Heading into the weekend that will mark the 15th anniversary of 9/11, the House of Representatives has unanimously passed the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA). The bill passed by unanimous voice vote, as it did in the Senate back in May.
The bill allows families of victims of the 9/11 attack to sue Saudi Arabia in US courts over the attack, based on evidence that the Saudi government played a role in supporting al-Qaeda in the lead-up to the attack. President Obama repeatedly vowed to the veto the bill if it got through Congress, claiming “taxpayers” are at risk.
The risk is that, as far back as April, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir was threatening to deliberately collapse the US treasury market in retaliation for the bill by selling some $750 billion in Saudi-held assets on the market. Jubeir’s initial threat was followed almost immediately by a chorus of officials coming out against the bill.
Unanimous yes votes in both houses of Congress, however, put President Obama in a tricky situation, as he faces what could easily be the first successful veto override of his presidency. Though it is believed some Democrats won’t challenge the president, and will thus switch sides on the veto override vote, there are strong indications that there may still be enough left to override the veto.
While there was already substantial support for the bill in Congress, there was also momentum gained in July with the release of the classified “28 pages” of the 9/11 Report, which centered on Saudi government involvement in the attack. The report detailed substantial financial support from the Saudi royal family to people who facilitated the attack.
It remains to be seen if the Saudi government follows through with threats to the US Treasury market. The market has already been absorbing steady sales out of eastern Asia, particularly from China, and would likely be unable to absorb another $750 billion debt dump.
Does this bill specifically single out Saudi Arabia? Or is it more general — any country can now be sued by a U.S. court if the judge says it “sponsored terrorism”? If it’s the latter (and I think it is), then you can bet the first use of it will not be Saudi Arabia. (Remember that Chuck Shumer is a key sponsor.)
That was my first suspicion too. I Googled the Act, and found you are right. “The purpose of this Act is to provide civil litigants with the broadest possible basis, consistent with the Constitution of the United States, to seek relief against persons, entities, and foreign countries, wherever acting and wherever they may be found.”
https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/2040/text
USS Liberty survivors and families can finally sue Israel!
They were attacked by Israeli military not by terrorists. It is terrorism only if done by non-state actors. This bill will not allow harmed Iraqis to sue the US government.
In the event my response to masmanz is deleted by inappropriate “moder@tion”, as is too often the case, it can be found here:
http://whimsicaldog.blogspot.mx/2016/09/the-following-is-comment-posted-to.html
Nice try at currying sympathy by pretending that a reply of that nature ever has been or ever would be moderated.
I’m not the least bit interested in “currying sympathy”. I simply want to circumvent your inappropriate “censorship” — yes, of course, you call it moderation. My comment on hate speech of a week or so ago is a perfect example.
You are entitled to your notion of what constitutes hate speech and how it should be dealt with, but your deletion of my opposing view of the matter presented in a thoughtful and civil manner was an unjustifiable suppression of open discussion.
From now on I will cross-post to my blog
http://whimsicaldog.blogspot.mx/
any comment likely to offend your too “personalized” moderation standards, and in an adjacent post provide a link to that comment.
Depending on how unreasonably pissy you want to be, you can delete that post as well. Such is life.
Well, there were two possibilities. One was that you were trying to curry sympathy, one was that you were trying to figure out how close to the edge of the ledge you could dance before you went over it. And of course it could be both.
Congratulations. You put your heels over the edge and balanced on your pinkie toes.
If you HAD gone over, we wouldn’t be having this discussion. Links to hate speech are deleted, just as hate speech is. If you have a problem with the guidelines, take it up with the people who set the guidelines. I just cheerfully enforce them and have no power whatsoever to change them.
Have a nice weekend.
The risk is that, as far back as April, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir was threatening to deliberately collapse the US treasury market
—
I wonder if the treasury market will ‘collapse’ at free fall acceleration (the acceleration of gravity) like both towers and Building 7 did as admitted by NIST.
It’s amazing how the House members enthusiastically will vote for this bill based upon evidence that challenges the official narrative we had been originally fed, …but only when it implicates Saudi Arabia, however when the evidence points toward the Bush Administration and Military Industrial Complex, lets just bury our heads in the sand…..we don’t want to even go there…..
…..even when the very member of the Saudi Royal Family (and his wife) implicated in the 28 pages of having funded the very Saudi nationals that provided the support network to some of the nineteen patsies, like Prince Bandar who was widely known to be a very close personal friend of the Bush crime syndicate. In fact his nickname was Bandar Bush!
The question is not were high level members of the Saudi Royal family involved, …the bigger questions are who were they involved with and why? What was the agenda? Why would the Saudi’s do this if they never wanted anyone to ever find out they were involved. Why would they Saudi’s be involved in an attack against their closest ally, protector and customer who arms them, protects the Saudi regime and buys their oil?
Why would they do this? It is illogical on it’s face unless there was another agenda, or multiple agendas, invoved here. Whose bidding were the Saudi’s doing?? Who subcontracted this assignment to them and why?
