911 Report: Bush under pressure to reveal "Saudi Role"

Update: Arab News insists to release "Saudi Sections", too

Bush under pressure to reveal 'Saudi role' in 11 September

By Rupert Cornwell in Washington

Independent -27 July 2003

The Bush administration is under pressure to allow publication of a secret part of a congressional report on the September 2001 terrorist attacks, which is said to point to large-scale financial backing for the hijackers from Saudi Arabia.

The 28-page section, dealing with the role foreign governments may have played in the attacks, was kept out of the 900-page document issued last week by a joint House and Senate intelligence committee.

But it is said to dwell almost exclusively on Saudi Arabia, 15 of whose citizens were among the 19 men who carried out the suicide strikes.

According to The New York Times, it suggests that senior officials from the kingdom channelled hundreds of millions of dollars to Islamic charities and other front organisations. The funds were then passed on to terrorist groups, including al-Qa'ida.

The published part of the report identifies a Saudi student called Omar al-Bayoumi who provided money and other help to two men in California that turned out to be among the hijackers. Mr al-Bayoumi, who also worked for the Saudi civil aviation authority, had access to "seemingly limitless funding from Saudi Arabia", the report said.

-Saturday July 26

Saudis Urge Release of Redacted 9/11 Report

Saudi Arabia's state-run English language newspaper Arab News is calling on the Bush administration to release the full congressional report on the 9/11 attacks, including a controversial 28-page section redacted at the White House's insistence that reportedly portrays Riyadh as aiding and abetting the 9/11 hijackers.

"It would be far better if the section were published," said Arab News, in it's lead editorial on Saturday.