The video highlights the complex relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia over oil dependency against the backdrop of fluctuating oil prices and Saudi Arabia's dominance in global oil supply. The video captures the intricate world of oil production in Saudi Arabia and the technological advancements enabling massive increases in output despite challenging logistics and geographical conditions, while addressing environmental concerns and fostering ties with international partners through transparency and innovation.

Despite the US seeking to reduce its dependency on foreign oil, sustainable energy requires addressing the challenges and stability of oil prices that impact both producers and consumers globally. The Saudi Oil Minister emphasizes the need to balance oil market stability while preparing for future economic shifts, including possible sustainable alternatives like solar energy. This reflects Saudi Arabia's commitment to maintaining relevance in the energy sector, even with efforts to stabilize oil pricing and navigate geopolitical intricacies with countries like the US and Iran.

Main takeaways from the video:

Please remember to turn on the CC button to view the subtitles.

Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. addiction [əˈdɪkʃən] - (noun) - A strong and harmful need to regularly have something or do something. - Synonyms: (dependence, compulsion, craving)

It's also the bad news if you're determined that the US kick its addiction to foreign oil.

2. appraisal [əˈpreɪzəl] - (noun) - A judgment or assessment of the value, performance, or nature of something. - Synonyms: (evaluation, assessment, analysis)

No, I want your honest appraisal.

3. vertigo [ˈvərtəˌɡoʊ] - (noun) - A sensation of feeling off balance, often associated with spinning. - Synonyms: (dizziness, giddiness, lightheadedness)

Okay, he may be smiling, but this is a man with serious heartburn and vertigo.

4. horizontal drilling [ˌhɔrəˈzɑntəl ˈdrɪlɪŋ] - (noun) - A method of drilling where the well is turned sideways to access and maximize resources. - Synonyms: (sideways drilling, directional boring)

Until the development of the horizontal drilling.

5. mega project [ˈmegə ˈpräjekt] - (noun) - A large-scale project that requires considerable investment and resources. - Synonyms: (large-scale project, grand design, major project)

The Sheba story is an amazing story. Always al Shamari oversees the mega project at Sheba.

6. sovereign immunity [ˈsɑːvrən ɪˈmjuː.nəti] - (noun) - The legal doctrine that a sovereign or state cannot commit a legal wrong and is immune to civil suit or criminal prosecution. - Synonyms: (government immunity, state immunity, legal protection)

The US government has even backed the Saudi position in court that it can't be sued because it enjoys sovereign immunity.

7. compartmentalized [kəmˌpɑrtˈmɛntəlaɪzd] - (adjective) - Divided into sections or categories, often restricting access to certain information. - Synonyms: (segregated, sectioned, separated)

We've seen fire and we've seen rain in the politics of national security, we all have dealt for our careers in highly classified and compartmentalized in every aspect of security.

8. geopolitical [ˌdʒiːəʊpəˈlɪtɪkəl] - (adjective) - Relating to politics influenced by geographical factors. - Synonyms: (geostrategic, worldwide political, international political)

The economic and geopolitical ramifications of Saudi Arabia's oil policies play a crucial role in international relations.

9. proven reserves [ˈpruːvn rɪˈzɜrvz] - (noun) - Quantities of resources that can be economically extracted with certainty from known reservoirs. - Synonyms: (confirmed reserves, documented reserves, assured reserves)

The Saudis say that 18 billion barrels of oil lie beneath these red sand dunes, more than four times the proven reserves of Alaska.

10. preemptive measures [priˈɛmptɪv ˈmɛʒərz] - (noun) - Actions taken to prevent a future problem or to mitigate a potential threat. - Synonyms: (preventive actions, precautionary steps, early interventions)

Should we not take preemptive measures to prevent it?

Saudi Arabia's Oil- Saudi Arabia and 9-11- Sportswashing - 60 Minutes Full Episodes

The good news is that the price of oil is falling a lot. It's also the bad news if you're determined that the US kick its addiction to foreign oil. President elect Barack Obama says now is the time to do that, even with the economy in recession. But the oil kingdom, Saudi Arabia, the world's largest supplier of oil, with the US as its number one customer, is pulling all the levers and spending billions to keep the oil age going.

We went to Saudi Arabia a few weeks ago to meet one of the most powerful men in the world, Ali al Naimi, the saudi oil minister and de facto head of OPEc, the oil cartel. If most Americans had an opportunity to sit down with the oil minister of Saudi Arabia, the thing they would like to know is where you think the price of oil is going to be, say, in about six months, is it going to be up or down? You want my classic answer? No, I want your honest appraisal. My honest judgment is, if I were to know what the price of oil six months from now, I would be in Las Vegas.

