Dr. Ibrahim Al-Othaimin
There was a time when Bob Graham, former senator from Florida, would periodically refer to the missing 28 pages of the US 9/11 Commission Report as a means of threatening Saudi Arabia for its alleged link to the attacks.
Finally, 15 years after the 9/11 attacks, in response to a personal commitment made by the president himself, the Obama administration decided to release the 28 pages that had until then been kept in the basement of Congress as classified documents. The pages neither showed anything linking Saudi Arabia to the attacks nor included any proof of Graham’s baseless speculations, which had merely been an attempt to influence public opinion.
As background information to the controversial report and its classified 28 pages, it is worth noting that in November 2002, following the 9/11 attacks, the US Congress formed a commission, formally named the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, chaired by former governor of New Jersey, Thomas Kean, and made up of five Democrats and five Republicans. Over a period of one and a half years, the commission interrogated over 1,000 people from different countries and examined numerous documents and reports. In July 2004, it issued its 567-page report. Nevertheless, the Bush administration then deemed that 28 pages of the report should be kept classified under the pretext that “they would impair their ability to gather intelligence on suspects of terrorist attacks”. The same approach was followed by the Obama administration. After much confusion and speculation about those pages, the Obama administration decided to release them to the public.
Graham and his followers need to be reminded of a few points that might have been forgotten in the midst of the long political fray since the issuance of the report.
First of all, ever since the report was issued in 2002, Saudi Arabia has been calling for the release of its 28 classified pages, knowing it had nothing to fear in the report. On July 30, 2003, during a meeting with former US president George Bush in the White House, the late Prince Saud Al-Faisal said: “Saudi Arabia is disappointed with the non-release of the full report”. He added: “Release of the classified pages of the report would enable Saudi Arabia to refute any allegations in a sincere and clear manner, and remove any suspicions regarding the true role played by Saudi Arabia in counter-terrorism”. He also said that his country “was being implicitly accused and that it is impossible to respond to unreleased classified pages”. He stressed that “Saudi Arabia has nothing to hide and it does not seek or need protection from anybody”.
Even when Bob Graham raised the issue again, the Saudi foreign minister, Adel Al-Jubeir, again called for the release of the pages. In his meeting with the US secretary of state in Geneva, he explicitly said that: “Ever since the report was issued in 2002, our stand has been to request the release of those pages”. He added: “This issue is being raised again and again every four or five years!! It is like a sword over our necks. Release the pages!!”
Secondly, Saudi Arabia itself has been a victim of terrorism since the 1990s. In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, it fought a fierce war against Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia which forced the latter to flee to Yemen. It was Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Naif, deputy premier and minister of interior, who commandeered the counter-terrorism operations against Al-Qaeda, gaining popularity not only at the domestic level, but also at the international level. The New York Times recently described him as the "Caesar of the war on terror" and the commander of a fierce attack to eliminate terrorism.
Currently, Saudi Arabia is at the forefront of the Arab countries participating in the US-led international coalition against Daesh in Syria. In a step toward countering all forms of terrorism, the Kingdom announced the formation of an Islamic military alliance comprising over 40 countries, including most Arab countries, with its headquarters in Riyadh.
Thirdly, there is a lawsuit in the US court claiming that Iran and Hezbollah were involved in the 9/11 attacks citing over 270 instances of Iran’s alleged role in the attacks, including financing terrorism, cooperation with terrorist organizations including Al-Qaeda, and having close ties with countries on the list of terrorism. This is quite possible as Iran has been involved in acts of terrorism since the revolution in 1979; it is a part of its foreign policy and a part of the legitimacy of its political system as discussed in a previous article “Iran: Questions of legitimacy”.
The US State Department’s annual reports on terrorism have classified Iran as the "biggest sponsor of terrorism in the world". The reports also show that “Iran remained unwilling to bring to justice senior Al-Qaeda members residing in its territories; it continued to detain, and refused to publicly identify, those senior members in its custody”. In addition, according to the 2013 report (on terrorism), “Iran has allowed members of Al-Qaeda to operate a core facilitation pipeline through Iranian territory, enabling Al-Qaeda to carry funds and move facilitators and operatives to South Asia and elsewhere”.
Finally, no one can argue about Saudi Arabia’s role in counter-terrorism.
The Kingdom is committed to doing whatever it takes to work with other countries and regional and international organizations to overcome terrorism.
— Dr. Ibrahim Al-Othaimin is a Middle East affairs specialist and security analyst based in Riyadh. He can be contacted at Ibrahim.othaimin@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @Alothaimin
