WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – U.S. President Joe Biden has ordered declassification over the next six months of still secret documents from the government investigation into the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Biden is responding to pressure from families of some of the approximately 3,000 people killed by Al-Qaeda on September 11, 2001.
They have long argued that the classified documents might contain evidence that the government of Saudi Arabia, a close U.S. ally, had links to the hijackers who flew into the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
“Today, I signed an executive order directing the Department of Justice and other relevant agencies to oversee a declassification review of documents related to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s September 11th investigations,” Biden said in a statement.
Declassification must take place “over the next six months.”
“We must never forget the enduring pain of the families and loved ones of the 2,977 innocent people who were killed during the worst terrorist attack on America in our history,” Biden said.
The move comes ahead of the 20th anniversary of the attack, which spurred then-president George W. Bush soon after to order the invasion of Afghanistan, where the Taliban sheltered Al-Qaeda’s leadership.
U.S. officials assert that the attacks were carried out by 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists but many experts and independent researchers have raised questions about the official account.
They believe that rogue elements within the U.S. government, such as former vice president Dick Cheney, orchestrated or at least encouraged the 9/11 attacks in order to accelerate the U.S. war machine and advance the Zionist agenda.
Meanwhile, U.S. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said the panel would oversee the review “to ensure that all agencies adhere to the president’s guidance to apply the maximum degree of transparency allowed by law when conducting the review.”
Successive U.S. administrations have refused to release the classified documents because they reportedly could expose a potential link between Saudi Arabia and the 9/11 attacks. Fifteen out of 19 alleged 9/11 attackers were Saudi nationals.
The group 9/11 Families United issued a statement on Friday in which they praised Biden’s executive order.