The long-awaited release of classified documents from that whether Saudi Arabia had any hand in the 9/11 attacks are about to be released, according to a report from CNN.
“The House Intelligence Committee will get the redacted report today or tomorrow,” House Intelligence Committee member Rep. Adam Schiff told CNN. “The Senate and House intel committees should then give the formal go ahead to release the report since they originally produced it.” Schiff added the pages would be posted online.
But CNN cited unnamed sources saying the pages will be available as early as Friday
What are the pages believe to contain?
The so-called 28 pages (CNN reports there are actually 29 pages) come from an 858-page report on the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.
Those calling for the release, including some families of the victims, believe the documents could shed light on whether Saudi government officials or people with links to Saudi officials supported or financed the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people 15 years ago this September.
READ MORE: Declassified report gives glimpse into still-secret 28 page inquiry of 9/11
The pages were redacted from the report when it was completed in December 2002. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers who flew passenger jets into the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon and the one that crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, were Saudi nationals.
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How likely is it that Saudi Arabia was involved in the attacks?
CIA Director John Brennan last month said the pages will likely clear up any speculation Saudi Arabia was involved.
“These 28 pages I believe are going to come out and I think it’s good that they come out. People shouldn’t take them as evidence of Saudi complicity in the attacks,” Reuters reported Brennan telling Saudi-run Arabiya TV in an interview.
READ MORE: US Senate passes bill allowing Sept. 11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia
In a separate interview with The Hill, Brennan said information in the pages was a “combination of things that are accurate and inaccurate” and the 9/11 Commission inquiry that followed the report made a “very clear judgment that there was no evidence that … Saudi government as an institution or Saudi officials or individuals had provided financial support to al Qaeda.”
But former Democratic Senator Bob Graham, a co-author of the report who has been vocal about the government releasing the pages, suggests otherwise.
“The reason why the 28 pages are so important is that they were the conclusion of the congressional inquiry into 9/11 as to how was that plot financed? Who paid for it? And while I can’t discuss the details of that chapter, they point a strong finger at Saudi Arabia,” he told NPR in April.
What has Saudi Arabia said about the pages?
Saudi Arabia wants the pages to be made public as well. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir reiterated that last month when he visited Washington.
But what Saudi Arabia has raised issue with was a proposed law that would allow the families of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia and other foreign governments for compensation, the Washington Post reported.
The Senate passed the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act in May. It’s not law yet and still has to go before the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee and President Barack Obama has threatened he would veto it.
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