Amid New Claims, Calls Intensify to Declassify Saudi Chapter of 9/11 Report

Following developments this week in which the alleged 20th hijacker of the 9/11 attacks in 2001 claimed in a stated deposition that prominent officials within the Saudi government offered substantial financial support for al Qaeda in the years prior to the plot against targets in New York City and Washington, D.C., renewed calls are emerging for the U.S. government to declassify a chapter of the official 9/11 Commission Report which is thought to detail its conclusions about the role Saudi Arabian higher-ups may or may not have played in those events.

Fifteen of the nineteen identified hijackers were Saudi nationals and questions have long-simmered about what, if any, knowledge Saudi officials may have had about the attack or—more contentiously—if any members of the nation’s royal family or intelligence services may have played an active role in financing or enabling it.

According to reporting by Carl Hulse at the New York Times on Thursday:

According to the Guardian‘s Jason Burke, Moussaoui’s “new testimony has some largely uncontroversial elements that ring true – and plenty more controversial allegations that do not.”

VICE News reports:

However, as a separate article in the Times, this one by Ben Hubbard and Scott Shane, notes “Mr. Moussaoui’s sensational allegations have drawn attention in part because far more credible figures, including some members of the national 9/11 Commission, believe the Saudi role in the attacks has never been adequately examined.”

Those more “credible figures” of the 9/11 Commission include former senators Bob Graham of Florida and Bob Kerrey of Nebraska as well as John Lehman, who previously served as secretary of the U.S. Navy. All three men have signed affidavits as part of an ongoing legal challenge to get that 28-page portion of the commission’s report released.

“I am convinced that there was a direct line between at least some of the terrorists who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks and the government of Saudi Arabia,” wrote Mr. Graham in his statement to the court, which was entered during proceedings on Monday of this week.

According to a separate report by Shane at the Times, filed on Wednesday:

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In a piece posted to his Consortium News site, independent journalist Robert Parry explores how the renewed focus on Saudi Arabia’s role in exporting jihadist ideology and funding non-state militant groups is relevant, not just for those interested in the historic events of 9/11, but also for current geopolitical stratagems and conflicts now underway across the Middle East and beyond.

Parry acknowledges that “Moussaoui’s credibility came under immediate attack from the Saudi kingdom” but says that fact that some of his assertions “mesh with accounts from members of the U.S. Congress who have seen a secret portion of the 9/11 report,” raises important questions about allegations over Saudi Arabia’s continued support for al-Qaeda and similar groups now operating in the region.

Complicating the predicament for Saudi Arabia, writes Parry, “is that, more recently, Saudi and other Persian Gulf oil sheikdoms have been identified as backers of Sunni militants fighting in Syria to overthrow the largely secular regime of President Bashar al-Assad. The major rebel force benefiting from this support is al-Nusra Front, al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria.

“In other words, the Saudis appear to have continued a covert relationship with al-Qaeda-connected jihadists to the present day.”