28 Pages Quote of the Day

"The site of the World Trade Center has been completely rebuilt. The Pentagon is back up and running. And there is a lovely memorial in Somerset County in Pennsylvania to the people killed defending Flight 93. There have been movies made of the event. It belongs to history in every way but one. It does not yet fully belong to history in its truth, a vital part of which remains hidden away in a locked room, the final bit of our common history hidden away for fear of inconveniencing a medievalist regime that has the gall to threaten the one country that has guaranteed its safety against its bellicose neighborhood, a neighborhood in which the Saudis have done their level best to agitate, and which has done so at the expense of a considerable amount of its moral credibility in the world. Shut up now, and take your medicine." -- Charles P. Pierce weighing in today on the growing pressure to release 28 pages of classified evidence from the 9-11 Congressional Inquiry Report that purport to implicate members of the Saudi Arabian government and others in the planning and execution of the September 11 attacks. The Saudi-friendly Bush Administration insisted on withholding the pages on the grounds of "national security."

The repressive Saudi government, which for years has been tolerant, and even supportive, of the extremist Wahabbi form of Islam that's embraced by al Qaeda, has threatened to sell off billions of dollars in U.S. securities if the 28 pages in question are released to the public, something that would cause heavy economic damage. All but two of the 9-11 hijackers were Saudi nationals, and were the recipients of financial and logistical support from some entity while in the U.S. prior to the attacks. Both Sen. Sanders and Secretary Clinton support legislation to make the information public, while the White House is resisting.  The Saudis need to come clean, and stop with the threats.