(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Cloaking September 11th Commemoration in God, Flag Deflects from Finding Truth, Justice, Accountability [1] ['Blue Boomer', 'Chitown Kev', 'Chloris Creator'] Date: 2026-09-13 By Karen Rubin, editor@news-photos-features.com, news-photos-features.com September 11, 2001 always raises anger as much as horror in me. September 11, 2001 was the greatest failure of any American administration in history – in intelligence, in leadership, in protecting lives – but very possibly a purposeful failure in order to bolster George W. Bush as a War President and advance the goals of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), a Washington, D.C., neoconservative think tank active from 1997 to 2006 that pushed for aggressive U.S. global leadership and military preeminence. One of the elements of that project was that the president would need something like a Pearl Harbor to rally the country and exert unfettered power. But, to disguise and deflect from the failure that allowed September 11 to unfold at such a tragic scale (four hijacked planes flying around for hours without any attempt to intercept), it was immediately wrapped in victimhood, patriotism, heroism. God and the flag that demand unchallenged obedience. And each year, there is this woefully sad, sacred ceremony of reciting the nearly 3000 names of those who died in the World Trade Towers, in airplanes, on the ground with an added moment of silence for thousands more who have since died of 9/11-related illness. We don’t hold such a ceremony for the 4,000 people each year who are killed in senseless gun violence. Or the 4,400 American soldiers who died in the war of choice in Iraq, based on lies that Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11 and possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction he was preparing to use on America (when really it was an opportunity to depose Saddam and seize Iraq’s oil). The ceremony disguises the ineptitude and corruption – and the scariest thing is that we are again in a war of choice, based on lies, based on ineptitude and corruption and ambition (The Strait of Trump?). Recall that US intelligence had prior warning of the September 11 terror attack, which was ignored or simply mislaid (the Bush administration had fired Arabic translators because they were gay). Four hijacked planes were flying around in the sky for hours without any effort whatsoever to intercept – passengers had time to call their families; the passengers on Flight 93 even wrestled the hijackers and crashed the plane before it hit its intended target, very possibly the Capitol Building or White House. “My son PV2 Isaac T. Cortes KIA 11/27/07 Iraq gave his life for your freedom.” 4,492 American service members, as many as 500,000 Iraqis died in Iraqi Freedom. Why did George W. Bush attack Iraq and protect and capitulate to Saudi Arabia when the ties of Saudi Arabia to 9/11 were already clear? © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com How many of the 343 firefighters and first responders who died running up the towers to rescue people would have been saved had inadequate radio communications not severely hindered the response and prevented evacuation orders from reaching many firefighters? Thousands – including 400 firefighters – have suffered and prematurely died of illnesses because the Bush and Guiliani administrations deceived the rescuers, workers, residents, school children about air quality, encouraging people to go back to work, their homes, their schools in order to “return to normalcy” (much as Trump did during the coronavirus epidemic, lying to Americans about the dangers in order to get the economy back on track (so he could win reelection in 2020). And yet it wasn’t normal – the Bush Administration took advantage of 9/11 to impose FISA and a surveillance state (they could investigate your library book borrowing and not allow you to know about it); justify torture and endless incarceration without trial at Guantanamo. They invented the concept of an “enemy combatant” to evade Constitutional protections, laws and the Geneva Convention. (“The President would never torture anyone,” Bush’s Solicitor General told the Supreme Court. “Water boarding is not torture.” John Yoo, Deputy Attorney General, came up with the “torture memos” that argued severe physical pain during interrogations had to be equivalent in intensity to organ failure or death to legally count as torture. (Similar reasoning to withholding reproductive health care to a woman until she is on the brink of death or already dead.) George W. Bush, whose presidency was initially bolstered (he was reelected in 2002 after being regarded as illegitimately “selected” by the Scalia Supreme Court which ended the recount in Florida that would have shown Al Gore won the state and the Electoral College and should have been president) then ultimately undone by the Iraq War (but more because of his human-caused economic collapse of 2008 with the housing crash due to his “deregulation” of financial instruments like credit-default swaps and subprime mortgages), held a “remembrance” of 9/11 (he was reading a book to 2nd graders when notice of an airplane crashing into the World Trade Center was whispered into his ear), but I doubt he will express any doubts about what led up to it. The Bush administration dismissed the September 11th terror attacks as a “failure of imagination” that a group of Saudis would learn how to fly, but not land, commercial airplanes and crash them into the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Yet just months before, the Clinton administration successfully intercepted and disrupted, “The Millenium Plot,” a series of major al-Qaeda terrorist operations planned around