Thread: Senate OKs bill letting families of 9/11 victims sue Saudi Arabia, despite threats

Senate OKs bill letting families of 9/11 victims sue Saudi Arabia, despite threats

Published May 17, 2016 FoxNews.com

The Senate on Tuesday approved legislation allowing families of Sept. 11 victims to sue the government of Saudi Arabia, defying White House resistance as well as brazen threats of economic retaliation from Riyadh.

By voice vote, senators approved the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act. The bipartisan sponsors of the bill, Sens. Charles E. Schumer, R-N.Y., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, are now calling on the House to follow suit.

The bill sailed through the Senate despite threats from Saudi Arabia’s government to pull billions of dollars from the U.S. economy if the plan is enacted.

The legislation gives victims' families the right to sue the government of Saudi Arabia in U.S. court for any role that elements of the Saudi government may have played in the attacks.

While the bill is a bipartisan measure, the Obama administration has threatened to veto the legislation. It said the bill could expose Americans overseas to legal risks.

Many Senate Democrats backed the bill, including Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, putting them at odds with the White House.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016...i-threats.html

Saudi Arabia Warns of Economic Fallout if Congress Passes 9/11 Bill

Saudi Daily: ‘Satanic’ Bill Allowing Kingdom to be Sued For 9/11 Will ‘Open Gates Of Hell’ For The U.S.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
by Deborah Danan22 May 2016

TEL AVIV – The Saudi press slammed the U.S. for its “despicable” double standard in regard to a proposed bill that would allow victims of the September 11 attacks to sue the kingdom, claiming that the move would “open the gates of hell,” enabling all countries that have been wronged by the U.S. to sue it for war crimes.

The popular Saudi daily Okaz ran a scathing article translated by MEMRI, entitled, “Congress’s Satanic Deed Opens the Gates of Hell for the World’s Largest Country,” accompanied by an image of President Obama with a Star of David and the emblem of the Iranian regime on his forehead.

Proclaiming that the bill proves that there “is no justice or morality in American politics,” the article accuses the U.S. of bypassing international law, which stipulates that countries are immune from legal proceedings in other states.

The U.S. Senate exhibited the most despicable kind of double standard, defied the [whole] world, and showed contempt for international law when it passed a bill allowing families of the September 11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia. This bill will change the international law regarding sovereign immunity, which has long been implemented. The Senate failed to understand that, by adopting this bill, it will open many doors for harming the U.S. [itself], because this bill will enable countries that have been harmed by the U.S. to sue it for war crimes.

The article continues by predicting that the Senate will come to regret its decision because of the economic damage to the U.S. should the bill be approved. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, to whom the article refers as “the most influential Republican politician in the U.S.,”

understands this and tried to warn Senate members not to “make mistakes” with Saudi Arabia. However, “racist” and “hostile” Vice President Joe Biden ignored Ryan’s warnings and incited the Senate to pass the bill.

The Okaz editorial points out that Biden, whose rhetoric is xenophobic and hostile toward Muslims, was behind the proposal to divide Iraq into three sectarian mini-states.

The double standard in the U.S. policy has become clear, considering that it ignores Iran and Hezbollah, who, in documents of the U.S. Prosecutor, were convicted of perpetrating the September 11 [attacks] along with Al-Qaeda, and at the same time it levels accusations against a country that has suffered and is still suffering from terror [Saudi Arabia], and which spends large sums to defend the region from its dangers.

Another article published the same day in the Saudi daily Al-Jazirah echoed Okaz‘s warning that “stripping countries of their [sovereign] immunity and allowing them to be sued will open the gates of hell for the Americans themselves.”
Saudi columnist Fadhel Bin Sa’d Al-Bu’aynin further warned that the bill would become a “hangman’s noose that will tighten around the neck” of the U.S.

Al-Bu’aynin continues by claiming that the bill will cause all the U.S.’s past interference in Middle Eastern affairs – “state terror … destroying countries and peoples … and stealing their resources” – to come back to haunt it.

“One day, this law will be used to sue all those who who caused the destruction of Iraq, Syria, and Libya and spread terror organizations in them, and everyone who planned to destroy Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco. The monster will rise up against its creator,” the article reads.

http://www.breitbart.com/jerusalem/2...-hell-for-u-s/