Both towers of the World Trade Center in New York City burn after being struck by two hijacked airliners on Sept. 11, 2001. Thursday, various news reports said a long-sealed portion of the official 9/11 report, 28 or 29 pages that address potential ties to the attacks by Saudi Arabia, will be released soon. The pages were classified by former President George W. Bush's administration for nearly 15 years out of what it said was a desire to protect intelligence information and methods. File Photo by Ezio Petersen/UPI | License Photo

WASHINGTON, July 14 (UPI) -- More than two dozen sealed pages of the U.S. congressional investigative report on the 9/11 terrorist attacks, kept secret by the federal government for nearly 15 years, will be declassified and released -- perhaps as soon as Friday, news reports said Thursday.

The 28-page portion of the report, which have long been the focus of various conspiracy theories, is said to detail potential connections between the Saudi Arabian government and the terror plot.


Prior to the report's release in 2004, former President George W. Bush's administration classified the pages, citing a need to protect intelligence sources and methods.

None of the 28 pages have ever been made available to the public, but the forthcoming release will reportedly offer a redacted version of the documents. Various news reports said the release may happen as soon as Friday.

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"The House Intelligence Committee will get the redacted report today or tomorrow," Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said Thursday. "The Senate and House intelligence committees should then give the formal go ahead to release the report, since they originally produced it."

"It is going to increase the questioning of the Saudis' role supporting the hijackers," former Florida Sen. Bob Graham, who was part of the 9/11 investigation panel, told CNN Thursday. "I think of this almost as the 28 pages are sort of the cork in the wine bottle. And once it's out, hopefully the rest of the wine itself will start to pour out."


The Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States was published by the 9/11 Commission in July 2004, nearly three years after the attacks and after 18 months of investigation. The report is the U.S. government's official account of the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

Skeptics and conspiracy theorists, though, have long criticized the commission's report and the Bush White House for submitting what they claim is an incomplete or fabricated version of events. The sealed 28-page portion, they claim, is just one part of the investigation that has been kept secret to hide Saudi involvement -- and a larger scope of facts relating to the deadliest terrorist plot ever carried out in the United States.

In fact, the classified portion in question is actually 29 pages long, sources reportedly told CNN Thursday. President Barack Obama, under pressure from victims' families, said in April the pages would be declassified.

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U.S. intelligence agencies, law enforcement and the Department of State have all approved the release of the pages with only minimal redactions, CNN's report said.

"This is great news. The families are happy just as the American people should be happy that information that has been kept hidden for well over a decade is finally coming to light," attorney Jerry Goldman, who represents families of some 9/11 victims, said.

"All of this could be settled if we would just release the 28 pages and let everyone see what's in there," Terry Strada, who lost her husband in the attacks, said.


"If it was just this low-level ... government officials in the Saudi Arabian government, then they have nothing to worry about," she added. "The American people deserve this just as much as the 9/11 families deserve it, but we're the ones that are suffering by not having them released."

The views of Strada and others who think like her were echoed Thursday by former Sen. Graham, whose remarks did nothing to dispel the continued conjecture surrounding the attacks -- which some skeptics believe involved the active participation, complicity, or, at the very least, advance knowledge by the Bush administration.

"Would the U.S. government have kept information that was just speculation away from American people for 14 years if somebody didn't think it was going to make a difference?" Graham said.

CIA Director John Brennan, though, said last month that there is nothing in the pages that implicates the Saudi government in the attacks. A month earlier, he said the pages contain some information that is inaccurate, uncorroborated and unvetted.

Perhaps surprisingly, the Saudi government has also asked for the declassification of the materials, mainly so it can respond to any allegations or questions that may lie within the pages.

Saudi Arabia, which has long enjoyed positive diplomatic relations with the United States, has even promised to make available to American authorities any suspects who might be identified in the report. No such requests, though, have yet been made, Saudi officials said.


The sealed pages are also of particular interest to certain families of 9/11 victims who are seeking financial compensation, via civil lawsuits, from the Saudi government. For more than a decade after the attacks, federal law prohibited victims from suing foreign governments over the matter in civil courts.

In May, however, the Senate unanimously passed the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), which effectively overturns the law and allows victims and families to seek damages from nations considered by the U.S. government to be sponsors of terrorism or militant groups.

Many federal lawmakers, both Republican and Democrat, support the legislation. Obama, though, has vehemently opposed JASTA and pledged to veto it -- if it's green-lit by the House and reaches his desk before his final day in office, Jan. 19, 2017.