Okay, he may be smiling, but this is a man with serious heartburn and vertigo. The price of oil has been soaring and sinking up and down uncontrollably. Why did the price, in your opinion, spike in July? Why did it go way up to $147 a barrel? Basically, there was what's called a fear premium. And the fear was that Saudi Arabia itself had peaked out, that you'd reached your ceiling of how much available oil is left in your overall reserve.

So what's the truth? The truth is, here is the kingdom with more than 260 billion barrels. And I firmly believe that the potential to add another 200 billion barrels of oil are there to be found. If the oil minister of Saudi Arabia had one message, it was there is no need for those fears. And to make the point, they let us see facilities that will increase saudi capacity from about 10 million barrels a day to more than 12 million. And they're going to the ends of the earth to do it.

This is Sheba, a desert wilderness where temperatures can reach 135 degrees. The Saudis say that 18 billion barrels of oil lie beneath these red sand dunes, more than four times the proven reserves of Alaska. To tap into it, the kingdom's national oil company, Saudi Aramco, had to build an oasis here. The Sheba story is an amazing story. Alwayd al Shamari oversees the mega project at Sheba, here in the kingdom's empty quarter. We're on soft sand. We're not talking about a hard surface here. Look, this is what it's like here. I mean, this is soft. Yeah. The logistics are impossible.

The first thing we had to do is build our own road in order to access this field. Just to get here? Just to get here. Once that was done, we had to remove 100 million cubic feet of Sandhya just to make the Runway that we are currently using. 100 million? Yeah. We had to remove a sand dune in order to connect two flat areas to do that. What about pipelines? We built a pipeline 400 miles in length. And you can imagine the challenge of building that pipeline in a topography like this.

But it was nothing compared to accessing the oil itself, which was discovered in 1968, but for 30 years was considered too hard to extract. Now, with sand dunes this high, it's almost impossible. And the economics just didn't make it at the time until the development of the horizontal drilling. That's where you place a derrick on firm ground, then dig down with a drill bit that snakes horizontally under the sand dunes with branching tentacles like a fish bone. The drill bits can travel out for as much as 5 miles.

You know, when we were growing up, we always heard about the building of the pyramids. This sounds like the building of the pyramids. It was a huge task for everybody. The Sheba facility is now being expanded to extract a total of 750,000 barrels a day of high grade arab extralite crude. And when will you see the first drop of oil out of the new part? Right behind you. We will operate this facility very early next year. So the beginning of zero nine. Absolutely.

Then on the other side of the kingdom, there's an even bigger mega project at a field known as Coraeus. It's also scheduled to go online next year. This is the biggest oil project in history. Khalid Abdul Qadar, the project manager, says 1.2 million barrels a day will be tapped here. That's more than the entire daily production of some OpEC countries like Qatar and Indonesia. Wow, this is a lot of walking. The oil will be stored in massive tanks like this one, which is seven stories high. Look at this. Yes. That is gigantic. It's 300ft across the length of a football field.

So can we go down? Can we? Yes. Okay. Be careful. Be very careful. Like, just about everything at correas, even the tanks have the latest bells and whistles. This is a floating roof. Yeah. So when oil comes in, the whole roof will go rise up? Yes. The stair also will rise up with it. So in other words, we're standing on the roof of the tank and the oil will push it up? We'll push it up all the way up. There's more oil in this one field at correas than in the entire United States. It's the largest oil facility to come online anywhere in the world. In nearly three decades.

With the Saudis, say, 27 billion barrels of oil, has anybody projected how many years it's going to take to deplete? It will take us more than 50 years. 50? Yes. Ciraeus, like the sand dunes, presented a technological challenge. The field has very little natural pressure, which is necessary to bring the oil to the surface. So to force the oil up, they're injecting seawater down. Deep underground, we will inject about 84 million of gallon per day of seawater. So where's the seawater coming from? Because we're here in the middle of the desert. How far away is the sea? It is about 150 miles from here.

So in addition to all of this for the oil, you're also building a pipeline. From the pipeline to get the additional water all the way to here. The complexity and vastness of the project are staggering. With 26 contractors, 106 subcontractors, and 22,000 workers from around the world who have laid thousands of miles of pipeline and cables. How much steel are you using here? Because I'm looking. It's just steel as far as I can see. See, we have enough structural steel here that will build two bridges equal in size of the Golden Gate bridges in California. Two? Two.

These two megaprojects, plus three others, are costing Saudi Arabia a total of $60 billion over five years. And they're not borrowing any of it. It's all being paid for in cash. Still, saudi costs for producing oil are the lowest in the world. How much does it cost Saudi Arabia to produce one barrel of oil? This is an excellent question. It is very small, very little. It's probably less than $2. To produce a barrel, Saudi Arabia reportedly needs to sell oil for at least $55 a barrel to cover the cost of running the country. Fossil fuels finance 75% of its entire domestic spending budget. But oil has sunk below that break even price.

