10 Reasons Why the Saudis Are NOT Our Friends and We Should RELEASE the 28 Pages
The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.
–John F. Kennedy
If you’re old enough to remember 9/11/01, recall where you were and how you felt. The palpable pain and anger are still there – at least for those not on the Left — even for those who weren’t near Ground Zero. And in the days following the worst attack on American soil, recall how you felt when you learned where most of the perpetrators came from.
Saudi Arabia.
Since, however, we were repeatedly told not to blame our “friends.” From ABC News in 2008 :
“There’s a lot of really good people [in Saudi Arabia],” [George W.] Bush said. “Look, you can’t deny the fact that some, a majority, of the terrorists came from Saudi, but you should not condemn an entire society based upon the actions of a handful of killers.”
Fine. They’re our friends. But over the decades Americans have witnessed how the Saudis treat their people, and their alleged friends. When a government funds Sunni terrorism as well as bans the following, please explain what type of friendship our two countries could have:
No Valentine’s Day
No social mixing
No movie theaters
No bacon
No music teaching schools
No gyms for girls
No religion except Islam
No women working most jobs men can do
No women traveling without permission
No women drivers
Did I mention the House of Saud beheads gays?
As Tim Roemer, former congressman, former U.S. ambassador to India, and member of the 9/11 Commission writes, it appears the Saudis’ involvement goes beyond coincidence:
The 28 pages were written by the Joint Intelligence Committee, a combined 2002 House and Senate inquiry that, among other things, sought to discover whether any foreign country was involved with 9/11. But the JIC, on which I sat, only had about 12 months to ask complex questions, sift a vast body of evidence, interview dozens of suspects, travel to distant lands, and reach concrete conclusions—and the committee eventually ran out of time.
At the urging of the families of those who lost loved ones in the tragic attacks, the 9/11 Commission was later created to pick up the baton and provide a comprehensive investigation of the 9/11 plot, including a full review of questions raised by the 28 pages. We hired the two staff investigators from the JIC who authored the 28 pages to continue a seamless investigation. Those pages have been described as a preliminary “police report”: initial clues, witness reports, sometimes partial answers, and concrete conclusions.
While Roemer said the Saudis favor the release, other reports indicate the opposite [edit mine]:
Outraged 9/11 families accused Saudi Arabian officials Saturday of blackmailing the U.S. to hide their alleged role as financiers of the World Trade Center terrorists. The fierce attacks came after a Saturday report that the Saudis threatened to sell off up to $750 billion in U.S. assets if Congress passes legislation allowing its government to be held liable in 9/11-related lawsuits [meaning, 9/11 victims can sue the Saudi government].
Whatever revelations those 28 pages contain must be fairly important. Otherwise, why would we receive such threats from a nation that doesn’t appear able to withstand much more strife than a series of traffic tickets?
Speaking of strife, you should know how tenuous a grip our Arabian friends have on their own government. If ever there was a lesson in investment diversity, Saudi Arabia is the teacher’s ruler across your knuckles. When oil exports represent virtually all your income, and a sizable shortage tsunami
approaches in fewer than two decades, wouldn’t you throw such a Hail Mary?
While we don’t need yet another Middle East country to fall to ISIS or other Islamists bent on the destruction of Western Civilization, enough is enough. That these 28 pages have been withheld from the public is a punch in the face to 9/11 victims, and anyone who could have said something but chose not to is complicit. The lie we’ve let stand for decades has only brought us pain.
The Saudis are not our friends. Under the religious, social, political, and economic system they operate lies a deep-seated hatred for freedom, except for the gold that always accompanies freedom (they don’t seem to be bothered by that). In the coming years of what will surely be massive foreign policy cleanup projects across the globe after the Obama blight, let us at least admit whom we’re dealing with, and act accordingly. While in foreign policy parlance the word “enemy” might steer us in a direction we don’t want to go yet, let’s at least remove Saudi Arabia from the party invitations.
Image: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Arabia