JOE BIDEN ORDERS RELEASE OF SECRET 9/11 DOCUMENTS

News Desk World

Sat 04 September 2021:

On Friday, US President Joe Biden authorized the Justice Department to review sensitive materials from the FBI’s 9/11 investigations that could indict senior Saudi officials for declassification.

Biden pledged on the campaign trail to order the declassification of the documents despite likely blowback from Riyadh, and said in a statement issued ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks that he is “honoring that commitment.”

The president’s order directs Attorney General Merrick Garland to release the declassified documents publicly over the next six months.

“We must never forget the enduring pain of the families and loved ones of the 2,977 innocent people who were killed during the worst terrorist attack on America in our history,” Biden said.

The announcement comes as the president faces pressure from nearly 1,800 victims’ relatives to not attend memorial events this month marking the attacks’ 20th anniversary if the documents are not released.

 

During his White House run Biden vowed to direct the attorney general to examine the merits of all cases related to the files and “to err on the side of disclosure in cases where, as here, the events in question occurred two decades or longer ago.”

“The 9/11 Families are right to seek full truth and accountability,” Biden wrote in an Oct. 7 letter.

Last month, those families complained of “having been used as a political bargaining chip for two decades,” adding that, ahead of the 20th anniversary of 9/11, “our patience has expired.”

“Twenty years later, there is simply no reason — unmerited claims of ‘national security’ or otherwise — to keep this information secret,” the families wrote, according to NBC News.

Biden continued to express his condolences to the families, saying his “heart continues to be with” them, and said his “Administration will continue to engage respectfully with members of this community. I welcome their voices and insight as we chart a way forward.”

The official 9/11 Commission, which was set up by Congress, said there was “no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded” Al-Qaeda.

That phrasing has been interpreted by some as suggesting that unofficial or lower-ranking Saudi figures might have played a role.

Some of the investigations may still be deemed too sensitive to release.

The announcement comes only days before the 20th anniversary of the attack, which led then-President George W. Bush to launch the invasion of Afghanistan, where the Taliban had been sheltering Al-leadership. Qaeda’s

This week, Biden withdrew the final US troops from Afghanistan, completing a dramatic evacuation from Kabul’s airport after the Taliban ousted the US-backed government and reclaimed power.

_____________________________________________________________________________

FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:

TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent

FACEBOOK (CLICK HERE)
https://web.facebook.com/ipindependent

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *