JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia - For the first time on Monday, a relative of a victim of the September 11, 2001 attacks that were mostly carried out by Saudi nationals will speak in public in the kingdom. Sonia Tita Puopolo, is the daughter of Sonia Morales Puopolo, who was a passenger on American Airlines flight 11 that crashed into one of the towers of New York’s World Trade Center.She is to speak during a session titled “Terrorism - The Human Toll” at the Jeddah Economic Forum starting in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah in the west of the ultra conservative kingdom on Saturday. “This session will provide a platform for the families of victims of terrorist acts to share their experience and discuss how terrorism has affected their lives,” said a statement from organisers of the three-day forum.
The annual event which bills itself as the “Think Tank of the Middle East” was started in 1999 and features keynote speeches and panel discussions by Saudi and world politicians and business and civic leaders. This year’s event will seek to “honour and recognise culture, identity and diversity as the building blocks for a world of “common grounds’ rather than a global economy of one size fits all,” according to organisers.
Participants will include Irish President Mary McAleese, former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, former US vice president Al Gore; Cherie Blair, wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair; Bahia Hariri a Lebanese member of parliament and sister of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri, killed in a bomb attack almost one year ago in Beirut.
| Somehow the guest list isn't encouraging. |
Many average Saudis still deny any Saudi involvement in the attacks on New York and Washington saying they were a “conspiracy by the West and Jews.” Fifteen of the 19 hijackers of the three commercial airplanes that slammed into the WTC and the Pentagon and the fourth plane that crashed in a Pennsylvania field were Saudi nationals.
Puopolo senior, a 58-year-old former ballerina born in Puerto Rico, was on the plane bound for Los Angeles from Boston before it was hijacked and crashed into the WTCÂ’s north tower.