'Shocked and deeply offended': 9/11 families condemn PGA deal with Saudi-backed golf group
The men's PGA agreed to merge with the LIV Golf tour in a huge announcement Tuesday – much to the chagrin of families of 9/11 victims that have spoken out against the Saudi-backed LIV group for months.
A statement posted by Semafor reporter Max Tani revealed the group is "shocked and deeply offended" by the merger. They explained that the LIV Golf league is "bankrolled by billions of sports washing money from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Saudi operatives played a role in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and now it is bankrolling all of professional golf."
"PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan co-opted the 9/11 community last year in the PGA's unequivocal agreement that the Saudi LIV project was nothing more than sportswashing of Saudi Arabia's reputation," said 9/11 Families United Chair Terry Strada.
"But now the PGA and Monahan appear to have become just more paid Saudi shills, taking billions of dollars to cleanse the Saudi reputation so that Americans and the world will forget how the Kingdom spent their billions of dollars before 9/11 to fund terrorism, spread their vitriolic hatred of Americans, and finance al Qaeda and the murder of our loved ones. Make no mistake — we will never forget."
Last summer, Monahan made it clear that he was standing in solidarity with those who lost loved ones on Sept. 11, the statement continued. He even "wondered aloud on national television whether LIV Golfers ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour. They do now — as does he. PGA Tour leaders should be ashamed of their hypocrisy and greed. Our entire 9/11 community has been betrayed by Commissioner Monahan and the PGA as it appears their concern for our loved ones was merely window-dressing in their quest for money — it was never to honor the great game of golf."
Last summer, the families also protested Donald Trump bringing the LIV tournament to his country club. Trump said he'd never heard of the 9/11 families and claimed that no one officially knows who was involved with the hijacking of the planes.
The 9/11 report from the Commission report revealed 16 pages that were declassified in 2021 by President Joe Biden, showing that the hijackers had ties to Saudi nationals living in the U.S.
"The document, written in 2016, summarized an FBI investigation into those ties called Operation ENCORE," said a 2021 NPR report. "The partially redacted report shows a closer relationship than had been previously known between two Saudis in particular — including one with diplomatic status — and some of the hijackers. Families of the 9/11 victims have long sought after the report, which painted a starkly different portrait than the one described by the 9/11 Commission Report in 2004."
"We have not found evidence that Thumairy provided assistance to the two hijackers," the Commission wrote about Saudi diplomat Fahad al-Thumairy. Ten years later, the FBI said that Thumairy "tasked" someone else to help the hijackers once they arrived in Los Angeles. About a year before the attacks, they were referred to as "two very significant people."