This op-ed is a sequel to my "The Truth about the 28 Pages And Its Enduring Cover-Up" published on July 22 at http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Truth-about-the-28-Pag-by-Barry-Kissin-Bush_Cover-ups_Intelligence_Investigations-160722-547.html and my "9/11 and the Saudis -- When Will the Blindness End?" published on Oct. 3 at http://www.opednews.com/articles/9-11-and-the-Saudis--Whe-by-Barry-Kissin-CIA_Complicity_Congress_Conspiracy-161003-864.html.
In 2016, Alex Gibney ("We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks," "Taxi to the Dark Side," "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room," "Casino Jack and the United States of Money") released a documentary based on a 2006 New Yorker magazine article by Lawrence Wright that exposes the CIA's deliberate concealment from the FBI of the fact that two important members of al Qaeda were in the U.S. over a period of 18 months leading up to 9-11. According to the official account of 9-11, these two members of al Qaeda ended up on Flight #77 that flew into the Pentagon. The CIA did nothing to stop these two hijackers. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/07/10/the-agent
So as to avoid the obvious, the New Yorker article speculates that this was all about rivalry (personal and institutional) between the CIA and the FBI, and also that the CIA kept the presence of the two hijackers secret so as to pursue turning them into our spies.
The FBI has exclusive jurisdiction over terrorism within the U.S. The CIA concealment was not only illegal -- it was treasonous. As for turning them into spies, I suppose we are to believe that after the CIA failed to turn them, it just forgot about them.
According to the New Yorker article: "After September 11th, the C.I.A. claimed that it had divulged [Flight #77 hijacker] Mihdhar's identity to the F.B.I. in a timely manner; indeed, both George Tenet, the agency's director, and Cofer Black, the head of its counterterrorism division, testified to Congress that this was the case. Later, the 9/11 Commission concluded that the statements of both were false." The CIA's Inspector General concluded likewise.
What does this have to do with the Saudis and 9-11?
According to the 28 pages of the 2002 Congressional report on 9-11, suppressed by Bush then Obama for 14 years, and finally released in July after irresistible Congressional pressure, the two hijackers in question were the same two Saudis being supported the entire time they were in the U.S. by agents of Saudi Arabia's military and intelligence as well as by monthly payments from then-Ambassador Bandar bin Sultan ("Bandar Bush") and wife.
In State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration (2006: Simon & Schuster), then National Security correspondent for the New York Times, James Risen, states: "[T]he connections between Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda and the Saudi power elite ... are much stronger and far more troubling than has ever been disclosed, and until they are thoroughly investigated ... the full story of 9-11 will never be known" (page 179).
But Risen also is focused on the connections between the Bush administration and the Saudi power elite: "Some CIA sources say that George Tenet set the tone for the CIA's Saudi relationship by relying heavily on developing close relationships with top Saudi officials, including Prince Bandar ... CIA officers ... say that about once a month, Tenet would slip away from CIA headquarters and travel to Bandar's nearby estate in McLean, Virginia, for quiet talks ... [S]ome CIA officers handling Saudi issues complain that Tenet would not tell them what he had discussed with Bandar, making it difficult for agency officials to know the nature of any deals their boss was arranging with the Saudis" (page 188).
Evidently, one of their "deals" was to protect and support the two hijackers on Flight #77.
Gibney's 15-minute-long documentary viewable at video.newyorker.com/watch/the-new-yorker-presents-the-agent-gibney includes footage of George W. Bush awarding Tenet the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004. Gibney also emphasizes that instead of being held accountable, the CIA underlings were promoted who were directly involved in concealing the presence in the U.S. of the two hijackers.
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