This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Wednesday, April 20, 2016.

I'm Caleb Brown.

U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia have been complicated for a long time but with a likely

declassification of some sensitive portions of the 9-11 report how will that

relationship change? Emma Ashford is a research fellow at the Cato Institute

she explains. Why were these

particular pages of the 9-11 report classified to begin with? There were a couple of

reasons. One was that the Bush administration was worried

that they might inflame public opinion,

damage our relationship with Saudi Arabia

at a time when we really needed them

for counter-terrorism work.

But the other reason is perhaps that there were things in these reports that weren't

fully verified, fully vetted.

You know, they could have revealed intelligence sources and methods or perhaps more importantly

they just never had been followed up on so we don't know if the things in the report are

necessarily fully verified with multiple sources, very good evidence, or whether they're more speculative.

And the 9-11 commissioners have themselves said that that was one of their concerns and remains one of their concerns going forward.

Who on the 9-11 Commission wants to reveal that information now?

A majority of them, actually, have come forward over the last few years and said that they think the time is now right for the declassification of that data.

They don't believe that there's any risk national security and they also don't think that

it's particularly damaging to the Saudi relationship anymore. In fact the

...