{"id":30842,"date":"2016-02-11T07:11:54","date_gmt":"2016-02-11T11:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=30842"},"modified":"2016-02-11T07:11:54","modified_gmt":"2016-02-11T11:11:54","slug":"obamas-unkept-promise-to-911-families-releasing-the-28-pages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=30842","title":{"rendered":"Obama\u2019s Unkept Promise to 9\/11 Families: Releasing the 28 Pages"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brian McGlinchey<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>

Photo: Elizabeth Cromwell<\/p><\/div>\n

Americans have grown accustomed to broken promises from politicians. And yet, somePhoto: Elizabeth Cromwell
\nlapses are so striking that they can muster indignation\u00a0from even the most jaded political observer. Case in point: President Obama\u2019s personal assurances to 9\/11 family members\u2014on two separate occasions\u2014that he would declassify a 28-page finding<\/a> on foreign government support of the hijackers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will get them released\u201d<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s one thing to neglect\u00a0a broad policy promise made in the heat of an election, and another thing altogether to\u00a0renege on a personal commitment to 9\/11 family members\u2014but that\u2019s precisely what Obama is doing, based on accounts provided by\u00a0Kristen Breitweiser and Bill Doyle, who each lost loved ones in the September 11 attacks.<\/p>\n

Breitweiser\u2014whose husband, Ronald Breitweiser<\/a>,\u00a0worked in the South Tower of the World Trade Center and was the\u00a0father\u00a0of a then-two-year old girl\u2014told the\u00a0Philadelphia Inquirer<\/a>\u00a0Obama\u2019s assurance to her came at\u00a0a meeting with 9\/11 survivors at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in February 2009, just weeks after he\u2019d taken office:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had opportunities to raise our hands and ask questions, and I asked him whether he would be interested in releasing the 28 pages, because for years we had been trying to get President Bush to do it,\u201d said Breitweiser\u2026<\/p>\n

Obama \u201csaid absolutely, I don\u2019t see why not. The bottom line is he agreed to do it, and he gave me and the rest of the world his promise<\/strong>,\u201d Breitweiser said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Had that been Obama\u2019s only statement on the issue,\u00a0one might be tempted to dismiss it as a careless comment\u00a0by a new president caught off-guard, one who may have\u00a0changed his mind upon reading the 28 pages himself. However, Bill Doyle\u2014whose\u00a025-year old son,\u00a0Joe Doyle<\/a>, was killed in the World Trade Center\u2019s North Tower\u2014says Obama gave him an even more pointed\u00a0commitment\u00a0more than two years later. Again, from the Philadelphia Inquirer<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Bill Doyle\u2019s recollection of his chat with President Obama remains crystal clear. To mark bin Laden\u2019s demise, Obama had laid a wreath at the former site of the World Trade Center on May 5, 2011, and met later in the day with families of victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks at a reception near ground zero.<\/p>\n

The president stopped at Doyle\u2019s table midway through the event, and Doyle asked when the government would make public portions of a congressional investigation that weighed evidence that Saudi Arabia provided support to the 9\/11 hijackers.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018Bill, I will get them released<\/strong>,\u2019 \u201d Doyle recalled.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Declassifying the 28 Pages: Well Within President\u2019s Power<\/h3>\n

Some presidential promises require a cooperative Congress,\u00a0but this isn\u2019t one of them. To honor his commitment,\u00a0Obama doesn\u2019t need to line up votes\u2014all that\u2019s required is a single stroke of his presidential pen. Given his\u00a0previous warnings to Congress that he\u2019s willing to\u00a0use that same pen in ways that are constitutionally controversial, it\u2019s particularly jarring that he would fail to act\u00a0in this situation, where his authority is unquestioned.<\/p>\n

\"Ronald<\/a>
Ronald Breitweiser: Killed at the World Trade Center on 9\/11<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The families of September 11 victims and their fellow citizens\u00a0deserve to know\u00a0what\u00a0the U.S. government has learned\u00a0about who enabled the 9\/11 attacks\u2014and what\u00a0the CIA, FBI and other agencies did with\u00a0the intelligence they had before that day. A increasingly\u00a0wide variety of present and former government officials agree<\/a>, including the Chairman and Vice Chairman<\/a> of the 9\/11 Commission, and the Republican and Democratic co-sponsors of House Resolution 428<\/a>, which urges the President to declassify the 28 pages.<\/p>\n

According to Rep. Thomas Massie\u2014who\u00a0read the 28 pages and described\u00a0the experience<\/a> as\u00a0\u201cdisturbing\u201d\u2014declassifying the redacted finding wouldn\u2019t jeopardize national security, but would trigger \u201canger, frustration and embarrassment<\/a>.\u201d If so, it appears Obama\u2019s decision about declassifying the 28 pages values\u00a0his own\u00a0convenience more than his personal pledges to those most profoundly affected by 9\/11.<\/strong><\/p>\n

28Pages.org<\/strong> is committed to bringing the redacted intelligence finding on foreign government support of the 9\/11 hijackers to light. \u00a0Add your own voice to the growing, bipartisan movement to declassify the 28 pages today. Call the White House<\/a> and ask President Obama to honor his commitment. Then call your House representative and urge them to cosponsor H.Res.14\u2014our handy guide<\/a> makes it easy.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

___
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