There are 28 pages of the official report on the attacks of September 11, 2001 that the government doesn’t want you to read.
If one presidential hopeful has his way, those pages are going to be published and made available to the public.
On Tuesday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and a bipartsan coalition of congressmen called for passage of a pair of bills that would mandate release of the 28-page report, which according to Business Insider, details “foreign government connections to terrorists who carried out the September 11, 2001 attacks.”
With that revelation, it is little wonder that the Establishment doesn’t want to confirm what most constitutionalists already know: The government of the United States has a close relationship with the royal family of Saudi Arabia, who in turn is suspected of having a close relationship with some of those suspected of carrying out the attacks of 9/11.
The 28-page secret section is part of the larger “Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 2001.”
Business Insider explains the conflict of interest that might explain all the blank pages:
The Saudi government was one of the Bush administration’s closest allies in the Middle East. Some lawmakers who have seen the pages, including Rep. Walter Jones (R-North Carolina), suggest the White House may have been hesitant to release the pages because the administration would look bad for its ties with the Saudis.
“There’s nothing in it about national security,” Jones told the New Yorker. “It’s about the Bush Administration and its relationship with the Saudis.”
Rand Paul thinks the value of publishing the truth trumps the value of protecting the feelings of foreign princes, even ones chummy with current and former American presidents.
“We cannot let page after page of blanked-out documents be obscured by a veil, leaving these family members to wonder if there is additional information surrounding these horrible acts,” Paul explained during a press conference on Tuesday, as reported by the Washington Post.
Legislation that would mandate the release of the 28 pages has been offered in both houses of Congress. For its part, the White House claims they are considering calling for the publication, as well.
“The administration, in response to a specific congressional request, last year asked the intelligence community to conduct a classification review of that material,” White House spokesperson Josh Earnest told reporters during a press conference in February.
Representative Jones has been pushing for publication of the 28 pages since 2013. Rand Paul’s father, the libertarian icon, Ron Paul, has made similar calls for months, creating the hashtag #Declassify on several social media platforms.
“Though criticism has come to those who are certain that we do not know the full story of what happened that fateful day, it is important for us to set aside the conjecture and come together on the principle that we must always seek the truth,” the former congressmen said.
During an interview in August 2014, Jones explained to Paul the process of receiving permission to peruse those infamous pages:
You have to go down into a room that is guarded by uniformed officers, and then also you have an FBI person to sit there in the room. You can’t make any notes. The Bush people do not want it released. It’s not a national security issue. But it would be embarrassing to the previous administration if this information is opened for the public. … There will be no hope for America’s future if the American people don’t know the truth about a tragedy such as 9/11.
Rand Paul’s bill, S. 1471, is scheduled to be considered by the Select Committee on Intelligence. As of June 2, Paul is joined by two cosponsors: Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Kristen Gillibrand (D-N.Y.).
The measure put forward by Jones, House Resolution 14, has 15 cosponsors and has been sitting for six months in the House Committee on Intelligence.
While it is unlikely that all the 9/11 dots will ever be connected, a statement made by Congressman Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) in March 2014 after having read the redacted portion of the 9/11 report makes it clear just how illuminating the withheld information is:
“I had to stop every couple pages and just sort of absorb and try to rearrange my understanding of history for the past 13 years and the years leading up to that. It challenges you to rethink everything,” he said.
Photo of Sen. Rand Paul: AP Images
