Sept. 11 widow calls for justice against Saudi Arabia in front of Vance at memorial

A woman whose husband died during the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center called on President Donald Trump in her Friday speech to bring justice to the victims by holding Saudi Arabia to account.Terry Strada, the wife of 9/11 victim Tom Strada, made a direct plea to Vice President JD Vance, who attended the New York memorial at ground zero on Friday, to urge Trump to hold the Saudis accountable for any part they played in the attacks, which were carried out by al Qaeda. “For 25 years, administration after administration, including leaders in front of us here today, chose to protect the Saudis instead of standing with the 9/11 families,” Strada said. “They withheld evidence. They vetoed [the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act]. They broke promises, both public and private. It has been one betrayal after another. President Trump can still change that.“Tell them that if they want to be friends with the USA, they cannot continue to deny all of this, all of the pain, all of the destruction that we have all been suffering through. Vice President Vance, thank you for being here today. Please carry that message back. Stand with the families. Stand with the survivors. Stand with Americans.”Strada, the national chairwoman of 9/11 Families United, pointed to the court battle with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia during her remarks. In August, a federal judge in the Southern District of New York allowed the 9/11 families’ lawsuit against Saudi Arabia to proceed, striking a blow to the kingdom’s efforts to dismiss the claims that it allegedly supported the hijackers ahead of the attack.Clinton-appointed judge George Daniels wrote in the order that the families have “reasonable evidence” that Saudi Arabia used two Saudi men to “assist the hijackers.”Strada pointed to this in her appeal to the vice president on Friday, saying, “We finally made it into a court and have proved that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia fomented a rancid culture of anti-American terrorism around the globe, and then sent its agents to support the radical Islamist hijackers, so they could attack you and all of our loved ones.”SAUDI EFFORT TO DISMISS CLAIMS IT SUPPORTED 9/11 HIJACKERS DENIED BY JUDGEStrada’s plea received a resounding round of applause from the audience. She was not the only person to mention the Saudis, who deny involvement, during the ceremony. Another man called on Trump to “release the unredacted files that implicate Saudi Arabia, while what’s left of the victims’ families are still alive to see it.”Trump was in attendance at a separate 9/11 memorial on Friday morning, held at the Pentagon.