Worst Jason Bourne movie, ever

Are you a person who can do the critical thinking? Do you prefer evidence to supposition when forming conclusions? Well, then, congratulations to you, smarty-pants, YOU do not have to read the 28 pages held back from the 9/11 Commission's report since 2003, about possible Saudi government involvement in the September 11 attacks.

We did, and we were not particularly impressed by the spy-screenplay-writing skills of the staffers of the Joint Congressional Inquiry who put this thing together. Basically, the CIA and FBI looked into Saudi involvement, and they figured a few low-level Saudis who were possible Saudi spies definitely had some kind of connection with some of the hijackers, we guess, maybe. Here's what they concluded, 13 years ago:

While in the United States, some of the September 11 hijackers were in contact with, and received support or assistance from, individuals who may be connected in the Saudi Government. There is information, primarily from FBI sources, that at least five of those individuals were alleged by some to be Saudi intelligence officers. ... In their testimony, neither CIA nor FBI witnesses were able to identify definitively the extent of Saudi support for terrorist activity globally or within the United States and the extent to which such support. if it exists, is knowing or inadvertent in nature.

The lightly redacted pages, recently declassified and publicly released on Friday, don't contain any smoking airliners. The juiciest material we found was related to something that's been public knowledge for more than a decade, that the wife of Prince Bandar bin Sultan (the Saudi ambassador and George W. Bush bestie from back in the day) gave money to the ailing wife of a guy who was connected to the hijackers.

Turns out that guy, Osama Basnan, almost certainly helped a couple of the hijackers before the attacks, and was an avid supporter of Osama bin Laden, as any number of Saudis were in the 1990s. That's when bin Laden was mostly seen in the Arab world as a Muslim hero, for helping defeat the godless Commies in Afghanistan.

Basnan was probably involved with Saudi intelligence, and the FBI speculated the money might have been to help him spy against Saudi dissidents in the U.S., or further Salafist evangelism, or who knows? Saudi culture traditionally involves rich people trickling their wealth out to vast networks of distantly related dependents, so it could have just been that.

Basnan was buddies with the other major player in the 28 pages, Omar al-Bayoumi, another possible spy who got $15 grand from Bandar, and who paid a security deposit and co-signed a lease for two hijackers in San Diego. So, it's quite reasonable to conclude that Saudi intelligence networks were infiltrated with al-Qaida supporters who helped support the 9/11 attacks either knowingly or without knowing the specifics of what exactly was going to happen to The Great Satan.

None of these people were tried for the attacks, btw; the FBI was unable to come up with enough evidence to charge them with anything beyond visa violations. Basnan was deported from the U.S. in 2002, and al-Bayoumi was briefly arrested and released in the U.K., where he was living at the time of the attacks.

There are other links between Bandar associates and bin Laden, but as we mentioned, all of these people are some degree of cousin; the Saudi royal "family" has thousands of members, who employ millions of people. So sure, this should be investigated more thoroughly, if we want the conclusion to be more than "shrug." We suggest shifting some of the Benghazi and Hillary-email investigative assets to it, stat.

Haha, we are very good at jokes.

Anyways, we are sure many of you have much livelier theories involving Dubya and Bandar bin Sultan ordering the false-flag attacks from their DC love nest at the Mayflower Hotel, and you may discuss them in the comments, which are not allowed.

[Mother Jones]