Having just days ago interviewed House Resolution 428 sponsor Walter Jones about the 28 pages, Ron Paul has now made himself the focus of an audio interview on the same topic and created a YouTube video to help spur a social media campaign centered on the hashtag #declassify.

Historical Perspective on Key U.S. Relationship

In the 6-minute audio interview posted at Voices of Liberty, Paul offered a long-term, historical perspective on a U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia he characterized as “very unhealthy.” Paul traced the current state of affairs back to security-for-oil commitments given to Saudi Arabia by President Franklin Roosevelt and honored by the long succession of presidents that have followed him.

Carrying that perspective up to the 9/11 attacks, Paul said:

“There’s a fuzzy relationship between Saudi Arabia and us. I was so astounded on 9/11…that all the Saudi Arabians that were here—including bin Laden family members—all got to fly out, many, many hours if not days before I was allowed to get on an airplane and come home. And they were never even questioned or quizzed by the FBI and I got to thinking, ‘What in the world’s going on?’

And now it pops up and there’s strong hints, even by those who were on this committee, saying, ‘Well, it might have something to do with Saudi Arabia’… So this makes it so much more important that we find out exactly what is in the redacted pages. Obviously these are the probably the most important pages and so often commissions are set up to protect governments and government agents rather than finding the truth.”

Putting the issue of declassifying the 28 pages in a broader context, Paul said, “It seems like the whole purpose is to bury the information that might embarrass our government or put some blame on our government for not having done a good job…People deserve (to know what’s hidden in the 28 pages). People are supposed to have their privacy and the government is supposed to be open. Today the government is being used to keep (its) secrecy and invade our privacy.”

Addressing those who may be prone to assuming there’s a good reason for the 28 pages to remain classified, Paul said, “Every time they shout ‘national security’ you ought to be suspicious of what our government’s up to.”

Firing Up Social Media

In addition to the interview, Paul also took to YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to urge others to help build public awareness and political pressure on the issue of the 28 pages. In the video posted below, Paul says, “I deserve to know the truth hidden in the 9/11 report and so do you. Join me in the #declassify campaign and make your voice heard.” On his Facebook page–which has more than 1.3 million “likes”—Paul encouraged others to make videos with the same message, to challenge others to do the same, and to tag members of Congress in their social media posts.

In addition to those actions, 28Pages.org urges citizens to call their Congressional representatives and senators using our simple guide, and to help spread awareness of 28Pages.org as an information and activism hub for the movement. Please follow us on Twitter and Facebook.