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It’s hardly been a secret to those who paid attention that some Saudis, including some highly placed ones, have funded and fanned the flames of Wahhabism, the ultra-conservative form of Islam throughout the world. Perhaps it was out of religious belief, but just as likely it was to keep the ruling families in power and the extremists from attacking them. If so, it may now prove to have been an unwise strategy. The role of Saudis in the 9/11 attack on the U.S. has hardly been completely hidden: 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis, trained in Wahhabi schools. More...

Fox News and other sources have reported that Saudi Arabia just threatened the United States with economic retaliation if the truth is reported.  That truth is that the Saudi royals (and maybe others) were directly responsible for the biggest, most murderous attack on civilians on American soil.  Ever.  On par with Pearl Harbor.  We have all sensed that something was terribly wrong in the country.  Most people who paid attention understood that the Saudis (or some of them) were behind  9/11/01.  The mass terror attackers of 9/11/01 were all indoctrinated Wahhabi suicide fanatics.  Wahhabism is the official war theology of...

Saudi Arabia has told the Obama administration and members of Congress that it will sell off hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of American assets held by the kingdom if Congress passes a bill that would allow the Saudi government to be held responsible in American courts for any role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The Obama administration has lobbied Congress to block the bill’s passage, according to administration officials and congressional aides from both parties, and the Saudi threats have been the subject of intense discussions in recent weeks between lawmakers and officials from the State Department and...

In its report on the still-censored “28 pages” implicating the Saudi government in 9/11, “60 Minutes” last weekend said the Saudi role in the attacks has been “soft-pedaled” to protect America’s delicate alliance with the oil-rich kingdom. That’s quite an understatement. Actually, the kingdom’s involvement was deliberately covered up at the highest levels of our government. And the coverup goes beyond locking up 28 pages of the Saudi report in a vault in the US Capitol basement. Investigations were throttled. Co-conspirators were let off the hook. Case agents I’ve interviewed at the Joint Terrorism Task Forces in Washington and San...

When the president leaves for a trip to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday an unresolved issue will go with him: did the Saudis play some role in supporting the hijackers responsible for the attacks on September 11th? The question is being raised in the wake of a renewed push to declassify 28 pages of a 838-page congressional report on the worst terror attack on American soil. The so-called “28 pages” are locked away in a secure basement room at the Capitol and although they can be read by members of Congress, the pages remain classified. That the two of the hijackers...

Bob Graham won't discuss the classified information in the 28 pages, he will say only that they outline a network of people that he believes supported the hijackers while they were in the U.S. Steve Kroft: You believe that support came from Saudi Arabia? Bob Graham: Substantially. Steve Kroft: And when we say, "The Saudis," you mean the government, the-- Bob Graham: I mean-- Steve Kroft: --rich people in the country? Charities-- Bob Graham: All of the above. Graham and others believe the Saudi role has been soft-pedaled to protect a delicate relationship with a complicated kingdom where the rulers,...

A still-classified section of the investigation by congressional intelligence committees into the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has taken on an almost mythic quality over the past 13 years — 28 pages that examine crucial support given the hijackers and that by all accounts implicate prominent Saudis in financing terrorism. Now new claims by Zacarias Moussaoui, a convicted former member of Al Qaeda, that he had high-level contact with officials of the Saudi government in the prelude to Sept. 11 have brought renewed attention to the inquiry’s withheld findings, which lawmakers and relatives of those killed in the attacks have tried...

WASHINGTON) — A bipartisan group of senators is pushing legislation that would force the CIA to release an inspector general's report on the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The CIA has spent more than 20 months weighing requests under the Freedom of Information Act for its internal investigation of the attacks but has yet to release any portion of it. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and two other intelligence committee leaders — chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and senior Republican Kit Bond of Missouri — are pushing legislation that would require the agency to declassify the executive summary of the review...

"Bin Ladin’s grievance with the United States may have started in reaction to specific U.S. policies" THE 9/11 COMMISSION REPORT Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT EDITION

CIA report on 9/11 is complete Two years after deadline, findings have yet to reach Congress By Walter Pincus Updated: 1:39 a.m. ET Aug. 20, 2005 The CIA inspector general's report on the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks has finally been completed — nearly two years after its congressionally set deadline — but has yet to be sent to Capitol Hill because CIA Director Porter J. Goss is still deciding how to respond to its findings, according to administration and congressional sources. Inspector General John L. Helgerson's voluminous report, triggered in December 2002 by a recommendation of the House-Senate inquiry...