the turn of the new millennium including preventing an attack on a major aviation hub. And Tom Clancy’s 1994 techno-thriller novel Debt of Honor concluded with a commercial airliner being used as a suicide weapon against a major U.S. government building. What is more, had the Scalia Supreme Court not defied the Constitution and handed the presidency to George W. Bush, Al Gore, who was intimately aware of Osama bin Ladin and Al Qaeda (the Clinton Administration had just had to deal with the Cole bombing, in October 2020), would have already been in pursuit of bin Ladin, would have had a robust intelligence network well aware and ready to act. So failure, but not of imagination, especially by the government “experts” who should know better. So the question is why. But we are not allowed to think of how avoidable these horrific tragedies – 9/11, Oct. 7 – were with leadership more focused on advancing their agenda, increasing their hold on power than protecting its citizens. But it seems to be more insidious. By elevating these 9/11 commemorations to a religious, even sacred, ceremony, no one dare challenge or raise questions. Reaction from Presidents Biden, Bush, former Mayor Mike Bloomberg, VP J.D. Vance, Governor Hochul, Trump Commerce Secretary and former Cantor & Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick and former Governor Pataki to Terry Strada’s call for the Trump Administration to release documents and support the 9/11 Families suit seeking to hold Saudi Arabia to account © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com And yet, during this 25th anniversary commemoration, with Vice President J.D. Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick sitting there (he was CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, which lost 658 of its 960 employees, and lost his brother on 9/11, Terry Strada, who lost her husband, Tom Strada, a partner at Cantor Fitzgerald, on that day, dared to break with protocol (“No political speeches!”) and called on the Trump administration Friday to recognize Saudi Arabia’s “alleged” ties to the terrorist attack. “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,” said Strada, who chairs the advocacy organization 9/11 Families United. She called on Trump to “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 all been suffering through,” Strada said. “How can it be, 25 years, and still we have no justice for the role Saudi Arabia played in your murder?” Strada asked as many attendees applauded in approval. She thanked Vance for attending the event and urged him to “carry that message back” to the president, who spoke at a 9/11 memorial service Friday at the Pentagon. (Trump declined to attend the World Trade Center event because he was prohibited from giving a speech, so sent Vance instead.) Her remarks drew loud applause from the 9/11 families – despite being told by organizers to avoid political speech. But others also took the occasion to call for truth and justice, and holding accountable “the planners and the plotters.” Later, speaking to the press, she said “They withheld evidence. They vetoed JASTA [Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act]. They broke promises, both public and private. It has been one betrayal after another.” Strada criticized Bush for deleting 28-pages from the bipartisan 9/11 commission report, and for administrations suppressing evidence and documents; FBI Director Robert Mueller buried evidence collected from a raid by British police 10 days after the attacks on Omar al-Bayoumi’s residence in England that pointed to his likely involvement in the attacks, and refused to extradite him from Britain, as the British authorities wanted. In 2012, the FBI stated that it had evidence that Saudi diplomat Fahad al-Thumairy, a Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs official and radical cleric who served at the King Fahd Mosque in Los Angeles, and Omar al-Bayomi, a suspected Saudi government agent (spy), had supported the 9/11 hijackers. In 2021, the FBI acknowledged that Omar al-Bayoumi was a Saudi intelligence agent with ties to 9/11 hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar and when they first came to the United States She added that Lutnick, who she knows well, gave her a high-five for her remarks. (You can find a 2 ½ minute video showing connections of 9/11 to Saudi Arabia at the site, https://911familiesunited.org/) President Bush, Vice President J.D. Vance and Commerce Secretary and former CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald Howard Lutnick at 25th anniversary of September 11th attacks. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com What few dare is to question why George W. Bush, who was reading to second graders when his Chief of Staff whispered in his ear that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center, hastened prominent Saudis away – including members of Osama bin Ladin’s family – in secret flights when all other air traffic was grounded. With 15 of the 19 hijackers and Osama bin Ladin from Saudi Arabia, why did Bush, his FBI and CIA either ignore or suppress evidence of complicity and then unleash a war on Iraq? “It makes no sense to me,” Strada said. Bush’s interest in shielding and protecting Saudi Arabia might be explained by the decades-long and strong financial, political and personal ties between the Bush family and the Saudi royal family and wealthy Saudi elites – over $1 billion worth through entities like Harken Group and Carlyle Group, both heavily involved in oil (reminiscent now of Trump Family and Saudi Arabia). But Bush-Cheney went further. They had to blame someone if not Saudi Arabia, so the biggest question is why Bush then chose to unleash a “forever” war on Iraq, based on lies that Saddam Hussein