CIA chief says redacted report pages will show Saudi Arabia played no part in 9/11

CIA chief John Brennan said he believes that the redacted pages of the 9/11 Commission report should soon be made public and will show Saudi Arabia played no role in the terror attacks.

The families of 9/11 victims have long campaigned for the 28 redacted pages of the report to be declassified, amid speculation that they expose connections between the 9/11 hijackers and Saudi officials.

In an interview with the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya network, Brennan said the report was the result of a "preliminary" joint inquiry published one year after the attacks, which had attempted to "pull together bits and pieces of information reporting about who was responsible for 9/11."

After reviewing this initial report, the 9/11 commission "looked very thoroughly at these allegations of Saudi involvement, Saudi government involvement and... their conclusion was that there was no evidence to indicate that the Saudi government as an institution - or as senior Saudi officials individually - had supported the 9/11 attacks.

Brennan added: "I think it's good that (the pages) come out."

He said subsequent reviews "really have shown that it was very, very unfortunate that these attacks took place. But this was the work of al Qaeda, of Bin Laden, (current al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri), and others of that ilk."

The House Foreign Affairs committee held a meeting in May on a bill passed by the US Senate providing 9/11 victims the right to sue Saudi Arabia. The White House has pledged to veto the bill.

Saudi Arabia strenuously denies providing support for the 19 hijackers responsible for the attacks, 15 of whom were Saudi nationals. It has threatened to sell up to $750 billion in US assets if the bill becomes law.

The White House is to decide in June whether to declassify the redacted material, former US. Senator Bob Graham, who co-chaired the congressional inquiry into the attacks, said recently.