Author: editor28pages

Mitch McConnell’s Multifaceted Opposition to 9/11 Transparency

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Mitch McConnell
Mitch McConnell

He won’t confirm or deny it, but Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell may be among what 28Pages.org suspects is a scandalously high number of incumbent federal legislators who haven’t bothered reading the classified, 28-page finding on foreign government support of the 9/11 hijackers.

McConnell and staff have now twice refused to answer the two simple questions 28Pages.org is posing to every senator and representative:

  • Have you read the 28 pages?
  • If not, have you requested permission from your intelligence committee to do so?

Considering legislators familiar with the classified finding say it has direct bearing on the ongoing confrontation with radical Islam in the Middle East—and can inform the life-and-death decisions of federal policymakers—failure by any representative or senator to read the 28 pages may well amount to gross negligence. That’s particularly evident when you reflect on the fact that a 19-year old Marine last week became the first servicemember to die in recently-launched operations against ISIS.

McConnell’s silence on these two simple questions gives reason to doubt he’s taken a half hour break from re-election fundraising and campaigning to read the 28 pages—and there’s an even stronger indication that he doesn’t want you to read them either.

McConnell Blocked Senate Declassification Push

Today, the primary focus of the growing, bipartisan drive to declassify the 28 pages is House Resolution 428, which urges the president to declassify the finding. Meanwhile, the House sponsors of H.Res.428 are working to find a senator to introduce a comparable resolution in their own chamber.

Byron Dorgan
Byron Dorgan

It wouldn’t be the first time a senator pursued a legislative push to declassify the 28 pages. In 2003, then-Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) twice introduced amendments to Senate bills with language similar to that of H.Res.428. Each time, his effort to help give the American people the information they need to reach informed decisions on foreign policy were thwarted via procedural maneuvers by initiated by McConnell. (You can read the transcripts of the debate on the Senate floor here and here.)

We recently wrote that, despite having been repeatedly and intriguingly urged by Congressmen Walter Jones, Stephen Lynch and Thomas Massie to read the 28 pages, it appears the great majority of federal legislators have inexplicably chosen to remain in a state of willful ignorance regarding intelligence that bears directly on the ongoing “war on terror.”

Does McConnell’s silence indicate he’s among those willfully ignorant incumbents? As Kentucky voters weigh McConnell’s job performance–in deciding between him and Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes—it should arguably be the foremost question on their minds.

28Pages.org is a nonpartisan resource for the movement to declassify the 28 pages. This piece on the Republican McConnell was preceded by a similar critique of Arizona Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick.

Ask your representative and senators if they’ve read the 28 pages. We make it easy.

Michael Goldhaber on Latest Complaint Filed in 9/11 Suit

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Michael D. Goldhaber
Michael D. Goldhaber

At The Litigation Daily, Michael D. Goldhaber weighs in with a very thorough and, for a complex and serious topic, very readable overview of the latest developments in the legal action titled “In re Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001,” which consolidates several suits against Saudi interests on behalf of more than 6,500 survivors and family members as well as various companies, including insurers and Cantor Fitzgerald.

Chief among those latest developments is an amended complaint filed on September 15 by Philadelphia firm Cozen O’Connor. Goldhaber calls it “a lively, 156-page narrative (that) reads as a prequel to the 9/11 Commission Report, and as a much-needed corrective.”

As Goldhaber describes, the complaint’s 9/11 prequel extends centuries before 2001:

The 9/11 Commission Report starts with the biography of Osama Bin Laden. The new complaint, whose filing was anticipated by Lawrence Wright, and nimbly noted by Chris Mondics and Daniel Fisher, goes back to 1744. That was the year the founder of the House of Saud forged a long-term alliance with a purist Muslim cleric named al Wahhab, who believed in eradicating deviant beliefs by force. Internal challenges to the House of Saud’s legitimacy in 1979, and again in 1991-93, led the princes to cede greater money and power to the Wahhabi clerisy (the Ulema). The Ulema have allegedly supported worldwide jihad, beginning in Afghanistan and running via the Balkans to Lower Manhattan, through Saudi state charities and the “Islamic Affairs Departments” of Saudi embassies. Their alleged love for terrorists has come in the form of both money and, for at least two hijackers, logistical support.

Goldhaber also notes that “allegations against Saudi Arabia in the original 2003 complaint were necessarily thin because the pertinent 28 pages of the report by Congress’ joint inquiry into intelligence surrounding 9/11 have been controversially classified, inspiring the movement 28pages.org.”

In addition to explaining the complex and ongoing legal battle over the extent to which sovereign immunity protects Saudi Arabia from 9/11 claims, Goldhaber summarizes the key points in the complaint, including various threads linking Saudi Arabia and the 9/11 terrorists. While many of the threads noted in the complaint pass through Omar al Bayoumi—who helped two of the hijackers settle in San Diego—Goldhaber also notes:

None of this is to mention allegations of Saudi support for the lead hijacker pilots out of both Germany and, according to a still-secret investigation, Florida. The lion’s share of the complaint alleges, charity by charity, the pervasive sponsorship of al-Qaida’s global jihad by state-controlled charities with the regime’s knowledge.

Describing the 9/11 plaintiffs as being positioned on an “appellate treadmill” relating to the sovereign immunity battle, Goldhaber is nonetheless optimistic about the suit’s potential:

It’s hard to make the rebuilding at Ground Zero look efficient, but the U.S. legal system is doing its best. One World Trade Center eventually rose from the ashes, and the 9/11 plaintiffs will likely get their day in court. They may or may not get to tell the story of Omar Al Bayoumi and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. But the plaintiffs are already in discovery against 18 defendants who are not insignificant. Among them are the three charities alleged to lie at the center of the Saudi state system for underwriting global jihad: the International Islamic Relief Organization, the Al-Haraiman Islamic Foundation and the Muslim World League (affiliated with the World Assembly of Muslim Youth).

