IS The Obama BOW becoming any clearer, NOW.


Obama administration supports Saudi immunity in 9/11 lawsuit

Brief seeking to deny Americans access to court remedies for attack

---------------------------------
Posted: June 01, 2009 9:07 pm Eastern

2009 WorldNetDaily

The Obama administration has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to protect Saudi Arabia and four of its princes from being held accountable for their alleged role in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the United States that killed almost 3,000 Americans, according to a report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

Through its solicitor general, Elena Kagan, the Obama administration has asked that the Saudis be held immune under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, or FSIA, even though there is ample U.S. evidence of complicity by the Saudi government and the named princes in support of al-Qaida's terrorist attack.

While the FSIA generally protects a sovereign state, there are exceptions under which its provisions can be invoked. Such interpretations are left largely to the courts to determine.

Families of the 9/11 victims, however, have expressed outrage over the Obama administration's filing. They regard the action as undermining the continuing fight on terror.
In its recent filing of an "amicus curiae" brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in "Federal Insurance Co. vs. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," the Obama administration asked the court to deny a petition for a "writ of certiorari" or higher court hearing by the families of the victims of 9/11 in their effort to sue Saudi Arabia and its princes.

In the original case filed in 2006, the families of the 9/11 victims allege that Saudi Arabia and four Saudi princes acting in their capacity as high-level government officials and as individuals made donations to charitable organizations with the knowledge that those charities were diverting funds to al-Qaida. In response, the Saudi government invoked the FSIA as a basis to preclude a lawsuit by the 9/11 victims' families.

Keep in touch with the most important breaking news stories about critical developments around the globe with Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence news source edited and published by the founder of WND.

In August 2008, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the 2006 ruling by U.S. District Judge Richard Casey in dismissing the claim against Saudi Arabia. The dismissal covered the four princes, a Saudi banker and a Saudi charity. In addition, the appeals court said that the exceptions to immunity didn't apply since the State Department had not designated Saudi Arabia as a state sponsor of terrorism.

There appears, however, to be a possible conflict in what the FSIA allows and a portion of a U.S. statute (28USC1605(a)) which states, in effect, that a foreign state shall not be immune from the jurisdiction of U.S. courts if the attack and funding for it occurred in the U.S.

"Although the United States disagrees in certain respects with the analysis of the court of appeals, further review by this Court to determine the best legal basis for that immunity is unwarranted," Kagan wrote.

Fifteen of the 19 terrorists who hijacked U.S. aircraft and crashed them into the World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11, 2001, were from Saudi Arabia and were affiliated with al-Qaida. Intelligence and past actions link the Saudi government and the four princes with al-Qaida.

"In effect, the U.S. Government announced its opposition to allowing 9/11 victims and their families full access to the U.S. legal system in (the government's) effort to protect Saudi Arabia and its princes from being held accountable for their role in the attack on the United States," said Peter Leitner, who has assisted terror victims' families successfully in suing terrorist organizations for the past 12 years.

"As power of Attorney for the family and estate of John P. O'Neill, former FBI (counter-terrorism) expert, I find it disgusting that the Obama administration has spat in the faces of these victims just as (Obama) prepares to leave for Egypt and Saudi Arabia while advocating for the closing of (the U.S. Guantanamo prison in Cuba) and giving full access to the U.S. court system to the terrorists currently imprisoned there," he said.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?f...geId=99832

Wait, I thought it was Bush who had ties to the Saudis, and was protecting them. Where's Michael Moore when you need him!

this is alot more complex than it sounds, I'll say that much for Obama on this one

That said, down the MSM/Dem complex Memory Hole....a Clinton Appointed Judge found evidence to link other Middle Eastern(and State Sponsor of Terrorism) Regime Liable for 9/11...





During WW2, we allied with the Soviets...during that period we would not have allowed a Court to rule they were engaging in Espionage in anyway...and after the war we then quickly ended that arrangement and took the screws to them.

(06-02-2009 09:25 AM)GGniner Wrote:  this is alot more complex than it sounds, I'll say that much for Obama on this one

Of course it's complicated. It was always complicated. This isn't an episode of Law&Order, hell the other players have their own laws. Duh!

The average US citizen seems to forget that our laws don't apply to everyone else, unless those laws protect are to protect foreign nationals from having to obey other US laws. Hell, the average US citizen doesn't even know our laws, except a few traffic ordinances, and that they have a right to "free speech" and universal health care.

The problem is the average US citizen is a dolt...and letting dolts vote and influence governance is a friggin' stupid thing to do.

(06-02-2009 09:47 AM)DrTorch Wrote:  The problem is the average US citizen is a dolt...and letting dolts vote and influence governance is a friggin' stupid thing to do.

Unfortunately, that bell cannot be unrung.

We cannot even keep non-citizens from voting.

We put Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves in the WhiteHouse.

Foreign Policy in that region is a game of chess, personally I think our policy with the Saudi's has been one of "Keep your Friends Close and Enemies Closer".....for better or worse, and Prudence called for it. There are alot of things we'll never know as citizens that our leaders do know.

Now, given Obama's naive worldview and possible muslim influence in his past, its natural people will look with a great deal of skepticism at his actions.

Hopefully he doesn't go Utopian like Jimmy Carter did and completely screw the region up as badly as Carter did.

(06-02-2009 09:57 AM)SumOfAllFears Wrote:  

(06-02-2009 09:47 AM)DrTorch Wrote:  The problem is the average US citizen is a dolt...and letting dolts vote and influence governance is a friggin' stupid thing to do.

Unfortunately, that bell cannot be unrung.

We cannot even keep non-citizens from voting.

We put Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves in the WhiteHouse.

Oh, it will be unrung. Just not in a pleasant way. I never thought I'd see the US crumble so quickly. I often read stories in history about how nations went into demise so fast, and I thought, "Can't happen here. We have too much sense."

How arrogant I was.

Sure, maybe you talk about the pieces being in place since the 1970s, 60s, 50s, or even 20s. There's truth in all of that. But I never thought I'd see a country that seemed to understand how it got to be so prosperous, recant all of that in a matter of a few years.

postmodernism, its a mental disease.

or as C.S. Lewis predicted:

"Relativism will certainly damn our souls and end our species"

the postmodernist are determined to prove him a prophet. That said, History is a funny thing. Had I lived during FDR and WW2 or LBJ's Great Society, I likely would've held the same short term view and doomsday never came atleast in the immediate.

.

HEY GUYS .....

Now come on !!!!!!!

This is just one "Good and Peaceful Kenyan Born Muslim, Protecting several other Good and Peaceful Muslims".

I mean all you frekkin Conservatives are always beating up on Poor Old Barry Hussein .....

Give the guy a break with ya .....

Barry hasn't had a chance to Kiss the Saudi Kings Scrotum Ring yet !!!!!!!

You mean mean old bigoted American Infidels !!!!!!

Where are my dadgumm shoes ??????

.

(06-02-2009 09:25 AM)GGniner Wrote:  That said, down the MSM/Dem complex Memory Hole....a Clinton Appointed Judge found evidence to link other Middle Eastern(and State Sponsor of Terrorism) Regime Liable for 9/11...

That's pretty weak. The standard of proof in a lawsuit is on the defendant ... the ruling always goes to plaintiff by default presuming the case doesn't get thrown out summarily by the judge.