9/11 widow confronts Bush, Obama and Biden over Saudi cover-up at memorial … as she issues dire warning to Trump and Vance

Full account

At the Ground Zero memorial marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, relatives of those killed used the occasion to publicly rebuke a succession of American leaders, accusing them of shielding Saudi Arabia from accountability rather than backing the families of the dead. Terry Strada, whose husband Tom died in the attacks, addressed the crowd directly in front of former presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Joe Biden, as well as Vice President JD Vance, telling them that a quarter of a century on, no one had ever been made to answer for the Kingdom's alleged part in the atrocity.

Strada told those gathered that successive governments, including some represented on the stage that morning, had repeatedly chosen to protect Riyadh over supporting bereaved families, pointing to withheld evidence and broken assurances made both publicly and privately. She singled out the 2016 decision by President Obama to veto the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, legislation that Congress subsequently pushed through over his objection, opening the door for relatives to pursue legal action against Saudi Arabia. Turning to the present administration, she said President Trump was still in a position to act, urging him to make clear to Saudi officials that friendship with Washington could not continue alongside denials of responsibility for the suffering the attacks had caused. She also appealed directly to Vance, asking him to relay her message and to stand publicly with survivors and bereaved relatives.

Other speakers reinforced the same demand for transparency. One relative of victim Lisa Marie Terry told the crowd that officials within government had spent 25 years suppressing the full picture, and pressed Trump to release unredacted material they believe ties Saudi individuals to the plot before more relatives pass away. Separately, Dennis McGinley, whose brother died in the South Tower, told reporters that decades of inaction by Washington had turned an already painful chapter into what he called a national embarrassment, and said Trump now had a chance to finally deliver the accountability families had long been denied. Trump himself did not attend the New York ceremony, instead taking part in a separate commemoration at the Pentagon, while the Ground Zero event also drew New York's mayor and a former governor alongside the ex-presidents and their spouses.

The renewed pressure centres on long-standing allegations that Saudi nationals, including Omar al-Bayoumi and Fahad al-Thumairy, provided practical support to two of the hijackers after their arrival in California, claims examined by the 9/11 Commission without a definitive finding that senior Saudi officials or the government itself were complicit. Riyadh has consistently denied any involvement in the attacks and has spent years contesting a lawsuit brought by victims' families that is now approaching trial. The families want the release of further records, including phone data linked to al-Bayoumi that the FBI has previously described as connected to Saudi intelligence activity, and the White House has said it is working to locate material relevant to their request.

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