The smoke and rubble are gone. The trees at the place we all called Ground Zero are taller. And all those kids who seemed so small and vulnerable two decades ago are now adults.
Yes, America has moved on from the horror of the 9/11 attacks. But something awful still remains. We still don’t know the full extent of who was responsible. And we still can’t figure out what to do with some of the key players of the terror plot.
Such questions continue to haunt the history, legacy and collective desire for closure from the political and personal wounds that still fester from the deadliest terror attack in American history.
So as America commemorates the 23 rd anniversary of 9/11, in a solemn ceremony in lower Manhattan on Wednesday with the reading of the names of the nearly 3,000 who were killed, let’s also look at what we know and don’t know — and why such questions still cause so much pain.
Did anyone else aid the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers?
For instance, who was responsible for 9/11?
The commonly accepted answer to that question is that the attacks were carried out by 19 Islamist militants who were members of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terrorist network, based at the time in the hills of Afghanistan.
The loose gang of 19 — all men — slipped into the United States on tourist visas. After settling in a variety of sites — Los Angeles, Northern Virginia and Northern New Jersey were the main spots — they hijacked four commercial jetliners on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. Most had never visited the United States. Most did not even speak English.
After murdering pilots and flight attendants in midflight, the hijackers crashed two jetliners into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan. Another hijacked plane was crashed into the Pentagon in Northern Virginia. A fourth went down in a Pennsylvania farm field after passengers fought back against the hijackers.
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Such is the common narrative. But it overlooks what FBI officials and others now say is an obvious question: Did anyone else help the 19 hijackers?
The answer is yes, say many experts and investigative reports that had been classified until recently. And a finger of blame points squarely at Saudi Arabia.
Six weeks ago, 26 lawyers converged on a federal courtroom in lower Manhattan — only about 10 blocks from the 9/11 memorial and museum at the site of the attacks on the World Trade Center. The meeting tells us much now about the fractured effort to bring closure to the 9/11 story.
It was July 31, a Wednesday. It was around 9:45 a.m. The occasion was yet another hearing in what legal experts say is the largest civil lawsuit in U.S. history — the effort by 9/11 survivors and victims’ relatives to hold the kingdom of Saudi Arabia responsible for the attacks.
The stakes couldn’t be higher. For starters, the lawsuit includes more than 10,000 plaintiffs — each claiming that Saudi Arabia should compensate them financially for their loses. If Saudi Arabia loses — or even settles — the price tag will likely run into the billions of dollars, legal experts say.
In addition, if Saudi Arabia is found liable, a major question looms over whether the U.S. — indeed, the world — will be forced to recast its diplomatic relations with what many felt was a key Western ally in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, has launched a massive public relations effort to improve its standing. One of Saudi Arabia's most notable efforts was to funnel money into LIV Golf, which has held competitions at several golf courses owned by former President Donald Trump. Saudi officials have also invested heavily in an investment firm owned by Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
On July 31 in the federal courtroom in lower Manhattan, U.S. lawyers representing Saudi Arabia were hoping to convince U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels to dismiss the case. What took place, however, was an astonishing legal presentation of how nearly 30 Saudi government officials participated in a loose-knit plot to help the hijackers.
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'Compelling evidence' of Saudi involvement?
Daniels is now studying that evidence and is set to decide in the coming weeks whether a trial can go forward against Saudi Arabia. The decision looms as one of the most critical in the still-unfinished history of the 9/11 attacks. Or as Gavin Simpson, an attorney for a group of 9/11 survivors and relatives, told Daniels that morning, there is now “substantial evidence — indeed compelling evidence” that the Saudi government “created, funded and directed” a “militant extremist network” within the U.S. that helped carry out the 9/11 attacks.
If Daniels agrees, the consequences for Saudi Arabia — and for the history of 9/11 — would be massive.
The alleged 9/11 support network included several officials at the Saudi Embassy in Washington, D.C. And, as this columnist has reported based on formerly secret FBI reports, it also included several Saudi-connected operatives in Virginia and in New Jersey who helped the hijackers find apartments, open bank accounts and even take flying lessons.
