The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has not only been a hotbed of the hyper-fundamentalist and equally hyper-violent brand of Islam known as Wahhabism, they’ve also thrown untold millions of their petro-dollars to fund the movement world-wide. Perhaps the fact that 15 of the 19 terrorists that perpetrated the 9/11 terror attacks were citizens of Saudi Arabia is just a coincidence.
Then again, maybe not. As reported by David A. Graham of The Atlantic, and also the staff of Great Britain’s the Daily Mail, both on Apr. 18, 2016, Barack Obama is following in the footsteps of George W. Bush in refusing to release to the public 28 classified pages of the over 500 page total that constitute the 9/11 Commission Report, much to the chagrin of many of the 9/11 families.
The same families have attempted to sue Saudi Arabia as an active player in the attack. But twice American courts have thrown out their lawsuits on grounds of insufficient evidence, to include the claim “by one man in custody that a Saudi prince helped finance the plot.”
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And in the wake of the al-Qaeda terror attacks in 2001, there have been nagging questions as to the depths of complicity by the Royal House of Saud. After Congress completed their 9/11 Commission Report in 2004, even more eyebrows were raised when it was discovered that a full 28 pages were deleted in the name of national security.
But as of late, US Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) have co-sponsored the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), which recently flew through the Senate Judiciary Committee with unanimous approval. In another rare show of congressional bi-partisanship, the likes of Ted Cruz to Kirsten Gillibrand have also voiced their support for JASTA. If made law, the Act would declassify the mysterious 28 redacted pages.
Enter Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir who personally winged his way to Washington to threaten the United States with what district attorneys like to call blackmail. Al-Juberi purportedly informed US officials during his trip last month that his nation would dump hundreds of billions of dollars worth of US treasury securities and other financial assets on the world market for fear the pending legislation could become law and U.S. courts would then freeze Saudi assets in place.
In the meantime, the Obama Administration has relentlessly lobbied Congress against JASTA, all while the American media essentially looked the other way. Press Secretary Josh Earnest sent a message loud and clear to both Congress and the Saudis when he threatened that his boss would veto any such bill if it were ever forwarded up from Capitol Hill. As Earnest flatly stated, “It’s difficult to imagine a scenario in which the president would sign the bill as currently drafted.”
As for the 9/11 families, there is an overwhelming sense of betrayal. As stated by Mindy Kleinberg, whose husband Alan was killed at the World Trade Center, said she’s “stunned that our government would back the Saudis over its own citizens.”
