Chris
July 28th 03, 11:02 AM
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/07/27/national1525EDT0539.DTL
Lawmakers Accuse Administration of Protecting Saudi Sentiment
with Secrecy
William C. Mann
Associated Press
Sunday 27 July 2003
12:39 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration should make
public the facts about Saudi Arabia's complicity with terrorists
rather than
worry about offending the kingdom, lawmakers said Sunday.
One senator said 95 percent of the classified pages of a
congressional
report released last week into the work of intelligence agencies
before the
attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was kept secret only to keep from
embarrassing
a foreign government.
"I think they're classified for the wrong reason," Sen. Richard
Shelby,
former vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told NBC's
"Meet the Press."
"I went back and read every one of those pages, thoroughly. ...
My
judgment is 95 percent of that information could be declassified,
become
uncensored so the American people would know," said Shelby, R-Ala.
Asked why the section was blacked out, Shelby said: "I think it
might be
embarrassing to international relations."
In unclassified pages of the report, released Thursday, several
unidentified government officials complained of a lack of Saudi
cooperation. "According to a U.S. government official, it was clear
from
about 1996 that the Saudi government would not cooperate with the
United
States on matters related to Osama bin Laden," the report says.
Bin Laden, head of the al-Qaida terrorist network, was born in
Saudi
Arabia to a prominent and rich family. He turned against the Saudi
government after it allowed the United States to station troops and
equipment in their country. The Saudi government revoked his
citizenship.
Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., former chairman of the Senate
Intelligence
Committee, accused the administration of using classification to
"disguise
and keep from the American people ineptitude and incompetence, which
was a contributing factor toward Sept. 11."
He said there might be parts of blanked section that would
compromise
sources or methods of intelligence-gathering, "but it would be a
sentence
or a paragraph, not 28 pages."
Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," Graham, a Democratic presidential
candidate, would not confirm that Saudi Arabia is the country
discussed in
the pages; discussing classified information is a crime.
But he said, "High officials in this government, who I assume
were not
just rogue officials acting on their own, made substantial
contributions to
the support and well-being of two of these terrorists and facilitated
their
ability to plan, practice and then execute the tragedy of Sept. 11."
Fifteen of the 19 hijackers, who killed close to 3,000 people in
New York,
suburban Washington and Pennsylvania, were Saudis.
The current committee chairman, Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., agreed
on
CBS' "Face the Nation" that too much was removed but said he expects
more to be revealed.
"I think at some future date it will be made public," Roberts
said. "I was
upset with the process, and I was upset with the amount of material
that
was redacted."
Only Roberts' counterpart on the House Intelligence Committee,
Rep.
Porter Goss, R-Fla., who formerly worked for the CIA, said the
administration was justified in its deletions. He said on NBC the
joint
committee recommended a full investigation of foreign involvement, and
"we do not want to contaminate that investigation."
He said he expects to pages to be revealed after the
investigation is
ended.
Lawmakers Accuse Administration of Protecting Saudi Sentiment
with Secrecy
William C. Mann
Associated Press
Sunday 27 July 2003
12:39 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration should make
public the facts about Saudi Arabia's complicity with terrorists
rather than
worry about offending the kingdom, lawmakers said Sunday.
One senator said 95 percent of the classified pages of a
congressional
report released last week into the work of intelligence agencies
before the
attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was kept secret only to keep from
embarrassing
a foreign government.
"I think they're classified for the wrong reason," Sen. Richard
Shelby,
former vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told NBC's
"Meet the Press."
"I went back and read every one of those pages, thoroughly. ...
My
judgment is 95 percent of that information could be declassified,
become
uncensored so the American people would know," said Shelby, R-Ala.
Asked why the section was blacked out, Shelby said: "I think it
might be
embarrassing to international relations."
In unclassified pages of the report, released Thursday, several
unidentified government officials complained of a lack of Saudi
cooperation. "According to a U.S. government official, it was clear
from
about 1996 that the Saudi government would not cooperate with the
United
States on matters related to Osama bin Laden," the report says.
Bin Laden, head of the al-Qaida terrorist network, was born in
Saudi
Arabia to a prominent and rich family. He turned against the Saudi
government after it allowed the United States to station troops and
equipment in their country. The Saudi government revoked his
citizenship.
Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., former chairman of the Senate
Intelligence
Committee, accused the administration of using classification to
"disguise
and keep from the American people ineptitude and incompetence, which
was a contributing factor toward Sept. 11."
He said there might be parts of blanked section that would
compromise
sources or methods of intelligence-gathering, "but it would be a
sentence
or a paragraph, not 28 pages."
Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," Graham, a Democratic presidential
candidate, would not confirm that Saudi Arabia is the country
discussed in
the pages; discussing classified information is a crime.
But he said, "High officials in this government, who I assume
were not
just rogue officials acting on their own, made substantial
contributions to
the support and well-being of two of these terrorists and facilitated
their
ability to plan, practice and then execute the tragedy of Sept. 11."
Fifteen of the 19 hijackers, who killed close to 3,000 people in
New York,
suburban Washington and Pennsylvania, were Saudis.
The current committee chairman, Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., agreed
on
CBS' "Face the Nation" that too much was removed but said he expects
more to be revealed.
"I think at some future date it will be made public," Roberts
said. "I was
upset with the process, and I was upset with the amount of material
that
was redacted."
Only Roberts' counterpart on the House Intelligence Committee,
Rep.
Porter Goss, R-Fla., who formerly worked for the CIA, said the
administration was justified in its deletions. He said on NBC the
joint
committee recommended a full investigation of foreign involvement, and
"we do not want to contaminate that investigation."
He said he expects to pages to be revealed after the
investigation is
ended.