A 9/11 widow delivered one of the most pointed moments of Friday’s 25th anniversary ceremony at Ground Zero, using the solemn reading of victims’ names to demand accountability over longstanding allegations that Saudi government employees assisted some of the hijackers.
Terry Strada, whose husband, Tom Strada, was killed in the North Tower of the World Trade Center, criticized Saudi Arabia and successive U.S. administrations while speaking before victims’ relatives, survivors, first responders and several current and former American leaders.
“For 25 years, administration after administration, including leaders in front of us here today, chose to protect the Saudis instead of standing with the 9/11 families,” Strada said, drawing applause from the crowd.
Former Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden were among those attending the Ground Zero ceremony, along with Vice President JD Vance. President Donald Trump marked the anniversary separately at the Pentagon.
Strada directly appealed to the current administration. “It has been one betrayal after another. President Trump can still change that,” she said. She then urged Trump to press Saudi officials over the allegations and thanked Vance for attending before telling him to take her message back to the White House. “Stand with the families, stand with the survivors,” Strada said. “Stand with Americans.”
WATCH:
A 9/11 widow just rent rogue in NYC…
She read her husbands name and then called out Islamic terror and Saudi Arabia.
She called out Bush, Obama, Biden and JD Vance/Trump while they sat right in front of her. The entire crowd at ground zero cheered. pic.twitter.com/xICEZL6FOv
— Geiger Capital (@Geiger_Capital) September 11, 2026
Strada has spent much of the past quarter-century pursuing answers about the attacks through her work with 9/11 Families United. Her husband was 41 when he died. The couple had three children, including a son who was less than a week old at the time of the attacks. Strada has said determining the full circumstances surrounding her husband’s death became both a personal mission and, in her view, an issue of national security.
The dispute she raised Friday centers on a sprawling federal lawsuit brought by 9/11 victims, survivors and relatives against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens. Saudi Arabia has repeatedly denied that its government participated in or supported the attacks.
The original 9/11 Commission found no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded al-Qaeda. It did, however, say Saudi Arabia had been an important fundraising environment for al-Qaeda and noted the possibility that charities receiving substantial Saudi government support had diverted money to the terrorist organization.
The legal picture has changed significantly as additional FBI records and other evidence have emerged. The victims’ families have focused heavily on Omar al-Bayoumi and Fahad al-Thumairy, two Saudi nationals who were government employees and had contact with Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, two future hijackers who arrived in Southern California in January 2000.
The families allege Bayoumi and Thumairy provided crucial logistical assistance to the men after their arrival, helping them establish themselves in the United States. Saudi Arabia has argued that any assistance provided was innocent and unrelated to the 9/11 conspiracy.
A major breakthrough for the families came in August 2025 when U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels rejected Saudi Arabia’s latest effort to dismiss the lawsuit. Daniels concluded that the plaintiffs had presented enough evidence regarding Bayoumi and Thumairy and their alleged activities to allow the claims against Saudi Arabia to proceed.
The ruling was not a finding that Saudi Arabia was responsible for the attacks. Rather, it rejected the kingdom’s jurisdictional arguments and permitted the plaintiffs to attempt to prove their allegations through further proceedings and, potentially, a trial.
The lawsuit was given new life by Congress in 2016 when lawmakers enacted the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, or JASTA. The law created an exception to traditional foreign sovereign immunity that can permit terrorism victims to pursue certain claims against foreign governments in U.S. courts. The legislation was widely understood as allowing 9/11 families to continue pursuing claims involving Saudi Arabia.
Newly disclosed evidence has further intensified the families’ demands. Records cited in recent reporting include a video allegedly showing Bayoumi filming and discussing landmarks around Washington, D.C., in 1999, as well as a drawing containing calculations related to flying an aircraft toward a ground target. The families contend the material supports their argument that Bayoumi’s activities were more significant than previously acknowledged.
Strada said Thursday that the accumulating evidence had strengthened her determination to continue the case. She said the effort has taken “way too long” but expressed confidence that the families could eventually obtain what she called a measure of justice.
Saudi Arabia continues to reject the allegations. The kingdom has emphasized its cooperation with the United States against al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations and maintains that Osama bin Laden deliberately recruited Saudi nationals partly to damage the U.S.-Saudi relationship. That dispute remains unresolved in court.
