Marcy Kaptur: “Yesterday the special congressional panel looking into the September 11 attacks issued its report. It said the…”

“Yesterday the special congressional panel looking into the September 11 attacks issued its report. It said the intelligence community could have done a much better job in protecting the American people. That truly is an understatement. But what stands out is the fact that the Bush administration has taken secrecy to a new unacceptable level. The administration insists on keeping secret 28 pages of that report. It is widely believed that these 28 pages deal with the possible involvement of foreign governments in the 9/11 tragedy and specifically Saudi Arabia. Mr. Speaker, the Bush administration clearly exaggerated the immediate threat to the United States posed by the regime of Saddam Hussein in order to justify the war in Iraq, and, indeed, I have supported the calls for an independent commission to get to the bottom of that deception. The administration's credibility has been greatly damaged by the revelations about the manipulated statements in the President's State of the Union address. Now we have 28 pages of a report of a vitally important study that are being kept away from the American people. Do the American people not deserve to know the truth, whole truth, the whole story about 9/11? Do the families of 9/11 not deserve to know? What is the Bush administration now hiding about Saudi Arabia's possible involvement? How can the Bush administration justify keeping this secret from the American people?”