Does this worry you? Does this send chills through your. Through your spine? I am not a worrier. I get concerned, but I don't worry. Are you concerned? The concern is any price must be good for the producer, for the consumer, for the investor, the oil companies. So you're saying if the price goes too low, then production will fall, and in the end we'll be squeezed. We won't have enough oil to run our country. Price will skyrocket. What he wants is an end to the wild swings in price.

Which is why, to keep the price from further plummeting, he agreed to a cut of 1.5 million barrels a day in the October meeting of OPEC, the oil cartel. The point is that Saudi Arabia wanted the 1.5. This was not something jammed down your throat. No, this is. No. No. By the way, nothing gets jammed down our throat. But Iran wanted more. Well, I mean, different countries want different levels, different cuts. But in the final analysis, reason prevails.

But are you saying that Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia, influence on OPEC, influence so strong now that he was able to quash Iran's attempt to double the price of oil, which Tehran needs to support its budget, including its nuclear program and the bankrolling of militias like Hezbollah and Hamas? Still, al Naimi says oil is no longer used as a weapon. Iran tries to keep the price way up, and Venezuela is trying to keep the price way up. That you don't consider that oil as a weapon? If you looked at these countries you just named, yes, every one of them would like to sell every battle they can. As high a price as they can get away with. Right.

The sense out of the OPEC meeting to a lot of people was, by cutting production, your purpose was to get the price up again, and that would hurt the world, which is suffering an economic crisis. And the world means everywhere. I can assure you that price was the least on our mind. I say that in all honesty. But the sense is you were oblivious to the concerns of the world facing this economic crisis. You didn't care about the recession, the credit problems, or anything like that. That is really a very unfair criticism.

What did governments do when the financial crisis happened? They took measures to bring stability back to the financial market, and we see, because of our responsibility, a future crisis in the oil market. Should we not take preemptive measures to prevent it? And I think the answer is yes, we should. It's incumbent on us not to see the oil market destroyed. The Saudis recently announced the price they would like to see oil selling for $75 a barrel, about 50% higher than the current price. Are they trying to keep the US addicted to oil? Their answer when we come back.

Saudi Aramco was originally an american company. It goes way back to the 1930s when two american geologists from Standard Oil of California discovered oil in the saudi desert. Standard Oil formed a consortium with Texaco, Exxon and Mobil, which became Aramco. It wasn't until the 1980s that Saudi Arabia bought them out and nationalize the company. Today, Saudi Aramco is the custodian of the country's sole source of wealth and power.

Saudi Aramco is a massive complex along the Persian Gulf, hundreds of miles east of the mega projects, over 16,000 people work here at the company's compound, which is like a little country with its own security force, schools, hospitals, even its own airline. Abdallah Juma is president and CEO of Saudi Aramco. So this is your headquarters? This is our headquarters. And how big is Aramco? Saudi Aramco is the world's largest oil producing company, and it's the richest company in the world. Worth, according to the latest estimate, $781 billion.

This is the heart of our operation. This is the nerve center. It keeps going. Look at this. This is gigantic. He gave us a tour of the company's command center, where engineers scrutinize and analyze every aspect of the company's operations on a 220 foot digital screen. Every facility in the kingdom, every drop of oil that comes from the ground, is monitored in real time in this room? In this room. And we have control of each and every facility, each and every pipeline, each and every valve on the pipeline. And therefore, we know exactly what is happening in the system from a to z.

What this map shows is all the oil fields in Saudi Arabia. That big green blob in the middle is Garuar, the largest onshore oil field in the world. And the one on top is Safania, the largest offshore oil field in the world. And these green squares are supertankers that are being monitored on the high seas in real time. So there's not anything that goes on with oil, with saudi arabian oil, that isn't known in this room? Absolutely. Absolutely. How much did this facility cost you? A lot of money. And what you see today is a company that is as professionally sound as any international oil company.

Before Ali al Naimi became oil minister, he ran Saudi Aramco for eleven years. He was the first saudi president and CEO. You have, as you just said, one of the most efficient, cutting edge 21st century companies in the world. Yes. Within one of the most religious, conservative countries in the world. It's almost a paradox. We were surprised by this. I don't think there is any really surprise. Many people have images of Saudi Arabia, but they really change their views and images when they come and visit Saudi Arabia.

But to western eyes, it is a paradox. Skyscrapers, traffic jams, and shopping malls coexist with ancient tribal customs. The king and the Koran reign supreme, and women everywhere are required to cover themselves in black from head to toe, even I had to wear the abaya. The rules apply everywhere, it seems, except for the women at Saudi Aramco. When the US oil companies came here in the forties and fifties, the Americans moved into the area with their families and developed it to suit their tastes and their way of life. They created a replica of american suburbia. Today you could be in the outskirts of Houston or Los Angeles.

