Q: What can I do to help declassify the 28 pages?
A: Contact your representative, senators and the president, follow 28Pages.org on Facebook and Twitter, and share the site and articles from our blog via social media.
Q: How do those who’ve read the 28 pages describe what they saw?
A: In very intriguing fashion. See our collection of quotes about the 28 pages.
Q: Who wrote the 28 pages and where are they found, exactly?
A: The 28 pages are an entire section within the official report of the Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001 (not the 9/11 Commission Report). Conducted by the House and Senate intelligence committees, its 838-page report was published in December 2002. The redacted section, titled “Part 4: Finding, Discussion and Narrative Regarding Certain Sensitive National Security Matters,” begins on page 395 of the report.
Q: What do the 28 pages cover?
A: According to the introduction to the chapter—which is itself an unclassified version of the actual introduction—the 28 pages cover the joint congressional inquiry’s development of information “suggesting specific sources of foreign support for some of the September 11 hijackers while they were in the United States.”
Q: What countries are implicated in the report?
A: According to former Senator Bob Graham, “The 28 pages primarily relate to who financed 9/11 and they point a very strong finger at Saudi Arabia as being the principal financier.”
It’s not clear if other countries are also implicated in the 28 pages. While the unclassified introduction to the 28 pages refers to plural “sources” of foreign support, it’s not clear if “sources” refers to multiple countries or instead to multiple individuals or entities within a single country. The language of H.Res.14 does include a reference to plural “governments.”
Q: Is there a list of which members of Congress have read the 28 pages?
A: No. However, there are strong indications that only a small minority have bothered to do so.
Q: Can any member of Congress read the 28 pages?
A: For the most part, yes. However, representatives and senators must first seek permission from their respective intelligence committee. Occasionally, they’re refused permission: In 2014, for example, the House intelligence committee denied a request from Congressman Alan Grayson.
After obtaining permission, they can read the 28 pages inside a highly secure, soundproof facility in the basement of the U.S. Capitol. They are not allowed to bring support staff with them, may take no notes, and are observed closely while reading them.
Q: Who made the decision to classify the 28 pages?
A: President George W. Bush. In the context of the 838-page report in which it’s found, the extent of this redaction is extraordinary. Throughout the report, one encounters many redactions of names and places and even the occasional paragraph or two. Where the 28 pages are concerned, President Bush chose to mask virtually every word of an entire chapter.
President Obama reportedly assured 9/11 family members on two separate occasions that he would release them, but has not.
Q: Shouldn’t we assume there’s a good national security reason for keeping the 28 pages hidden from the public?
A: No. Many legislators who’ve read the 28 pages are adamant that they could be published without jeopardizing any U.S. interest. For example, Senator Richard Shelby, speaking at the time as ranking member of the Senate intelligence committee, said, “I went back and read those pages thoroughly. My judgment is that 95 percent of that information could be declassified.”
Q: What will it take to declassify the 28 pages?
A: The most direct means is for the president to declassify them himself. There is, however, a little-known alternative method by which either the House or Senate can declassify the 28 pages—even over the president’s objection.
Q: If House Resolution 14 passes, will the 28 pages be declassified?
A: H.Res.14 urges the President to declassify the report; it does not have the force of law. However, as a means of building political pressure and heightening public and media awareness of the issue, it’s a very important part of the 28 pages movement.
Q: Has a bill similar to H.Res.14 been introduced in the Senate?
A: Yes, on June 1, 2015, Senator Rand Paul introduced Senate Bill 1471, joined by cosponsors Ron Wyden and Kirsten Gillibrand. Unlike the House resolution, S.1471’s language directs the president to release the pages, rather than urging him to.
Q. What’s the longer history of the Senate’s action on this issue?
A. In 2003, 46 senators signed a letter to President George W. Bush urging the release of the 28 pages. Also in 2003, language similar to H.Res.14 was offered at least twice by then-Senator Byron Dorgan as an amendment to other bills. His amendments were voted down on procedural objections initiated by Senator Mitch McConnell. (See here and here for transcripts of the accompanying Senate debates on Dorgan’s amendments.)
Q: Is this a partisan issue?
A: Not at all. Since the report was published, many Republicans and Democrats have called for declassifying the 28 pages. H.Res.14 was introduced by Republican Walter Jones and Democrat Stephen Lynch, and the resolution has attracted co-sponsors almost evenly split among both parties. Just as party lines were immaterial on September 11, 2001, they are likewise completely irrelevant when it comes to promoting transparency about what our government learned about the attackers and those who aided them.
Q: If there are legislators who feel strongly that the 28 pages should be declassified, why don’t they read it aloud from the floor of the House or Senate under the protection of the Speech or Debate Clause?
A. First and foremost, there’s a physical impediment: While they can obtain permission to read the 28 pages in a secure facility in the basement of the Capitol, they cannot remove them from that facility and carry them to the floor. While, conceivably, a legislator could go the floor and summarize the 28 pages from memory, that legislator could lose future access to classified information, impairing their ability to represent their constituents.
Q: The introduction that precedes the 28 redacted pages says the inquiry reviewed “FBI and CIA documents suggesting specific potential sources of foreign support for the September 11 hijackers.” Since it merely says potential, should we dismiss it as being speculative?
A: No. The same passage also notes that “it was not the task of this Joint Inquiry to conduct the kind of extensive investigation that would be required to determine the true significance of such alleged support for the hijackers.” Given that, it’s not surprising that the declassified introduction (which is itself a rewritten version of the actual, classified introduction), would use language that steers away from being conclusive. That conservative approach to describing the inquiry’s findings, however, doesn’t equate with being merely speculative.
For example, the introduction to the 28 redacted pages goes on to quote a CIA memorandum that points to “incontrovertible evidence that there is support for these terrorists [—————————–].” Also, the manner by which both Democratic and Republican officials describe the pages also suggests real substance within the finding. Chief among those authoritative voices is former Senator Bob Graham, who co-chaired the joint inquiry that produced the 28 pages.
