In a new discussion at the YouTube channel of Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC), Jones, an RPI Advisory Board member, discusses with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) the effort to declassify 28 pages of a joint House of Representatives and Senate Intelligence Committees report. The redacted pages include information concerning foreign governments’ involvement in the September 11, 2001 attacks in America. Jones and Massie both state that the information in those 28 pages is important for informing decisions regarding the Middle East and potential US government actions in Iraq, as well as for preventing another attack in America similar to the September 11 attacks. Massie elaborates:
At your insistence, and because I trust you when you say ‘This is something you need to read,’ I went into the soundproof, you know, secret room here in Congress and read those 28 pages. And it was a really disturbing event for me to read those. I had to stop every two or three pages and rearrange my perception of history. And it’s that fundamental — those 28 pages….
It certainly changes your view of the Middle East, I think. And, again, we’re talking about the dynamics in Iraq these days and whether we should be involved and, if we get involved, in what capacity and what could be the outcome. To make that decision, members of Congress need to go read those 28 pages. Families deserve to know exactly what happened.
We need to declassify those 28 pages….There is nothing in there that would affect our national security. Some of it may be embarrassing; that is why I believe those 28 pages have been withheld. And if in those 28 pages there is something where we don’t want to reveal sources, you could redact a sentence or two here and there, but the American people deserve to know what happened and what led up to 9/11 so that we can prevent the next one.
Jones and Massie also address Rep. Justin Amash’s (R-MI) Liberty Caucus of House members, potential increased US government involvement in the fighting in Iraq, and Massie’s House-passed amendment to the Department of Defense Appropriations Act (HR 4870) that would place some limits on the US government’s mass spying program.
Watch the complete twenty minutes discussion here:
