President Biden will be in Alaska on Sept. 11, thereby becoming the first sitting president to skip out on one of the traditional 9/11 memorial services that are held each year in New York City, Virginia or Pennsylvania.
According to the White House website, Biden will travel to Vietnam on Sept. 10 to discuss ways to promote technology, education exchanges, job training, climate change initiatives and greater peace in the region.
On Sept. 11, the day Americans solemnly recall and pray for those lost 22 years ago, Biden will participate in a smaller ceremony with members of the military at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, while Vice President Kamala Harris attends a large memorial in New York, and Jill Biden lays a wreath at the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial.
In 2021, 9/11 Justice members sent a letter to Biden that was signed by 1,800 survivors of 9/11 victims. It asked Biden to skip the traditional ceremonies unless he ordered the release of documents that might shed light on the Saudi government’s ties to 9/11 terrorists.
The White House announcement offered no explanation as to why the president chose to forgo participating in the most prominent ceremonies that mark the worst terrorist attack on American soil and the loss of nearly 3,000 lives.
Earlier this month, however, more than 2,000 family members of those who died in the attacks signed a letter to the president, protesting news of a possible plea deal between the U.S. and five suspected 9/11 masterminds who are being detained at Guantanamo Bay.
According to an Aug. 22 report from Politico, news of the possible plea agreement has frustrated the victim’s families, who are also angry that the U.S. government has continued to withhold information which they believe shows the Saudi government’s links to the attackers.
Victims’ families are most concerned that a plea deal will give infamous purported masterminds, like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a way to avoid ever having to go to trial.
“We cannot have the greatest terrorist attack in the history of this country fade away with plea deals for the last remaining prisoners in Guantanamo,” Politico quoted Brett Eagleson, who leads the 9/11 Justice advocacy group. “America deserves a trial. We deserve to know what they have to say, and we deserve the truth.”
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In 2021, 9/11 Justice members sent a letter to Biden that was signed by 1,800 survivors of 9/11 victims. The letter asked Biden to skip the traditional ceremonies unless he ordered the release of documents that might shed light on the Saudi government’s ties to 9/11 terrorists.
In 2021, Biden did order the FBI, CIA and Justice Department to release formerly classified documents, but only about 900 pages have been made public so far.
“After more than two decades of our search for truth and accountability, we find ourselves again, inexplicably, thwarted by our own government,” the families wrote earlier this month in regard to their ongoing mission to obtain the information Biden told his government agencies to declassify in 2021.
