9/11 families target Trump's Saudi nuclear deal, threaten to derail Riyadh's reactor push

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks, some victims’ families are taking their fight over Saudi Arabia into a new arena: President Donald Trump’s nuclear cooperation deal with Riyadh.

The families say they could use the agreement’s review process to pressure Saudi Arabia over its alleged ties to the attacks, putting a multibillion-dollar civilian nuclear program under fresh political scrutiny as senators separately demand that the administration reveal secret documents tied to the deal.

Families spoke to the New York Post for a report published on Sunday, September 20, expressing deep disappointment in the deal.

Families oppose nuclear deal with Saudi

For Terry Strada, who lost her husband, Thomas Strada, a bond trader at Cantor Fitzgerald in the World Trade Center attacks, the fight is not about another request for documents. 

She wants the Saudi government to acknowledge what she and other 9/11 families say was its role in the attacks.

“How do you give a country nuclear weapons that is responsible for killing 3,000 people and they’ve never owned up to it? They’re not trustworthy. They’re not honest brokers,” Strada, chair of 9/11 Families United, told the New York Post.

Strada said she has spent years pursuing accountability from Saudi Arabia and now sees the nuclear agreement as another point of pressure.

The proposed US-Saudi civil nuclear agreement would open the door for American companies to participate in Saudi Arabia’s nuclear energy program. 

The Energy Department has described it as a decades-long, multibillion-dollar partnership intended to expand nuclear energy cooperation and create opportunities for US industry.

That makes the agreement valuable leverage for families who have spent years trying to force the Saudi government to confront allegations surrounding the 2001 attacks.

Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals. Saudi Arabia has repeatedly denied that its government was involved in or supported the attacks.

The families’ campaign comes as Congress is already examining the nuclear agreement from another direction.

Senators demand secret Saudi letters

A group of senators is pressing the Trump administration to release two classified side letters connected to the nuclear agreement, arguing that lawmakers and the public cannot fully understand the deal without seeing them.

Senators led by Edward Markey and Jeff Merkley said the administration submitted the agreement to Congress but kept the two side letters classified.

The letters concern implementation of the agreement and are being withheld even though similar nuclear cooperation arrangements have generally involved greater public disclosure.

The agreement is commonly known as a '123 agreement' under the Atomic Energy Act.

Its transmission to Congress triggered a 90-day review period, during which lawmakers can seek to block it through a joint resolution of disapproval.

That gives opponents of the agreement a formal route to challenge it while the families are separately trying to connect the nuclear deal to their long-running demands over 9/11.

Sen Richard Blumenthal, who has repeatedly pushed for the release of records concerning Saudi Arabia and the attacks, has indicated that he would oppose or question the nuclear agreement until the families’ concerns are addressed.