For the last 3 or so weeks, I have been in a "debate" with a guy on Facebook, who initially claimed that the redaction of the 28 pages (now redacted), hid,
by orders of President Bush, two allegations that the Saudi ambassador, Prince Bandar, carried out two acts of "
planning and orchestrating" 9/11. And claims that the
declassification of the 28 pages "forged" the "victims bill" (JASTA). The "two acts" he refers to, he "supported" by showing little screenshots from the 28 pages: One talked about how Bandar and his wife transfered money to a Saudi in San Diego, who passed on money to two of the hijackers. The other is the finding of phone numbers in Abu Zubayda's (?? Name recollected from imperfect memory) indirectly related to Bandar, one being to a company in Colorada that did business for Bandar.
I called him on three false or unsupported claims:
- The 28 pages allege neither that Bandar "planned" nor that he "orchestrated" 9/11 - merely that he had indirect financial ties and potential communications lines to the hijackers
- There is no hint that the redaction was carried out on Bush's orders, or even just with his knowledge
- Since JASTA passed the Senate before the declassified 28 pages were published, it is clear immedately that the declassification cannot have been a cause of JASTA passing Congress.
Ok, this earned me plenty of insults and getting called a paid agent for the Bush/Cheney/Obama/whatever conspiracy. Despite him and me probably agreeing basically that Bandar's shenanigans out to have been scrutinized to the bare bone a long time ago, and that whoever actually andd knowingly supported AQ and the 9/11 attacks in Saudi Arabia ought to get hunted don and brought to justice - even if a Prince or two are among that lot.
But the guy insists on overplaying his cards and on maintaining the hyperbole.
So here's the lesson: Take what is documented - all of it - critically but openly; and refrain both from overplaying the cards we have in our hands AND from assuming it's a losing hand anyway and giving up.
Too many in this forum are too quick, in my opinion, to dismiss out of hand hypotheses that true higher-ups in the Saudi power elite - I am talking government and Princes level - have knowingly co-conspired and willingly enabled 9/11. There IS initial evidence that, specifically, Prince Bandar had a hand in it all, and there IS some evidence that whatever was known about those ties before 9/11 has been handled in such a sorry way that closer scrutiny is warranted.
I have always felt that the likes of paloalto
are onto something real; but unfortunately they overplay their cards, and insulate themselves from scrutiny by coming with a besieged-castle mentality.