Debra Burlingame

Burlingame also wrote a letter attacking the Liam Neeson film Non-Stop (2014), which portrays a 9/11 family member and military combat veteran as a vengeful murderer—and, in Burlingame's words: “Worse, the flight’s quiet hero who comes to the aid of the protagonist, thereby saving the day, is a Muslim doctor.” She said that this was "ironic" given the fact that the Al Qaeda's leader, Ayman Al Zawahiri, was a doctor, a "complete [reversal] of the roles [of] victim and victimizer [in] 9/11".

Burlingame is a critic of radical Islam. In 2010, she issued a press release denouncing President Barack Obama’s support of the Ground Zero Mosque. She wrote: "Demolishing a building that was damaged by wreckage from one of the hijacked planes in order to build a mosque and Islamic Center will further energize those who regard it as a ratification of their violent and divinely ordered mission: the spread of shariah law and its subjugation of all free people, including secular Muslims who come to this country fleeing that medieval ideology, which destroys lives and crushes the human spirit."

In October 2009, Burlingame co-founded, with Liz Cheney, a non-profit 501(c)4 organization called Keep America Safe. It drew strong criticism from conservative lawyers, many of whom worked for the Bush administration, and information about the organization was removed from Internet shortly thereafter. Burlingame then founded 9/11 Families for a Safe & Strong America with Tim Sumner, an organization about 9/11 family members who consider national security the country’s top priority.

On the morning of the September 11 attacks in 2001, Burlingame was living in Los Angeles, where she planned to establish her own production company. Her brother, Charles Burlingame, was the pilot of American Airlines Flight 77, with First Officer David Charlebois, when it was hijacked and flown into the Pentagon.

Debra Burlingame (born 1954) is an American lawyer and political activist. She is the sister of Charles "Chic" Burlingame III, the pilot of the hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 that was flown into The Pentagon during the September 11 attacks by Al Qaeda terrorists in 2001.