Why the secrecy over the classified 28 pages from the 9/11 report? by Wayne Madsen

Why the secrecy over the classified 28 pages from the 9/11 report? 

by Wayne Madsen

WMR can help explain the insistence of the Obama administration in keeping 28-pages from the U.S. Congress's Joint Inquiry Into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001. The report was issued in December 2002. Since that time, the then-Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Bob Graham (D-FL), has been joined by a bi-partisan group of senators and representatives in calling for the release of the 28 pages. When the report was released in 2003, the Bush administration insisted the 28 pages remain classified. The issue has come up in the 2016 presidential race with Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) calling for the 28 pages to be released while GOP Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey has argued for the pages to remain classified. Christie has even called for Paul to be put on trial in a Joe McCarthy-like witch hunt if there is another terrorist attack on America. Also arguing against release is Representative Peter King (R-NY) who said he has read the 28 pages and believes they must remain classified.

It can be understood why King would take such a position. King was a longtime supporter of funding terrorist groups in Ireland, including the Provisional Wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the "Real IRA," an even more violent group that carried out a deadly bombing of civilians in Omagh, Northern Ireland in 1998. King's reticence in releasing the 28 pages is understandable since they explain how the 9/11 terrorists were funded through an interwoven network of Saudi bank accounts and secret Muslim financiers, the same sort of network that King used to finance IRA terrorists in Ireland.

WMR has obtained a list of organizations that were investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and were on the National Security Agency's watch list for suspicious money transfers and transactions relating to the 9/11 attacks. The 28-pages remain classified because the Central Intelligence Agency had assigned case officers and "NOCs" -- non-official cover clandestine agents -- to work with officials and employees of many of the organizations on the list. It is the CIA that has objected to the 28-pages being made public because of its involvement with many of the businesses and groups prior to and after 9/11.

The following banks are on the list:

Al Baraka Investments and Development Corporation
Al Barakaat Exchange LLC
Al Rajhi Banking and Investment
Al Shamal Islamic Bank
Arab Bank
Bank al-Taqwa
Dar al Maal al Islami
Dubai Islamic Bank
Faisal Islamic Bank
National Commerce Bank
Shamil Islamic Bank
Tadamon Islamic Bank

The list also includes the following Islamic charities:

Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, Inc.
Benevolence International Foundation
International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO)
Muslim World League
Muwafaq Foundation
Rabita trust for the Rehabilitation of Stranded Pakistanis
SAAR Foundation
Sanabel al Kheer, Inc.
Wafa Humanitarian Organization
World Assembly of Muslim Youth

The following Saudi officials are on the list:

Turki al Faisal al Saud (the former chief of Saudi intelligence and ambassador to the U.S. and U.K.)
Mohammed bin Faisal al Saud (chairman of the board of the King Faisal Foundation)
Sultan bin Abdul Aziz al Saud (late Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia)

The following companies are on the list:

Africa Muslims Agency
Akida Bank Private, Ltd.
Akida Investment Co., Ltd.
Asat Trust
Global Relief Foundation
Gulf Center SRL
Heritage Education Trust (Ashburn, Virginia)
International Institute of Islamic Thought
International Islamic Relief Organization
Mar-Jac Investments, Inc.
Mar-Jac Poultry, Inc.
MENA Corporation
Miga-Malaysian Swiss, Gulf and African Chamber
Muslim World League
Nada International Anstalt
Nada Management Organization SA
Nasco Nasreddin Holding AS
Nascoservice SRL
Nascotex SA
Nasreddin Foundation
Reston Investments, Inc.
Safa Trust
Saudi Bin Laden Group
Sterling Charitable Gift Fund
Sterling Management Group, Inc.
Success Foundation, Inc.
Taibah International Aid Association
York Foundation

Release of the 28 pages has also been stymied by certain proactive congressional members of the Israel Lobby. The reason for that may be explained by the presence on the list of suspicious organizations elements that were involved in supplying airport concessions on 9/11. Many of the supplied concessions are located within the secure parts of airports, including Newark and Dulles International Airports, where two of the four hijacked planes had originated on 9/11. The security applied to airport concessionaires was managed by aviation security companies with links to Israel. One such company, ICTS International, managed the security of Newark and Boston Logan airports on 9/11. As one official who read the 28 pages told WMR on deep background, the embarrassing links to Israel are contained in the footnotes found within the 28 pages.

Bipartisan members of Congress sponsor bills for declassification of 9/11 report segment - Bush family behind opposition to 28-pages declassification.

SPECIAL REPORT. Bipartisan members of Congress sponsor bills for declassification of 9/11 report segment - Bush family behind opposition to 28-pages declassification.

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), a candidate for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, today urged support for a bill to declassify 28-pages from the joint congressional report on the failures of intelligence that led to the 9/11 attack. Joining Paul were members of the House of Representatives who previously introduced a companion bill urging that the 28-pahes be declassified by President Obama. Paul was flanked at a June 2 press conference in the Congressional Visitors Center by the House members who support the declassification of the pages believed to point to senior members of the Saudi government having provided financial and other support to the 9/11 hijackers. The House members joining Paul were Representatives Walter Jones (R-NC), Stephen Lynch (D-MA), and Thomas Massie (R-KY).

Paul and Jones both voiced their misgivings about the lack of interest of their colleagues of both parties in advancing the legislation. Paul's bill, the Transparency for the Families of 9/11 Victims Act, has two Democratic co-sponsors, Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). However, the bi-partisan leadership of both parties has been virtually silent on supporting the bill. Former Senator Bob Graham (D-FL), the final author of the 9/11 Intelligence report as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was also present at the press conference. Graham displayed a more voluminous copy of a Treasury Department report on Saudi financing of the 9/11 attack. Graham, leafing through the report from the press conference podium showed the press that it was entirely blacked out. Graham called on that report to also be declassified.


Rand Paul with 9/11 family members behind him


Former Senator Bob Graham [right]. To Graham's right, in order, Reps. Stephen Lynch, Thomas Massie, and Walter Jones (head bowed). At the far left is a former New York City fireman, a 9/11 first responder.

Paul said he would also introduce the declassification bill as an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act next week. When asked why he would not simply read the 28-pages into the Congressional Record, which is the prerogative of all members of Congress, he replied that he was trying the standard method first before considering the use of senatorial automatic declassification privilege with regard to the Congressional Record.

A number of family members of the 9/11 victims joined the members of Congress behind the podium and they appealed to President Obama to order the declassification of the 28-pages as quickly as possible.


One page from the 28-pages

WMR spoke to a few congressional sources on background on the congressional leadership opposition to the declassification bill. We learned that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), has been under pressure from the family of George W. Bush, oil industry lobbyists, and the Saudi government to prevent the declassification.

WMR asked Senator Paul about his comment that declassification was even supported by the Saudi government. Considering that the present-Saudi King Salman was the Governor of Riyadh Province prior to and after 9/11 and that he reportedly facilitated the travel for and cash payments to Al Qaeda members, including some of the hijackers, to Pakistan and Afghanistan through Riyadh, WMR asked Paul whether Salman was also supporting declassification. Paul replied that he saw an account of a Saudi official having supported declassification and that he would have to try to locate the actual quote and the individual. After the press conference concluded, one of the members of Congress present who has read the 28-pages thanked this reporter for the question posed to Paul, saying it was a "good question."