Pressure Works

In response to pressure from surviving family members of 9/11 victims, Joe Biden has signed an executive order ordering review and release of documents pertaining to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

The survivors had said that without such a release, detailing official Saudi involvement, he would not be welcome at the memorial ceremonies. 

Of course, the real question that this raises is how much of this is sincere, and how much is just theater.

Even if Biden is sincere, he will need the full support of his political staff, because the US State Security apparatus has been captured by the House of Saud, and is loath to release information that would reflect poorly on Riyadh.

President Biden on Friday signed an executive order that would require the review, declassification and release of classified government documents related to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

In doing so, Biden said he was fulfilling a promise he had made while campaigning for president, in which he had vowed, if elected, to direct the U.S. Attorney General to “personally examine the merits of all cases” where the government had invoked state secrets privilege and “to err on the side of disclosure in cases where, as here, the events in question occurred two decades or longer ago.”

“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,” Biden said in a statement Friday. “As we approach the 20th anniversary of that tragic day, I am honoring that commitment.”

The executive order directs the Justice Department and other relevant agencies to oversee a declassification review of documents related to the FBI’s Sept. 11 investigations. The order also requires the U.S. Attorney General to release the declassified documents publicly over the next six months, Biden said.

………

Biden also seemed to direct the bureau to favor disclosure in questionable calls, writing that material should not stay secret if there was “significant doubt” about the need for it to remain classified, and that the attorney general and others should determine “whether the public interest in disclosure of the information outweighs the damage to the national security that might reasonably be expected from disclosure.”

The FBI, the CIA, and the rest of the US State Security Apparatus will fight this tooth and nail, and it is likely that AG Merrick Garland, given that he is very much a DoJ institutionalist, will attempt to obstruct the release of meaningful information as well.

I'm not holding my breath for any major revelations.