Nearly 24 years after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, a federal judge in New York decided Thursday that Saudi Arabia can face a civil lawsuit alleging the kingdom sponsored, aided and supported the al-Qaeda hijackers.
Posted by ringopendragon
Nearly 24 years after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, a federal judge in New York decided Thursday that Saudi Arabia can face a civil lawsuit alleging the kingdom sponsored, aided and supported the al-Qaeda hijackers.
Posted by ringopendragon
3 Comments
Submission Statement:
Families of 9/11 victims called the judge’s decision denying Saudi Arabia’s bid to dismiss the lawsuit “the most consequential step yet” in two decades of litigation.
Attorneys representing Saudi Arabia had tried to dismiss claims by victims’ families and estates, first filed in 2003, arguing that, as a sovereign state, it is immune from civil litigation in American courts.
However, U.S. District Judge George Daniels said the families provided “reasonable evidence” that two Saudi citizens — Omar al-Bayoumi and Fahad al-Thumairy — were sent by their government to the United States to assist the hijackers.
“KSA [Kingdom of Saudi Arabia] did not proffer sufficient evidence to the contrary,” Daniels said. “Although KSA attempts to offer seemingly innocent explanations or context, they are either self-contradictory or not strong enough to overcome the inference that KSA had employed Bayoumi and Thumairy to assist the hijackers.”
According to the judge’s opinion, there is evidence the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia sent Bayoumi to San Diego in 1994. The official reason was to pursue education. Plaintiffs contended he was co-opted by Saudi intelligence, which Bayoumi denied.
The Saudis assigned Thumairy to serve as imam of a Los Angeles mosque in 1998. One of his bank accounts received significant funds from a senior member of the Saudi cabinet, the judge wrote in his decision. Thumairy said the money was for mosque expenses.
When al-Qaeda sent two of the hijackers — Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar — to Los Angeles in January 2000, they were brought to the mosque and introduced to Thumairy, who left the U.S. five weeks prior to the attacks.
About a month after meeting Thumairy, the two hijackers met Bayoumi, who helped them find an apartment in San Diego.
On a notepad seized from Bayoumi, authorities said they saw a handwritten sketch of an airplane along with some numbers, calculations and notes.
Plaintiffs alleged that the Saudi government engaged Thumairy and Bayoumi to carry out covert activities in the U.S. that provided material support and assistance to the hijackers.
The Saudis have denied those allegations.
Prince Bandar ‘Bush’ was well in with Don R, Dick C and Dubya B. They and their estates could be co-Respondents.
Ok, so the judge is allowing them to be able to sue them, but like they said, they are a sovereign state and immune from civil litigation in American courts.
What or who is going to enforce any ruling a judge makes in an American court?
Is it one of them things where the families get a feel-good feeling if they win the law suit suing them?
I’m sorry, I just don’t see the point of trying to sue Saudi Arabia. The amount of money that has already been spent and the amount of money that you would have to spend continuing on has to be a ridiculous amount. You can’t recoup that money and if the families win the case, justice will never be served to them.
Maybe someone can help me see where it makes any sense to have had a court case going for 20 years to allow them to be able to sue and then actually suing them.