attack. The central question in the report and the idea that leads the entire document is whether Saudi Arabia was in contact or had some connection with the hijackers that allowed the Saudi government being aware of the terrorist plan.

Even though the 9/11 attacks happened almost 15 years ago, there's plenty of information hidden from American citizens and the world. The secrets to be released by the Obama administration could set the bar for honesty within a government. Image Credit: Independent
Even though the 9/11 attacks happened almost 15 years ago, there’s plenty of information hidden from American citizens and the world. The secrets being released by the Obama administration could set the bar for honesty within a government. Image Credit: Independent

About the mysterious report

There is a letter attached to the report directed to George J. Tenet, the Director of Central Intelligence at the moment, dated January 29, 2003, that informs about the intention to release the information eventually to the public declassifying it, a call that initially was on the CIA Director.

Even though the report and its executive summary are available on the CIA official web page, some sentences and fragments of text are still covered with black blocks, due to the level of sensitivity of individual bits of information. However, the CIA stated that the exposure of most information in the reports no longer represented a risk to U.S national security.

The final assessment 

The Committee concluded that there is no evidence that either the Saudi Government or members of the Saudi royal family provided conscient support for the attacks of 9/11. However, they stated that there is evidence that official Saudi entities and NGOs provide logistical and financial support to Saudi citizens in the U.S. that may be linked to terrorist cells and may be involved with terrorism-related activities.

Even when the conclusion was that Saudi Government had no voluntary participation in the attack, the report states that al-Qa’ida and individuals affiliated with the terrorist organization have infiltrated and exploited considerably important agencies of the Saudi government.

To Congressman Thoman Kean, former Governor of New Jersey, the information revealed does not state anything new. Image Credit: Daily Mail
To Congressman Thoman Kean, former Governor of New Jersey, the information revealed does not state anything new. Image Credit: Daily Mail

Congressman Kean considers there is a lot of information that the federal government is still keeping classified unnecessarily, according to the Republican.  Kean and Lee Hamilton, former Representative, stated that the 28 pages were full of uninvestigated statements, what makes the report less relevant. Kean said that some names of Saudi citizens and employees of the Saudi government living in the U.S. that appear in the report correspond to people that were never interviewed or investigated by any authority.

The FBI contradicted this statement, which stated that interrogatories were executed to all individuals mentioned in the report, but later found no evidence to link them with the event.

The Saudi response 

Why is Saudi Arabia so relevant to investigations about 9/11? Because fifteen of the 19 hijackers on the attack were Saudi citizens, according to information revealed shortly after the assault by National Security forces.

The Saudi government and the entire Saudi royal family wanted the 28 pages released to embrace transparency in the investigation that could have harmed the political power in Saudi Arabia significantly. On Friday, they welcomed the report’s release and confirmed their intentions to keep the United States as a friend.

“Since 2002, the 9/11 Commission and several government agencies, including the CIA and the FBI, have investigated the contents of the ’28 Pages’ and have confirmed that neither the Saudi government, nor senior Saudi officials, nor any person acting on behalf of the Saudi government provided any support or encouragement for these attacks,” Abdullah al-Saud, the Saudi ambassador to the U.S., said in a public statement  quoted by CNBC news.

Both the ambassador and Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, Saudi Arabia’s King, said that they hope the release of the report will break for all suspicions about Saudi Arabia’s actions.

Source: CIA