JUST IN: Biden Orders Declassification Review of Documents from 9/11 Investigation
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President Joe Biden has signed an executive order directing a declassification review of documents relating to the 9/11 investigation.
With the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks approaching, 9/11 families have been pushing for the president to declassify relevant documents to “finally plac[e] the values of truth, justice, and accountability before the interests of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”
And until he takes action on that front, the statement co-signed by nearly 1800 Americans said, Biden would not be welcome at memorial events.
A month later, the president is ordering a declassification review of relevant documents:
When I ran for president, I made a commitment to ensuring transparency regarding the declassification of documents on the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on America.
As we approach the 20th anniversary of that tragic day, I am honoring that commitment. 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. The executive order requires the Attorney General to release the declassified documents publicly 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,” his statement reads. “For them, it was not only a national and international tragedy. It was a personal devastation.”
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff supports the decision and said Friday the committee would “closely oversee this process, 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.”
The executive order itself states:
Information may remain classified only if it still requires protection in the interest of the national security and disclosure of the information reasonably could be expected to result in damage to the national security. Information shall not remain classified if there is significant doubt about the need to maintain its classified status. Nor shall information remain classified in order to conceal violations of law, inefficiency, or administrative error or to prevent embarrassment to a person, organization, or agency.
