Boston Herald
(TNS)
BOSTON — 9/11 victims' family members just out of court in their lawsuit against Saudi Arabia are ripping the Biden administration’s decision to strike a plea deal with terror mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two accomplices.
“This is sh---y timing. It’s just another move to wrap up 9/11 and put it in a box and make it go away,” said Brett Eagleson, who was 15 years old when his dad, Bruce, died while working at the Twin Towers on 9/11.
Eagleson spoke to the Herald just after leaving a Manhattan federal court where the 9/11 loved ones faced off with Saudi officials Wednesday, declaring “it’s about time” for the truth to finally come out.
The lawyers representing thousands of families are fighting to keep the case going before a Manhattan judge. Their lawyers argued the 9/11 Commission did not know the level of detail they had uncovered.
“It’s about time to bring home the truth. Bring home disclosure,” said Eagleson right after court.
The judge in the federal case has taken the matter under advisement. He must decide if the case can move on to further discovery.
But less than an hour later, news broke that Mohammed and his fellow al-Qaida killers would escape the death penalty.
The Department of Defense announced late Wednesday that the U.S. has “entered into pretrial agreements with Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin ‘Attash, and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi, three of the co-accused in the 9/11 case.”
All three are expected to enter the pleas at the military commission at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as soon as next week, The Associated Press reported.
“This is a failure of justice,” said Debra Burlingame, whose brother was one of the pilots murdered on 9/11 — nearly 23 years ago. “The American people have a right to know how much this all cost. It’s in the billions. This trial. But it’s not about money, it’s about political injustice.”
The hijackers killed 2,976 people on Sept. 11, 2001 — including those on two jets that took off from Logan International Airport that sunny morning.
Burlingame’s brother Charles “Chic” Burlingame III was the pilot of American Airlines Flight 77 that was hijacked out of Washington Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Virginia, and flown into the Pentagon on 9/11.
Eagleson said the court hearing “was overwhelming, at times,” but the legal team representing 9/11 families still looking for their day in court had everyone “surging with pride.”
The 9/11 team obtained a video that allegedly shows a Saudi suspect “casing the Capitol” in the summer of 1999, pointing out where Congress sits. Eagleson also says a companion sketchbook painstakingly shows “an aviator’s algorithm on how to hit a target on the horizon when flying a plane.”
He credits British officials for obtaining both pieces of “incredible” evidence and retired FBI agents for assisting 9/11 families who refuse to give up on seeking justice after the ruthless jet attacks on New York City and the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
“This is all information our own government has denied us access to,” Eagleson said. “The 9/11 Commission did not have the luxury of knowing all of this.”
Still, going from elation in court to the shock of a plea deal after left him shaken.
“Why didn’t anyone talk to us about this first? It’s a crappy ending to a great day,” he added, saying the case is about all those who cannot defend themselves any longer: “The lawyers were arguing for my dad and for all the people who died."
The judge must decide whether this lawsuit against Saudi Arabia moves ahead or is forever thwarted.
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