February 10, 2005 9/11 Report Cites Many Warnings About Hijackings By ERIC LICHTBLAU

WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 - In the months before the Sept. 11 attacks, federal aviation officials reviewed dozens of intelligence reports that warned about Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, some of which specifically discussed airline hijackings and suicide operations, according to a previously undisclosed report from the 9/11 commission. But aviation officials were "lulled into a false sense of security," and "intelligence that indicated a real and growing threat leading up to 9/11 did not stimulate significant increases in security procedures," the commission report concluded.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 /U.S. Newswire/ -- House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-Wis.) issued the following statement regarding legislation responding to the 9/11 Commission recommendations: "I am pleased that the chain-of-command issues Chairman Duncan Hunter has raised have been resolved so that our war-fighters will not be put at risk. Unfortunately, even with these improvements, the current bill is woefully incomplete and one I cannot support. "Americans deserve a complete bill so that we can prevent another 9/11 from occurring. Border security and immigration reform are vital components of our homeland security efforts, so why are they...

The report by the federal commission investigating the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks was a surprise nominee for one of the most prestigious United States literary prizes, the National Book Award. The lengthy report, which has sold more than 1 million copies since its publication in July, was nominated in the non-fiction category, together with more traditional fare like a Shakespeare biography. While government studies are hardly known for raising readers' pulses, The 9/11 Commission Report has been widely praised for its narrative force and accessibility, as well its comprehensiveness. The report contained a broad indictment of US intelligence and...

CONGRESSDemocrats Press Strategy on 9/11 ReportBy CARL HULSEPublished: August 10, 2004 ASHINGTON, Aug. 9 - Hoping to thwart terrorist attacks, Congress in 2002 undertook a complex reorganization of federal agencies that Republicans used to their political advantage that year. With the nation again facing threats and Congress again looking to revamp the federal response, Democrats are working hard to make sure they do not again pay the political consequences.House Democrats will return to Washington on Tuesday for an unusual August party meeting to consider the recommendations from the Sept. 11 commission as they try to position themselves as embracing the...

Please help me refute the liberals surrounding me at work (and elsewhere) with articles or threads discussing links (possible, probable, and definite) between Iraq and Al Qaeda prior to our going into Iraq. I have heard a few discussed on FOX, but, gee, somehow I missed them on CBSNBCABC. Anyway, your help will be appreciated.

CRAWFORD, Texas — President Bush (search) met Monday via videoconference with his task force reviewing the Sept. 11 commission's recommendations, and contemplates acting within days on some of them, White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said. She would not say which of the more than 40 recommendations Bush was likely to adopt or if he would make his own proposals, and it was unclear if he will make any announcements on the matter this week as the Democratic National Convention is under way in Boston. The president said he was reading the report and found it "interesting." "It reads like...

I haven't seen this posted yet. I found an absolutely fantastic search engine for the 9/11 Commission's Final Report. It is speedy and detailed. For example, I typed in Berger and under subheading NSC Memo Paragraph #2565 (on page 482) 46. NSC email, Clarke to Kerrick,“Timeline,”Aug. 19, 1998; Samuel Berger interview (Jan. 14, 2004).We did not find documentation on the after-action review mentioned by Berger . On Vice Chairman Joseph Ralston’s mission in Pakistan, see William Cohen interview (Feb. 5, 2004). For speculation on tipping off the Taliban, see, e.g., Richard Clarke interview (Dec. 18, 2003). Go to my anti-hillary...

The following is the text of an item from the Presidential Daily Brief received by President William J. Clinton on December 4, 1998. Redacted material is indicated in brackets. SUBJECT: Bin Ladin Preparing to Hijack US Aircraft and Other Attacks 1. Reporting [—] suggests Bin Ladin and his allies are preparing for attacks in the US, including an aircraft hijacking to obtain the release of Shaykh ‘Umar ‘Abd al-Rahman, Ramzi Yousef, and Muhammad Sadiq ‘Awda. One source quoted a senior member of the Gama’at al-Islamiyya (IG) saying that, as of late October, the IG had completed planning for an operation...

Begging your indulgence for my only vanity post in nearly 6 years of Freeping. I haven't yet seen anyone suggest this, so thought I'd throw it out for discussion and/or ridicule. The 9-11 Commission, which -- until being partially-defanged by Attorney General John Ashcroft's "outing" of Jamie Gorelick -- looked more like a cast party for Fahrenheit 911 than an objective fact-finding body, has released a report that is surprisingly non-accusatory towards both Presidents Clinton (not surprising) and Bush (absolutely astounding!) At least, that's my general initial take on it. Of course, we mind-numbed robots won't know exactly what to...