Families Seek Saudi September 11 Records As Trump Promises Review
Meta-Betrachtung - keine externe Fachquelle; Grundlage: Theguardian (2026-09-15). #MetaEconPol
A Folder No One Has Opened
A manila folder costs a few cents and weighs almost nothing. It can still hold the difference between what a state knows and what its citizens are permitted to read. That is what a group of families is now asking for: the declassification and release of records that could shed light on Saudi Arabia’s alleged role in the attacks of September 11, 2001.
Donald Trump said on Sunday that he will look into those requests. He spoke while travelling in Ireland, just before boarding Air Force One to return to Washington after a weekend there. “I’m going to look at it when I get back,” he said, adding that he knew the families had asked him on Friday.
The wording carries its own weight. A promise to examine a request is not an order to release a document, and nothing in the remarks set a deadline, a scope or a review process. As things stand, the files the relatives want are still not public, and the relatives are still waiting.
Saudi Citizens Among The Hijackers
The families’ allegation is narrow and it is old. Several of them have long claimed that a group of extremist religious leaders in Saudi Arabia gained influence inside the kingdom’s government and aided the hijackers who flew the planes.
The arithmetic behind the suspicion is public. Fifteen of the nineteen hijackers were Saudis, and the Saudi government has long denied any involvement in the attacks. Two positions have now stood side by side for a quarter of a century, and the documents that could test them are precisely the ones under seal.
What is alleged and what is documented are not the same thing, and that gap is what the legal fight has been about. The relatives have waged a lengthy court battle against the Saudis rather than relying on statements alone. For the families, disclosure is the objective; for the Saudi side, the denial is the position. Each party has an interest in which pages surface, and each knows that a release of records would settle nothing by itself.
Names Read Aloud, Then Sealed
On Friday, at a remembrance in New York City, Terry Strada stood among the family members who read aloud the names of the victims, marking the anniversary of the attacks. She lost her husband, Tom, that day. She used the moment to call on Trump to “tell the Saudis to stop lying.”
Strada said US presidents had chosen “to protect the Saudis instead of standing with the 9/11 families.” She described the record as “one betrayal after another,” and said the current administration should “stand with the families, stand with the survivors.” Her last line left the decision open rather than closed: “President Trump can still change that.”