‘CLEAR EVIDENCE’

9/11 Panelist: Saudis Helped Hijackers

Commissioner: Report shouldn’t have exonerated kingdom.

A former member of the 9/11 Commission says there was “clear evidence” Saudi Arabia’s government officials helped provide a support network for the hijackers leading up to the attack, The Guardian reports. John H. Lehman also argued that the White House should make public the full, long-classified report on the link. “There was an awful lot of participation by Saudi individuals in supporting the hijackers, and some of those people worked in the Saudi government,” said Lehman, a New York investment banker. The 9/11 commissioners in 2004 issued a report that was seen at the time as absolving the kingdom from involvement. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers lived in Saudi Arabia. Lehman said on Wednesday: “Our report should never have been read as an exoneration of Saudi Arabia.” Others have argued that the full 28 pages should not be released for fear that it would implicate innocent people due to “raw, unvetted” information.