Spy director: Secret pages in 9/11 report could be released by June

Twenty-eight pages from a congressional inquiry into the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, could be made public by June, according to the nation’s top intelligence official.

“I think that is certainly a realistic goal from where we stand with that,” Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who is charged with overseeing the pages’ potential declassification, said at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast.

{mosads}“We are in the position of trying to coordinate interagency position on the declassification of the 28 pages,” he added.

Release of the pages would end long-running speculation about what they contain.

Some people who have read the blanked-out pages, which are part of a joint 2002 congressional inquiry into the 9/11 attacks, have claimed the pages strongly implicate officials within the government of Saudi Arabia as being complicit in the attacks.

On Sunday, former Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.) — an author of the congressional report and a prime advocate for release of the 28 pages — said the White House had told him to expect a decision by June.

“I think it’s implausible to think that people who couldn’t speak English, had never been in the United States before, as a group were not well-educated, could have done that,” Graham said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” 

“So who was the most likely entity to have provided them that support? And I think all the evidence points to Saudi Arabia.”

Fifteen of the 19 9/11 hijackers were Saudi citizens, which some believe is an indication of the kingdom’s support of extremists. Other formal analyses of the 2001 attacks have ruled out the official support of al Qaeda terrorists by Saudi Arabia, but that does not preclude the possibility that lower-level government figures funneled money to the extremists. 

Scrutiny on Saudi Arabia’s potential role in 9/11 has mounted in recent days, following news that the kingdom and White House had been strongly lobbying Congress against legislation that would allow families of 9/11 victims to sue Riyadh for any potential involvement.

Saudi Arabia has threatened to sell off $750 billion in U.S. assets if the bill goes forward, and the White House has warned that it could undermine U.S. sovereign immunity around the globe.