Its almost like an enclave within Saudi Arabia. Its different from the rest of the country. Yes, thats true, because its very different. It kept a lot of the american ways. Yes, of course, but why are there are good ways? There is nothing wrong with. There are excellent ways. But I was so surprised to see the culture there because, for instance, I saw men and women working side by side, women driving cars there, which you don't see. It's not strange, not strange to him. He's a product of that culture, having risen through the ranks. He started out as a twelve year old office boy in 1947, when it was said that to get oil, all you needed to do was ladle it out of the sand.

It was never that easy. According to Aramco CEO Juma, it takes a lot of effort. The oil is a gift from God. The recovery of oil is really the work of men, and this is part of it. Here, here in this room, Aramco engineers are making sure that not one drop of oil is overlooked. These computers are receiving data via satellite from sensors mounted on drill bits that are burrowing deep into the oil fields all over Saudi Arabia. The engineers are sending ims, instant messages that actually guide the drill bits. He is now directing that drill bit to go into the best areas of the reservoirs and suck that oil from it and not leave any oil behind.

So in other words, this drill bit's like a snake. It doesn't go like that. No, it would go down and then follow where the oil is. Absolutely. And mind you, this is happening 400 to 500 miles from here geographically, and we are sending that drill bit also two or 3 miles in the ground. Al Ju Ma says with this technology, they're able to recover ten times more oil than before. But global demand is dwindling. Even Americans, the world's leading gas guzzlers, are buying less. In the last ten months, Americans drove 78 billion fewer miles than they did in the ten months last year. Same ten months. This is quite a dramatic decrease in driving.

To put it in better numbers, I think your consumption dropped by a million barrels. Is there a thinking that this decrease in demand might be permanent? No, no, he says the US is Saudi Arabia's number one customer. And the question is, what will Aramco do to keep it that way? One thing is discourage the move toward electric cars by trying to alleviate our concerns about the environment. They showed us their new $4 million experimental combustion engine, which they hope will increase gas mileage while it lowers CO2 emissions.

What we want to see is that there is an emphasis on also making this oil greener and making the fossil fuels in general greener because they are going to be with us for the long haul. Let me be blunt, okay, and ask you to be candid. Is it Aramco's hope to prevent a switch away from oil? Somebody said the country is the oil business. I mean, you absolutely need to do this for your own survival. And what's wrong with that? Well, I didn't say anything was wrong with it. But it's a fact. You'd admit it's a fact. Yeah, we admit a fact that, yes, this is, we depend on the oil industry. We want it to help us, you know, to develop our economy and to develop the economy of the world. So what is good for the well being of Saudi Arabia should be good for the well being of the world, too.

So there's nothing wrong with that. And so what do you say to people out there like Al Gore and now Mister Obama, that say we have to devote ourselves, devote ourselves to, to reducing our dependence on oil? My answer to this is we have to be realistic. We don't have the alternatives today. If there are alternatives, be my guest and come and bring them in. But they are not there. You're saying whatever the world does in terms of wind, nuclear, coal, we're still going to need oil. You still, and a lot of it. To need more oil. And a lot of it.

Politicians use this all the time, that we're addicted, addicted to foreign oil. And addiction has a dark connotation because if you're addicted, there's a suggestion that there's a drug dealer who's trying to keep you hooked, it's in the air that you want to keep us hooked. There is nothing addictive about oil. If you look back 100 years, what would the world be without it? Even President Bush was an oil man. Even he has said, we're addicted to this and we have to get off this oil. But listen to what the professionals say and what do they advise? It's not going to happen today. It's not going to happen ten years from now. It's probably not going to happen 20 years from now. It's not going to happen 30 years from now, okay?

Because you are still going to be using fossil fuels rather than oil pushers. The Saudis see themselves as good global citizens who are trying to save the world from a catastrophic oil shortage. But as oil Minister al Naimi told us, the kingdom is hedging its bets. We in Saudi Arabia are developing solar energy. Solar energy? Yes. You're doing research in solar energy? Yes. Where else is the solar energy the most intense? The desert, of course. But won't that hurt your oil industry? No, no, no. Not at all. It will supplement it. Our vision is that we will be exporters of gigawatts of electricity. We will be exporting both. Okay. And what was not barrels of oil and gigawatts of power.

And so, he says, the kingdom will still be in the energy business long after the sun sets on the age of oil. In ten days, President Obama will visit Saudi Arabia at a time of deep mistrust between the two allies and lingering doubts about the saudi commitment to fighting violent islamic extremism. It also comes at a time when the White House and intelligence officials are reviewing whether to declassify one of the country's most sensitive documents, known as the 28 pages. They have to do with 911 and the possible existence of a saudi support network for the hijackers while they were in the US for 13 years, the 28 pages have been locked away in a secret vault.

