Families of 9/11 victims slam Saudi Crown Prince’s Oval Office remarks: “He’s trying to rewrite history”
The families of Sept. 11, 2001, victims on Tuesday condemned President Trump’s meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over Saudi Arabia’s alleged role in the decades-old terror attacks.
“The crown prince knows nothing of the pain of the 9/11 families,” Terry Strada, national chair of the 9/11 Families United, said in a statement to The Hill. “He is actively working to impede our efforts to ensure extensive evidence of Saudi government support for al-Qaeda and the terrorist hijackers are brought to light, harboring a former agent that produced a casing video of the U.S. Capitol building, and trying to rewrite history with investments.”
“We aren’t buying it, our allies in Congress aren’t buying it, and neither are the American people,” Strada added.
Strada was reaction to specific remarks made by bin Salman.
Bin Salman during a press appearance with Trump said he felt “pain about the families of 9/11 in America” after an ABC News reporter said the victims of families were “furious” about his Oval Office visit.
The crown prince said that “we have to focus on reality” and claimed opponents of his kingdom were interfering with Saudi and American relations.
During the meeting, Bin Salman said that U.S. and Saudi intelligence found that Osama bin Laden hire Saudi citizens to cause a riff between the two countries. Saudi Arabia has sought to get civil case from the families against the country’s government ended.
Trump and the crown prince met to discuss a weapons agreement, including the U.S. selling the Saudi’s F-35s, mineral deals and other technology-based agreements. The president is next scheduled to attend the U.S.-Saudi Business Forum at the Kennedy Center in Washington on Wednesday.
The meeting was also criticized for the crown prince’s alleged role in the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. A critic of the regime, Khashoggi was killed at the Saudi embassy in Turkey in October 2018. A U.S. intelligence report found that the crown prince approved an operation to capture or kill Khashoggi.
Trump defended Bin Salman in 2018 and again on Tuesday, when he claimed the crown prince “knew nothing about” Khashoggi’s murder.
“You’re mentioning somebody who was extremely controversial,” Trump told one reporter on Tuesday, referring to Khashoggi. “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about. Whether you like him, or didn’t like him, things happen. But he knew nothing about it. And you can leave it at that. You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that,” Trump said.