New York twin towers hit by hijacked airlines. Image: Robert Giroux/ Getty Images.
(The Post News)- A federal judge in New York denied the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s attempt to dismiss a lawsuit filed by survivors and families of victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The lawsuit accuses Saudi Arabia of helping the hijackers before the deadliest attack on U.S. soil.
U.S. District Judge George Daniels ruled that the plaintiffs presented sufficient claims to move the landmark civil case to trial, allowing the long-running legal battle to proceed. According to the plaintiffs, the Saudi government supported an extremist network that aided the hijackers in the United States before the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Saudi Arabia has consistently denied these allegations.
At a hearing last year, attorneys representing the victims’ families presented evidence they claimed exposed a support network involving several senior Saudi officials operating in the U.S. They argued that this network helped the 9/11 hijackers travel and settle across the country.
In his opinion, Judge George Daniels stated that Saudi Arabia’s attempts to offer innocent explanations or context were either contradictory or too weak to counter the claim that the Kingdom had directed Omar al-Bayoumi and Fahad al-Thumairy to assist the hijackers before the attacks.
The plaintiffs asserted in court filings that Thumairy, a diplomat at the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles, served as the main al-Qaeda contact for the hijackers in the area. They also alleged that Thumairy collaborated closely with Bayoumi to organize logistical support for the hijackers while they were in California, before they moved to the East Coast.
Saudi Arabia has consistently argued that Bayoumi was merely a student active in a San Diego mosque, where worshippers—unaware of the hijackers’ intentions—helped them out of kindness because they were new to the country and spoke little English.
At the hearing last year, Michael Kellogg, an attorney representing Saudi Arabia, claimed that Bayoumi’s actions were “limited and wholly innocent.” He based his argument on Bayoumi’s 2021 deposition, his interviews with law enforcement, and findings from the 9/11 Commission report. CNN has contacted the Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for a response.
Terry Strada, chair of 9/11 Families United, a group of victims’ families and survivors advocating for transparency, praised Judge Daniels’ decision in a statement on Thursday.
Although 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens, Saudi Arabia has consistently rejected claims that its government played any role in the attacks. The U.S. government has also long maintained that its key Middle East ally had no involvement, stating that al Qaeda acted independently when it hijacked four commercial planes and crashed them into the Twin Towers in New York City and the Pentagon. The fourth plane, United Flight 93, went down in Pennsylvania.
Still, accusations of Saudi complicity have persisted, and over the past two decades, lawsuits against the Kingdom have developed into the current multi-district litigation.
Co-lead attorneys Jodi Westbrook Flowers and Donald Migliori of Motley Rice LLC, one of the firms representing the plaintiffs, also applauded Judge Daniels’ decision in a statement to CNN on Thursday.
“Today’s landmark ruling in the September 11, 2001 case represents a major step toward justice,” the attorneys said. “The court found that ‘the total evidence creates a high probability as to Bayoumi and Thumairy’s roles in the hijackers’ plans and the related role of their employer [Saudi Arabia]’ and emphasized that a public trial will reveal the full truth.”
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