Only a small group of people have ever seen them. Tonight, you'll hear from some of the people who have read them and believe, along with the families of 911 victims, that they should be declassified. I think it is implausible to believe that 19 people, most of whom didn't speak English, most of whom had never been in the United States before, many of whom didn't have a high school education, could have carried out such a complicated task without some support from within the United States. And you believe that the 28 pages are crucial to this? I think they are a key part.

Former us senator Bob Graham has been trying to get the 28 pages released since the day they were classified back in 2003, when he played a major role in the first government investigation into 911. I remain deeply disturbed by the amount of material that has been censored from this report. At the time, Graham was chairman of the Senate select Committee on Intelligence. I called the Joint Inquiry Committee to order and co chair of the bipartisan joint congressional inquiry into intelligence failures surrounding the attacks. The joint inquiry reviewed a half a million documents, interviewed hundreds of witnesses, and produced an 838 page report, minus the final chapter, which was blanked out, excised by the Bush administration for reasons of national security. So this is your office, Bob Graham won't discuss the classified information in the 28 pages.

He will say only that they outline a network of people that he believes supported the hijackers while they were in the US. You believe that support came from Saudi Arabia? Substantially. And when we say the Saudis, you mean the government, rich people in the country, charities? All of the above. Graham and others believe the saudi role has been soft peddled to protect a delicate relationship with a complicated kingdom where the rulers, royalty, riches, and religion are all deeply intertwined in its institutions.

The committee will be in order. Robert Porter Goss, who was Graham's republican co chairman on the House side of the joint inquiry and later director of the CIA, also felt strongly that an uncensored version of the 28 pages should be included in the final report. The two men made their case to the FBI and its then director, Robert Mueller, in a face to face meeting. They pushed back very hard on the 28 pages, and they said, no, that cannot be unclassified at this time. Did you happen to ask the FBI director why it was classified? We did, in a general way, and the answer was because we said so, and it needs to be classified.

Goss says he knew of no reason then and knows of no reason now why the pages need to be classified. They are locked away under the Capitol in guarded vaults called sensitive compartmented information facilities, or skiffs, in government jargon. This is as close as we could get with our cameras, a highly restricted area where members of Congress, with the proper clearances, can read the documents under close supervision. No note taking allowed. It's all got to go up here.

Estate Tim Romer, a former democratic congressman and US ambassador to India, has read the 28 pages multiple times. First is a member of the joint inquiry, and later as a member of the Blue Ribbon 911 commission, which picked up where Congress's investigation left off. How hard is it to actually read these 28 pages? Very hard. These are tough documents to get your eyes on. Romer and others who have actually read the 28 pages describe them as a working draft, similar to a grand jury or police report that includes provocative evidence, some verified and some nothing.

They lay out the possibility of official saudi assistance for two of the hijackers who settled in Southern California. That information from the 28 pages was turned over to the 911 Commission for further investigation. Some of the questions raised were answered in the commission's final report. Others were not.

Is there information in the 28 pages that if they were declassified, would surprise people. Sure, you're going to be surprised by it, and you're going to be surprised by some of the answers that are sitting there today in the 911 commission report about what happened in San Diego and what happened in Los Angeles and what was the saudi involvement. Much of that surprising information is buried in footnotes and appendices of the 911 report, part of the official public record, but most of it unknown to the general public.

These are some, but not all of the facts. In January of 2000, the first of the hijackers landed in Los Angeles after attending an al Qaeda summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The two saudi nationals, Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Midar, arrived with extremely limited language skills and no experience with western culture. Yet through an incredible series of circumstances, they managed to get everything they needed, from housing to flight lessons. LA, San Diego, that's really, you know, the hornet's nest. That's really the one that I continue to think about almost on a daily basis.

During their first days in LA, witnesses placed the two future hijackers at the King Fahd mosque in the company of Fahad, although Maryland, a diplomat at the saudi consulate known to hold extremist views, later, 911 investigators would find him deceptive and suspicious, and in 2003, he would be denied re entry to the United States for having suspected ties to terrorist activity. This is a very interesting person in the whole 911 episode of who might have helped whom in Los Angeles and San Diego with two terrorists who didn't know their way around. Phone records show that Thumaire was also in regular contact with this man, Omar al Bayoumi, a mysterious Saudi who became the hijackers biggest benefactor.

He was a ghost employee with a no show job at a saudi aviation contractor outside Los Angeles while drawing a paycheck from the saudi government. You believe Byumi was a saudi agent? Yes. What makes you believe that? Well, for one thing, he'd been listed even before 911 in FBI files as being a saudi agent. On the morning of February 1, 2000, Bayoumi went to the office of the saudi consulate where Thumeri worked. He then proceeded to have lunch at a Middle Eastern restaurant on Venice Boulevard, where he later claimed he just happened to make the acquaintance of the two future hijackers. Hazmi and Mihdhar magically run into Biomi in a restaurant that Byumi claims is a coincidence in one of the biggest cities in the United States.

