[LINK] "New questions raised about U.S.-Saudi relationship"

[rfmcdonald]

CBC's Neil Macdonald wonders if questions over Saudi involvement in the September 11th terrorist attacks will harm the Saudi-American relationship.

For more than a decade now, 28 pages in a congressional report about the 9/11 attacks have been entirely excised.

To allow the American public access to the information they contain, says the government, would imperil national security.

President Bush first ordered them censored, and President Obama has kept them sealed.

The section deals with foreign financial support of the 19 men who flew passenger jets into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001.

By several accounts — including statements by two former Senators who sat on the 9/11 commission — the sealed pages point the finger at America's close friend and ally in the war on terror, Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia has consistently denied any advance knowledge of, or connection to the hijackers, but some information in the 28 pages has already leaked.

According to multiple reports here, the FBI and CIA suggest Saudi Arabia provided at least indirect support and funding for the attackers.

And the report isn't talking about the usual "wealthy Saudi sympathizers," we so often hear about. No, the pages reportedly describe consular and financial support by officials of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.