9/11 was used as the excuse to attack Iraq. Saddam Hussein was an arch enemy and regional competitor of the Saudi Royals. While the Bush Administration was talking about Iraq and mushroom clouds and color coded threat levels, they were simultaneously redacting 28 pages that implicated Saudi Arabia? Why would the Bush Administration hide this from the American people and misdirect suspicion and allegation against Iraq when the intelligence communities were telling them there was little to no evidence Iraq was involved as revealed by Valerie Plame’s husband Wilson (I forget his first name) and also The Downing Street Memo.
What about all the evidence about Pakistani involvment like the Pakistani General who wired the money to Atta in Florida….not even so much as word about that? Or what about the multitude of reports in the media of insider trading that the 9/11 Commission swept under the rug?
How can you focus on ONLY Saudi involvement while at the same time ignoring every other part of the ‘official’ story that is so deeply problematic from every and any direction you wish to look at it???
No matter what your opinion is on 9/11, one thing is undeniable: 9/11 caused trillions of dollars to change hands. Follow the money! It’s really not all that difficult.
Holy sh*t! Did Congress actually do something right? First time for everything, I guess.
it would be political suicide to vote against
and its a “go to war free” card for a rainy day.
and no roll call/
Yes, they will be branded as traitors by Trumpies. This bill will help the litigation lawyers but substantially harm the US economy. The bill is not Saudi-specific, I think many countries will pull out their investment.
Call the Saudi’s bluff and do it anyway. If they dump all those assets let the chips fall and we’ll deal with it. What else have they got to ante up with? Oil? Fine, we’ll go to Iran and play ball with them.
The obvious solution to any problem with oil is to go to South Africa and buy their synfuel tech. You’ve plenty of coal and gas.
If you’re worried about global warming, build PRISM reactors to burn all that spent fuel and depleted uranium to provide your electricity and provide the power and the hydrogen for the synfuel plants. You could also use all the CO2 that is separated from natural gas before it goes into the pipeline, and that from steel smelters,cement plants and geothermal fields – all it takes is a bit more hydrogen to turn it into oil.
So what will happen to the successful civil lawsuit against Iran for the same accusation?
The real culprits of 9/11 are closer to home — http://www.twf.org/News/Y2012/0815-Obama.pdf
Reports: 9/11 A Mossad/PNAC Operation — http://www.twf.org/News/Y2010/0317-911Mossad.html
“…Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir was threatening to deliberately collapse the US treasury market in retaliation…”
I would think that that could/should be viewed as an act of war.
Just more smoke and mirrors of the ruling class in D.C.!
Sep 5, 2016 9/11 Suspects: Rudy Giuliani
Mayor Giuliani oversaw the illegal destruction of the 9/11 crime scene and is criminally liable for the deaths of hundreds of emergency workers for not passing on prior warnings about the collapses of the Twin Towers.
https://youtu.be/Cl85JSvDmsA
FDNY 9/11 Survivor Witness and Whistleblower Speaks on WTC 7
Listen very carefully starting at the ’20’ second mark! As a firefighter on 9/11, he was at Ground Zero and was there when Building 7 came down.
https://youtu.be/ePPdUUISQOs?list=UUhwwoeOZ3EJPobW83dgQfAg
Sep 11, 2013 9/11 In A Nutshell as James Corbett presents this 5 minute parody of the official conspiracy theory of 9/11
https://youtu.be/vrJiKbK0tVM
September 11, 2013 Twelve Years of War, Lies and Deception
Twelve years after the 9/11 attacks, no credible independent investigation has been done to find out what really happened on that day and who was responsible. Independent journalists and researchers have demonstrated, however, that the official version of the event is nothing but a cover-up, an opinion shared by the co-chairs of the 9/11 Commission, Thomas H. Kean and Lee H. Hamilton, who declared the Commission was “set up to fail”.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/911-twelve-years-of-war-lies-and-deception/5349347
What are we to make of these correlations between Israeli agents and the 9/11 hijackers?
This image is from the Shea Memorandum, made available via this very website here:
http://www.antiwar.com/rep2/MemorandumtotheCommissionandSelectCommitteesbold.pdf
While they’re at it they should revisit whatever legislation allowed Iran to be held responsible for damages arising out of 9/11.
Why could that legislation not be used to go after the Saudis? Or was that specifically enacted to punish Iran for something it did not do?
I would loike an investigation of those dancing Israelis to be included in all this. But knowing the Israeli control of American media and political apparatus that will be impossible. This was either a Saudi-Israeli operation at worse, or Israel knew about it and remained silent.
“STANDING ROCK FACT CHECKER”
http://standingrockfactchecker.org/fact-checking-srst-claims-9-7-16/
“1.CLAIM: The pipeline encroaches on indigenous lands.
“TRUTH: The Dakota Access Pipeline traverses a path
on private property and does not cross into the Standing
Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation.”
Pure fiction, for a Treaty signed in the 1800’s guaranteed the Sioux Nation a permanent and eternal ownership of the land in question.
“2. CLAIM: The pipeline exposes the Tribe’s water supply
to contamination.
“TRUTH: Pipelines are – by far – the safest way to
transport energy liquids and gases”
Pure corruption, as the safest and only moral way to handle crude oil, is to keep our hands off it and go for renewable energy.