inBUSINESS Issue 15

ANALYSIS IN CAREER
16 Years after 9/11
the American Public Deserves Answers
BY BOB GRAHAM & DAN CHRISTENSEN
Sixteen years is a long time to expect the
American public to wait to know who was
behind 9/11, the most significant act of terror
in modern US history. Unfortunately, the
wait continues because of the resistance of
federal agencies to openness, the over-classification
of information and the weakness of
the Freedom of Information Act.
Vast numbers of investigative and intelligence
documents related to 9/11 remain
classified. The FBI alone has acknowledged it
has tens of thousands of pages of 9/11 reports
that it refuses to make public. To make matters
worse, agencies withholding information
tell what are essentially lies to make their
actions seem as acceptable as possible.
For example, the FBI repeatedly has said
its investigation of a Saudi family who moved
abruptly out of their Sarasota home two
weeks before 9/11 — leaving behind their
cars, clothes, furniture and other belongings
— found no connections to the attacks. Yet
statements in the FBI's own files that were
never disclosed to Congress or the 9/11 Commission
say the opposite — that the Sarasota
Saudis had "many connections" to "individuals
associated with the terrorist attacks on
9/11/2001."
Trust in government today is near historic
lows. Recent polls by Gallup and the Pew
Research Centre found that only 20% of
Americans trust Washington to do what is
right. When the people think government
is not listening to them, or giving them the
respect of knowing what it is doing, it feeds
into that undercurrent and denies the public
the opportunity to be part of the discussion
about what we should be doing.
Last summer's release of the long-hidden
"28 pages" from Congress' Joint Inquiry into
9/11 and FBI records obtained by Florida
Bulldog amid ongoing FOIA litigation indicate
that much about Saudi Arabia's role in
supporting the 9/11 hijackers remains classified.
If the public knew the role the kingdom
played in 9/11, would the United States be
selling them $350 billion in sophisticated
military equipment?
The Freedom of Information Act is
intended to be how classified materials are
unearthed. But as it is currently written and
has been generally interpreted by the courts,
most recently by Miami federal Judge Cecilia
Altonaga in Florida Bulldog's lawsuit against
the FBI, the frequently trivial concerns of
agencies trump the fundamental democratic
principle that Americans deserve to know
what their government is doing in their
name.
The problem is illustrated by Altonaga's
June 29 order denying the public access to an
FBI PowerPoint titled "Overview of the 9/11
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www.inbusiness.co.bw | Issue 15 | 2017