Congressman Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., spoke to the press about the need for Obama to declassify 28 pages of documents regarding the 9/11 attacks. (Daniel Hersh/MNS)
WASHINGTON — With the mood already solemn because the day’s terrorist attacks in France, two members of Congress Wednesday urged President Barack Obama to release classified information on the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
“Just like the tragedy in France today, no nation can defend itself unless the nation knows the truth,” said Rep. Walter Jones , R-N.C., at a press conference on Capitol Hill.
Jones and Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., are co-sponsoring a House resolution that demands that the president declassify 28 pages of a 2002 report issued by a congressional commission investigating the 9/11 attacks.
Former Florida Sen. Bob Graham, a Democrat who co-chaired the commission and has worked ever since to get the pages declassified, said that the classified pages offer evidence that people associated with the Saudi government provided assistance and financial support to some of the 9/11 hijackers.
“It is fair to say [the classified pages are] a central chapter in understanding who was the support network in allowing 9/11 to occur,” Graham said.
The same resolution was discussed in the House last year but failed to receive the necessary votes to move forward. According to Jones, some representatives were reluctant to agree to declassify documents they had not read.
In order to access the pages, legislators need to first get permission from the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and read the document without taking notes as committee staffers watching. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., had even been denied access to the pages in the past.
However, because resolutions aren’t binding legislation, Obama still could decide against declassification even if the House and Senate approved the resolution. But if Congress approved the resolution, it would “tip the presidents hand” by providing the necessary political pressure for him to release these pages, Lynch said.
The White House sent a request last summer to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to review the declassification request and the office is coordinating the review with other intelligence agencies, an ODNI spokesperson said.
