9/11 Families United Statement Slams Latest Saudi Effort to Deceive the American People Ahead of 20th Anniversary of 9/11

Washington, D.C. – 9/11 Families United, which serves thousands of families and survivors of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, released the following statement today regarding a new and unfounded claim of support for transparency and accountability by The Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the United States: 

“The Kingdom’s claims of support for a ‘full declassification of any documents and materials’ relating to the 9/11 terrorist attacks is as absurd as it is audacious — the culmination of 20 years of lies.  We have watched year after year as the Saudis have thrown sand into the eyes of the 9/11 families and survivors and fought truth and transparency with the priciest lawyers, lobbyists and public relations firms that their oil money can buy. 

“The Kingdom again resorts to its favorite lie, falsely claiming that the 9/11 Commission somehow cleared the Kingdom, when in fact its report directly implicated the Saudi government in funding al Qaeda through charity fronts, and found that Saudi government employees in the U.S. provided essential assistance to the first arriving hijackers.  The Kingdom’s false claims about the 9/11 Commission’s report prompted multiple Commissioners to file affidavits in federal court, rejecting the Kingdom’s characterizations and calling the Kingdom out for its dishonesty.

“As the Kingdom knows, the 9/11 families have uncovered extensive evidence that Saudi officials provided financial and other material support to the 9/11 hijackers and al Qaeda.  The new evidence that will soon become public through this declassification process will provide yet more confirmation of the same. 

“That is why, at this very moment, the Kingdom is making aggressive arguments in federal court that are aimed at preventing us from using this documentary evidence in our case against them.  They have also opposed production of their own documents, opposed the questioning of witnesses, and asked the court to foreclose us from seeking evidence from the FBI about its investigation of the Saudi government agents at all.  In short, the Kingdom’s actions in federal court completely undercut its public claim to support transparency.

“No one should forget that this is the same ruling elite that nurtured al-Qaeda and funded the Islamic schools that served as incubators for Taliban leaders.  To this day, Saudi Arabia continues to support extremists and commit grotesque atrocities, as evidenced by the terrorist attack in Pensacola, Florida and the 2018 murder of an American journalist.

“It is not an ally that can be trusted and this latest public relations effort to mislead the American people over the Kingdom’s years-long support for extremism is both offensive and outrageous.”

About 9/11 Families United:

9/11 Families United is an organization consisting of family members of those murdered in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, as well as many of those who survived, were injured in or sickened from the attacks, a community that numbers well over 10,000.  More information is at www.911familiesunited.org.

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