When then-U.S. President Joe Biden visited Saudi Arabia in July 2022, hoping to “reset” relations with the kingdom and its rulers, commentators condemned the trip itself as “an act of weakness,” “political cowardice,” and a “capitulation” to a murderous autocrat in the wake of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s killing and dismemberment four years earlier, and the September 11 terrorist attacks before that.
Fifteen of the 19 Al Qaeda operatives who carried out the attacks were Saudis, and although the Saudi Arabian government has long denied any direct role in 9/11, some evidence suggests that Saudi Arabia was not only the primary source of funding for the attackers, but that the Saudi regime knew about the plot that killed more than 3,000 people and did nothing to stop it.
