Kyle Shideler of the Center for Security Policy joined SiriusXM host Stephen K. Bannon on Monday’s edition of Breitbart News Daily to discuss his article on the newly declassified “28 pages” from the 9/11 Commission report, which he says “reveal lost ground in the fight against jihad.”
“A lot of what’s in the 28 pages is things that had been hinted at previously, in news reports, and analysis, and investigations that were done in the early days of the Bush Administration, but never before was really put together in one document, in one piece, kind of tying these things together,” he said.
Shideler said the Saudi role in 9/11 was “definitely kept quiet” because of “the relationship with the Saudi government.”
“In the 28 pages, it talks about how the Saudi government had previously been treated essentially as an ally, and so its operatives in this country were not receiving the kind of close surveillance that they probably deserved,” he said.
“I think there was a suggestion that things were missed, or the Saudis were not being as closely watched as they should have been, because of this view – which is a longstanding view in the United States, going all the way back, really, to Truman and Roosevelt – that the Saudis were our friends. They were our allies in the Middle East. And that mistaken view led, I think, to sort of missed cues,” said Shideler.
“I think we need additional investigations,” he said. “This is a report that is based on evidence. It’s based on evidence which itself remains classified… This should be the start of something, and not the end of it.”
“What we really need, and what we should ask for, is some of the evidentiary documents that supported this report. We should see those as well. What was this evidence based on? And, going forward, what else do we know?” he asked.
“This is a report that names some names of participants, of Saudi suspected intelligence officers,” he continued. “We should be asking what else do we know about these people, what else do we know about these organizations? What law enforcement actions were taken as a result of this information? What actions were not taken, against whom, and why? These are all questions that we should be asking.”
Bannon quoted Hoover Institution media fellow Paul Sperry, who said on Breitbart News Sunday that the cover-up of Saudi involvement was “the most monstrous in American history.”
“It’s certainly up there,” Shideler agreed. “We have the attack on 9/11, and I think it’s fair to say that there are people who were involved in that, perpetrators that were involved in that, that ultimately we never found justice for.”
However, he came up short of recommending charges against Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who was the Saudi ambassador to the United States in 2001, and is seen as one of the highest-ranking Saudis to be implicated by the 28 pages.
“I don’t know that there’s enough evidence in the 28 pages to suggest that, but it should have prompted additional investigation,” said Shideler. “Was there an additional investigation, and if so, what did it find? These are questions that we should be asking.”
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