was connected to 9/11 and had weapons of mass destruction and hid the fact Hussein basically pleaded with the US to send inspectors in order to avert Bush’s invasion, but Bush went ahead with the “Shock and Awe” assault in March, 2003. The Iraq War lasted for nearly nine years from March 2003 to December 2011, caused hundreds of thousands of deaths, and cost the United States over $2 trillion. The death toll: 4,492 American service members; 3,400 US contractors; 200,000 Iraqi civilians as a result of US offensives, with another 300,000 Iraqis dying from inadequate medical care, disease, lack of clean water. What also is curious is that in August 2003, Bush actually pulled out US military and shut down bases in Saudi Arabia – just as Osama bin Ladin wanted because of their proximity to Islam’s holiest sites (which would have been nice to have during the Iraq and Afghanistan War). Among the dignitaries paying respects on the 25th anniversary of September 11th, Senator Charles Schumer, Secretary Hillary Clinton, Firt Lady Michelle Obama, President Barack Obama, President Joe Biden, President George W. Bush, Mayor Mike Bloomberg, and Vice President J.D. Vance © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com For years, the families of 9/11 victims have pressed a multi-billion dollar lawsuit against Saudi Arabia, as detailed by The Guardian, demanding full accountability and the release of withheld U.S. government documents. As the case advances, 9/11 Families United is again urging the FBI to end its entrenched pattern of obstruction and produce all information in its possession relevant to the Attacks and for Congress to pass the Ensuring Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act (EJVTA). EJVTA would make technical corrections to the 2016 Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) to clarify aiding-and-abetting liability and help victims collect judgments from foreign state sponsors of terrorism. It would strengthen the rights of Americans harmed by terrorism to hold foreign governments fully accountable. S.2082 on June 21, 2023, and in the House as H.R.4951 on July 26, 2023, and sits in House and Senate Judiciary committees. 9/11 Families United was heartened by an August 2025 court decision that Strada at the time called “another powerful step toward justice”, a federal judge in New York rejected a Saudi effort to dismiss the plaintiffs’ claims against the kingdom. Judge George B Daniels, wrote in a legal opinion that an imam and an accountant’s employment by Saudi Arabia probably had links to their support of two al-Qaida members who came to the US in early 2000 to study English and take flight lessons. In his opinion, Daniels said that made the plaintiffs’ claims legally sufficient to proceed to trial, though it has not yet happened. Daniels concluded that “the total evidence creates a high probability as to Bayoumi’s and Thumairy’s roles in the hijackers’ plans, and the related role of their employer, KSA.” “For nearly a quarter-century, the 9/11 families have sought accountability for the support and resources that helped make the attacks possible,” Strada stated. “Judge Daniels’ ruling makes clear that Saudi Arabia cannot escape responsibility through procedural maneuvers. We are prepared to move forward and present the full scope of evidence in court, so that the truth is undeniable and justice is finally delivered.” This ruling builds on years of investigation, legal arguments, and the passage of JASTA, which empowered victims of terrorism to hold foreign governments accountable when they knowingly or recklessly provide support to terrorist acts. An inter-agency honor guard made up of individuals representing the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY), the New York City Police Department (NYPD), and the Port Authority Police Department. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com The nephew of 9/11 victim Lisa Marie Terry called on Trump to make documents public that he alleged would prove the country’s ties to these attacks. “For 25 years, the Deep State has hidden the truth about what happened that day 25 years ago,” he said. “President Trump, you’re our last hope. Release the unredacted files that implicate Saudi Arabia while what’s left of the victims’ families are still alive to see it.” On Friday, September 11, 2026, the CIA declassified and released 71 intelligence reports and Presidential Daily Briefs, from 1998 to Sept. 12, 2001, that showed that the United States did in fact have prior warning of the September 11th attacks. (Indeed, the Cole bombing in October 2000 that the government connected to Osama bin Ladin should have put them on high alert.) Also, President Joe Biden had issued an Executive Order around the 20th anniversary in 2021 to declassify documents related to the investigation (such as Operation Encore files concerning potential Saudi logistical support). Honoring those who were lost at the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com But each September 11, no one dares reflect or raise questions about the failures, perhaps deliberate, to achieve that bigger objective of control. “Justice demands more than promises,” Strada added. “It requires transparency from our own government, accountability from those who aided the hijackers, and action from Congress. Our community will not stop until every fact is brought to light and every path to justice is secured.” And on the 25th anniversary of 9/11, she said that without truth, justice and accountability, we will not be able to protect ourselves from the “plotters and the perpetrators.” ______________________________ © 2026 News & Photo Features Syndicate, a division of Workstyles,Inc. All rights reserved. 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