Amid pressure, Biden welcomes new review of 9/11 documents

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - US President Joe Biden on Monday welcomed a fresh Justice Department review of a trove of documents related to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that previous administrations said were protected information.

"As I promised during my campaign, my Administration is committed to ensuring the maximum degree of transparency under the law, and to adhering to the rigorous guidance issued during the Obama-Biden Administration on the invocation of the state secrets privilege," Biden said in a statement.

"In this vein, I welcome the Department of Justice's filing today, which commits to conducting a fresh review of documents where the government has previously asserted privileges, and to doing so as quickly as possible," he added.

The announcement comes as Biden faces pressure from nearly 1,800 victims' relatives to not attend memorial events next month marking the attacks' 20th anniversary if the documents, which may incriminate Saudi Arabia, are not released.

The president pledged on the campaign trail last fall to direct the attorney general to examine the merits of all cases related to the files and "to err on the side of disclosure in cases where, as here, the events in question occurred two decades or longer ago."

"The 9/11 Families are right to seek full truth and accountability," Biden wrote in an Oct. 7 letter.

On Friday, those families complained of "having been used as a political bargaining chip for two decades," adding that, ahead of the 20th anniversary of 9/11, "our patience has expired."

"Twenty years later, there is simply no reason -- unmerited claims of 'national security' or otherwise -- to keep this information secret," the families wrote, according to NBC News.

Biden said his administration will continue to "engage respectfully" with the victims' families, and said he welcomes "their voices and insight as we chart a way forward."