Families who lost loved ones in the Sept. 11 attacks are preparing a new campaign to challenge Saudi Arabia’s effort to secure Trump administration approval for civilian nuclear reactors.
“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 assurances that its nuclear ambitions are limited to peaceful energy production.
The families’ advocates hope the approval process will give them leverage. A nuclear cooperation agreement could enable US companies to pursue billions of dollars in nuclear energy projects with Saudi Arabia, and the group wants Riyadh to acknowledge what it describes as the Saudi government’s complicity in the 2001 attacks.
The pressure campaign is taking shape as senators demand that the White House disclose confidential “side agreements” linked to the civilian nuclear cooperation plan. Congress could attempt to stop the deal through a joint resolution of disapproval.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who has spent years seeking the declassification of records 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 9/11 victims’ relatives has pursued a federal lawsuit against Saudi Arabia, seeking compensatory and punitive 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 dispute this week by urging the White House to publish the “side letters” associated with the so-called “123 Agreement,” the legal framework governing US cooperation with other countries on civilian nuclear energy.
President Trump said last week that he would “look at” releasing records about Saudi Arabia’s alleged connection to 9/11, following an emotional address by Strada at a ceremony commemorating the 25th anniversary of the attacks.
Saudi Arabia has repeatedly denied any involvement in the attacks and maintains that its nuclear program is peaceful, transparent and intended for civilian purposes.
Strada, whose husband Thomas, a bond trader at Cantor Fitzgerald, was killed on 9/11, said the families are seeking more than the release of government documents. They want Trump to press Saudi Arabia to stop denying what they believe was its 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 decided how to respond, 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.”
