A bipartisan group of senators in the US Congress demanded the Biden administration this Monday to release the documents related to the tragic attack that happened 22 years ago on September 11 to declassify the role of Saudi Arabia in the attacks.
When Americans think of September 11, 22 years ago, the first think that come to their mind is a news that shook the world. The intentional and terrorist attack of the planes crushing into the twin towers of New York and the death of thousands of people ion that day in US is something that can never be forgotten, especially by the families of the victims.
But Americans have always been critical of their governments about the way different administrations handled the issue and the happenings aftermath, and the Biden administration is no exception in this regard.
This Monday, and in the 22nd anniversary of the tragic attacks of September 11, 2001, a bipartisan pair of senators urged the Biden administration in a statement to release and declassify any documents related to Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the attacks.
Families of 9/11 deserve to know the truth
Asserting that the American people, especially the families of the victims of the 9/11 attack deserve to know the full truth about what actually happened 22 years ago and how involved Saudi Arabia was in the attacks, the senators asked for complete, unredacted records about the Saudis’ involvement to be handed over and an explanation for any classified portions of the records.
To read between the lines, the same group of senators had asked the same thing from the FBI and the US Department of Justice (DOJ) last month in August. However, they noted in their Monday statement that over a month later, they had not received a single document from either body.
Back in August, Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI director Christopher Wray in July asking “that the US government finally provide full transparency into what it knows about the attacks, particularly as it relates to Saudi Arabia’s involvement”.
“Your failure to respond to our letter only adds to our concerns about the U.S. government’s longstanding refusal to provide full transparency to the American public, and particularly for the families of 9/11 victims, about Saudi Arabia’s role in the 9/11 attacks,” the letter also read.
No valuable document release despite Biden’s executive order
What is even more surprising is that the silence of the FBI and the DOJ in this regard is while in 2021, Biden issued an executive order requiring government agencies – CIA, FBI and Justice Department, to release documents related to how the attack happened. Since then, however, no valuable document has been put out neither to the American people, nor to the US senators that can shed light on the role of Saudi Arabia in the attacks.
This has created a fury among the family members of the victims of 9/11 attacks as they believe the Biden administration, like previous US presidents, won’t release the documents because it doesn’t want to have a trial for Saudi Arabia.
“They are terrified of what the documents will say about not only the Saudi role in 9/11, but about what the United States intelligence agencies knew. And they don’t want information to see the light of day,’ Brett Eagleson, founder of 9/11 Justice group says.
The Saudi government has always denied any involvement in the 9/11 tragedy and any link to those who did it. But families of 9/11 victims say there is an entire trove of documents that could be released to establish an even stronger connection between the Saudi kingdom and the 9/11 attackers, documents that might never be released.
