Classified: Censoring the Report About 9-11

posted by ewing2001 on Monday June 02, @02:23AM

MSNBC

Classified: Censoring the Report About 9-11?

Bush officials are refusing to permit the release of matters already in the public domain—including the existence of intelligence documents referred to on the CIA Web site.

By Michael Isikoff -NEWSWEEK

June 2 issue —

"...Why is the Bush administration blocking the release of an 800-page congressional report about 9-11? The bipartisan report deals with law-enforcement and intelligence failures that preceded the attacks. For months, congressional leaders and administration officials have battled over declassifying the document, preventing a public release once slated for this week. NEWSWEEK has learned new details about the dispute...

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AMONG THE PORTIONS of the report the administration refuses to declassify, sources say, are chapters dealing with two politically and diplomatically sensitive issues: the details of daily intelligence briefings given to Bush in the summer of 2001 and evidence pointing to Saudi government ties to Al Qaeda. Bush officials have taken such a hard line, sources say, that they’re refusing to permit the release of matters already in the public domain—including the existence of intelligence documents referred to on the CIA Web site.

One document is called the PDB, the President’s Daily Brief. The congressional report contains details of PDBs provided to Bush (and top national- security aides) prior to 9-11. The PDBs included warnings about possible attacks by Al Qaeda. (One PDB was given at the presidential ranch in Crawford, Texas, on Aug. 6, and dealt with the possibility that Al Qaeda might hijack airplanes.) But an administration review committee overseen by CIA Director George Tenet has refused to declassify anything that even refers to the existence of PDBs—though they are described on the CIA’s own Web site (CIA.gov ).

A U.S. intelligence official said the review committee must consult with the White House before releasing anything. But the official denied charges by Florida Sen. Bob Graham, a Democratic presidential candidate, that Tenet’s review committee was covering up White House embarrassments. “We’re not playing politics,” the official says. “Our concern is national security.”

The other hot-button issue is the Saudis, sources say. The report discusses evidence that individuals with Saudi government connections may have provided the hijackers aid. One of them is Omar al-Bayoumi, a Saudi student who helped two hijackers get apartments in San Diego. The administration won’t declassify references to al-Bayoumi even though, in response to a NEWSWEEK story, an FBI spokesman confirmed last November that he was being investigated. The report also includes interviews with U.S. officials about Saudi cooperation in the war on terror. Many were critical of the Saudis.

The administration is declassifying only the response by former FBI director Louis Freeh praising Saudi assistance on the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing case. The U.S. intelligence official said that, in response to a letter cosigned by Graham and Rep. Porter Goss, House Intelligence Committee GOP chair, the review committee was considering allowing more portions of the report to become public..."

Al-Bayoumi, Omar

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During November 2002, law-enforcement authorities renewed accusations on Omar al-Bayoumi, one of two Saudi nationals who indirectly received thousands of dollars from Princess Haifa al-Faisal, wife of Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan, as the major contact for terrorists operating out of "sleeper cells" in San Diego.

The FBI was furthermore investigating checks written on Princess Haifa's bank account to Majida Ibrahim Ahmad, wife of Saudi national Osama Basnan, a close confidant of al-Bayoumi. The checks included monthly payments of $2,000 between November 1999 and May 2002 and at least one for $15,000 in April 1998.

As reported, the cash was to help defray the cost of treatment for a thyroid condition, but several of the checks were endorsed to Basnan and later diverted to an account maintained by al-Bayoumi, authorities said. The checks began before the arrival in California of two September 11 hijackers, Khalid Almihdhar (->) and Nawaf Alhazmi (->), identified as being aboard American Airlines Flight 77 when it crashed into the Pentagon (->).

Source:

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20021126-99840096.htm

Princess Haifa al-Faisal is sister of former intelligence head, Prince Turki al-Faisal (->).

"...Who is al-Bayoumi? At various times, the affable father of four told people that he was getting his doctorate at San Diego State, though the school has no record he ever attended. He told others that he was a pilot for the Saudi national airline.

He worked for Dallah Avco (->), an aviation-services company with extensive contracts with the Saudi Ministry of Defense and Aviation, headed by Prince Sultan, the father of the Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar..."

http://www.msnbc.com/news/839269.asp?0cv=KB10

(-> Saudi Arabia)

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