9/11 lawyers accuse Saudis of ‘whitewashing’ history

Lawyers representing more than 2,000 family members of 9/11 victims accused Saudi Arabia of papering over the kingdom’s support for extremism on Friday, as Riyadh extends its outreach to Capitol Hill.

The Saudi kingdom is providing “more whitewash than white paper,” lawyers for the family members said in a statement, following a Politico report about a 104-page memo detailing Saudi Arabia’s fight against terrorism that is circulating around Congress.

{mosads}“It is, instead, a transparent attempt to distract from the real issue — culpability for the 9/11 attack and murders — and to mislead the American people and their Congress,” said the lawyers, Sean Carter and Jack Quinn.

Saudi Arabia is in the midst of a lobbying blitz in Washington, amid renewed focus on a pair of fronts potentially tying the kingdom to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

In coming weeks, the Obama administration is expected to reveal some portions of 28 classified pages from a 2002 congressional inquiry into the terror attack, which are believed to connect senior Saudi leaders to al Qaeda. Saudi Arabia has pushed for the release of the pages, if only to quiet lingering speculation about its alleged support for extremists, but nonetheless expects a backlash once the pages are released.

And separately, Saudi Arabia has protested legislation moving through Congress that would allow victims of terror attacks, such as 9/11, to sue nation states that helped support the terrorists. The bill appears designed with an eye on suspected Saudi ties to al Qaeda, and has strong support in Congress despite heated opposition from the White House.

Saudi Arabia has a deep well of lobbying support that it can draw from for assistance in coming weeks, as the battle heats up.