CIA chief: 9/11 report not proof of Saudi backing
Print Edition
CIA chief John Brennan said on Saturday that secret findings of a 2002 congressional investigation into the 9/11 attacks should not be taken as evidence of official Saudi complicity.
A decision is expected soon on whether to release the classified 28-page section of the report by the House and Senate intelligence committees.
Former senator Bob Graham, who headed the Senate intelligence committee at the time, has alleged that Saudi officials provided help to the 9/11 hijackers and has said the 28 pages should be made public.
“These 28 pages, I believe they are going to come out, I think it’s good that they come out. But people shouldn’t take them as evidence of Saudi complicity in the attacks,” Brennan said in an interview with Al Arabiya, a Saudi-owned television news channel.
He noted that the report was produced just a year after al-Qaeda hijackers flew airliners into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania, killing nearly 3,000 people.
It “was a very preliminary review, trying to pull together bits and pieces of information, reporting about who was responsible for 9/11,” Brennan said in a clip of the interview posted on the station’s website.
“Subsequently the 9/11 Commission looked very thoroughly at these allegations of Saudi involvement, Saudi government involvement and their finding, their conclusion was that there was no evidence to indicate that the Saudi government as an institution or Saudi senior officials individually had supported the 9/11 attacks,” he said.
The commission, which was set up by then-president George W. Bush, presented its report in 2004.
Brennan added that over the past 15 years the Saudis “have become among our best counterterrorism partners,” said an account of the interview on Al Arabiya’s website.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
