A 9/11 widow broke from the traditional reading of victims’ names at Ground Zero on Friday and delivered a searing rebuke of Saudi Arabia for allegedly supporting the “radical Islamist hijackers” behind the attacks. Terry Strada demanded to know why her family was still waiting for justice 25 years after her husband was murdered. Her remarks came with Mayor Zohran Mamdani and numerous current and former officials in attendance.
Mamdani had already attracted attention during the ceremony after footage showed him smiling and laughing with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez while victims’ names were being read. He was among the officials present when Strada delivered her remarks, along with Vice President JD Vance and former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden. The annual ceremony marked the 25th anniversary of the September 11th, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Strada’s husband, Tom Strada, worked for Cantor Fitzgerald on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center’s North Tower. The 41-year-old father was killed when American Airlines Flight 11 struck the building, just days after he and Terry brought their third child home from the hospital. Cantor Fitzgerald lost 658 employees in the attack.
After reading her husband’s name, Strada departed from the customary remembrance and asked the question her family has carried for a quarter-century. “How can it be 25 years and still we have no justice for the role that Saudi Arabia played in your murder?” she asked, according to Trending Politics. Members of the crowd responded with loud applause.
“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 Islamist hijackers so they could attack you and all of our loved ones,” Strada continued. 15 of the 19 terrorists who hijacked four passenger planes on September 11th were Saudi nationals. Saudi Arabia has repeatedly denied assisting the hijackers or playing any role in the attacks.
Strada turned her criticism toward successive American administrations, including officials seated before her at Ground Zero. “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,” she said. “They broke promises, both public and private. It has been one betrayal after another.”
Watch Strada confront Saudi Arabia and America’s political leaders here:
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Strada directed a message to President Donald Trump through Vance, the highest-ranking member of the Trump administration present at the ceremony. “President Trump can still change that. Tell the Saudis to stop lying,” she said. “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.”
Strada serves as national chair of 9/11 Families United and is among the victims’ relatives pursuing a federal lawsuit against Saudi Arabia over alleged material support provided to the hijackers. A federal judge previously found enough evidence concerning alleged assistance from two Saudi government employees to allow the lawsuit to proceed. Congress made the case possible by overriding Obama’s 2016 veto of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, which allowed Americans to sue foreign governments accused of supporting terrorist attacks on American soil.
“Vice President Vance, thank you for being here today,” Strada concluded. “Please carry that message back. Stand with the families. Stand with survivors. Stand with Americans. As my husband Tom would have said, that is always the right thing to do.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video.