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Anguished families of 9/11 victims are preparing to go nuclear – by gumming up Saudi Arabia’s push to build civilian nuclear reactors with Trump administration approval.
“How do you give a country nuclear weapons that [is] responsible for murdering 3,000 people and they’ve never owned up to it? They’re not trustworthy. They’re not honest brokers,” 9/11 Families United chair Terry Strada fumed to The Post, dismissing the Kingdom’s claims about its nuclear power program.
The advocates are hoping to use the approval process for the nuclear agreement, which would allow US companies to work with the Saudis on nuclear energy projects worth billions, as leverage to force Saudi Arabia’s government to admit what they say is its complicity in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The emerging pressure campaign comes as senators push the White House to release concealed “side agreements” on the civilian nuclear power cooperation plan negotiated with the Saudis – in a deal that Congress has the capacity to try to block through a joint resolution of disapproval.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who for years has pressed for declassification of documents on Saudi Arabia’s role in 9/11, recently said he would oppose or at least question the nuclear agreement until 9/11 family claims against Saudi Arabia are resolved.
In a decades-long case, a coalition of victims’ families sued the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia seeking punitive and compensatory damages in federal court that could total billions of dollars following enactment of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act. Fifteen of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi nationals.
A bipartisan group of senators this week called on the White House to release the “side letters” to the so-called “123 Agreement” for civil nuclear cooperation, opening up a new dispute.
President Trump said last week said he was “going to look at” releasing 9/11 records on Saudi Arabia’s role after Strada delivered an impassioned speech at the ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the attacks.
The Saudi government has strenuously denied complicity in the attacks and says its nuclear program is peaceful and transparent.
Strada, who lost her husband Thomas, a bond trader for Cantor Fitzgerald, in the terror attacks, says she doesn’t want records. She wants Trump to pressure the Kingdom to stop denying its responsibility.
“Don’t continue covering for them or providing them cover . . . He can be the one that stops that pattern,” she said.
“President Trump is leading the most transparent administration in history, which is why he authorized the declassification and release of hundreds of pages of documents related to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001,” said White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales, when asked if Trump had made a decision on the request.
“The President will always pay tribute to the American heroes we lost in the tragic attacks, their beautiful family members, and to the acts of heroism that defined that fateful day when the unbreakable spirit of the American people prevailed.”
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