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By Amanda Castro
Associate News Editor
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A 9/11 widow publicly confronted Saudi Arabia and every living U.S. president during Friday’s 25th‑anniversary memorial, demanding long‑withheld answers about alleged Saudi links to the attacks.
Her remarks reignited a long‑running fight over transparency, federal investigations, and the still‑unresolved questions surrounding Saudi nationals who interacted with two hijackers.
The confrontation places new pressure on the Trump administration, Congress, and federal agencies as families push for declassification, accountability, and progress in the civil lawsuit against the Kingdom.
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The moment unfolded as Terry Strada, whose husband Tom died in the World Trade Center, accused multiple administrations of “protecting the Saudis instead of standing with the families.”
Her comments echoed years of frustration from victims’ relatives who say critical FBI records—especially those involving Omar al‑Bayoumi, a Saudi national who assisted two hijackers—remain inaccessible or insufficiently examined.
Families say the lack of clarity has persisted for a quarter‑century despite new evidence, declassified documents, and ongoing federal litigation.
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Who Were the Hijackers?
Twenty‑five years later, one of the most‑searched questions tied to Saudi Arabia remains the simplest: who were the hijackers?
Fifteen of the 19 men who carried out the attacks were Saudi nationals, a fact long cited by families demanding deeper scrutiny of Saudi networks in the United States. Official U.S. findings—including the 9/11 Commission Report—concluded that the Saudi government did not fund the plot.
However, those same investigations acknowledged that individual Saudi nationals in California provided logistical help to Nawaf al‑Hazmi and Khalid al‑Mihdhar, the first two hijackers to arrive in the U.S.
That distinction—between government responsibility and individual assistance—has fueled decades of debate. Families argue that the federal government has not fully explained how two men with limited English, no U.S. contacts, and no familiarity with American life were able to integrate so quickly after landing in Los Angeles in January 2000. Their path through San Diego, and the Saudi figures they encountered there, remains central to the ongoing lawsuit and to renewed public scrutiny.
Who Was Omar al‑Bayoumi?
The ProPublica investigation into Omar al‑Bayoumi—published this week and based on newly surfaced FBI records—has intensified questions about the FBI’s handling of Saudi suspects.
Bayoumi, a Saudi graduate student living in San Diego, helped Hazmi and Mihdhar secure housing, open a bank account, and settle into the community. For years, the FBI insisted this was an innocent coincidence. But documents now filed in federal court show Bayoumi was a Saudi intelligence co‑optee, receiving a monthly stipend from the Kingdom’s intelligence service.
British police seized boxes of evidence from Bayoumi’s home in 2001, including a handwritten diagram appearing to calculate an airplane’s trajectory and a videotape of him touring the U.S. Capitol. Much of that material was not shared with field agents investigating the hijackers, and some was nearly destroyed before Encore investigators intervened.
Families say these gaps raise serious questions about why the FBI minimized Bayoumi’s role and why critical evidence was not fully analyzed or disclosed.
“The 9/11 Commission was ‘set up to fail,’ according to its own chairmen,” investigative journalist Sander Hicks told Newsweek. “You had Saudi Prince Bandar at the White House just days after 9/11, yet remarkably little scrutiny of financial connections involving his wife. That is part of why these questions have never gone away.”
What Operation Encore Found
Operation Encore—the FBI’s follow‑on investigation into Saudi links—produced some of the most consequential federal findings about individuals around Hazmi and Mihdhar.
Encore agents uncovered witnesses who said the hijackers visited the King Fahd Mosque in Los Angeles and met repeatedly with Fahad al‑Thumairy, an accredited Saudi diplomat and imam. One witness said Thumairy arranged the hijackers’ first meeting with Bayoumi, contradicting Bayoumi’s claim that the encounter was random.
Encore investigators also discovered that Bayoumi maintained contact with several Saudi religious officials who later emerged as militant Islamists tied to al‑Qaida. Despite these findings, FBI headquarters repeatedly pushed back on the idea of a support network, and the Encore team was ultimately disbanded in 2016.
Hicks told Newsweek: “The significance is that the old portrayal of al‑Bayoumi as a helpful student who randomly encountered the hijackers became much harder to accept at face value.”
Why the Saudi Question Remains Unresolved
Families say the Saudi question persists because federal institutions have not pursued every lead with the aggressiveness the evidence warranted.
Hicks argues that political and financial power have shaped the narrative for decades: “International wealth, political influence, big money and big oil can function as a singular force. That power can influence which stories get told and which questions get pursued.”
The frustration was visible at Friday’s memorial, where Strada accused multiple administrations of withholding evidence and breaking promises. Her remarks received loud applause from families who say they have spent 25 years fighting for transparency.
The CIA’s release of 71 presidential briefs on Friday offered new historical context but omitted key records—most notably Bayoumi’s phone logs—requested by families as part of their lawsuit.
What the Lawsuit Could Change
The civil case against Saudi Arabia—made possible by the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA)—is now one of the most consequential terrorism‑related lawsuits in U.S. history. In 2025, Judge George Daniels ruled that the families’ evidence was strong enough for the case to proceed, rejecting Saudi Arabia’s sovereign‑immunity defense.
The Kingdom is appealing, with arguments scheduled for October 7, 2026, in Manhattan.
For 9/11 legal advocate Michael Barasch, who represents more than 50,000 responders and survivors, the ruling is not symbolic — it is the first meaningful opening families have had in decades.
“Saudi Arabia tried to knock the 9/11 families out of court, and Judge Daniels refused to let that happen,” Barasch told Newsweek. “By rejecting the Kingdom’s renewed sovereign‑immunity defense under JASTA, the court preserved the families’ path to keep following the money, the communications, and the logistical trail.”
Barasch said the breakthrough is simple: the evidence survived a serious jurisdictional challenge. “That moves this case beyond milestone speeches and empty assurances toward sworn testimony, document production, and open court,” he said. “Diplomacy cannot become immunity from the truth.”
He also warned that the stakes are not abstract. Barasch is a two‑time 9/11 cancer survivor who loses clients weekly.
“Courts measure time in motions, hearings, and appeals,” he said. “Cancer measures time in cells, stages, and lost treatment windows. Lawyers can count years. Cancer counts days.”
Families fear a private settlement could end the case without revealing the full truth. They say the public deserves to know what federal agencies found—and what they failed to pursue.
The Human Toll Behind the Legal Fight
Barasch argues that the Saudi litigation cannot be separated from the ongoing health crisis facing the 9/11 community.
“When the federal government told New Yorkers the air was safe, people acted on that trust,” he said. “Twenty‑five years later, that lethal lie has produced 57,044 World Trade Center Health Program cancer certifications.”
Among survivors — teachers, students, office workers, and residents — cancer certifications have surged more than 4,000 percent since 2015. Rare cancers are appearing at rates dozens or even hundreds of times above national benchmarks.
“The Seventh Bell corrects the historical record,” Barasch said, referring to the memorial’s new tribute for victims who died from post‑9/11 illnesses. “9/11 did not stop killing people when the towers fell.”
There are now 9,780 deceased claims filed with the Victim Compensation Fund — more than triple the number killed on the day of the attacks.
Barasch said meaningful accountability from Saudi Arabia begins with transparency.
“Follow the money, unseal the records, and put witnesses under oath. If Washington can hunt down and release records about unidentified objects flying in the sky, it has zero excuse for failing to pursue every lawful record concerning the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil.”
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Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Jason Lemon and Gray R. Thomas
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