Saudis braced for release of hidden pages of 9/11 report

Washington (AFP) – Saudi Arabia is confident nothing in a secret 28-page section of a US congressional report on the September 11 attacks implicates its leaders.

 

But some officials worry its eventual publication — 15 years after the assault on New York and Washington — will stir suspicion at a time of tense ties.

 

In December 2002, a year after the attacks, the House and Senate committees on intelligence published a report into the US investigation into them.

 

But the then president, George W. Bush, ordered that 28 pages of the report be classified to protect the methods and identities of US intelligence sources.

 

Last month, former senator Bob Graham said the pages should be made public and alleged Saudi officials had provided assistance to the 9/11 hijackers.

 

Graham, who was the Senate intelligence committee chairman, said the White House had told him they will decide by June whether to declassify the pages.

 

The issue of alleged — and fiercely denied — Saudi involvement in the attacks has been brought up again by attempts to lodge a law suit against the kingdom.

 

Relatives of some of the American victims of the hijackers are lobbying Congress to pass a law lifting Saudi Arabia’s sovereign immunity from liability.

 

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