Politics
VIDEO: 9/11 Widow Goes Rogue, Calls Out Radical Islamists During Ground Zero Ceremony
A 9/11 widow delivered one of the most pointed moments of Friday’s 25th anniversary ceremony at Ground Zero, publicly demanding accountability over Saudi Arabia’s alleged connections to the terrorists behind the attacks.
Terry Strada, whose husband, Tom Strada, was killed in the North Tower of the World Trade Center, used her time at the memorial to directly challenge Saudi Arabia and decades of U.S. leadership over what she said remains unfinished business from Sept. 11, 2001.
After reading her husband’s name, Strada asked: “How can it be 25 years and still we have no justice for the role that Saudi Arabia played in your murder?”
Tom Strada was among 658 Cantor Fitzgerald employees killed after American Airlines Flight 11 slammed into the North Tower.
Terry Strada, who serves as national chair of 9/11 Families United for Justice, accused Saudi Arabia of helping create an environment that fueled Islamist extremism and alleged that Saudi-linked figures assisted the hijackers.
“fomented a rancid culture of anti-American terrorism around the globe and then sent its agents to support radical Islamist hijackers so they could attack you and all of our loved ones.”
Fifteen of the 19 hijackers who carried out the attacks were Saudi nationals, according to the FBI and the 9/11 Commission.
Strada then turned her criticism toward American leaders who have dealt with the kingdom in the years since the attacks.
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
“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 continued as members of the crowd cheered.
Former Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden were among those attending the ceremony. They showed no visible reaction to her comments.
Strada continued: “They broke promises, both public and private. It has been one betrayal after another,”
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She then addressed Vice President JD Vance, who attended the Ground Zero ceremony on behalf of the Trump administration.
“Tell the Saudis to stop lying. Tell them that if they want to be friends with the USA, they cannot continue to deny all of this, all of the pain, all of the destruction that we have been suffering through.
“Vice President Vance, thank you for being here today,” she concluded. “Please carry that message back. Stand with the families. Stand with survivors. Stand with Americans. As my husband Tom would have said, that is always the right thing to do.”
Strada’s organization has spent years pursuing legal action seeking to hold Saudi Arabia responsible for alleged assistance connected to the attacks, which killed 2,977 victims in New York, at the Pentagon and near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
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The Saudi government has repeatedly denied any role in planning or supporting the attacks.
The legal fight is expected to return to a federal appeals court in Manhattan next month, with arguments focusing in part on Omar al-Bayoumi, a Saudi national who encountered future hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar after they arrived in California.
Al-Bayoumi helped the men settle in the San Diego area, according to the 9/11 Commission. He left the United States for the United Kingdom roughly a year before the attacks.
British authorities later detained and questioned him at the request of the United States, but he was never charged.
Families of 9/11 victims have pointed to additional evidence surrounding al-Bayoumi, including a 1999 video that was unsealed by a court in 2024.
The footage showed him recording the U.S. Capitol and discussing a “plan.” Attorneys representing the families have argued that the footage showed him conducting surveillance of the building.
The 9/11 Commission concluded that the Capitol was one of the possible intended targets of United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers fought back against the hijackers.
Another video from February 2000 showed a gathering al-Bayoumi hosted for al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar shortly after the two future hijackers arrived in San Diego.
Twenty-five years after the attacks, Strada made clear from Ground Zero that some victims’ families still believe critical questions surrounding Saudi-linked individuals have not been resolved.
Her message Friday was aimed not only at Riyadh, but at the American officials standing before her: the families are still demanding answers.
