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Assasination Betting Pool

Censorship and the 9/11 report

Let's all call for the section concerning Saudi Arabia in the report on 9/11 to be declassified. (This would be a really good thing for the families of victims to file suit over.) From the sound of it, the reason it is classified is that it is very upsetting to the Saudi government, not because revealing it would compromise our national security.

Saudi Arabia has sent its foreign minister to Washington to meet with President Bush on Tuesday, an administration official said tonight.

The foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, is expected to raise with Mr. Bush and other administration officials his country's concern about reports that classified sections of a Congressional study about the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, found that senior Saudi officials had funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to organizations that might have helped pay for them. The foreign minister's hurriedly arranged visit reflects sensitivity in Saudi Arabia to the suggestions that, knowingly or unknowingly, it might have aided the terrorists who attacked the United States. Saudi officials have denounced any suggestions that they helped pay for the attacks. The visit could also add to the pressure on the administration to declassify a 28-page section of the report, which was deleted from the nearly 900-page declassified version released Thursday by a joint committee of the House and Senate intelligence committees. People who saw the section have said it focuses on the role foreign governments played in the hijackings, but centers almost entirely on Saudi Arabia.

It appears that by keeping this section secret, the Bush administration is trading our national security for the interests of the oil companies. If the Saudis funded and staffed the 9/11 hijackings, the American people should be able to read about it in the government's report on 9/11.

We have already taken over two other countries over the issue of 9/11. I am not advocating that we take over a third. But if the Saudis are really the nation most behind the attack, we deserve to be told.

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