And he decides to befriend them. He decides to not only befriend them, but then to help them move to San Diego and get residence in San Diego, Bayoumi found them a place to live in his own apartment complex, advanced them the security deposit, and co signed the lease. He even threw them a party and introduced them to other Muslims who would help the hijackers obtain government ids and enroll in English classes and flight schools. There's no evidence that Bayoumi or Thumeri knew what the future hijackers were up to. And it is possible that they were just trying to help fellow Muslims. But the very day Bayoumi welcomed the hijackers to San Diego, there were four calls between his cell phone and the imam at a San Diego mosque, Anwar al Alaki, a name that should sound familiar.

America cannot and will not win. The American born Alaki would be infamous a decade later as al Qaeda's chief propagandist and top operative in Yemen, until he was taken out by a CIA drone. But in January 2001, a year after becoming the hijackers spiritual advisor, he left San Diego for Falls Church, Virginia. Months later, Hosmey Mdar and three more hijackers would join in there. Those are a lot of coincidences. And that's a lot of smoke. Is that enough to make you squirm and uncomfortable and dig harder and declassify these 28 pages? Absolutely.

Perhaps no one is more interested in reading the 28 pages than attorneys Jim Kreindler and Sean Carter, who represent family members of the 911 victims in their lawsuit against the kingdom, alleging that its institutions provided money to al Qaeda knowing that it was waging war against the United States. What we're doing in court is developing the story that has to come out. But it's been difficult for us because for many years, we weren't getting the kind of openness and cooperation that we think our government owes to the american people, particularly the families of people who were murdered. The US government has even backed the saudi position in court that it can't be sued because it enjoys sovereign immunity. The 911 Commission report says that Saudi Arabia has long been considered the primary source of al Qaeda funding through its wealthy citizens and charities with significant government sponsorship.

But the sentence that got the most attention when the report came out is we have found no evidence that the saudi government as an institution or senior saudi officials individually funded the organization. Attorney Sean Carter says it's the most carefully crafted line in the 911 commission report and the most misunderstood. When they say that we found no evidence that senior saudi officials individually funded al Qaeda, they conspicuously leave open the potential that they found evidence that people who were officials that they did not regard as senior officials had done so. That is the essence of the family's lawsuit, that elements of the government and lower level officials sympathetic to bin Laden's cause helped al Qaeda carry out the attacks and help sustain the al Qaeda network.

Yet for more than a decade, the kingdom has maintained that that one sentence exonerated it of any responsibility for 911, regardless of what might be in the 28 pages. It's not an exoneration. What we said we did not, with this report, exonerate the Saudis. Former us senator Bob Carey is another of the ten member 911 commission who has read the 28 pages and believes they should be declassified. He filed an affidavit in support of the 911 family's lawsuit.

You can't provide the money for terrorists and then say, I don't have anything to do with what they were doing. Do you believe that all of the leads that were developed in the 28 pages were answered in the 911 report? All the questions? No. In general, the 911 commission did not get every single detail of the conspiracy. We didn't. We didn't have the time, we didn't have the resources, and we certainly didn't pursue the entire line of inquiry in regards to Saudi Arabia. Do you think all of these things in San Diego can be explained as coincidence? I don't believe in coincidences.

John Lehman, who was secretary of the Navy in the Reagan administration, says that he and the others make up a solid majority of former 911 commissioners who think the 28 pages should be made public. We're not a bunch of rubes that rode into Washington for this commission. You know, we've seen fire and we've seen rain in the politics of national security. We all have dealt for our careers in highly classified and compartmentalized in every aspect of security. We know when something shouldn't be declassified, and those 28 pages in no way fall into that category.

Lehman has no doubt that some high saudi officials knew that assistance was being provided to al Qaeda, but he doesn't think it was ever official policy. He also doesn't think that it absolves the Saudis of responsibility. It was no accident that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis. They all went to saudi schools. They learned from the time they were first able to go to school of this intolerant brand of Islam. Layman is talking about Wahhabism, the ultra conservative, puritanical form of Islam that's rooted here and permeates every facet of society. There is no separation of church and state after oil wahhabism is one of the kingdom's biggest.

Saudi clerics, entrusted with Islam's holiest shrines, have immense power and billions of dollars to spread the faith, building mosques and religious schools all over the world that have become recruiting grounds for violent extremists. 911 Commissioner John Lehman says. All of this comes across in the 28 pages. This is not going to be a smoking gun. That is going to cause a huge furore. But it does give a very compact illustration of the kinds of things that went on that would really help the american people to understand.

How is it that these people are springing up all over the world to go to jihad? Look, the Saudis have even said they're for declassifying it. We should declassify it. Is it sensitive, Steve? Might it involve opening a bit of can of worms or some snakes crawling out of there? Yes. But I think we need a relationship with the Saudis, where both countries are working together to fight against terrorism. And that's not always been the case.

