46 Democratic Senators have called on the Bush administration to declassify the 28 pages of the Congressional 9/11 report that has been deleted from the public report.
Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said, “Keeping this material classified only strengthens the theory that some in the U.S. government are hellbent on covering up for the Saudis.”
The New York Times reports the classified portions of the Congressional 9/11 report indicate that two Saudi citizens who had ties to a pair of the hijacker were likely Saudi intelligence agents who may have reported directly to the Saudi government and received Saudi funding.
The reports notes that one of the Saudis, Omar al-Bayoumi, who claimed he was a student had “access to seemingly unlimited funding from Saudi Arabia.”
The report found he had befriended two of the hijackers in San Diego, helped them find an apartment and paid their first two months of rent. The classified report indicates that Bayoumi started receiving more money from the Saudi government after he met the would-be hijackers.
Al-Bayoumi is now living in Saudi Arabia and is expected to be questioned by U.S. officials. It is unclear why the U.S. has waited until now to question him thoroughly. He was only briefly questioned in Britain after the attacks.
The other Saudi cited in the report is Osama Bassnan who did not know the hijackers but was a close associate of al-Bayoumi.
The classified report states that Bassnan traveled to Houston after the attacks when Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah was visiting President Bush. While Abdullah was meeting with Bush, Bassnan was meeting with a Saudi official in Abdullah’s entourage.