The 9/11 families are closer to the truth than ever before.
A federal judge in Manhattan is expected to rule anytime now on Saudi Arabia’s appeal to toss a lawsuit against the Kingdom, but if this landmark case goes forward, long-buried secrets of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks will be exposed.
“This is the closest thing you’re going to get to a smoking gun,” said Brett Eagleson, who was 15 years old when his dad, Bruce, died while working at the Twin Towers on 9/11. “The public needs to see this.”
Eagleson tells the Herald that lawyers have obtained a video that allegedly shows a Saudi suspect “casing the Capitol” in the summer of 1999, pointing out where Congress sits. Eagleson also says a companion sketchbook painstakingly shows “an aviator’s algorithm on how to hit a target on the horizon when flying a plane.”
He credits British officials for obtaining both pieces of “incredible” evidence and retired FBI agents for assisting 9/11 families who refuse to give up on seeking justice nearly 23 years after the ruthless kamikaze jet attacks on New York City, the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pa.
Federal Judge George Daniels of the Southern District of New York now holds the key to this case. The judge must decide whether this lawsuit against Saudi Arabia moves ahead or is forever thwarted.
“If we lose, it’s a dagger,” Eagleson told the Herald Friday night after putting his kids to bed, adding, “But what more do you need?”
The Saudi government’s latest appeal states no government officials “senior or otherwise — gave any ‘direction’ to Omar Al Bayoumi or Fahad Al Thumairy to ‘assist’ … 9/11 hijackers.” Any contact, the Saudis add, was “innocent motives … to help fellow Saudis” new to San Diego.
Those Saudis, Nawaf Al Hazmi and Khalid Al Mihdhar, were the first 9/11 hijackers to set up shop in America after landing in Los Angeles, according to multiple reports. Bayoumi and Thumairy, both Saudi officials, are accused of assisting them, court documents allege.
That is the crux of this case — with this final showdown decades in the making with a focus on the former Southern California al Qaeda cell, as the Herald has reported.
If the judge allows the case to proceed, the 9/11 families — 10,000 plaintiffs-strong who lost loved ones in the 9/11 attacks and those still dying from cancer from working on the pile — will be able to expand discovery.
That means al Qaeda cells in Boston, Portland, Maine, Phoenix, Florida and New Jersey can also be investigated fully with this new knowledge. And, according to one Florida blogger who has also followed this case closely, it could force Saudi Arabia to settle out of court — and issue an apology.
The first two 9/11 hijackers in the U.S. — Hazmi and Mihdhar — arrived in Los Angeles on Jan. 15, 2000, without being able to speak English. Yet, records show, they made it to San Diego where they took flying lessons — and flunked out — rented an apartment, and attended a mosque.
Retired FBI special agent Stephen Moore wrote in a court deposition supporting the lawsuit that he “believed” both Bayoumi and Thumairy “were active participants in a terror cell associated with al Qaeda that provided substantial financial and logistical support to” the two hijackers.
Those Saudis plowed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. All 64 people aboard, including five hijackers, were killed. Another 125 victims on the ground also died.
Of all the 19 hijackers, 15 of them were citizens of Saudi Arabia. They were all affiliated with al Qaeda and hijacked four jets, killing nearly 3,000 people.
American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 — both out of Logan International Airport in Boston — slammed into the north and south towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan 18 minutes apart beginning at 8:45 a.m. on 9/11.
United Flight 93 crashed last in Shanksville, Pa., at 10:03 a.m. after heroic passengers rushed the cabin and took control, crashing the jet. Forty passengers and crew perished.
That’s the jet Eagleson says was destined for Washington, D.C.
“Our government, our Capitol could have been destroyed if it weren’t for the 9/11 heroes of Flight 93,” the Connecticut dad said. “It’s just incredible to me that every member of Congress isn’t on our side and fighting for closure.”
Eagleson added the “secrets of 9/11” can’t remain buried.
“It’s infuriating this was kept under lock and key,” he added, saying the British were on their toes in the days after 9/11 when they raided Bayoumi’s apartment in Birmingham, England.
No matter what happens, Eagleson stressed, “The public needs to see this video.
