We should not be surprised. The Kingdom of Saud is rooted in wahhabism - an ultraconservative branch of Islam that also happens to be the primary influence of a little group called Daesh/ISIL.
This document is different from the 28 pages that remain classified. For more info on that, read here:<p><a href="https://28pages.org/faq/" rel="nofollow">https://28pages.org/faq/</a>
This is hard to parse without any commentary. What should I, as an average person, take from this? Should I start to think Saudi Arabia as a terrorist country or is there room for interpretation?<p>I'm very sure, by intuition, that this is important but probably would have been more valuable with some opinions from people who are knowledgeable on the subject.
The title is a little misleading. Obviously the hijackers were mostly from Saudi. The document shows how those people were directly connected with government.<p>However in Saudi a ton of people work for the government so it isn't surprising they had connections to Saudi government.
I was curious about a source, especially since it seems like it was declassified almost a year ago. The same papers are available from .gov as:<p><a href="https://www.archives.gov/declassification/iscap/pdf/2012-048-doc17.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.archives.gov/declassification/iscap/pdf/2012-048...</a><p>The index page,<p><a href="https://www.archives.gov/declassification/iscap/pdf/2012-048.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.archives.gov/declassification/iscap/pdf/2012-048...</a><p>calls it "Saudi Notes". There's one other set of "Saudi Notes" and some "Saudi News Clips" on that page.<p>Does anyone know what the declassification process was for these / why they were declassified?
Is it unusual for nations to use terrorists, mercenaries, privateers for missions that they don't want to be directly associated with? IIRC, the Russians and the Americans were doing this in the Middle East in the 20th century, and may still be doing it in Syria now.<p>Seems to me that the real news is that Saudi and America are able to be allies and enemies at the same time, not that they may have employed people who have the big T label.
I'd be curious to see whether any of the redacted sections are available via Illustrator[1].<p>1. <a href="http://hackaday.com/2008/08/01/exposing-poorly-redacted-pdfs/" rel="nofollow">http://hackaday.com/2008/08/01/exposing-poorly-redacted-pdfs...</a>
In 2012 Citigroup forecast that Saudi Arabia would run out of oil in 2030. If true, there must have been considerable anxiety in the years preceding 9/11 as the Saudi government contemplated ways to offset its impending decline in reserves. Fortunately for the Saudis, 9/11 was the catalyst for the fall of Iraq, a country with the largest unproven oil reserves in the region, and ideally located near Saudi refineries and export infrastructure. In the book Hotel California: The Clandestine War in Iraq, the author repeatedly claims the Bush Administration was divorced from reality... its scary to think the United States was manipulated into deposing Sadaam for the benefit of Saudi Arabia.
Reading the quotes from this page give enough of an indication that there is more than just a connection between the hijackers and Saudi diplomats as was shown in this release, but specifically financing and involvement from well known figures at a seemingly significant level:<p><a href="https://28pages.org/quotable/" rel="nofollow">https://28pages.org/quotable/</a><p>> When asked by 60 Minutes if the 28 pages include specific names: “Yes. The average intelligent watcher of 60 Minutes would recognize them instantly.”
I'm afraid that this will put SA in a very bad position, bad enough to gain some hate from around the world.<p>The day this alliance between the US and SA starts to diminish or ends, it's not going to be worrying. Muslims already get so much hate everywhere, if the home of Islam gets bad PR, the middle east will turn up worse than it already is. I hope I'm just being pessimistic here.
O ba ma: <a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/340313-obama-saudi-pages-classified/#.VxebaXHmckE.facebook" rel="nofollow">https://www.rt.com/usa/340313-obama-saudi-pages-classified/#...</a>