Survivors of 9/11 and the families and friends of the victims are torching the PGA Tour by calling them 'Saudi Shills' as they plan to merge with LIVGolf. Up until now, Saudi Arabia has said they were not involved in the devastating attack on 9/11, but there are now declassified FBI documents that accuse the Saudi government and/or intelligence officials of supporting some of the hijackers responsible for the attacks of 9/11.
It's now being announced that the PGA Tour will merge with LIV Golf - the league supported by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund that has been accused of 'sportswashing' on the country's human rights violations according to a report by WFAA. The reason this has shocked golf fans, especially those affected by 9/11, is because the PGA Tour once suggested they would not tolerate anything the LIV was participating in that was questionable. Now there's been a complete about-face and the PGA Tour has changed their minds and now wants to merge with LIV.
When the LIV was launched, they started trying to take players from the PGA by offering them ridiculously high paychecks. The PGA said, at one point, that the players who left PGA for LIV would not be allowed back into the PGA. Now it seems that's all about to change.
WFAA's report said the following that sparks even more controversy besides that which is in the video above:
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan even sided with 9/11 survivors and families of victims after the coalition 9/11 Families United spoke out about LIV using golf to sportswash the country's ties to the 9/11 attacks.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has long denied involvement in 9/11 despite 15 of 19 hijackers involved in the attack being from the country.
However, FBI documents declassified by the Biden administration in 2021 allege that some government and intelligence officials connected to Saudi Arabia set up a support network for several hijackers before the attack.
"As it relates to the families of 9/11, I have two families who were close to me who have lost loved ones... have you ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour?" Monahan said during an interview.
Then there's Terry Strada who's on the national chair of 9/11 Families United. The PGA merging with LIV is likely to strike a nerve with Strada especially, because Strada pointed out something very important, as noted by WFAA:
"PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan co-opted the 9/11 community last year in the PGA’s unequivocal agreement that the Saudi LIV project was nothing more than sportswashing of Saudi Arabia’s reputation," Strada wrote. "But now the PGA and Monahan appear to have become just more paid Saudi shills, taking billions of dollars to cleanse the Saudi reputation so that Americans and the world will forget how the Kingdom spent their billions of dollars before 9/11 to fund terrorism, spread their vitriolic hatred of Americans, and finance al Qaeda and the murder of our loved ones. Make no mistake – we will never forget."
Strada further said that it's disgusting, upsetting, and wrong for the PGA to merge with the LIV, noting it especially as a "complete betrayal."
Strada put it point blank when he said: "All they've done is hurt a community that has been through more pain and suffering than I can tell you."