We’ve provided just a few brief excerpts; read Goldhaber’s excellent summary here before tackling the full complaint here.

REDACTED w911Help make the 28 pages available for the 9/11 lawsuits: Call your House representative today.

 

 

 

 

 

Ron Paul and RT America’s Abby Martin Discuss the 28 Pages

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RT America’s Abby Martin—who last month hosted 28Pages.org director Brian McGlinchey on her show, “Breaking the Set”—recently talked to former Congressman Ron Paul about ongoing developments in the Middle East. Their discussion included the classified 28-page finding on foreign government support of the 9/11 hijackers.

Bob Graham: Censoring 28 Pages Paved Way for ISIS

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Brent Bambury
CBC Radio’s Brent Bambury

In an interview with Brent Bambury of Canada’s CBC Radio last week, former Senator Bob Graham said the unwarranted censorship of a 28-page finding on foreign government support of the 9/11 hijackers shielded Saudi Arabia from scrutiny—enabling that country to continue funding extremists in the Middle East and setting the stage for the rise of ISIS:

“I believe that had the role of Saudi Arabia in 9/11 been disclosed by the release of the 28 pages and by the declassification of other information as to the Saudi role and support of the 9/11 hijackers that it would have made it much more difficult for Saudi Arabia to have continued that pattern of behaviour...and I think would have had a good chance of reigning in the activity that today Canada, the United States and other countries either are or are not considering going to war with.”

Graham reinforced assertions by Congressman Stephen Lynch—who joined Rep. Walter Jones in introducing a resolution urging the president to declassify the 28 pages—that the redacted finding is highly relevant to the country’s confrontation with ISIS:

“The connection is a direct one. Not only has Saudi Arabia been promoting this extreme form of religion, but it also has been the principal financier, first of Al Qaeda then of the various Al Qaeda franchises around the world specifically the ones in Somalia and Yemen and now the support of ISIS.”

Bambury asked Graham—who co-chaired the inquiry that produced the 28 pages—how he felt when he learned this section would be redacted. Graham said, “I was dismayed, surprised, angry (along) with my colleague, who was a Republican senator. Neither of us felt there was any national security issues involved in those 28 pages which justified their being censored from public scrutiny.”

Graham was blunt when asked what he thought of Saudi Arabia’s claim that it, too, wants the 28 pages declassified: “I think that was a farce,” said Graham.

A CBC article summarizes the discussion, but we recommend listening to Bambury’s excellent 11-minute interview.

REDACTED w91128 Ways to Build the 28 Pages Movement

 

The National Security Question Ann Kirkpatrick Won’t Answer

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“Congresswoman, have you read the 28 pages?”

Ann Kirkpatrick (D, AZ-1)
Ann Kirkpatrick (D, AZ-1)

For nearly a year, Congressmen Walter Jones (R-NC), Stephen Lynch (D-MA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY) have repeatedly urged House colleagues to read a classified, 28-page finding on foreign government support of the 9/11 hijackers.

Lynch recently told The Boston Globe that the information within that finding is essential to understanding “the web of intrigue…and the treacherous nature of the parties we are dealing with—the terrorists and their supporters.” Preventing the next 9/11 starts with understanding who enabled the actual 9/11.

In our work to help achieve the declassification of this material—a goal that counts both the chairman and vice-chairman of the 9/11 Commission among its supporters—28Pages.org has grown increasingly convinced that a scandalously large number of House representatives have spurned the repeated and intriguing pleas of Jones, Lynch and Massie, choosing to remain in a state of willful ignorance where vital national security intelligence is concerned.

Arizona’s Ann Kirkpatrick may be one of those incumbents inexplicably disinterested in reading a passage that Jones described as “shocking” and Massie said caused him to “stop every couple of pages…and try to rearrange my understanding of history.” 

To promote transparency and help create a full accounting of 28-pages readership on Capitol Hill, 28Pages.org has begun asking every incumbent representative and senator two simple questions:

  • Have you read the 28 pages? 
  • If not, have you requested permission from your intelligence committee to do so? 

Since the answers to those questions give voters valuable insight into the national security diligence of incumbents, we’re making it our first priority to query the ones who are involved in the most competitive elections. One of those embattled incumbents, Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ), has completely ignored two requests to answer these simple yes-or-no questions.

If she had read the 28 pages, one imagines she’d be quick to claim credit for doing so, particularly since her opponent, Republican Andy Tobin, has used national security as a principal avenue of attack. Her silence, however, may suggest she’s among the many incumbents who’ve spent countless hours raising money but haven’t spent 30 minutes to ensure their life-and-death voting decisions are grounded in essential intelligence.

With Kirkpatrick fighting for survival in what was recently marked as the second-most expensive race in the nation, voters in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District must now interpret her silence about her attentiveness to national security and foreign policy. With the approval rating of the 113th Congress scuttling along near all-time lows, she shouldn’t assume they’ll give her the benefit of the doubt.

Congresswoman Kirkpatrick, whenever you’re ready to answer those two questions, you know where to find us.

True to the nonpartisan nature of 28Pages.org, in the coming days we’ll balance this scrutiny of Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick by focusing on a Republican incumbent who’s been similarly silent.

REDACTED w911Transparency is a team sport: Ask your representative and senators if they’ve read the 28 pages.