9/11 families call on Trump, Harris to oppose US-Saudi deal until kingdom admits involvement in terror attack
More than 3,000 family members of 9/11 victims are demanding both former President Trump and Vice President Harris oppose any Middle East peace deal with Saudi Arabia unless the kingdom acknowledges and is held accountable for its involvement in the attack.
"We waited 23 years for truth, justice and accountability," Brett Eagleson, head of the advocacy group 9/11 Justice who lost his father in the World Trade Center, told Fox News Digital ahead of the 23rd anniversary of the nation's deadliest terror attack.
"As we continue to push and as we continue to make noise, we're seeing more and more evidence, smoking-gun evidence coming out about the kingdom's role in supporting 9/11 hijackers, and our government has done nothing to hold them accountable."
Both Trump and President Biden have been pushing for a security deal that would normalize relations between Israel and the Saudis, allow for civil nuclear energy cooperation and defense guarantees to counter Iran. That deal was put on ice after the Hamas attack on Israel last October.
The families point to video footage of a Saudi government agent "casing" the U.S. Capitol as proof of Saudi involvement.
They sent an original letter to both Harris and Trump last week and a follow-up one this week. They also invited both candidates to meet with them at Ground Zero next Wednesday on the 9/11 anniversary.
"As you campaign to become the next President of the United States, we ask you to pledge that you will not endorse any Middle East peace deal involving Saudi Arabia unless it fully addresses the role of the Saudi Arabian government in the 9/11 attacks," their letter reads.
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Omar al-Bayoumi, who the FBI says was an operative of the Saudi intelligence service with close ties to two of the 9/11 hijackers, can be seen filming a video published by CBS in June 2024 around the Capitol pointing out entrances and exits, security posts and a model of the building.
Al-Bayoumi noted the airport nearby and pointed to the Washington Monument and said he would "report to you what is in there."
Federal investigators believe the hijackers of Flight 93, which crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, had intentions of flying the plane into the Capitol.
"We're saying that if the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia truly wants to engage with the West, and they want to continue to buy our weapons, and they want our nuclear technology, and they want the defense of our troops, the least they can do is admit their fault and admit that the practices within their government 23 years ago, with supporting the hijackers and exporting this radical form of Islam, admit that it were not for that, 9/11 would have never had happened."
Eagleson said Saudi Crown-Prince Mohammed bin Salman [MBS] "had nothing to do with 9/11 – we were both 15 at the time."
"To MBS’ credit, he is sort of being a progressive, but … it doesn't absolve them from the sins of their past."
Formed by families of victims in Pennsylvania, New York and Virginia, 9/11 Justice has sued the Saudi government and pushed the U.S. government to declassify all remaining documents about 9/11.
Fifteen of the 19 al Qaeda hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, but the direct links of the Saudi government have remained murky for years.
"The leaders of our government, the two candidates for office, have refused to address this issue, and we're sick and tired of it," said Eagleson.
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In 2021, Biden signed an executive order for the review and declassification of 9/11 documents, but it’s "not working," Eagleson says.
"We're having to go outside of the country to get this information," he added, noting that the casing video had come from British police. The London Police provided the FBI with the video years ago, but it was never made available to the 9/11 commission or the CIA, according to Deputy Director Michael Morrell.
"I’m 99.9% confident that we did not have this video. I was the president’s briefer at the time. If somebody had shown me this video, I would have shown it to the president," he told CBS.
"Have President Biden and Vice President Harris seen this video? Has President Trump seen it? Why was this video buried?" Eagleson said. "The fact that they're not answering that question just smells of conspiracy, it smells of cover-up."
The Harris and Trump campaigns could not be reached for comment.