Declassify Saudi files or stay away from 9/11 memorials, families tell Biden
Families of those killed 20 years ago say documents will show Saudi government support for attacks
Family members of victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks are opposing Joe Biden’s participation in memorial events next month unless he declassifies government documents that they contend will show Saudi Arabian leaders supported the attacks.
The victims’ family members, joined by first responders and survivors of the 2001 attack, released a letter on Friday as the event’s 20th anniversary nears calling on the US president to skip this year’s memorial events unless he releases the documents.
“Twenty years later, there is simply no reason – unmerited claims of ‘national security’ or otherwise – to keep this information secret,” the letter stated. “But if President Biden reneges on his commitment and sides with the Saudi government, we would be compelled to publicly stand in objection to any participation by his administration in any memorial ceremony of 9/11.”
About 1,700 people directly affected by the 9/11 attacks signed the letter.
The Saudi embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Family members of 9/11 victims have long sought US government documents related to whether Saudi Arabia aided or financed any of the 19 people associated with al-Qaida who crashed passenger jets into New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon outside Washington and a Pennsylvania field. Nearly 3,000 people died.
Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia. A US government commission found no evidence that Saudi Arabia directly funded al-Qaida, leaving open whether individual officials might have.
Saudi Arabia is being sued for billions of dollars by the families of roughly 2,500 of those killed, and by more than 20,000 people who suffered injuries, businesses and various insurers.
Meanwhile, former Saudi officials were questioned about their alleged links to 9/11 in court depositions in June by lawyers acting for families of the victims, who viewed the move as a breakthrough in efforts to prove a link between Riyadh and the hijackers.
The families want to prove that Saudi nationals helped support two of the 9/11 hijackers, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, in southern California in the months leading up to the attacks – and that support was coordinated by a diplomat in the Saudi embassy in Washington.
They want the US government to remove the gag on evidence in the court case against Riyadh and release the results of an investigation, codenamed Operation Encore, into Saudi complicity in the attacks.
The victims’ family members, joined by first responders and survivors of the 2001 attack, released a letter on Friday as the event’s 20th anniversary nears calling on the US president to skip this year’s memorial events unless he releases the documents.
“Twenty years later, there is simply no reason – unmerited claims of ‘national security’ or otherwise – to keep this information secret,” the letter stated. “But if President Biden reneges on his commitment and sides with the Saudi government, we would be compelled to publicly stand in objection to any participation by his administration in any memorial ceremony of 9/11.”
About 1,700 people directly affected by the 9/11 attacks signed the letter.
The Saudi embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Family members of 9/11 victims have long sought US government documents related to whether Saudi Arabia aided or financed any of the 19 people associated with al-Qaida who crashed passenger jets into New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon outside Washington and a Pennsylvania field. Nearly 3,000 people died.
Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia. A US government commission found no evidence that Saudi Arabia directly funded al-Qaida, leaving open whether individual officials might have.
Saudi Arabia is being sued for billions of dollars by the families of roughly 2,500 of those killed, and by more than 20,000 people who suffered injuries, businesses and various insurers.
Meanwhile, former Saudi officials were questioned about their alleged links to 9/11 in court depositions in June by lawyers acting for families of the victims, who viewed the move as a breakthrough in efforts to prove a link between Riyadh and the hijackers.
The families want to prove that Saudi nationals helped support two of the 9/11 hijackers, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, in southern California in the months leading up to the attacks – and that support was coordinated by a diplomat in the Saudi embassy in Washington.
They want the US government to remove the gag on evidence in the court case against Riyadh and release the results of an investigation, codenamed Operation Encore, into Saudi complicity in the attacks.