9/11 victims’ families slam Biden, Trump for silence after new video shows Saudi spy filming US Capitol

Families of 9/11 victims criticized President Biden and former President Trump on Tuesday for failing to end “this national nightmare” and for failing to blame the Saudis for their alleged involvement in the terrorist attacks.

Grieving relatives, who are part of the 9/11 Justice organization, criticized Biden and his Republican rival for not mentioning during their debate last week the existence of chilling new footage showing a suspected Saudi spy filming American monuments as the attacks were being planned.

“We’re not looking to be coddled or comforted anymore. We’re here, angry,” Brett Eagleson, president of 9/11 Justice, said at a news conference in Lower Manhattan.

“Twenty-three years later, our government has still failed to bring us accountability, closure and justice. Our government has failed to be firm with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”

The video in question, dating from 1999 and only made public last month, shows Omar al-Bayoumi, a Saudi intelligence agent accused of having close ties to two of the 9/11 hijackers, giving tours of Washington, D.C., landmarks, including the U.S. Capitol and the Washington Monument.

The video, aired on CBS’s “60 Minutes” and later released in federal court, was shot months before al-Qaeda leaders decided which targets to strike in terrorist attacks.

While the U.S. government maintains that al-Qaeda acted alone on September 11, victims’ families say the images prove the terrorist group received help, particularly from the Saudis.

“There was a debate, if you want to call it a debate, less than a week ago where both presidential candidates were aware of this video and neither of them had the courage to stand with the families of the victims of 9/11 and address this issue,” Eagleson said.

“There is no political issue in America today that members of the left and right can agree on except this one. It is unconscionable that both candidates for president of the United States refuse to address this issue – they would rather bury their heads in the sand than stand up and stand with the members of the 9/11 family,” he continued.

“It’s been 23 years and we’re no longer looking for words of comfort. We’re looking for justice and a champion who will put America first. We’ve had enough.”

Retired FBI agent Richard Lambert, who is now a consultant in a lawsuit filed by the families of 9/11 victims seeking to hold the Saudis responsible for the terrorist attack, has previously said the images could have helped al-Qaeda decide on some of its targets.

Investigators have long believed that United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in a Pennsylvania field, was meant to crash into the U.S. Capitol before passengers rioted against the hijackers.

While both the Saudi government and al-Bayoumi have claimed the video was just a tourist video, families of 9/11 victims insist it is the “irrefutable evidence” needed to hold the kingdom accountable.

“We call on our president, former President Donald Trump, and all of our leaders and representatives in Washington to come together, do something, and finally end this cat-and-mouse game,” said Dennis McGinley, whose brother Danny was killed when the Twin Towers collapsed.

“This national nightmare that we have been living for 23 years, let’s put it in place, we have lived through enough.”

McGinley recalls the day his brother, a 40-year-old married trader with five children under the age of 10, was on the 89th floor of the South Tower when the attackers struck, sending planes into the North and South towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan and causing them to collapse, killing most of the 3,000 people lost that day.

“I called him, got him on the phone and said, ‘What happened? I hear a Cessna crash into the building,'” McGinley said.

“He said, ‘No, it was a jetliner, this is not my building, I’m safe. But the poor people next door…’ And he broke down in tears when he saw what was happening next door. He was praying for them.

“I said, ‘Why don’t you get out of there?’ and he said, ‘No, they told us our building was safe and we had to stay.’ Moments later, the second plane crashed. I never spoke to him again and we never found him again,” McGinley said.