On the eve of President Obama’s final state visit to Saudi Arabia, 60 Minutes produced a story suggesting that 28 classified pages from the 9/11 Commission report point to direct Saudi government involvement in the attacks. There has been a lively debate over those pages since the report was first published 12 years ago, with lawmakers and others petitioning for the pages to be declassified, while intelligence and law enforcement officials as well as both the Bush and Obama White Houses have demurred. So why was the story aired now?

Yes, there’s legislation pending that may allow families of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia for its ostensible role in the attacks, but it was rolled out last September. So what, in journalistic parlance, was the peg for the story? Simple: Obama was heading to Riyadh.