NEW YORK: The head of US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), John Brennan, has said there is “no evidence” indicating that Saudi Arabia gave backing to Al Qaeda for the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

In an interview on NBC news show “Meet the Press” on Sunday, he said speculation that the Saudis were involved, as some in Congress have charged, was not “corroborated, not vetted, and not deemed to be accurate”.

The CIA chief was referring to the 28 pages of a congressional probe into 9/11 released last week. The pages focus on Saudi Arabia and its alleged involvement in 9/11 attacks, the former head of the panel Bob Graham said in a CBS news show, 60 minutes.

Brennan 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 Qaeda”.

“Those 28 pages were withheld from the public because of the sensitive sources used in the investigation.”

He spoke on the eve of the fifth anniversary of US special forces’ operation in Pakistan that hunted down and killed Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd , 2016