28 Pages

I wish I could include the 60 Minutes report from April 19th this year, but while the full episode is available on YouTube (in 3D no less, you have to change the settings to 2D or haul out your Star Wars glasses) the individual clip is hidden behind a registration wall at CBS and I don’t do that.

9/11 Attackers May Have Had Saudi Help, Classified Report Says
by Nafeesa Syeed, Bloomberg News
July 15, 2016

Saudi nationals connected to the government in Riyadh may have aided some of the Sept. 11 hijackers in the U.S. before they carried out their attacks, according to a long-classified portion of a congressional inquiry.

The 28-page section was made public (.PDF) Friday by the House Intelligence Committee with some portions blacked out after U.S. intelligence agencies delivered on a long-pending promise to declassify it as sought by the families of the almost 3,000 victims of the attacks.

“While in the United States, some of the September 11 hijackers were in contact with, and received support or assistance from, individuals who may be connected to the Saudi government,” the report said.
…
Saudi officials and the head of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency have long said the 28 pages provide no evidence that the U.S. ally was involved in the attacks, and American lawmakers underscored that in releasing the material.

“It’s important to note that this section does not put forward vetted conclusions, but rather unverified leads that were later fully investigated by the intelligence committee,” Representative Devin Nunes of California, the committee’s Republican chairman, said in a statement.

Complaints have re-emerged in recent months from some Americans, including relatives of Sept. 11 victims, that Saudi Arabia or organizations and wealthy individuals based there have financed groups linked to terrorism or failed to crack down on militants. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers in the 9/11 attacks were identified as Saudi nationals.

The U.S. commission that investigated the 2001 attacks said in its 2004 report that it “found no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior officials within the Saudi government funded al-Qaeda.”

But some current and former members of Congress have said that formulation left room for less direct involvement and pressed for the release of the 28 classified pages. A CBS “60 Minutes” report in April suggested a Saudi diplomat “known to hold extremist views” may have helped the hijackers after they traveled to the U.S. to prepare for the attacks.
…
Saudi officials and the head of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency have long said the 28 pages provide no evidence that the U.S. ally was involved in the attacks, and American lawmakers underscored that in releasing the material.

“It’s important to note that this section does not put forward vetted conclusions, but rather unverified leads that were later fully investigated by the intelligence committee,” Representative Devin Nunes of California, the committee’s Republican chairman, said in a statement.

Complaints have re-emerged in recent months from some Americans, including relatives of Sept. 11 victims, that Saudi Arabia or organizations and wealthy individuals based there have financed groups linked to terrorism or failed to crack down on militants. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers in the 9/11 attacks were identified as Saudi nationals.

The U.S. commission that investigated the 2001 attacks said in its 2004 report that it “found no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior officials within the Saudi government funded al-Qaeda.”

But some current and former members of Congress have said that formulation left room for less direct involvement and pressed for the release of the 28 classified pages. A CBS “60 Minutes” report in April suggested a Saudi diplomat “known to hold extremist views” may have helped the hijackers after they traveled to the U.S. to prepare for the attacks.
…
“The Saudi government and leadership today has inherited a history whereby there have been a number of individuals both inside of Saudi Arabia as well as outside who have embraced a rather fundamentalist — extremist in some areas — version of the Islamic faith, which has allowed individuals who then move toward violence and terrorism to exploit that and capitalize on that,” (CIA Chief John) Brennan said in a speech in Washington on July 13.