Rand Paul: Declassify 9/11 report pages on Saudi Arabia

Rand Paul is already zeroing in on his next national security battle: urging the declassification of a 28-page document many believe implicates Saudi Arabia as a financier in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The Kentucky senator and GOP presidential candidate said on Tuesday that he will seek to force a vote that would make it the sense of Congress that President Barack Obama should reveal the redacted pages of the Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 2001.


Paul said he will push to vote on his legislation as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, which the Senate is expected to take up this week.

“Information revealed over the years does raise questions about [Saudi Arabia’s] support, or whether their support might have been supportive to these Al Qaeda terrorists,” Paul said at a news conference, flanked by families of 9/11 victims, House co-sponsors and former Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.). “We can not let page after page of blanked-out documents be obscured behind a veil, leading these families to wonder if there is additional information surrounding these horrible acts.”

Paul acknowledged that he also has the ability as a senator to read the classified documents into the congressional record on the Senate floor, a technique that former Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) threatened to use in December to force the release of the executive summary of an internal report on CIA interrogation techniques. But Paul indicated he is not currently entertaining that as an option.

“We’re going to try the normal legislative procedure first and see how it goes. But I will bring it up with the president and ask him directly to do this,” Paul said.

Graham, who led the congressional inquiry into the 9/11 attacks, theatrically flipped through the redacted pages of the report to the crowd of reporters and gawking onlookers and said the release of the documents “will cause the American government to reconsider the nature of our relationship with Saudi Arabia.”

“Nearly every significant element that led to the attacks of Sept. 11 points to Saudi Arabia,” said Terry Strada, who leads 9/11 Families and Survivors United For Justice Against Terrorism. “Money is the lifeblood of terrorism. Without money, 9/11 wouldn’t have happened.”

Later during the news conference, Graham was urged by members of the audience to run for president to make the release of the document a major talking point on the campaign trail. Graham demurred, and Paul quipped in response: “We need some competition.”