New Claims of Saudi Role in 9/11 Bring Victims’ Families Back to Court in Lawsuit Against Riyadh

A federal judge will soon decide whether lawsuits brought against Saudi Arabia by the families of the victims of the September 11 terrorist attack will be allowed to move forward.Judge George Daniels of the Southern District of New York is overseeing the dispute, which originated in 2003 when the families filed suit against the Saudis for making the attacks possible. More recently new evidence has emerged that, the families claim, a Saudi national who provided logistical support to the hijackers, Omar al-Bayoumi, was a Saudi government asset.The families, along with insurers and other plaintiffs, contend that without the “material support and resources provided” by Saudi Arabia, among other countries, individuals, and organizations, Al Qaeda “would not have possessed the financial resources, physical assets, membership base, technological knowledge,” and other advantages “required to conceive, plan and execute the September 11th Attack.”The damages sought in the lawsuit by the 9/11 victims’ families run to tens of billions of dollars.Saudi Arabia, for its part, denies any responsibility for the September 11 attacks. Lawyers for the kingdom note that the 9/11 Commission “has definitively concluded that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia had no role in perpetrating the attacks.” The kingdom also claims it “did not provide financial or material assistance to the September 11 terrorists or their Al-Qaeda organization.”Saudi Arabia also claims immunity from the families’ claims under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976.The legal dispute has been going on for more than 20 years, but recent findings are raising new questions over Saudi Arabia’s responsibility for the attacks.Recently unsealed court records show that Mr. al-Bayoumi was responsible for a video casing the Capitol, one of the suspected targets of the attacks, in 1999, when the attacks were being planned.The video included views of security and entrances and exits from the Capitol, among other details.Ahead of the hearing on Wednesday, the Saudi Arabian government filed a motion to dismiss the case. The Saudis maintain that the video in the filing is nothing more than a tourist’s video of Washington D.C.“We’re no longer searching for words of ‘you’re in our thoughts and prayers.’ We’re no longer looking for to be coddled or comforted. We stand here pissed off,” the president of 9/11 Justice, Brett Eagleson, said earlier this month about the lawsuit. “And our government has failed to bring us accountability, closure and justice.”While the Saudi government did not “knowingly” support the 9/11 terrorists, a joint FBI and CIA report found in 2005, there was “evidence that official Saudi entities” as well as “associated nongovernmental organizations” did “provide financial and logistical support to individuals” in America and around the world, “some of who are associated with terrorism-related activity.”The Saudi government, along with “many of its agencies,” the FBI and CIA determined, had also “been infiltrated and exploited by individuals associated with or sympathetic to” Al Qaeda.The 9/11 families have called on politicians, including President Biden and President Trump, to address the new evidence against Saudi Arabia, but so far neither has done so.“These two candidates for president knew about the existence of this video, and neither one of them had the courage to stand with the 9/11 families and address this issue,” Mr. Eagleson said, prior to Mr. Biden dropping out of the race.Presidents since 9/11 have generally “sought to shield Saudi Arabia from U.S. lawsuits,” CNN reports, “citing the need for national security and to protect Americans from retaliatory lawsuits.”

New Claims of Saudi Role in 9/11 Bring Victims’ Families Back to Court in Lawsuit Against Riyadh

New Claims of Saudi Role in 9/11 Bring Victims’ Families Back to Court in Lawsuit Against Riyadh

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