Release the 28 Pages
Fourteen years ago, our homeland was attacked by a small band of terrorists. They exploited jet fuel and the everyday nature of peaceable people to murder thousands of innocents. Today, supporters of those attacks exploit our muddled political process to remain in the shadows. The time has come to shed light on the subject.
We are nearing the end of the second presidency in the Post-9/11 world. Much has changed during these two administrations. Each president has pursued U.S. interests in the Greater Middle East in different ways. George W. Bush intervened expansively and initiated targeted killing into remote locations. Barack Obama expanded upon the targeted attacks against terrorist networks, yet also sought to reduce and limit direct conventional military involvement in the region. He also reached an agreement regarding Iran’s nuclear program.
There is, however, at least one common component to the policies of these two different men: both have refrained from releasing 28 redacted pages regarding the September 11th attacks. This comes at a time when victims of the attack face a potential dismissal of their case against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, widely reported to be the focus of these redacted pages (28Pages.Org).
This redacted chapter must become part of the public record. According to people that have read this chapter, it rearranged their “understanding of history for the past 13 years, and years leading up to that” (AlJazeera). Others have commented that the document clearly links individuals, if not institutions, within the Saudi government in support of the terrorists who conducted the attack (New Yorker). While sources and methods should be protected, at the very least “tear line” summaries of what the report contains should also be released.
The United States has a poor track record in the Greater Middle East, and keeping information from the public will not be part of a successful course correction. There is little doubt, given the public comments of elected representatives that have read the chapter, that significant individuals within the Saudi government would be exposed in those 28 pages. In my estimation based on unclassified material, the ties between Saudi intelligence personnel (as well as Pakistani in all likelihood) and bin Laden will be substantial.
The connections that these pages are likely to reveal would seriously jeopardize the status quo — and that is precisely the point. It is also why the classification of these pages has persisted for so long. With our own oil production ramped up and our economy relatively healthy, now is the time to release these pages to the public. There will be a backlash, against the redacted elements as well as the politicians that have obscured their guilt. But, continued obstruction will only damage more reputations.
We are far too accommodating of bad actors in the region as we hope that we can cajole them into changing course eventually. If the United States has learned any lessons from the September 11th attacks and the global war on terror, it should be that obscuring evil only assists it and that honest discussions about culpability are essential to national security.
Chris Zeitz is a former member of the U.S. Army who served in military intelligence. He deployed for one year to Kunar, Afghanistan, from Spring 2010 to Spring 2011. While in the Army, he attended the Defense Language Institute in Monterey and studied Arabic. He also has a Master’s degree in Diplomacy from Norwich University. The opinions expressed are his alone, and do not reflect those of the U.S. Army, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.
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