In New York on September 11, 2026, a woman walked up to the podium at the ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the attacks. A solemn row of former presidents stood nearby: George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden. Terry Strada, president of the 9/11 Families United advocacy group representing families of the victims, looked straight ahead, her throat tight for a moment. "We finally made it into a court and (...) proved that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia fomented a rancid culture of anti-American terrorism," she said. "But, for 25 years, administration after administration, including leaders in front of us here today, chose to protect the Saudis." Some VIPs stiffened. The crowd applauded.

To understand Strada's deep-seated anger, it's necessary to look at the lawsuit brought by the victims of 9/11, which is still ongoing in a Manhattan courthouse. To date, 12,000 legal filings have been recorded in the case. The timeline of the documents reveals the delays and obstacles facing the plaintiffs. It has taken two decades to gradually force the federal government to release key information it held about Al-Qaeda, its sponsors and its networks. Since December 2024, the gradual inclusion of reports from the CIA and the US Treasury has begun to fill the gap.

What they reveal is staggering, because the release of the intelligence reports alters the image of the terrorist movement, particularly when it comes to financial backers. Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda no longer appear as renegades who had fallen out of favor in the Wahhabi kingdom, isolated in the Afghan mountains among the Taliban since 1996. They no longer resemble mere fanatics sporadically aided by a handful of merchants.