U.S. intelligence chief John Brennan says there is "no evidence" indicating that Saudi Arabia gave backing to al-Qaida for the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
Speculation that the Saudis were involved has some in Congress demanding that 28 pages of a congressional probe into 9/11 be released. Those 28 pages focus on Saudi Arabia and its alleged involvement.
Brennan, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, told NBC television's Meet the Press Sunday that the information on those pages "was not corroborated, not vetted, and not deemed to be accurate."
He said the congressional panels "came out with a very clear judgment that there was no evidence indicating that the Saudi government as an institution, or Saudi officials individually, had provided financial support to al-Qaida."
Brennan said those 28 pages were withheld from the public because of the sensitive sources used in the investigation.
He spoke a day before the fifth anniversary of a U.S. special forces operation in Pakistan that hunted down and killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
In an interview taped for broadcast Monday, President Barack Obama told CNN television that he ordered the raid when he did because "if we did not take action, [bin Laden] might slip away and it might take years before he resurfaces."
Bin Laden was the world's most wanted criminal and the leader of al-Qaida, whose terrorist followers flew planes into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon near Washington, killing 3,000 people.
A third hijacked jet also was likely headed for Washington before passengers overwhelmed the terrorists and crashed into a field in rural Pennsylvania.
Just seconds before bin Laden was shot dead by U.S special forces, Obama said "hopefully, at that moment, [bin Laden] understood that the American people hadn't forgotten the some 3,000 people who he killed."
