New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
CT victim’s family decries secrecy in 9/11 documents
WETHERSFIELD — If Brett Eagleson’s dad died under any other circumstances, he would know by now, nearly 20 years later, who was responsible.
But the answer to that question still evades Eagleson, whose father, Bruce Eagleson, died in the Sept. 11 attacks. The younger Eagleson is among many family members of 9/11 victims upset that the U.S. government won’t release stillsecret information that they say could prove Saudi Arabia’s complicity.
“We have had meetings with former presidents. We have sent letters. We have questioned administration officials on the Hill,” he said, referring to the U.S. Capitol. “We have written thousands of letters, media appearances, everything.”
“There is no justifiable excuse as to why this information that is 20 years old still needs to remain classified.”
A long-running lawsuit brought by the families seeks to hold Saudi Arabia, a longtime U.S. ally, accountable for the attacks. The Saudi government has long denied any involvement.
As the nation approaches the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the families are ramping up pressure on the Biden Administration to release FBI documents. They are calling on the president, who made a campaign promise to release as much information as possible, to stay away from commemoration events next month unless he releases the materials.
Following the statement from the families earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a court filing that it was beginning a review of the documents to “identify additional information appropriate for disclosure.”
Eagleson, 35, stood Wednesday with his mom, Gail, and U.S. Sen Richard Blumenthal, a champion for their cause in Congress, in the parking lot of the 9/11 Sports Memorial Complex in Wethersfield. Their aim: to draw attention to the fact that previous administrations, both Democratic and Republican, have also promised to be more transparent.
“How are we standing here today, two weeks away from the 20th anniversary of 9/11, and me, my mom, and thousands of other Americans do not yet have closure because our government refuses to give us the information it has,” Eagleson said.
On Sept. 11, 2001, Bruce Eagleson, a vice president at the Westfield Group, was at a meeting on the 17th floor of 2 World Trade Center discussing the company’s plans to run retail operations there. His family, who was living in Middlefield at the time, said his oldest son talked to him after the first plane hit and urged him to leave.
Bruce Eagleson told his son he would get out but was first helping others evacuate.
The Saudi kingdom has long been suspected to be linked to the attacks but the U.S. government has argued it can’t release information from its investigation because it’s too sensitive to be published.
“Their struggle is not only against the Saudis to hold them accountable for their potential complicity in 9/11, but also against their own government, which has shrouded documents and evidence in secrecy and failed to provide any explanation or justification for continuing to refuse to uncover those documents,” Blumenthal said Wednesday.
Blumenthal was among the supporters of legislation in Congress to clear the way for the families to sue Saudi Arabi, and later voted to override President Barack Obama’s veto of the bill.