The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals today overturned a 2013 ruling ordering the seizure of a 36-storey office building in Manhattan in what was described as the “largest ever” terrorism-related asset seizure, intended to benefit 9/11 victims.
The victims claimed damages owed to them by Iran for 9/11. Interestingly, Iran’s lack of involvement in 9/11 had nothing to do with the ruling, which instead focused on the lack of evidence that Iran even owned the buildings targeted.
The non-profit Alavi Foundation, which actually owned the building, challenged the 2013 ruling, and the appeals court agreed that Judge Forrest erred in deciding that the group, whose headquarters are in the building, could be assumed to be the same as the Iranian government.
Alavi acquired the building before the 1979 Iranian Revolution, though the US government has argued that it is friendly to the Iranian government, and that the minority owner in the building, the Assa Corporation, has ties with a government-owned Iranian bank. Still, today’s ruling determined that was insufficient to show day-to-day Iranian government control of Alavi.
And all because Iran opposes out trading bomb explosions for Middle-East oil, Fudge on you Iran, surely you take the fun right out of being an Empire.
Iran an empire, John??? What have you been smoking lately? Iran’s only a nation .. The Persian Empire was destroyed around 300 BC (give or take a little) by the Greeks under Alexander the Great and has never returned to its former status since. It only regained its status as a regional power after Alexander’s death and Greece’s empire declined. Even after Islam spread from Saudi Arabia across the entire Mideast in the 7th Century AD and Persia’s name was changed to Iran, the nation only remained as a regional power.
Iran has never waged any war(s) of aggression for centuries. During the two World Wars, it remained neutral. You can’t say the same for the US and the UK, which have waged several such wars; neither can you say the same for Israel, which has been waging aggressive wars since its inception in 1948.
Only in America could Shiite Iranians be blamed for an attack by KNOWN Sunni Wahhabist’s like Al Qaeda ,especially on the basis that the pair despise each other, and yet the Saudis, who there is actual evidence that there was direct communications between the Hijackers and members of the the Government of Saudi Arabia, is not sued because the Saudis have Sovereign Immunity and yet Iran doesn’t! Why does this happen, because the Saudis own trillions of dollars in US bonds which if dumped on the market would decimate the US economy, the flip side of the Petrodollar!