Asking Protection from Our Senate

OK, this head scratcher is from Roll Call (which requires you to subscribe to read, although it was posted a few days ago so some other outlet may have picked it up):

The author of a controversial French bestseller that alleges indirect U.S. government complicity in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks is asking the Senate Banking Committee for help in fending off possible criminal charges stemming from the book in his native Switzerland.

I know the book in question, although I've just read large passages posted online. From that, I can't say I felt "indirect... complicity" is an accurate description.

While I'm not a conspiracy theorist on this matter, I have to admit that my view has shifted slowly from "absolutely, positively not" on the matter of whether there could have been government complicity to "I just don't think so but... boy, the odds of getting everything so wrong that day that allowed this to happen are astronomical." If there's a second major attack, however, I'm probably going to be more suspicious from the get-go (which could wind me up in Getmo...oh lookie, I made a jokie).

But why, oh why is this man asking for US Senate protection? Does he know who sits in the Senate?