In the days of the roman colosseum, they called it bread and circuses. Leaders using the superficial appeal of entertainment to distract citizens from genuine problems. The term today sportswashing. The use of games in teams and stadiums to cleanse an image and launder a reputation. A country that has never won an Olympic gold medal, Saudi Arabia has suddenly emerged as a major player in global sport, hosting events, buying teams, and luring athletes with staggering contracts. Is this investment an attempt to diversify the economy and cater to younger citizens, as its leaders claim? Or is it done to paper over human rights abuses, authoritarian rule and even murderous?

We visited the kingdom to check out the sports world's new nerve center and check out what the Saudis and their neighbors are getting for their money. Argentina, champions of the world's greatest game. Argentina may have claimed the World cup last December, but it wasn't the only country to emerge as a big winner. A controversial choice to host the oil rich Gulf state of Qatar threw more than $200 billion into staging the event and dribbled past criticism over its appalling human rights record. And another winner was next door. Saudi Arabia fielded the one team that beat Argentina, a triumph celebrated around the arab world, not least by Prince Abdulaziz ben Turki al Saudi, the country's minister of sport.

It was unbelievable. It was just a milestone that we ticked. That shows that if you put the effort and the right resources behind it, you can achieve impossible things. The improbable continued after the World Cup. Saudi Arabia's enormous resources that is sloshing oil money enticed Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal, a generational star, to play for a team in Riyadh. His salary? More than $200 million a season. That's right, $200 million. Roughly the annual playing wages of LeBron James, Steph Curry, Aaron judge and Patrick Mahomes combined.

Such a calm, composed fellow. The opening bell for Saudi Arabia's investment in global sports sounded three years ago with the clash on the dunes, a heavyweight title fight. A few months later, the kingdom staged the worlds richest horse race. Theres Formula one racing and a ten year deal with the WWE. But to many, these mega events in Saudi Arabia are financial loss leaders being used to launder the image of a country cloaking repression and authoritarian rule. You've heard this term sportswashing, this idea that countries can cover a bad acts through sports. Do you believe in the concept that a country can use sports this way? Not at all.

I don't agree with that term because I think that if you go to different parts of the world, then you bring people together. Everyone should come see Saudi Arabia, see it for what it is, and then make your decision. See it for yourself. If you don't like it, fine. Which is precisely why we came to Saudi Arabia late last year to see this unlikely sports hub for ourselves. December is the off season for pro tennis, yet Riyadh was the site of an exhibition studded with top ten stars and embroidered with local touches.

Falcons enlisted to help with the draw ceremony, but the real draw, Australia's Nikyrios, was blunt. What brought you here at the end? Well, money's pretty good, I'm not gonna lie. Despite deserts of empty seats and little in the way of television rights, usually the lifeblood for sports, the players were paid millions just to show up. Magnificent. And Taylor Fritz, a Californian, earned a million dollars in prize money for winning the weekend event.

The Saudis aren't just hosting events through the kingdom's sovereign wealth fund, they bought an English Premier League soccer team, Newcastle United. We saw them for a visiting game against the local team, pointedly abandoning their usual striped kits for the green of the saudi flag. Then there is, to date, Saudi's biggest swing in sports, the $2.5 billion live tour, which has divided golf. Dismissing this rival to the PGA Tour as, quote, an endless pit of money, Tiger woods turned down $800 million from the Saudis to join Liv. Many other top players, including Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson, did switch their tour allegiances. Both paid, as they were north of $100 million.

This flood of saudi money into sports is just absolutely. It's a disruptor. It's completely changing the face of sports. Is that the intention? Not at all. It adds a lot to the sport. You have to realize the impact this has. I mean, when winners of live golf events are making multiple times what Tiger woods won the last time he won the Masters, that's a big economic change. It doesn't matter. I think if the impact of increasing the participation of sports and the interest in that sport is growing, then why not?

The sports minister insists that the massive investment is an essential pillar of what is called Vision 2030, a $7 trillion plan by the kingdoms effective ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, or MBS, to diversify the economy beyond oil while softening some of its most restrictive social conventions and laws. It's now permitted for women to drive, uncover their head, hold a passport, and travel without a male guardian. On the country's fields and in gyms and rec centers, young saudis, male and female, are embracing sport. So are their moms. Rasha el Chamis is the country's first female certified boxing coach.

Back in 2019, she attended the clash on the dunes fight. This is your country. These are two international superstars, and you're not watching them on tv. You're watching them live here. What was that like? I would never imagine that, me going to the fight, driving my car, and attending the fight in my own country. So that's a massive transformation. And you can feel that the change is tangible.

