9/11 Families Criticize U.S. Saudi Links at 25th Anniversary Memorial in New York

New York: The wife of a man killed in the September 11 attacks confronted the US government over its handling of Saudi Arabia at the 25th anniversary memorial ceremony at Ground Zero, urging President Donald Trump to pressure Riyadh to acknowledge what she described as the suffering endured by 9/11 families.In 24 years of watching 9/11 memorials and the reading of the names of the dead, I have never heard applause.This morning the crowd did — because one brave widow, @TerrySStrada, looked at the leaders in front of her and refused to let the day pass in silence. She called out… pic.twitter.com/i2ifssKunb— Gerald Posner (@geraldposner) September 11, 2026 Terry Strada, whose husband Tom Strada was killed in the 2001 attacks, accused successive US administrations of protecting Saudi Arabia instead of supporting the families of the victims. Her remarks at the annual remembrance ceremony in Manhattan drew loud applause from those gathered. “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. Terry Strada Tears Into Administration Strada, who chairs 9/11 Families United, alleged that US officials had withheld evidence and failed to honour commitments made to the families. She also criticised the handling of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), which allows victims of terrorism and their families to pursue legal action against foreign states in certain circumstances. “They withheld evidence. They vetoed JASTA. They broke promises, both public and private. It has been one betrayal after another,” she said.'We Don't Have A Choice': President Donald Trump Invokes 9/11 Legacy To Defend US War Against Iran Addressing Trump, Strada urged him to confront Saudi Arabia over its longstanding denials of involvement in the attacks. “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,” she said.She added that Trump could still change the situation and called on Vice President JD Vance, who attended the ceremony, to take the message back to the administration. “Stand with the families, stand with the survivors,” Strada said. “Stand with Americans,” she added.What Is Saudi Arabia Accused Of? The question of Saudi Arabia’s alleged links to the 9/11 attacks has remained contentious for years. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals, but Saudi Arabia has consistently denied involvement in the attacks. The 9/11 Commission’s 2004 report found no evidence that the Saudi government or senior Saudi officials funded al-Qaeda. It concluded that the hijackers were funded by al-Qaeda.However, allegations concerning possible assistance from individual Saudi nationals or officials have continued. In 2025, a US federal judge allowed a lawsuit brought by 9/11 victims’ families against Saudi Arabia to proceed. The case focuses on alleged links between Saudi officials or employees and two al-Qaeda operatives who were in the US before the attacks. The ruling allowed the families’ claims to move forward but did not establish that the Saudi government was responsible for the 9/11 attacks.

Nearly 3,000 people lost their lives on September 11, 2001. Twenty-five years later, the families of some of those lost memorialized the tragedy by calling out America’s continued ties to Saudi Arabia.The families apparently went rogue during an event at the memorial in New York Friday. At least two individuals excoriated the Trump administration and previous presidencies for obfuscating Saudi Arabia’s connection to the terrorist attack.Terry Strada, the widow of 9/11 victim Tom Strada and the national chair of 9/11 Families United, rhetorically asked her husband, “How can it be 25 years and still we have no justice for the role that Saudi Arabia played in your murder?”Strada’s remarks elicited spontaneous applause from the audience. (Trump was not in attendance, reportedly because he had been told he was not allowed to speak at the ceremony.)“Yes, 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 Islamists hijackers so they could attack you and all of our loved ones,” she continued. “But, 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?”“They withheld evidence. They vetoed JASTA,” Strada said, referring to a 2016 law that allowed U.S. citizens to sue foreign governments. “They broke promises, both public and private. It has been one betrayal after another. President Trump can still change that. Tell the Saudis to stop lying.”“Tell them that if they want to be friends with the U.S.A., they cannot continue to deny all of this, all of the pain, all of the destruction that we have all been suffering through,” Strada added.Fifteen of the 19 hijackers who conducted terrorist attacks on 9/11 were Saudi citizens. Evidence that emerged in a lawsuit brought by a coalition of survivors and their families against the Saudi government revealed in 2024 that some low-level Saudi officials were in contact with the hijackers prior to the attack. Until that finding, U.S. presidential administrations had largely dismissed Saudi involvement in the attack. A FBI-CIA report released in 2005 by the Bush administration said that there was no evidence “the Saudi Government or members of the Saudi royal family knowingly provided support” for what happened that day.But Strada was not the only person to speak out. The nephew of Lisa Marie Terry, another 9/11 victim, also urged Trump to do something about the country’s longstanding defense for Saudi Arabia.“For 25 years, the deep state has hidden the truth about what happened that day, 25 years ago. President Trump: you’re our last hope. Release the unredacted files that implicate Saudi Arabia while what’s left of the victims’ families are still alive to see it,” he said.But Trump has done much to further intertwine America’s dependence on Saudi Arabia, perhaps most notably a $1 trillion economic and defense agreement that he signed last year with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.