Terry Strada, formerly of Short Hills, New Jersey, who lost her husband, Thomas, a bond trader, on 9/11 and who now is a leader of the ad hoc effort to hold Saudi Arabia accountable and has followed much of the evidence, said even she was shocked by the presentation.
“They were running the network out of the Saudi Embassy,” Strada said afterward, adding that the experience left her “mentally and physically exhausted.”
The July 31 hearing has emerged as one of the most complete summaries of alleged Saudi complicity in the 9/11 attacks. But it resulted in almost no coverage in America’s media. Nor did it result in even a whiff of outrage by U.S. officials.
And, in case anyone wonders, Saudi Arabia — through its lawyers and public relations consultants — denies that it played any role in the 9/11 attacks. But Saudi officials still refuse to discuss in any detail the mounting evidence that has emerged.
It was as if the courtroom in lower Manhattan were an alternative universe, where highly paid lawyers were arguing over one of the most consequential events in American history.
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What about the Guantanamo Bay detainees?
What took place as the hearing ended, however, tells us much about the confusion that still surrounds the 9/11 attacks.
As 9/11 survivors and relatives walked out of the courtroom that day, they were met by a barrage of media questions. But those questions had nothing to do with what took place in the courtroom.
Instead, what emerged that day was news that American officials had struck a plea bargain with three key al-Qaida operatives who had been imprisoned for most of the last two decades at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The so-called "detainees" — all terror suspects — once numbered more than 100. Many have been let go over time and returned to their native countries. But a handful of the most dangerous remain.
In what surely has to be one of the most bizarre coincidences in the 9/11 narrative, the Pentagon sent letters to 9/11 victims and families on July 31, telling them that the 9/11 mastermind, Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, and two accomplices jailed at Guantanamo Bay, Walid Bin Attash and Mustafa al Hawsawi, had agreed to plead guilty to killing nearly 3,000 people in the 9/11 attacks. In exchange for the guilty pleas, the U.S. would not ask judges presiding over their cases to sentence them to death.
The final paragraph of the Pentagon’s letter to 9/11 victims and survivors tells us much about how the unresolved nature of the case has contributed to deep emotional wounds — with some of those wounds brought on by the slow slog of bureaucracy and legal mishaps.
“We recognize that the status of the case in general, and this news in particular, will understandably and appropriately elicit intense emotion,” the letter said, “and we also realize that the decision to enter into a pre-trial agreement will be met with mixed reactions amongst the thousands of family members who lost loved ones. The decision to enter into a pre-trial agreement after 12 years of pre-trial litigation was not reached lightly; however, it is our collective, reasoned, and good-faith judgment that this resolution is the best path to finality and justice in this case.”
The letter did not result in any resolution or a “path to finality.” Victims and surviving relatives were universally outraged. And within days, the Pentagon — with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin intervening — rejected the plea deals.
Now, more than a month later, the question of what to do with the three 9/11 conspirators imprisoned at Guantanamo remains unresolved.
U.S. authorities had hoped the plea deal would help them avoid a messy trial before a military court at Guantanamo Bay, where evidence would be presented that the three conspirators were tortured. But another concern is that the trials might have provided even more evidence of alleged Saudi complicity in the 9/11 attacks.
Once again, as America mourns the 9/11 victims, it is left with more reminders of how this story continues to be unresolved.
And so, there is no closure.
Mike Kelly is an award-winning columnist for NorthJersey.com, part of the USA TODAY Network, as well as the author of three critically acclaimed nonfiction books and a podcast and documentary film producer. A paperback edition with an updated epilogue of his 1995 book, "Color Lines," which chronicles race relations in a small New Jersey town after a police shooting and was called "American journalism at its best" by the Washington Post, was released last year. To get unlimited access to his insightful thoughts on how we live life in the Northeast, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: kellym@northjersey.com
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: 9/11, 23 years later: Questions about Saudi involvement in terror attacks persist | Kelly
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