Former 9/11 Senate Intelligence Chair Says US Gov’t Still Covering Up Saudi Connection (VIDEO)

Nearly 15 years after 9/11, the federal government is still withholding information on connections between Saudi Arabia and the worst terrorist attack on American soil. That’s what former Democratic Sen. Bob Graham, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee at the time, told the National Press Club on Wednesday.

Graham represented Florida in the U.S. Senate from 1987 through 2005. The Democrat chaired the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence from June 2001 through January 2003, and was also the ranking Democrat on the committee during the time when Republicans held the Senate.

For years, Graham has criticized the level of secrecy regarding information uncovered during the congressional inquiry after the 2001 attack. He recently led a successful effort to declassify 28 pages of information from that investigation.

As noted by the Tampa Bay Times, Graham said:

This is removing the cork from the bottle … Unanswered questions still remain largely unanswered.”

Graham’s critique are not those of a Truther or conspiracy theorist. Rather, he suggests the U.S. has withheld information on a Saudi connection in order to protect diplomatic relations with that nation.

Finally Released

The 28 pages, finally released in July, show that some of the hijackers in the United States had contact with individuals connected to the Saudi government. The reference was to Omar al-Bayoumi, who the CIA figured at least once as a Saudi agent in documents before 9/11 took place, although the Saudi government denies a connection.

According to the newly released documentation, al-Bayoumi provided “substantial assistance” to future hijackers Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi after the two arrived in San Diego in 2000. The new pages allege al-Bayoumi himself was receiving financial support from a company affiliated with the Saudi Ministry of Defense. That financial support continued through August 2001.

The documents also allege al-Bayoumi introduced the hijackers to Osama Bassnan, who once worked for the Saudi Arabian Education Mission.

Of note, the local Muslim community has reported to the FBI that Bassnan may be a Saudi intelligence officer. A CIA memo suggested he was receiving funding, and possibly a fake passport, from the Saudi government.

The new documents also show Bassnan met with a member of the Saudi Royal Family at one point in 2002. FBI information indicates he was also a supporter of Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden, and once hosted a party for the Blind Shaykh in his Washington, D.C. home in 1992.

The relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia has always been dicey. An official ally of the United States, leaders have worked to maintain good relations with the government of the country that also contains Mecca, the holiest city in the Islamic faith.

The Saudi government also has told U.S. officials it has worked to tamp down terror financing within the county.

For example, Saudi Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki told the Washington Post last year, before the release of the documents, that the government since 2004 has closely monitored charitable solicitation or donation for any cause outside the country, and that some 226 individuals have been convicted of funding terrorist activity.

Of the 19 hijackers who took over four airplanes and flew three into the World Trade Center or Pentagon, 15 were Saudi.

Fighting For True Information

Graham has long focused on having more information released about the attacks. In addition to 9/11 occurring during his time in charge of the Intelligence committee, there were also a number of Florida connections to the attack. Mohammed Atta, the hijackers widely regarding as the head of the operation, lived in the state and took flying lessons as a flight school in Venice, Fla.

There was also a wealthy Saudi family living in Sarasota, Fla., not far from Venice, that left and abandoned their Sarasota home shortly before 9/11, though the FBI has distanced itself from its own findings on that case.

Graham said the U.S. does a disservice by continuing to withhold information regarding connections between 9/11 and Saudi Arabia:

If the United States government won’t take action in a case as serious and severe as this that and this is an overused word, but was a transitional event in the history of the United States, what else will it take for Saudi Arabia to do before the United States government is involved?’

Graham suggests the U.S. has used different rationale through the years to protect the Saudi government from embarrassing disclosures from the 9/11 inquiry. Back in the Bush Administration, it was because the information would have complicated the build-up to the Iraq war:

President Bush said at the site of World Trade Center we will follow these heinous people to the ends of the earth to bring them to justice. We immediately decided the ends of the earth were Iraq.”

It would have been embarrassing to the administration, Graham said, that intelligence showed Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, but Saudi Arabia did.

But he said the U.S. has maintained a difficult-to-balance relationship to Saudi Arabia dating all the way back to President Franklin Roosevelt’s time in office when the U.S. agreed to provide military protection to the Saudis in exchange for access to oil.

C-SPAN video:


Featured Image: Screenshot Via C-SPAN Video

Jacob Ogles has been covering politics in the state of Florida for most of the past 16 years. His words have appeared in The Advocate, Liberal America, Wired and Vibe, as well as local media including SRQ Magazine and The News-Press in Fort Myers. He voted for Hillary Clinton eight years ago and is glad the country has finally caught up. Follow him @jacobogles.