The chair of an organization that represents families of 9/11 victims wrote President Biden to express concerns about the administration’s efforts to engage Saudi Arabia over oil output.
Reports surfaced earlier this week that Biden’s advisors were considering a trip to Saudi Arabia to “convince the Kingdom to pump more oil.”
9/11 Families United chair Terry Strada sent the President a letter demanding he maintains focus on “accountability” for the terrorist attacks.
“We share Americans’ ‘pain at the pump,’ and we recognize there are a number of important issues between our two countries, but any dialogue must include our years-long quest for justice and accountability,” Strada, who lost her husband on 9/11 wrote on behalf of the group.
She added, “No reset of our nation’s relationship with Saudi Arabia can be successful without proper reconciliation for the attacks on September 11, 2001.”
EXCLUSIVE: The chair of one of the most prominent 9/11 family coalitions has written to Biden with concerns about possible renewed engagement with Saudi Arabia, calling on him to uphold his campaign pledge to make the Kingdom a “pariah.”https://t.co/5GBKtdjysi
— Axios (@axios) March 11, 2022
RELATED : Report: Saudi Arabian Leaders Deny President Biden Calls, But Accept Putin Calls
911 Families Contact Biden
Strada pointed to instances in which Biden had vowed to hold Saudi Arabia accountable and treat them as a “pariah.”
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“We were going to, in fact, make them pay the price, and make them, in fact, the pariah that they are,” he said at a Democrat debate in 2019.
At a CNN LGBTQ forum, Biden declared the government in Saudi Arabia has “very little social redeeming value.”
NBC’s @PeterAlexander: “The President, as a candidate, said in Nov. of 2019 of Saudi Arabia–he said we would ‘make them pay the price & make them, in effect, the pariah that they are. There is very little social redeeming value’…Does President Biden stand by those words[?]” pic.twitter.com/5fqZVGMzbV
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 7, 2022
This week, reports surfaced that talks to persuade Saudi Arabia to increase its oil production as American gas prices soared to unprecedented levels had failed.
Wall Street Journal reported that leaders in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other countries refused to receive calls from President Biden while receiving calls from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
However, the White House refuted these reports Thursday.
“That report is inaccurate, so let me start there,” press secretary Jen Psaki said during a White House press briefing.
“The president did speak with the Saudi king just a few weeks ago, several weeks ago, it’s all running together at this point in time,” she added. “There were no rebuffed calls, period.”
It is likely that 9/11 families won’t be pleased with the fact that Saudi Arabia called them.
WH Press Sec. Jen Psaki denies that the reports about Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman not answering President Biden’s call are true.
“There were no rebuffed calls, period.” pic.twitter.com/nxbW2oEbnK
— The Recount (@therecount) March 10, 2022
RELATED: Biden Responds After Hundreds Of 9/11 Victim Families Tell Him Not To Attend Memorial Events
Declassified Documents
Many relatives of victims asked President Biden to not attend any memorial services until documents related to terrorist attacks were declassified.
They argued at the time that the President ignored their requests for transparency on the matter and had not responded to them. This was something he promised as a presidential candidate.
“We cannot in good faith, and with veneration to those lost, sick, and injured, welcome the president to our hallowed grounds until he fulfills his commitment,” the group collectively wrote.
9/11 families ask Biden not to attend memorial events unless the administration declassifies documents regarding Saudi Arabia’s role in the deadly attacks. https://t.co/qFApch35vZ pic.twitter.com/Llf7zr3svm
— The Hill (@thehill) August 7, 2021
He is credited with some declassifications of these documents, which Terry Strada, 9/11 Families United Chair, notes as an example of how the President should be held accountable for Saudi Arabia.
Two hijackers were assisted by U.S. diplomats in Saudi Arabia. The new documents provided additional information.
“This new evidence is public because of your declassification order and it is now critical that you, as our President, insist that the Saudi Kingdom confront these issues honestly,” Strada writes.
The Justice Department this week, however, said they would miss President Biden’s deadline to review the FBI investigation of 9/11. After they have been reviewed, those documents will be made public and declassified.
The DOJ acknowledged on March 10 that it would miss a deadline set by President Joe Biden’s executive order to review and release documents from the FBI investigation of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, which killed nearly 3,000 people https://t.co/NNhUUwA0Bo pic.twitter.com/9acjAaXvyp
— Reuters Legal (@ReutersLegal) March 11, 2022
Instead of unleashing American energy, the Biden administration is now turning to “Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Venezuela” to ease domestic energy prices.
It’s disgraceful, especially in light of how each of those countries has harbored and supported terrorists – in the case of Saudia Arabia, aiding and abetting the worst-ever terror attack on American soil.
“The failure to hold the Kingdom to account for aiding and abetting al-Qaeda and the 9/11 hijackers is the original sin in the U.S.-Saudi relationship and the source of the American people’s hostility to that nation,” Strada continues.
“The American people know the Kingdom has moral and legal culpability for 9/11 and that Saudi wrongdoers have never been held to account.”
The Biden administration now wants to reward them with the purchase of Saudi oil.
Jennifer Granholm, Energy Secretary has made a shift in calling for domestic oil producers’ to improve their game.
🚨Biden admin reverse ferret🚨
Jennifer Granholm is the US energy sec for Houston, and she addresses today’s American oil industry.
“We are on a war footing. We are in an emergency… That means you producing more right now, where and if you can.”
— Derek Brower (@derek_brower) March 9, 2022
“We are on war footing,” Granholm said in a speech to executives at the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston, according to Bloomberg News.
“That means [crude oil]There are many releases of strategic reserves around the world. And that means you producing more right now if and when you can,” she continued.
“I hope your investors are saying this to you as well. In this moment of crisis, we need more supply.”
Biden would reduce America’s dependence on countries such as Saudi Arabia by increasing oil production. This would also meet the demand of those whose loved ones were killed in 9/11.
They will they follow through?