PORTS of New York and New Jersey have joined a lawsuit against Saudi Arabia, blaming the Saudis for funding the 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center.
The port authority, which owns the land on which the twin towers was built, also lost 84 employees in the attack. Timing of the filing came just as the three-year statute of limitations expired on Friday afternoon.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said in a statement yesterday that it had an obligation ¡°to preserve its legal options at this time¡±.
Spokesman Steve Coleman said the bi-state agency was joining a seven-billion-dollar lawsuit filed last week in US District Court in Manhattan by the investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald, which lost more than 650 workers in the attacks.
The suit accuses the Saudi government of providing ¡°funding and material support and substantial assistance¡± to Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. ¡°We have a responsibility to the millions of people who live and work in the region as well as to our bondholders to pursue every legal avenue to recover the losses we sustained on 11 September,¡± the Port Authority statement said.