The 22nd anniversary of the worst terrorist attack on American soil is a stark reminder to all those who suffered a loss or injury that the fight for accountability for September 11 is not yet over.
In our pursuit of justice, thousands of 9/11 family members are suing the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in a civil lawsuit for the role its government agents played in an attack on our nation that murdered nearly 3,000 Americans. This litigation continues to move forward in federal court in New York City.
For years, we have fought the U.S. government to release documents it had long chosen to hide. Those disclosures confirmed what we long suspected: officials employed by the Kingdom were involved in the 2001 terrorist attacks and the Kingdom provided resources through state-run banks and charities to build al-Qaeda into a deadly terrorist organization.
We have been able to force these disclosures over the years because U.S. courts are open to us in our litigation, and that is only possible because Congress passed the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) in 2016.
Because of our lawsuit, we were able to persuade President Joe Biden to declassify documents from a secret 10-year investigation into the Saudi government after 9/11. This is information that the 9/11 Commission never saw. The Saudi royals in Riyadh have fought against these revelations with an army of high-priced lawyers, but we keep making gains, and new evidence keeps revealing their culpability.
The time has come, however, for Congress to step in again, this time through a much more modest law, the bipartisan Ensuring Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act (EJVTA). This bill, by correcting misinterpretations of JASTA, will restore our ability to gain more information and to ensure accountability.
Yet we have received no support from President Biden for passing this bill, and we must wonder why.
Saudi Arabia spends huge sums of money on lobbyists and spin doctors, who argue that 9/11 is in the past and that everyone should just move on, regardless of what the evidence says. They falsely claim the 9/11 Commission exonerated the Kingdom, when it did no such thing, and boast that Saudi Arabia is on a path to modernization. Most recently, the Kingdom has sunk billions of dollars into taking over the golf industry to cleanse its reputation.
We have come to expect such subterfuge, but we will never be okay with how successive U.S. presidents have chosen Saudi interests over accountability and truth. Just days before our country pauses to remember our loved ones, news reports indicated President Biden was planning to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the G20 summit in New Delhi to discuss a possible "mega-deal" with the Kingdom. Today he did not attend any of the memorial services at the three sites where thousands of Americans were murdered on 9/11.
Will President Biden ever speak to the Saudi Crown Prince about taking responsibility for Saudi Arabia's role in 9/11, or will he negotiate away our right to pursue justice in pursuit of his administration's "mega-deal?" Even with strong bipartisan support in Congress for the EJVTA, the White House has been silent publicly, and we worry that the administration sees our case as a bargaining chip with the Saudis. Is this really what President Biden wants?
The 9/11 family community would like nothing more than to "move on" and not think about that awful day. It is an ongoing grieving process for all of us. But it is made much more difficult when our leaders confuse statements of empathy with actual progress and justice.
We need Congress to stand with the 9/11 community and send the EJVTA swiftly to President Biden's desk this fall. Doing so will ensure the 9/11 community can pursue its claims against the Kingdom and affirm that every U.S. citizen affected by acts of terrorism on American soil has the right to seek justice from those who contribute to terror. This bill is a sound counterterrorism policy and a deterrence to future terrorist attacks against our nation.
Our leaders must not cave to the Kingdom's threat of a Saudi-China alliance, or allow short-term diplomatic maneuvering to undermine our 20-year fight. The American people already hold an overwhelmingly unfavorable view of the Saudi regime after being bombarded with decades of lies and obfuscation about its support for terrorism and extremism, human rights abuses, misogyny, and its denial of the murder and dismemberment of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The past cannot be rewritten, but a better future remains possible. Congress should send a clear message: supporters of terrorism will never evade consequences, and justice for their wrongs will always prevail.
This year, let's honor the memories of our loved ones by paving the path toward accountability, ensuring that the principles of justice and compassion are enshrined in law forever.
Terry Strada's husband, Tom, died in the World Trade Center's North Tower during the 9/11 Attacks and left behind three children who were seven, four and four days old. She is the National Chair of 9/11 Families United, an organization of family members of those murdered in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, as well as many of those who survived, were injured in, or sickened from the attacks—a community of more than 10,000 people.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
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