'Every Tournament You're Going to Have to Deal With Us:' 9/11 Group Travels to Portland to Protest LIV Golf
NORTH PLAINS, Ore. – The 9/11 attacks were 20 years ago, and most American lives are no longer consumed with the day-to-day issues of accountability and justice for the enemy that attacked our country on that Tuesday.
But for Brett Eagleson, who lost his father in those attacks, each day is about accountability and justice.
And in Eagleson’s world, those responsible are the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and those who are in business with the kingdom are reprehensible for supporting the regime.
Eagleson, the president of a group called 9/11 Justice, headed a 10-person contingent of those who lost loved ones in the attacks to speak out against the Saudi funding of the LIV Golf event. The group gathered a couple of miles from Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club.
A few hours before the first round of the LIV Golf tournament at Pumpkin Ridge, members of the group 9/11 Justice held a press conference.
Alex Miceli/Morning Read
”Our message today is very clear. These golfers that are getting in bed with the Saudis, they should know what they're doing. Shame on them," Eagleson said in a press conference Thursday at the Veterans Memorial Park in North Plains. “And to the golfers that say it's just a game of golf, shame on them. I invite them to look at the pain in our eyes, hear our stories, and walk in our shoes.”
In recent press conferences, when players have been questioned about why they are taking money from Saudi Arabia to play in LIV Golf events, the answers have been well-scripted.
“I'm playing golf, this group has provided me an opportunity to play golf and have a different schedule, and that's my only concern,” said LIV Golf newcomer Pat Perez on Tuesday. “I understand the topics you're trying to bring up, and they're horrible events, but I'm here to play golf. That's my deal. I've got an opportunity to play golf, and that's it.”
None of the members of the 9/11 Justice group are willing to condone or sympathize with that position.
They are so passionate in their beliefs, they believe that if players would just listen to them, they would forgo the large LIV Golf paydays they have amassed.
In hopes of getting that point across, the group traveled to the players' hotel in Portland on Thursday morning to discuss their position with any player they could find. They were eventually stopped by security and turned away.
According to the group, the best-case scenario would be that the golfers recognize who they're doing business with.
“When some of these golfers dodge the questions, 'oh it's just golf,' if 'I'm doing it for my family,' or 'the money's too good.' I want them to realize what that means for us,” one member of Eagleson’s group said. “I want the golfers to acknowledge, listen, if Phil Mickelson stands up and says, 'I don't give a s--- about the families. I know what the Saudis did, and I'm taking the money,' just acknowledge it, be a man, step up, accept the truth of who you're getting in bed with.”
The original 9/11 Commission Report issued in July 2004 revealed that 15 of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, but found no evidence that the Saudi government or Saudi officials were involved in the attack.
The FBI also released a 9/11 document in September 2021, per executive order, that suggested contact between the hijackers and several Saudi officials, but drew no definitive conclusion of Saudi involvement.
The FBI is also working to release another tranche of 9/11 documents, but missed the initial deadline set by President Joe Biden’s executive order in March. Those documents likely will not be released until the second half of 2022.
“I invite everyone, every golfer that's contemplating (playing on the LIV Tour), come sit and meet with us. Let us walk you through the documents. Let us show you what our own FBI has said,” Eagleson said. “And if you still choose to make that decision, we can't stop you. But we want our truth to be out there.”
The group of 10 left Portland after the press conference, but they are already working toward their next public appearance at the next LIV Golf event at Trump Bedminster at the end of July in New Jersey, an area where most of the 9/11 survivors and families live.
“We are going to be in Bedminster,” Eagleson said. “And you know, I think one important message to these LIV golfers into the kingdom is that we're not going anywhere. Every tournament you're going to have to deal with us in bigger numbers. More stories from the families were going to be in your face. For every tournament that is on U.S. soil. This is an attack just like they attacked us on American soil.”