Nancy Pelosi wants top-secret 28 pages on 9/11 declassified
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Sunday said she wants 28 redacted pages declassified from a 2003 congressional report on the intelligence community's prepaparedness for and response to the 9/11 attacks.
"As the former Ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee and top the House Democrat on the Joint Congressional investigation looking into the 9/11 attacks, I agree with former Senator Bob Graham that these documents should be declassified and made public, and that the Bush Administration's refusal to do so was a mistake," Pelosi said in a statement. "I have always advocated for providing as much transparency as possible to the American people consistent with protecting our national security."
Her statement came the same day that "60 Minutes" aired a story featuring Graham and other current and former government officials who want the report's top secret pages declassified. Only a select few have seen this particular section.
Graham, who declined to detail the redacted section, helped author the report and he now says the redacted portion could highlight possible Saudi support for the 9/11 hijackers. He also suggested that it sheds light on a network of people he believes supported the hijackers in the U.S.
Renewed calls for declassifying the report come about a week and a half before the president's visit to Saudi Arabia for a summit with Arab leaders. There is also some tension between the the Saudis and the U.S. over doubts about the Saudi commitment to combating violent Islamist extremism.
"60 Minutes" correspondent Steve Kroft also spoke to former members of the 9/11 Commission, former Navy Secretary John Lehman, a former Democratic House lawmaker who was the only person to serve on Congress' Joint Inquiry and the 9/11 Commission and lawyers representing family members of attack victims who are suing Saudi Arabia.
The White House said Monday that a declassification review is underway and that the administration hopes to complete it by the end of Mr. Obama's presidency. In a statement, the National Security Council said the president has committed his administration to work toward greater transparency and openness in government.
"This record of openness and transparency is precisely why the Administration directed a declassification review into the so-called "28 pages" of the Joint Congressional Inquiry regarding the 9/11 attacks. That review process remains underway, but every effort is being taken to complete it before the end of the Administration," it said.
CBS News' Andres Triay contributed to this report.
