For decades now, bolstered by a lawsuit, numerous families of 9/11 victims have pointed a finger at Saudi Arabia and its ruling family, the House of Saud. Their suspicion is the wealthy monarchy aided the hijackers or, at the very least, knew about their plans for a U.S. attack.
Of the 19 hijackers, 15 of them were Saudi nationals. That immediately raised suspicion the monarchy’s intelligence service was aware of them and was watching them.
At last week’s memorial service in New York City, World Trade Center widow Terry Strada used the well-attended event to call out Saudi Arabia by name during her turn at the podium.
"How can it be 25 years and still we have no justice for the role that Saudi Arabia played in your murder?” Strada, referring to her late husband Tom, bluntly stated at the somber event.
With four living ex-presidents in attendance, she also alleged that those U.S. presidents have chosen to “protect the Saudis instead of standing with the 9/11 families."
Washington Times columnist Robert Knight said he doesn’t blame the families for demanding answers.
“And if other people were culpable, including those in the Saudi government, we should know about it,” he told American Family News.
A 'chance meeting' with terrorists
In 2004, the official report by the 9/11 Commission concluded it couldn’t find any direct connection to Saudi Arabia’s government and the al-Qaida hijackers.
One of the Saudi nationals exonerated in the 2004 report was Omar al-Bayoumi. He was living in California at the time when he met – by sheer coincidence, he claimed – two of the future hijackers at a Culver City restaurant and helped them with bank accounts and an apartment.
The commission officially accepted that “chance meeting” claim, even though al-Bayoumi had been investigated by the FBI in 1998.
At his home in London, British intelligence found evidence in al-Bayoumi's apartment, including a video of him surveying the entrances to the U.S. Capitol building (pictured at right). Authorities also found handwritten notes about commercial aircraft and their descent to a target.
The two hijackers who befriended al-Bayoumi on U.S. soil had been under surveillance by the CIA when they traveled in Asia, according to a ProPublica article.
Saudia Arabia is famously named as a defendant in a years-old lawsuit filed by 9/11 families, and one central figure in the lawsuit is an employee of the Saudi government named al-Bayoumi. That connection was uncovered by the FBI years after the 2001 attack.
The families have now asked President Trump to declassify and release relevant records, and the president has said he would consider it.
Knight believes President Trump is now in a difficult position considering Saudi Arabia is a vital ally in the U.S. war against Iran and its regime.
“We're looking back 25 years at a different Saudi government,” Knight suggested.
“I do believe,” he added, “the families are right to press for the full truth to come out because this was the greatest terrorist attack against the United States in history."
