The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
For 9/11 families in the state, struggle for justice continues
Brett Eagleson can’t be exactly sure what his father was doing at the moment when the Twin Towers collapsed 18 years ago.
Bruce Eagleson, a Middlefield resident, is credited with rescuing 10 of his employees at the Westfield Shopping Center in the World Trade Center. He made it out and called his older son Kyle to tell him he was OK. But then, Bruce went back inside, the Eaglesons believe.
Bruce’s coworkers and family think the 53yearold returned to the World Trade Center to retrieve twoway radios to help New York firefighters communicate at ground zero.
“The last he was heard of was going up the stairs back to the 17th floor,” Brett Eagleson, 33, from Middletown, said Friday.
Now, the Eaglesons, like thousands of other families across the United States
“The last he was heard of was going up the stairs back to the 17th floor.” Brett Eagleson, 33, from Middletown, speaking of his father, Bruce
want to hold accountable the country they believe aided 19 alQaidaaffiliated hijackers who participated in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001: Saudi Arabia.
A controversial federal law allowed families of 9/11 victims to sue the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for damages in 2017. Roughly 3,000 people died in the 9/11 attacks. The families of nearly all the victims are participating in multiple lawsuits against Saudi Arabia, said Jim Kreindler, an attorney for the plaintiffs. More than 100 Connecticut families are believed to be participating, although an exact count is not available.
If they succeed, they could win billions of dollars in damages. But a decision appears a long way off.
These cases aren’t the only ways Connecticut first responders and families of 9/11 victims are still seeking recourse for their experiences at ground zero. Hundreds of Connecticut residents have also submitted financial claims to the U.S. Department of Justice to help their medical bills. Many more are expected to seek assistance in the future as illnesses like cancer and respiratory ailments increasingly plague 9/11 first responders.
A limited release
This year on Sept. 11, Brett Eagleson met with President Donald Trump in the Blue Room of the White House.
Eagleson and the families of other 9/11 victims told the president of their losses and their years of struggle
suing Saudi Arabia. Eagleson and others first attempted to sue the country in 2003, but a judge dismissed the case deciding he did not have jurisdiction over another sovereign nation.
But in 2016, Congress approved the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, which allows victims of terrorism and their families to pursue civil lawsuits against foreign states that aid and abet terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. The law was vetoed by President Barack Obama, who worried U.S. officials would face retaliation in courts by foreign governments. Congress overrode the president’s veto making the measure law and allowing families to sue.
Since 2017, the cases have been unfolding in federal court as the plaintiffs and their lawyers slowly gather evidence of what they believe are connections between highranking Saudi officials and the hijackers. Obtaining information from the Federal Bureau of Investigations and Department of Justice has been a significant challenge for the plaintiffs.
On Thursday, the FBI provided lawyers for the plaintiffs the name of a Saudi official the bureau has long shielded from the public. While it is a small step toward learning more about the Saudihijacker links, the plaintiffs and their lawyers are dismayed the name must be kept secret; it cannot even be revealed to the families of victims.
“We’re gratified to have that name. It is not a surprise to us. It is useful in moving the case forward. We are really angered and digusted with the protective orders that the FBI and Saudi Arabia have insisted on so we cannot share the information with the families,” Kreindler said Friday. “We’ll do what we can to get the protective order lifted.”
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, who has worked with the suing families for years, reacted to the news of the name’s concealment from the public with frustration.
“This very disappointingly limited release — long overdue — is only the beginning of disclosure that I have been demanding so 9/11 families can make their case against Saudi state terrorist enablers,” Blumenthal tweeted Thursday night.
On Friday, Blumenthal stood in Hartford with Eagleson and Dennis and Marty McGinley, brothers of 9/11 victim Danny McGinley, to call on the Trump administration to make more information available. The senator said he thinks it is “very likely” that Saudi Arabia aided the 9/11 terrorists.
“There is solid evidence that at least 3 Saudi Arabian agents or representatives aided and abetted the 9/11 attackers,” Blumenthal said. “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia should be brought to justice. It is essential that Congress now act that as matter of simple justice, so these families have their day in court.”
Eagleson said he expects to come to Washington, D.C. soon to speak to more lawmakers about the case.
“I want history to be written in the right way. The American public has been fed the narrative that it was 19 hijackers,” Eagleson said. “That’s just not true. These guys received help from senior levels of the Saudi government.”
In contrast, first responders who helped save lives and clean up the wreckage at ground zero won a major victory in July when Congress voted to permanently reauthorize the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund. The move ended years of uncertainty about the program, which was scheduled to sunset in 2020, ending survivors' rights to file and receive claims.
Reauthorization was strongly supported by Connecticut’s Congressional delegation because the state is home to many people who were exposed to the pile at ground zero.
Across the country, thousands of individuals have registered with the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, which reviews the claims and gives financial awards to people impacted by the plane crashes at the World Trade Center, Pentagon and in Pennsylvania so they can pay their health care bills.
Nearly 800 Connecticut residents have registered with the VCF from 2011, when the fund was reopened, to June 12, 2019, according to the latest data available from the Department of Justice. Of those, 378 were first responders, but others lived, worked or went to school near the World Trade Center, or assisted with the clean up of Ground Zero, DOJ data shows.
Almost 400 Connecticut residents submitted claims to the fund as of June. Only 154 of those people have received award decisions — two thirds of them first responders.
For Lieutenant James McNulty, a firefighter with the West Haven Fire Department who helped at Ground Zero on Tuesday, Sept. 11, and the two days following, the permanent authorization of the fund is a relief.
“I registered just in case,” McNulty said. “At the time we were down there, there was a lot of uncertainties of what was in the air and what were were breathing. There were no dust masks until late Wednesday.”
He now knows that if he falls ill in the future due to his exposure, his medical bills will be covered, he said.