9/11 Widow Rips Saudi Arabia in Stunning Moment During Ground Zero Ceremony — Implores Trump, ‘Tell The Saudis To Stop Lying!’

 

A woman who became a widow 25 years ago on 9/11, 2001, called on President Donald Trump Friday to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for the terror attacks on the United States.

Even though Trump was not present in New York for the commemoration, Terry Strada invoked his name, and referred to the former presidents who were present: George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden.

“My husband Thomas Strada, you are missed more with each year that passes. But how can it be 25 years and still we have no justice for the role that Saudi Arabia played in your murder?” she said to cheers and applause from the gathered crowd.

“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 Islamic hijackers so they could attack you and all of our loved ones,” Strada said. “For 25 years, administration after administration – including leaders in front of us here – chose to protect the Saudis instead of standing with the 9/11 families. They withheld evidence, they broke promises, both public and private.”

Strada continued:

It has been one betrayal after another. President Trump can still change that. Tell the Saudis to stop lying. Tell them 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 we have been suffering through. Vice President Vance, thank you for being here today. Please carry that message back. Stand with the families. Stand with the survivors, stand with Americans. As my husband Tom would have said, that is always the right thing to do. God bless all of us, God bless America.

Trump has had a cozy relationship with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom U.S. intelligence has blamed for approving the murder and dismemberment of Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Trump has called MBS “a very good friend,” and has defended the kingdom’s leadership and its “incredible human rights record.” He has also hosted tournaments from the LIV golf league — which was formerly funded by Saudi Arabia — on his courses in New Jersey, Florida, and Virginia.

Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were citizens of Saudi Arabia, and the 9/11 Commission Report from 2004 noted that the kingdom may have turned a blind eye to al-Qaeda fundraising prior to the attacks.

“Saudi Arabia has long been considered the primary source of al Qaeda funding, but we have found no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded the organization,” the report said, adding, “(This conclusion does not exclude the likelihood that charities with significant Saudi government sponsorship diverted funds to al Qaeda.)”

Nearly 3,000 people were killed when terrorists flew two planes into the World Trade Center, causing the towers to collapse; 184 people died when terrorists flew American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon; and 40 people died in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers and crew prevented terrorists from turning United Airlines Flight 93 toward Washington, D.C.

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