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Until the administration declassifies pages of the 9/11 report dealing with the Saudi connection to the hijackers, the public will wonder what else it might be hiding.
The Bush administration and Saudi Arabia need to level with the American people on what role, if any, the Saudi government had in the attacks of Sept. 11. Releasing 28 pages of classified material on the alleged Saudi connection to the hijackers would be a good start. The information, blacked out in last week's congressional report at the administration's insistence, underscores the need for a broader examination of Saudi links to terror groups, the kingdom's complex relationship with the United States and its record since 9/11 in the war against al-Qaida.
Even the Saudi government has joined some members of Congress in calling for the disclosure. But President Bush refused again Tuesday to release the material despite a hastily arranged visit to Washington by the Saudi foreign minister. The Saudis and lawmakers in both parties maintain that airing the material is essential for making sound judgments about the failure of U.S. intelligence agencies prior to the 9/11 attacks. But Bush said Tuesday that declassifying that section of the 850-page report would reveal "sources and methods," damaging U.S. national security and compromising the war on terror.
It's a blanket excuse almost nobody buys. Even Sen. Richard Shelby, the top Republican on the congressional investigative panel, said that 95 percent of the redacted pages could be disclosed without causing harm. The deleted material reportedly focuses on Saudi Arabia.Given that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis, and that al-Qaida operatives had access to Saudi cash, an open and full examination of the Saudis' role has legitimate public interest. The case for openness was made even more compelling Tuesday after the Saudi interior minister was quoted as saying al-Qaida may have run training camps on Saudi soil. The minister also ruled out the possibility his country would extradite any Saudi citizen for prosecution in the United States.
If the Bush administration declines this chance to hold the Saudis accountable, the American public has to wonder what else the administration is hiding in the 9/11 matter. We already have seen from the declassified report that efforts to explore the Saudi role have exposed U.S. intelligence failures in combating terrorism.
Disclosure would allow the Saudis to confront the record instead of responding to conjecture or politically damaging leaks. It also could remove a bur from U.S.-Saudi relations that threatens to undermine cooperation in the fight against al-Qaida. Even for an administration as obsessed with secrecy as this one, going to such lengths to shield the Saudis from any responsibility for 9/11 is indefensible. A serious examination of the Saudi-American relationship is long overdue. We need to know if the Saudis are a reliable ally in the war against terrorism and not just a source of cheap oil.