Terry Strada, whose husband was killed in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, spoke at the 25th-anniversary ceremony at Ground Zero. She accused Saudi Arabia of avoiding responsibility for the terrorist attacks.
Strada claimed the U.S. government has been protecting Saudi Arabia for the past 25 years. She argued, “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia fostered anti-American terrorism worldwide and supported the hijackers who attacked our loved ones.” As the national chair of 9/11 Families United, Strada emphasized that multiple administrations have failed the victims’ families.
She directed part of her speech to Vice President JD Vance, the highest-ranking Trump administration official present. President Donald Trump addressed the Pentagon event in Arlington, Virginia.
It has been one betrayal after another. President Trump can still change that. Tell the Saudis to stop lying. If they want to be friends with the USA, they cannot continue to deny all of this.
Strada urged Vance to relay her message to President Trump, asking him to support the victims’ families.
Her husband, Tom Strada, was on the 104th floor of the North Tower when American Airlines Flight 11 hit the building. Days before, the couple had welcomed their third child home. On the impact day, Tom called Terry to inform her he was heading toward the stairwell.
Since the attacks that claimed nearly 3,000 lives at the World Trade Center, Pentagon, and aboard hijacked planes, Strada has become a leading advocate for accountability. She is among thousands of family members and survivors who sued Saudi Arabia, alleging the kingdom provided material support to the hijackers. Saudi Arabia has denied these allegations.
In August of last year, a federal judge ruled there was “reasonable evidence” that two Saudi government employees assisted future al Qaeda hijackers in the U.S. The judge, George B. Daniels, allowed the lawsuit to proceed, rejecting Saudi Arabia’s attempt to dismiss it.
Victims’ families were initially barred from suing a foreign government due to sovereign immunity protections. This changed in September 2016 when Congress passed the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), allowing Americans to sue any foreign government accused of supporting terrorism on U.S. soil.
Strada criticized President Barack Obama for vetoing JASTA, which he argued threatened to remove immunity from foreign governments based on allegations by private litigants. Congress overrode the veto soon after, and JASTA became law, enabling the lawsuit against Saudi Arabia in March 2017. The case is still pending in federal court.