What Bob Graham Knew…

Bob Graham likely never went a day after 9/11 where he was not obsessed with finding out and sharing the truth behind the plot ... photos sourced from Wiikimedia

Over the years I have followed much of what this great solon was trying to have us understand about the truth of 9/11.

Serving as both Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and the 9/11 Commission Hearings Bob Graham was privy to information and national secrets that perhaps less than 100 Americans were aware of. Graham was filled with internal conflict in telling what he knew about 9/11.

Graham was a man who wanted to believe in the nation he served. He assumed his mission within the Senate to protect the United States from enemies foreign and domestic with all the dedication and effort required, but over time it became clear that his briefings were not about the truth, in fact he was being gaslighted, lied to and treated like a useful idiot by the Bush administration and their allies in the Saudi Royal family.

Imagine yourself sitting in a hardened secret facility in the Capital designed for communications of the upmost secrecy. Information of such sensitivity that it could not be transmitted other than by person to person. In briefings in the tense days following 9/11 you are being told things such as Saddam Hussein being prepared to ignite a nuclear device off the coast of the United States. In hearing that, Graham asked the intelligence expert if this was solid and verified information. The response was an unequivocal yes.

In the rear view mirror of history we now know that there was no plan of this kind nor were there any WMDs be they nuclear, biological or chemical* that were in production or stockpiled for use against the U.S. or our armed forces in the region.

According to a Washington Post Poll in 2003:

Sixty-nine percent of Americans said they thought it at least likely that Hussein was involved in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, according to the latest Washington Post poll. That impression, which exists despite the fact that the hijackers were mostly Saudi nationals acting for al Qaeda, is broadly shared by Democrats, Republicans and independents.

According to a Pew Research Paper from 2023: Looking Back:

In the months leading up to the war, sizable majorities of Americans believed that Iraq either possessed WMD or was close to obtaining them, that Iraq was closely tied to terrorism – and even that Hussein himself had a role in the 9/11 attacks. Two decades after the war began, a review of Pew Research Center surveys on the war in Iraq shows that support for U.S. military action was built, at least in part, on a foundation of falsehoods.

The Brookings Education Institute: 9/11 and Iraq: The making of a tragedy

President George W. Bush was obsessed with the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and deliberately misled the American people about who was responsible for the 9/11 attack.

Graham found the courage to find a way to  share how members of the Bush White House had lied to him and by extension the American people. The array of false pretense included not only the run-up to the Iraq invasion, but perhaps more importantly insight on who actually planned and supported the 9/11 Attack on the WTC and the Pentagon.

While we know that Saddam and his government had nothing to do with it, including any collusion with Osama Bin Laden or the Taliban, it is still likely that most Americans believe Hussein and Iraq perpetrated the 9/11 attacks.

Graham  knew that using Saddam as a scapegoat gave cover the real culprits. The actual plotters and planners were in fact religious Muslim zealots of the Wahhabi sect within the Saudi Royal Family. Wahhabism is virtually the state religion of the Saudi Royal Family and  we can assume that the plot was hardly the work of a lone wolf within that sect.

By way of a quick background: Wahhabism is  to Islam what Evangelical Dominionist  belief is to Christianity. Both are fundamentalists and literalist, seeking dominion over the world’s religions. Both are misogynistic and both contend that violence in “protection” of the belief, especially against apostates, heretics and blasphemers is justifiable and sanctioned by Allah; or Jesus as the case may be. Both sects also dedicate huge amounts pf money to increase the number of indoctrinated followers. In the case of the Saudis this is facilitated by creating Madrassas which are religious training schools throughout the Middle East, to insure that the young receive the proper doctrinal education. There are no other subjects taught in Madrassas.

In considering the truth about the 9/11 attack Graham became all too familiar with the sway that the Saudi Royal family held over the the relationship that the Bush family (George Senior and Junior) both had with one  Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who served as the Saudi ambassador to the United States from 1983 to 2005, “Bandar Bush” as he was affectionately known by the Bush clan was particularly close to George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush and considered an extended member of the family. Bandar often stayed at the Bush Texas Compound.

Less well known is that Bandar was also head of Saudi Intelligence for over 20 years prior to becoming ambassador to the United States. That a foreign national with the vitae of Bandar was treated like an extended family member did not seem to trouble many Americans. Nor did the fact that after the 9/11 attack Bandar and several members of the bin Laden family were allowed to take special flights out of the United States under what is known as Operation Yellow Ribbon.

Graham was neither a religious bigot or zealot, but he had every right to be concerned in thinking about the ties between Saudis like Bandar, Wahhabi ideology and it’s dominant influence on the Saudi kingdom leading to 9/11. Fifteen of the nineteen hijackers on 9/11 were Saudi Nationals.

It’s a shame that Graham never was able to expose the real story and who plotted the attacks. He was in a situation that by its nature was fraught with horrible choices to consider.

Nonetheless, we as a nation owe a deep thanks to a man who did what he could to serve the nation and its people in the best ways he could.

In conclusion we clearly owe a debt to the memory of Bob Graham for trying to enlighten us. Yet even if he had, the deeper question is what would have happened if he had proven that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, not Saddam Hussein was the instigator.

*The infamous nerve gas attack on the Kurds was made possible with U.S. complicity thanks to Rumsfeld and Cheney at that time in support of Saddam Hussein