My personal theory on why the Bush White House classified the "28 pages" of the 9/11 Report

[YoungDemCA]

The infamous "28 pages" aren't actually from the 9/11 Commission Report (which was released in late 2004, IIRC), but from an earlier report, a "Joint Congressional Inquiry" into the 9/11 attacks. This report was released in 2002. That is important.

Now, why is the year 2002 significant in this context? Well, because that was the critical year between the 9/11 attacks and the invasion of Iraq. If you remember back to 2002, Americans in general were both extremely paranoid about when and where the next big attack was going to happen, and extremely angry at not just the 9/11 hijackers, but the Islamic world in general. We were out for blood, for revenge. And the Bush administration was both encouraging that anger, and directing it specifically toward Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

Furthermore, it wasn't just al-Qaeda that we were after, either; it was explicit policy on the part of the Bush administration that "we will make no distinction between those who attacked us and those who harbor them." This was the rationale for overthrowing the Taliban government in Afghanistan, and the Bush administration applied the same damn logic to Saddam's regime in Iraq. So any hint of evidence from a bipartisan U.S. government report that the Saudis - whom were pretty well known even then to be buddy-buddy with the Bushes - were funding al-Qaeda (even if unwittingly and indirectly), and were more responsible for 9/11 than Iraq was, would have been not just politically embarrassing for the Bush administration, but quite possibly a full-blown political catastrophe for them, and not just in terms of the invasion of Iraq either; remember, the Republicans weren't in full control of Congress in 2002. With Jeffords' defection to the Democrats in 2001, the Dems had a very slight edge in the Senate until the 2002 midterms. The Bush-Cheney agenda in general was riding on the Republicans controlling both houses of Congress.

I think it is important to remember that all Presidents in the modern era are sensitive to how they are perceived by the American public, but it is also equally important to remember that all Presidents in the modern era manipulate (or attempt to, at least) the American public. The administration of George W. Bush in particular invested a lot of its energy and resources into the latter, and nowhere was this more clear than in 2002 and early 2003 during the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq. That is the context that we need to remember when discussing the "28 pages."

The other reason for the classification of the 28 pages has less to do with the domestic political context, and more to do with that of Saudi Arabia. Simply put, the U.S. government needed the Saudis to give them their blessing for the invasion of Iraq. Any public calls for an investigation into the Saudi government by the U.S. (which would have surely resulted from the release of those 28 pages) at that time would have...um, complicated matters, and significantly so (to say nothing of what might have happened within Saudi Arabia as a consequence...).

As for why President Obama is taking so long to declassify these pages...if memory serves from what I've heard from former U.S. government officials, it is much easier within the U.S. government to classify information than it is to declassify it, without even going into political/geopolitical calculations. I don't remember exactly what those officials said, but I do remember them saying that declassification is a very delicate, agonizingly slow, bureaucratic headache. Take that as you will.

Anyway, this is all just my personal theory on this topic. YMMV...

[OnyxCollie]

1. Maybe the Obama administration doesn't want the 28 pages declassified.

They tried to block the release of the torture report, too.

"Looking forward" and all that.

[Cordy]

2. Big fess with Saudis

I head today the Saudis are making financial threats if we do release it, over the flow of oil. Not sure it is true or not, the story will develop over a few days as media eases us into it.

Here is the name of the youtube video to watch

"Saudis respond to "60 Minutes" report on possible 9/11 link "