Along with families who lost loved ones on Sept. 11, 2001, Representatives Walter Jones .(R-NC), Stephen F. Lynch (D-MA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY) urged the president to declassify 28 pages from the 9/11 congressional investigation report, providing more information to the general public.
“Based on my reading of the documents, I am confident that making these 28 pages public would not damage our national security. I challenge all of my colleagues in Congress to read the 28 pages on behalf of their constituents and to cosponsor this bill. Understanding what enabled this tragedy to occur is fundamental to drafting a strategy for avoiding another tragic event,” said Massie.
The bill sponsors, Lynch and Jones, said they have recently reviewed those pages, which were kept almost entirely secret when the House and Senate Intelligence Committees released their final report in December 2002. Without disclosing specifics, the report said investigators found “information suggesting specific sources of foreign support for some of the September 11 hijackers while they were in the United States.”
“These aren’t pages that were simply redacted,” explained Lynch. “These 28 pages were actually removed before the work was presented to the general public.” Lynch said that these pages would allow survivors to have better understanding of what happened on Sept. 11, 2001 when nearly 3,000 people were killed. Besides looking back in hindsight, Lynch said these pages provide a foreign policy understanding that has “an instructive value going forward,” he explained.
Jones added that knowing the truth is central to a strong nation: “I don’t think a nation like America will remain strong if we do not demand the truth,” said Jones during a press conference on Wednesday. “We need you to put pressure on your representatives back home to join in this effort for the truth.”
H.Res.428 – Urging the president to release information regarding the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks upon the United States was first introduced to House of Representatives on Dec. 2, 2013.
According to former Florida Sen. Bob Graham and former Chairman of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, the 28 pages in the 9/11 report are not the only documents being “covered up.”
Graham told IBTimes, “The Saudi government without question was supporting the hijackers who lived in San Diego…. You can’t have 19 people living in the United States for, in some cases, almost two years, taking flight lessons and other preparations, without someone paying for it. But I think it goes much broader than that. The agencies from CIA and FBI have suppressed that information, so American people don’t have the facts.” Read further here.
Congressman Massie stated that America is still not fully informed about 9/11 and won’t be until the 28-pages are released to the public. He urged other Congressman to read the 28 pages and become co-sponsors of H. 428.