At the annual 9/11 memorial service on Friday, which marked the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks, a widow of one of the victims directly addressed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, demanding justice for its purported role in the atrocities. Terry Strada, whose husband Tom Strada was killed in the attacks, spoke after reading the names of the victims.
"How can it be 25 years and still we have no justice for the role that Saudi Arabia played in your murder?" Strada asked, addressing the kingdom. She added that Saudi Arabia "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."
Strada also criticized successive U.S. administrations, stating, "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." Her remarks were met with cheers from some spectators at the memorial service.
The annual memorial service at Ground Zero honors the nearly 3,000 people killed in the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The hijackers were associated with al-Qaeda, an extremist group with ties that investigators have explored in relation to Saudi officials.
