WASHINGTON, January 8 (Sputnik) — Members of the US Congress and former Senate Intelligence Chairman announced renewed legislation calling for the declassification of a 28 page chapter of the Joint Intelligence Committee report dealing with foreign financing of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States at a Capitol Hill press conference on Wednesday.
"We are calling on the administration to declassify the 28 pages," bill sponsor Representative and a Republican from North Carolina Walter Jones said. "No nation can defend itself unless that nation knows the truth, especially when it"s about an attack like 9/11."
Former Senate Intelligence Chairman Bob Graham, who helped draft the 2002 Joint Intelligence Committee report on the 9/11 attacks, stated that members of the Joint Committee were "shocked" when the report was publicly released in 2003 and an entire chapter had been excised. "It is a central chapter in terms of understanding who was the support network that allowed 9/11 to occur," former senator said.
Massachusetts Congressman Stephen Lynch argued that the release of the pages by the President of the United States is important for providing transparency in a democratic government, and allowing American citizens to be informed. "Transparency is a good aspect of democracy and… having an informed public, from the beginning of our [US] government has been a major priority and an asset of our democracy," Lynch said.
The new bill calling on the Obama administration to declassify the 28 pages of the report was introduced on Wednesday, but has not yet received a bill number. Former Senator Graham announced that he would be working with sitting members to file a companion bill in the Senate.
While the US Senate has the power to declassify the pages by a vote, Congressmen Lynch and Jones emphasized that they wanted to put pressure on the White House to make the pages of the report public.
Declassification of the chapter of the 2002-2003 Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities before and after the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001 has been supported by current Obama administration officials Joe Biden and John Kerry when they served in the US Senate.
