The White House has been trying to protect some individuals in Saudi Arabia and the US from being prosecuted in relation with the September 11, 2001 attacks, according to an American journalist and political commentator.
Don DeBar, a radio host and TV commentator based in New York, made the comments on Saturday, after the US Congress unanimously passed a bill that would authorize victims of the 9/11 attacks to sue the Saudi government.
However, the White House once again vowed that President Barack Obama would veto the measure.
"To me, it exposes something that they are trying to block this avenue of discovery; it tells me that there must be something that they are afraid of,” DeBar said.
"This is 15 years after the event and we are already promised a veto by President Obama here, but this would be a way of doing discovery on the documents that exist, may be in hands of the Saudis and/or the US government and/or third parties about the role of certain individuals in Saudi Arabia, including the government in these attacks and that of course may also lead back to Washington or others as some speculate,” he added.
DeBar noted that the entire procedure of investigating Saudi Arabia’s role in the 9/11 attacks and releasing the relevant information has been like “extracting teeth in the courts.”
He was referring to a long-classified section of the congressional report on the attacks, known as the "28 pages," which was released in July. The documents expose several suspicious connections between the hijackers and Saudi officials. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers who carried out the attacks were Saudi citizens.
“Someone is being protected by the United States on the place that they are making their stand at the moment is over the issue of immunity of the Saudis from being subject to litigation and discovery and prosecution in US courts,” the journalist added.
Following Friday’s vote, Senator Charles Schumer, one of the authors of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, said in a written statement “that if a court proves the Saudis were complicit in 9/11, they should be held accountable.”
“If they’ve done nothing wrong, they have nothing to worry about,” he added.
Before the Senate approved the measure in May, Saudi Arabia threatened to sell off hundreds of billions of dollars worth of US assets if the legislation became law. The Obama administration also warned at the time that the legislation would put Americans at legal risk overseas.
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