Yet these changes come at a cost. Loujain El Hathlul led the saudi women to drive movement and was punished for her activism, arrested, charged with terrorism, and sentenced to prison, where she says she was tortured. Even after her release, she is prevented from leaving the country. Her sister Lena lives in exile and spoke with us remotely when we talk about sports, of course we do want to have entertainment in Saudi Arabia. We do want to have this, but not at the expense of our freedoms. We don't want to be living in free and not knowing if tomorrow they will break into our house and take our sister or our daughter. I do not want to live in this country.

I want to live in a country where I feel free. Truly, even if they have fancy sporting events, I want both. Her sister's harsh treatment, she says, underscores a stark paradox. At a time when social freedoms have expanded, political repression in Saudi Arabia has become more severe. You're saying this is window dressing, this is cosmetic. And behind the games, there's mass executions and repression like never before? Absolutely. Exactly. This is what's happening?

Dance. For me, the cultural shift goes beyond sports. Who would have pegged Saudi Arabia to start hosting an annual desert rave? Bruno Mars and DJ Khaled were among the headliners. It's all of a piece. Sports, entertainment, tourism. To marry it all, the crown prince turned to american impresario Jerry and Zarillo. What's a guy from Brooklyn doing in a place like this? Creating magic. Making a place welcoming for everybody to come see the kingdom. The birthplace of the kingdom. Very exciting times.

Salaam alaikum. In his career in hospitality and entertainment, Inzarillo launched Atlantis in the Bahamas. Name a global celebrity and be assured Jerry has made their acquaintance. I've done five decades in tourism. My job is to welcome people and to create joy and festivity with vision. 2030. Now we want people to come to Saudi. Today, he oversees a massive $63 billion development on the site where the saudi state was born, converting it into a modern xanadu with homes for 100,000 people, luxury hotels and restaurants. Restaurants. We asked in Zarillo about his comfort level. Representing this autocracy. He told us he focuses on the positive.

You know, I went to school in Las Vegas, and there's a gambling term that when you're way ahead, you're playing Woodhouse money. You winning. Not only am I winning, I've won. You know, there's an old country Weston song. Dance with the one who brung you. Who brung you. Who brung me here. Yeah. Vision 2030. A very benevolent, very loved king and a very visionary, dynamic crown prince.

But it's the less noble doings of the crown prince that have stained the country's reputation, both accelerating and complicating its foray into sports. A CIA report said MBS approved the 2018 assassination and dismembering of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Under MBS's rule, executions have drastically increased, including a mass beheading of 81 people in one day last March. The mildest criticism of the state, even on Twitter, has been met with detention, torture, and long and arbitrary prison sentences.

We've heard a lot about transition. We've seen it with our own eyes. But the concern is that this country right now is still not fit to hold international sporting events. We're not saying that we're perfect, but what I'm trying to say is that these things help us to achieve a better future for our population. I think no country would say they're perfect. But are you saying that every country has a leader? That, according to the CIA, has ordered the murder of a journalist. Are you saying that every country has 81 beheadings in a single day? And if the answer is no, doesn't it make this relative argument, this whataboutism? Doesn't it make that irrelevant?

Well, what I'm trying to say is that let's look at the good side about this. And, you know, you've just been pointing certain topics that if we. I go and, you know, we had the mass shooting a couple of weeks ago in the US, does that mean that we don't host the World cup in the US? No, we should go to the US. We should get people together. Mass shoeing is not a government actor. Let's be clear about that. Still, whatever. Whatever people died. But what I'm trying to say is that if we look at only the bad side, then we shouldn't do anything.

Are there not universals? Are there not basic thresholds you think need to be met? As I said, there's a lot of issues with a lot of countries. But then you mentioned that the order came from the crown prince, and that's not true. There's no proof of that as we speak. You're denying that. The CIA's report that says. I don't think the CIA report actually says that. If you look at it, the CIA report concluded Saudi Arabia's crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman approved an operation to capture or kill saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Finally, they collide. Still, the games go on. So do the choices. Just last month, FIFA, soccer's governing body, not known for occupying ethical high ground, responded to protests from players and turned down saudi tourism sponsorship offer for this summer's women's World cup. These moral dilemmas will only intensify. When we were in Saudi Arabia, we saw it. Top level tennis event, a top level golf event had just been held. Bruno Mars had given a concert. What would your message be to the athletes and entertainers who are coming in to perform and compete? My message is that why would you go to Saudi Arabia and stay silent on what is going on on the ground? Why won't you speak on behalf of the prisoners who have been muzzled and all the families that cannot speak? Because when you go to Saudi Arabia, you are part of this covering up machine.

What do you think the purpose is of throwing around billions and billions of dollars into sports like this? I think the saudi government, the saudi regime and MBS. He wants people to think of Ronaldo when they think about saudi and not about Khashoggi. That's become the association now. We've gone from the murdered journalist to the star soccer player. Absolutely. Yeah. Unfortunately, it.

Global, Economics, Politics, Oil Industry, Saudi Arabia, International Relations, 60 Minutes