Two campaign groups representing 9/11 families have written both presidential candidates, asking them to confront Saudi Arabia about its alleged links to the attacks.
The letters highlighted evidence that emerged in June during the 9/11 families’ ongoing litigation against the country’s government, in which they allege that Saudi officials supported the 9/11 hijackers—15 of the 19 were Saudi citizens—before the September 2001 attacks. The Saudi government has denied any involvement.
In its letter, 9/11 Justice asked Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump to “not endorse any normalization deal involving Saudi Arabia unless it fully addresses the role of the Saudi Arabian government.”
The group said 3,000 signatories had endorsed its call, which it said was “essential to our nation’s integrity and the memory” of the 2,977 killed in the attacks.
In a separate letter, 9/11 Families United, which represents 10,000 victims’ family members, urged Harris and Trump to “prioritize transparency and accountability” and support legislation helping American victims hold liable foreign sponsors of terrorism.
The calls come after a video obtained by British police and first reported in June by CBS’ 60 Minutes was unsealed. It showed Saudi national Omar al-Bayoumi, who was identified by the FBI in 2017 as a Saudi intelligence operative with ties to two 9/11 hijackers, filming the U.S. Capitol building in 1999. He is also heard referencing a “plan.”
9/11 families have written to Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, pictured Wednesday in New York City attending a remembrance ceremony on the 23rd anniversary of the September 11 attacks. The inset shows a 9/11 memorial.
Adam GRAY/AFP via Getty Images
Federal investigators think hijackers on United Airlines Flight 93 were targeting the Capitol before passengers fought back and the plane crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell said the new video left “no doubt in my mind that Al-Qaeda tasked Bayoumi to do this casing video.”
The evidence is enough to require further evaluation, according to the man who led the CIA at the time of the attacks, George Tenet. “The 9/11 families deserve no less,” a Tenet spokesperson told The New York Times in an August 9 article.
Al-Bayoumi denies any involvement in the 9/11 attacks. The Saudi government declined to comment to 60 Minutes about the video when it came out.
Newsweek contacted via email representatives for the Harris and Trump campaigns, as well as the Saudi government, for comment on Wednesday.
A visitor views a display at the visitor center at the Flight 93 National Memorial on September 10, 2015, in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
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9/11 Families United Chair Terry Strada wrote that evidence showed the Saudi government was “deeply intertwined with al-Qaeda in the decade leading up to the September 11, 2001 attacks, and provided al-Qaeda with crucial support that enabled them to plan and carry out their deadly mission.”
In its letter to Harris, the group said it appreciated President Joe Biden‘s 2021 order for a comprehensive declassification review of 9/11 investigation documents. But it is disappointed that his pledge to make Saudi Arabia a pariah for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018 was later dropped.
The latter added that the 9/11 families hoped “supporting the 9/11 families and achieving accountability” would be part of Harris’ “new path forward” should she win the November election.
In the letter to Trump, the families said they were deeply disappointed that his administration had not declassified documents and because of his later support of Saudi Arabia’s “sportswashing through LIV Golf.”
But it added that “we appreciate your recent renewed commitment to full government transparency around the 9/11 attacks,” referencing Trump’s June 2 interview with Fox News in which he said he would declassify 9/11 files.
