Rand Paul and Ron Wyden to call for release of redacted 9/11 report

Sens. Rand Paul and Ron Wyden are teaming up to call for the public release of 28 classified pages from a 2002 intelligence report on the 9/11 attacks — pages that have taken on near-totemic significance for many who believe the U.S. government has yet to fully reveal what it knows about the 2001 assault on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The Kentucky Republican’s office confirmed that it had secured the Oregon Democrat as a co-sponsor of the Transparency for the Families of 9/11 Victims Act, which Paul will discuss at a press conference Tuesday alongside supporters of a version of the measure in the House of Representatives, Congressmen Walter Jones (R-N.C.), Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.).


They will also be joined by former Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.) who chaired the committee that issued the report and has long agitated for its full release, often darkly hinting at its contents.

“The 28 pages primarily relate to who financed 9/11, and they point a very strong finger at Saudi Arabia as being the principal financier,” Graham has said.

Saudi Arabia has denied those accusations, and has joined calls for the redacted information’s release.

The issue of the 28 pages has come up again and again since the report on intelligence failures that failed to prevent al Qaeda’s attacks was released in 2002. Issued separately from the 9/11 commission report, the Joint Inquiry Into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001 report contained a section on intelligence surrounding foreign backing of the attackers.

In 2003, 11 Democratic senators sent a letter to President George W. Bush mentioning what information the redacted pages might yield: “It has been widely reported in the press that the foreign sources referred to in this portion of the Joint Inquiry analysis reside primarily in Saudi Arabia.”

Bush refused, citing the need to protect “sources and methods” needed to fight terrorism.

More recently, lawyers representing the families of victims killed in the 9/11 attacks have demanded the report’s full release as part of their lawsuit against the Saudi government, and a former al Qaeda operative — Zacarius Moussaui — testified earlier this year that top members of the Saudi royal family had supported the terrorist organization.

Many national security experts have dismissed such claims, but after reading the pages, Rep. Massie said in a July 2014 press conference that he found the section “disturbing” and challenged all other congressmen to examine them.

“I don’t think it would hurt our national security to release this,” he added, “and it would give families the answers they deserve.”

“It’s going to be difficult and it’s going to be embarrassing.”

The decision to declassify the redacted pages would rest with President Barack Obama. White House has said it is reviewing calls for their release, but has provided no update or timetable on that review’s progress.