New 9/11 evidence: Will there be accountability for Saudi Arabia?
- Families of 9/11 victims fought to have the video evidence released
- The video was first uncovered 23 years ago
- The FBI fought the release of the evidence in court
(NewsNation) — Newly released video evidence suggests Saudi Arabia was complicit in the terror attack on Sep. 11, 2001, and families of victims are asking for the country to be held accountable.
In the latest episode of “Reality Check,” NewsNation’s Ross Coulthart sat down with the national chair of 9/11 Families United, Terry Strada, to discuss the new video and documentation. Strada and her organization have been fighting for years to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for what they believe was the kingdom’s clear and obvious involvement in helping plan and coordinate the attacks that took the lives of nearly 3,000 people.
Strada said the evidence was found decades ago but was not released by the government.
“They’ve had that video since they raided the apartment in 2001, so 23 years ago, they got that video, and it’s only just come out,” she said. “It is very disturbing and very upsetting to know we had it that many years ago.”
Coulthart, a former war correspondent with decades of experience, including reporting from the Middle East, digs into the evidence, which was released after the organization went to London and asked courts to make it public.
It took months for an initial protective order to be unraveled and the information to be made public.
“Why on Earth would officials in the FBI and White House want to suppress a video that, at the very least, reflects very poorly on the motivations and why a Saudi diplomat, a spy, was filming the Congress in that 90-day period before Osama bin Laden was selecting targets?” Strada asked. “Why would the U.S. government want to hide that? The answers I’ve been told were that they were understaffed and working so hard, it was in Arabic, it didn’t seem that important.”