Another "conspiracy" book is out

Newsweek is promoting Florida Sen. Bob Graham's new book, 'Intelligence Matters.' He's the former co-chair of the joint House-Senate panel investigating 9/11 and he claiming that the Bush administration was engaged in a "cover-up" to protect a key ally, Saudi Arabia.

Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff reports in the September 13 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, September 6), that Graham was furious when the White House blacked out 28 pages of the 9/11 Commission's final report that dealt with purported Saudi links to the 9/11 plot. Graham says much of the deleted evidence centered around the activities of a mysterious Saudi then living in San Diego named Omar al-Bayoumi, whom Graham calls a Saudi government "spy." Al-Bayoumi befriended two of the key 9/11 hijackers, Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi, when they first arrived in the country.

The press release goes on to state that the 9/11 panel had access to more than Graham did and even talked to al-Bayoumi.

They concluded that he had no connection to 9/11. "We've spent hours and hours with Bob on this," says Zelikow, who believes Graham doesn't seem open to new evidence. "He's got all these details. But it's like they're frozen in amber."

Nope. No politics here, no sir. The full Newsweek story can be read here.