PGA Tour board member Jimmy Dunne has been slammed for his "tone deaf" defence of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf after claiming that the people he's dealing with "had nothing to do with" 9/11.
Dunne, the man who this week brokered a controversial deal between the PGA and LIV Golf, defended his decision by insisting that his new partners have no connection to the devastating attacks on the United States which took place on on September 11, 2001. "If someone can find someone that unequivocally was involved with it, I'll kill them myself," Dunne told Golf Channel.
His comments and the merger itself have been met with fury by those whose lives were ravaged by the act of terror, which Saudi-born Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for. An attorney representing cancer victims from the attacks - which Saudi Arabia denies any official involvement in - says that Dunne's defence is "an insult to the families of those who died on 9/11."
Dunne is an acclaimed investment banker who helped to co-found Sandler O'Neill and Partners, a company which was located on the 104th floor in the South Tower of the World Trade Center. On 9/11, he was attempting to qualify for the US Mid-Amateur golf tournament when 66 of his employees were killed along with nearly 3,000 others.
"Every day, the first thing that I think about is [9/11]; several times during the day, I think about it; and the last thing I think about at night is that," Dunne added on Thursday. "That has not changed since that day. And I'm not alone in that. I would guarantee that every one of those family members has that same condition. It is just a reality of how unbelievably sad and awful that day was.
"I understand that. And I am quite certain - and I have had conversations with a lot of very knowledgeable people - that the people I'm dealing with had nothing to do with it," he claimed.
"But the reality of it is, is that we need to come together as a people. We have too much divisiveness. And at some point in time - whether it's our view of the Japanese, or our view of the Germans - there is a point in time where you have to say, let's try to get to know one another. Let's try to understand, let's try to demonstrate by example."
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Attorney Michael Barasch, who represents 9/11 first responders and anyone suffering from the effects of the toxic dust which emerged from Ground Zero, told the Daily Mail in response: "It's really shocking that anyone, let alone someone who claims to think about his 9/11 colleagues every day, would put aside his moral compass and memories to help Saudi Arabia 'sportswash' their culpability for the murder of nearly 3,000 people on 9/11."
Barasch went on to say: "Mr. Dunne, breaking news. 16 of the 19 terrorists were Saudis. You must know this. Who do you think paid for the terrorists' travel, their room and board and their flight lessons? Your support for this merger is tone deaf and an insult to the families of those who died on 9/11."
