Family and loved ones of 9/11 victims are urging the Trump administration to compel Saudi Arabia to “ensure accountability” with a federal lawsuit against the Kingdom. The thousands of family members many from New England want the U. S. to force Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to apologize for alleged involvement in the terror attacks, finally. “We are not calling for isolation or hostility we are calling for accountability for the Saudi role in the attacks on September 11, 2001,” National Chair of 9/11 Families United Terry Strada wrote in a release shared with the Herald. “Before we talk about defense pacts or nuclear technology, let’s first talk about justice.” President Donald Trump is set to host the Crown Prince on Tuesday for talks to, hopefully, normalize commercial and diplomatic ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia. “I hope that Saudi Arabia will be going into the Abraham Accords very shortly,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday as he made his way to Florida for the weekend, according to the Associated Press. Strada is pushing the administration will discuss a new defense pact, trade agreements, nuclear cooperation, and more with the prince. A topic 9/11 loved ones want included in the Oval Office talks is the alleged role of hijackers with ties to the Kingdom who slammed four jets into the World Trade Center in Manhattan, the Pentagon, and a field in Shanksville, Pa., killing nearly 3, 000 people in one day. That is at the heart of the lawsuit brought by 9/11 families, which is being allowed to progress in a major blow to the Kingdom. “The Kingdom knows our lawsuit lays out in painstaking detail how elements of the Saudi government provided funding, logistical help, and ideological support to al Qaeda and its operatives inside the United States prior to the attacks,” Strada writes. The president is coming off a historic win, helping to end the war in Gaza, and 9/11 families are pushing for a similar victory in their pursuit of justice, more than 25 years since the devastating attacks that launched America’s War on Terror. As the Herald has reported, Manhattan federal Judge George B. Daniels “DENIED” Saudi Arabia’s motion in August to throw out a lawsuit filed by loved ones of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. It was a stunning decision that allowed the 9/11 families to proceed with more probing, including legal discovery of al Qaeda terror cells in Boston, New Jersey, Florida, Virginia, and Phoenix. However, the Kingdom has appealed that ruling to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. The legal battle came after Saudi national Omar Al Bayoumi was seen on video casing the Capitol in the summer of 1999, pointing out Congress, the Washington Monument, the skyline and jotting down in a notebook a formula to calculate the rate of descent. He was on a student visa and has long since returned to the kingdom. The 9/11 Commission was never aware of this evidence, and it is now part of the lawsuit against Saudi Arabia that can now pick up steam. The 9/11 families also want Al Bayoumi to face justice in a trial of his own. He has long since returned to Saudi Arabia. The Saudi government has stated that no government officials, “senior or otherwise gave any ‘direction’ to Omar Al Bayoumi or Fahad Al Thumairy to ‘assist’ . 9/11 hijackers.” Any contact, the Saudis add, was “innocent motives . to help fellow Saudis” new to San Diego. Those Saudis, Nawaf Al Hazmi and Khalid Al Mihdhar, were the first 9/11 hijackers to set up shop in America after landing in Los Angeles, according to multiple reports. Bayoumi and Thumairy, both Saudi officials, are accused of assisting them, court documents allege. The hijackers plowed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon on 9/11. All 64 people aboard, including five hijackers, were killed. Another 125 victims on the ground also died. Of all the 19 hijackers, 15 were citizens of Saudi Arabia. They were all affiliated with al Qaeda and hijacked four jets. American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 both out of Logan International Airport in Boston slammed into the north and south towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan 18 minutes apart, beginning at 8: 45 a. m. on 9/11. United Flight 93 crashed last in Shanksville, Pa., at 10: 03 a. m. after heroic passengers rushed the cabin to confront the terrorists. Forty passengers and crew perished when the jet crashed soon after. That’s the jet that was allegedly destined for Washington, D. C. Brett Eagleson, who lost his dad to the terror attacks at the Twin Towers, said Saudi Arabia keeps fighting families who only want an apology. “The 9/11 community would be supportive of ties between our government and Saudi Arabia if only their government acknowledged its role in supporting the 9/11 attacks,” Brett Eagleson, who was 15 years old when his dad, Bruce, died when the Twin Towers collapsed in New York City, told the Herald Sunday. He added that the appeal of the lawsuit is just further proof that Saudi Arabia wants to whitewash the terror attacks, as loved ones face another holiday season with missing grandparents, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters and cousins from the table. “As Washington prepares to roll out the red carpet . we want to shine a spotlight on the facts found by the court,” Eagleson, who now represents 9/11 Justice family group, added his only goal is “justice.”.
https://www.bostonherald.com/2025/11/17/9-11-families-urge-president-to-force-saudi-prince-to-accept-blame-for-attacks/
