Mickelson misses point on 9/11 query
BROOKLINE, Mass. – Defiant and defensive, Phil Mickelson arrived at the U.S. Open Monday fresh off his first appearance in Saudi LIV Golf, a new, exhibition-style tour sponsored by the people behind the 2018 murder and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and the massive Saudi involvement in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Not surprisingly, Mickelson was met with several questions about his decision to go into business with and help burnish the reputation of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is bankrolling the controversial tour and sanctioned the killing of Khashoggi, according to human rights organizations and intelligence services.
Mickelson’s non-answer to one of those questions drew the ire Monday afternoon of a prominent September 11 survivors’ organization.
Several days ago, Mickelson and a few of the other big names who have left the PGA Tour for LIV Golf received a scathing letter from 9/11 Families United, a prominent survivors’ group, chastising the golfers for their sports-washing of the Saudis’ image and reputation, saying the golfers’ actions are “a betrayal not only of us, but of all your countrymen.”
When Mickelson failed to answer a question about how he would explain to the September 11 families why he has gone into business with the Saudis, the 9/11 group blasted Mickelson again.
“Phil knows exactly what he’s doing, and he and his fellow LIV golfers should be ashamed,” Terry Strada, national chair of 9/11 Families United, said in a statement to USA TODAY Sports in response to Mickelson’s remarks.
“They are helping the Saudi regime ‘sportswash’ their reputation in return for tens of millions of dollars, at the very same time our government is rolling out more damning evidence of Saudi culpability in the 9/11 attacks. As the PGA Tour commissioner said Sun-
day ‘you’d have to be living under a rock’ to not understand the implications of involving yourself with the Saudis.”
As first reported by the New York Post, Strada sent Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed and Kevin Na a letter Friday expressing the group’s outrage toward the golfers for participating in the new golf venture.
“As a 9/11 widow, I feel compelled to help you understand the level of depravity the Kingdom engaged in when it knowingly sent government agents here to establish the support network needed for those hijackers,” Strada wrote.
“As you may know, Osama bin Laden and 15 of the 19 September 11 hijackers were Saudis. It was the Saudis who cultivated and spread the evil, hate-filled Islamist ideology that inspired the violent jihadists to carry out the deadly 9/11 attacks. And, most egregiously, it is the Kingdom that has spent 20 years in denial: lying about their activities, and cowardly dodging the responsibility they bear. Yet these are your partners, and much to our disappointment, you appear pleased to be in business with them.
“Given Saudi Arabia’s role in the death of our loved ones and those injured on 9/11 – your fellow Americans – we are angered that you are so willing to help the Saudis cover up this history in their request for ‘respectability.’ When you partner with the Saudis, you become complicit with their whitewash, and help give them the reputational cover they so desperately crave – and are willing to pay handsomely to manufacture.
“The Saudis do not care about the deep-rooted sportsmanship of golf or its origins as a gentleman’s game built upon core values of mutual respect and personal integrity. They care about using professional golf to whitewash their reputation, and they are paying you to help them do it.”
I was the journalist who asked Mickelson the question about his response to the 9/11 families. He interrupted as I read a few passages from Strada’s statement.
“I’ve read all that,” he said. “Is there a question in there?”
My reply: “Yes, there is. How do you explain to them – not to us, but to them – what you have decided to do?”
“I would say to the Strada family, I would say to everyone that has lost loved ones, lost friends on 9/11, that I have deep, deep empathy for them. I can’t emphasize that enough. I have the deepest of sympathy and empathy for them.”
That was it. Those words, then nothing more, no attempt to explain himself or his decision. Just an uncomfortable answer to a question that was not asked, then silence.