More than 700 families of fallen 9/11 heroes are still fighting to hold Saudi Arabia accountable in a blockbuster lawsuit — and worry the two decade-old case could be hampered by terror mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed’s recent plea deal.
As word of Mohammed’s plea agreement spread from Guantánamo Bay Wednesday, roughly 150 relatives of those killed in the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks sat in a Manhattan courtroom for arguments over whether the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia should be on the hook in the $100 billion civil suit.
“Many of the families have expressed upset, distaste, and concern about the plea agreement,” said Jerry Goldman, lawyer for one of the lead plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit, which has lingered for some 20 years.
“They are concerned about not obtaining the evidence, they are concerned about the lack of transparency, and they are concerned about the results.”
The day-long hearing centered around a move by lawyers for Saudi Arabia to get the kingdom tossed from the case, arguing the country fought against terrorism rather than sponsored it.
Judge George B. Daniels didn’t issue a ruling once the hearing came to a close, leaving victims’ families in suspense.
The families’ long-running lawsuit, first filed in 2004, contends a group of religious extremists gained influence in Saudi Arabia’s government and provided aid to the hijackers.
In total, 2,977 civilians were murdered when the 19 al Qaeda terrorists — 15 of whom were Saudi citizens –hijacked four airliners and them crashed into World Trade Center’s Twin Towers, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
The terror group’s leader, Osama bin Laden, was a member of one of the kingdom’s wealthiest families, although the Saudis took away his citizenship as he became a vocal critic of both the US and his home country.
Over years of twists and turns, including an act of Congress making it easier for 9/11 victims’ families to sue countries accused of sponsoring terrorism, the case consolidated other suits and honed accusations that Saudi officials teamed up with the hijackers who came to the US in early 2000.
Suspected Saudi spy Omar al-Bayoumi even hosted a “welcome party” for two hijackers, had flight calculations that could be used to fly an aircraft into targets and, at one point, was seen in a chilling video “casing” the US Capitol building, according to court filings.
“In a nutshell, we believe that the evidence establishes a cell operating in Southern California providing material support to two of the hijackers, which helped to enable them to fulfill their mission of committing an act of mass murder, and that this cell was operating on behalf of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” Goldman told The Post Thursday.
Goldman represents Christine O’Neill, the widow of former FBI counterterrorism chief John P. O’Neill who died at the age of 49 helping others leave the south tower on 9/11, as well as thousands of co-plaintiffs.
Those grieving families hope that while Mohammed and two co-conspirators — Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi — will never go to trial, their alleged Saudi government sponsors will face justice in court, said Terry Strada, chair of 9/11 Families United.
“The Kingdom’s attorneys tried every way possible to persuade the court but only succeeded in satisfying their paymasters,” Strada said in a statement.
“The court must deny the motion to dismiss and move this trial forward.”
Goldman said the plea deals — which will allow Mohammed and the other two defendants to skirt the death penalty — could lead to less evidence coming out, assuming Saudi Arabia remains a defendant in the suit and it goes to trial.
The US government has not shared evidence in the criminal cases against the 9/11 plotters with the families’ lawyers, he said, though he stressed the lawsuit already has “an extremely strong, devastating case” against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
“I don’t know what I don’t have,” he said.
“I know that we have a lot, but I believe that there’s a lot that I don’t have.”