ANDREW KREIG: REPORT ON SAUDI 9/11 TERRORISTS PROMPTS OUTRAGE, NEW QUESTIONS

The lid finally being pried off Saudi involvement in 9/11  

JUSTICE INTEGRITY PROJECT
By Andrew Kreig
07/19/2016

Some of the 9/11 hijackers received support from individuals probably connected to the Saudi government, according to a long-classified 2002 Senate-House report released in redacted form on Friday, July 15.

Earnest will be seated in the dock at The Hague

alongside predecessors Carney and Perino

White House spokesman Josh Ernest said the report shows "no evidence" of a Saudi role, and Saudi Ambassador to the United States Abdullah Al-Saud put out a statement welcoming the report's publication as administration officials suggested further that recent investigations have vindicated Saudis from the 2002 report's claims.

But Karen Breitweiser and four other prominent 9/11 widows aptly responded with a hard-hitting Huffington Post column 29 Pages Revealed: Corruption, Crime and Cover-up Of 9/11.

"First and foremost," she said of those officials making announcements, "here is what you need to know when you listen to any member of our government state that the newly released 29 pages are no smoking gun — THEY ARE LYING." She continued:

"Our government’s relationship to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is no different than an addict’s relationship to heroin. Much like a heroin addict who will lie, cheat, and steal to feed their vice, certain members of our government will lie, cheat, and steal to continue their dysfunctional and deadly relationship with the KSA — a relationship that is rotting this nation and its leaders from the inside out."

Former Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Bob Graham praised the disclosure as a way to allow families and otherinvestigators to pursue the truth about the attacks that killed more than three thousand Americans on Sept. 11, 2001. Graham, shown below in a file photo, has helped lead the fight for release of the report he co-authored in 2002 but has been forbidden to describe until now.

Former Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Bob Graham

Responding in similarly strong but measured tones was U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, a North Carolina Republican and the most senior incumbent member of congress leading the effort.

Jones said newly declassified pages from a congressional report into 9/11 will give victims' families and the American public more insight into the tragedy, as reported by the Reflector.com in Greenville, NC.

"I'm just delighted for the 9/11 families and the American people that they can see this part of 9/11 and make some decisions for themselves," Jones said. "I said all along that America's strength is when the American people know the truth about a tragedy like 9/11, one of the most horrendous things to happen to America."

President George W. Bush initially classified the report. President Barack Obama, other Executive Branch, and most congressional officials continued the classification. Meanwhile, public pressure has mounted, including a CBS 60 Minutes episode with Steve Kroft broadcast April 8 (and rebroadcast in June), Top secret "28 pages" may hold clues about Saudi support for 9/11 hijackers, making the case for the report's release.

9/11 truth now catching up with Obama and Bush

“This has been a long journey on behalf of the 9/11 families who have felt the horrific pain of that day for years," Jones said. "We are happy that President Obama kept his promise to the 9/11 families."

The lightly redacted document names individuals who helped the hijackers get apartments, open bank accounts and connect with local mosques. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals and several were not fluent in English and had little experience living in the West.

Jones is shown below (center) in our Justice Integrity Project photo of last week. It portrays also 9/11 widow Terry Strada at a microphone outside the Capitol building July 6 calling for release of the report. Reps. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY) are at the right and left of Jones, respectively.

None of the participants in the years-long struggle to release the 2002 report apparently knew the report was going to be released, or even its correct length of 29 pages. The suppressed report has always been called “the 28 pages.” Those pages have been kept locked up under such tight security that even members of Congress who wrote it — and supposedly provide oversight to the FBI, CIA and other Executive Branch agencies — could not discuss it without facing imprisonment.

That deference to the Saudis and their allies within the United States is the most important part of this episode and so shapes our coverage. 

We shall cite all relevant viewpoints but note that mainstream media for the most part ignore critics of the official reports. One was former Bush Administration counter-terrorism advisor Richard Clarke.

"The fix is in," he recalled (to a biographer) telling a White House colleague in early 2003 upon hearing news that the 9/11 Commission had hired as its executive director Philip Zelikow. Zelikow, part of the Bush administration transition team in 2000, was a close ally of the administration and a fierce opponent of Clarke, a National Security Council staffer who had unsuccessfully warned about al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden before the 9/11 attacks.

Read the rest of Andrew Kreig's report HERE.

Andrew Kreig

Andrew Kreig, Esq.

Andrew Kreig is Justice Integrity Project Executive Director and co-founder with over two decades experience as an attorney and non-profit executive in Washington, DC.

An author and longtime investigative reporter, his primary focus since 2008 has been exploring allegations of official corruption and other misconduct in federal agencies. He has been a consultant and volunteer leader in advising several non-profit groups fostering cutting-edge applications within the communications industries.

  

As president and CEO of the Wireless Communications Association International (WCAI) from 1996 until 2008, Kreig led its worldwide advocacy that helped create the broadband wireless industry. Previously, he was WCAI vice president and general counsel, an associate at Latham & Watkins, law clerk to a federal judge, author of the book Spiked about the newspaper business and a longtime reporter for the Hartford Courant.

Listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World from the mid-1990s and currently, he holds law degrees from the University of Chicago School of Law and from Yale Law School. Reared in New York City, his undergraduate degree in history is from Cornell University, where he was a student newspaper editor, rowing team member, and Golden Gloves boxer.

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