Families who lost loved ones in the Sept. 11 attacks are preparing to escalate their fight against Saudi Arabia’s plans to develop civilian nuclear reactors, seeking to complicate the Trump administration’s approval of the effort.
“How do you give a country nuclear weapons that [is] responsible for murdering 3,000 people and they’ve never owned up to it? They’re not trustworthy. They’re not honest brokers,” Terry Strada, chair of 9/11 Families United, told The Post. She rejected Saudi Arabia’s claims that its nuclear ambitions are strictly peaceful.
The families’ advocates hope to use the approval process for a nuclear cooperation agreement as leverage. The pact would enable US companies to participate in billions of dollars’ worth of nuclear energy projects in Saudi Arabia, while giving the families an opportunity to pressure the Kingdom to acknowledge what they describe as its complicity in the 2001 attacks.
The campaign is gaining momentum as senators urge the White House to disclose secret “side agreements” tied to the civilian nuclear cooperation plan. Congress could attempt to block the deal through a joint resolution of disapproval.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who has spent years seeking the declassification of documents concerning Saudi Arabia’s alleged role in 9/11, recently said he would oppose—or at minimum closely scrutinize—the nuclear agreement until the families’ claims against the Kingdom are addressed.
For decades, a coalition of victims’ families has pursued a federal lawsuit against Saudi Arabia, seeking punitive and compensatory damages that could reach billions of dollars under the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals.
A bipartisan group of senators added to the pressure this week by asking the White House to release the “side letters” associated with the so-called “123 Agreement” for civilian nuclear cooperation, creating a fresh dispute over the deal.
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President Trump said last week that he would “look at” releasing records concerning Saudi Arabia’s role in 9/11, shortly after Strada delivered an emotional speech at a ceremony commemorating the 25th anniversary of the attacks.
The Saudi government has repeatedly denied any involvement in the attacks and maintains that its nuclear program is peaceful and transparent.
Strada, whose husband Thomas—a bond trader at Cantor Fitzgerald—was killed in the attacks, said she is not seeking the records themselves. Instead, she wants Trump to pressure Saudi Arabia to end what she calls its continued denial of responsibility.
“Don’t continue covering for them or providing them cover . . . He can be the one that stops that pattern,” she said.
Asked whether Trump had made a decision on the request, White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said, “President Trump is leading the most transparent administration in history, which is why he authorized the declassification and release of hundreds of pages of documents related to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.”
“The President will always pay tribute to the American heroes we lost in the tragic attacks, their beautiful family members, and to the acts of heroism that defined that fateful day when the unbreakable spirit of the American people prevailed.”