Obama vetoes 9/11 victims bill; congressional override threatened
President Obama on Friday vetoed legislation that would have made it easier for family members and victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks to sue Saudi Arabia, setting up override votes in the House and Senate next week.
President Obama on Friday vetoed legislation that would have made it easier for family members and victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks to sue Saudi Arabia, setting up override votes in the House and Senate next week.
The bill is an outgrowth of lawsuits filed by the Center City law firm Cozen O'Connor and other firms maintaining that Saudi Arabia funded Islamist charities that, in turn, bankrolled al-Qaeda in the years before the attacks, in addition to providing other support. For more than a decade, the lawsuits have followed a winding path through the courts but have been repeatedly stymied by adverse trial-court decisions.
"I recognize that there is nothing that could ever erase the grief the 9/11 families have endured," the president said in his veto message. "My administration therefore remains resolute in its commitment to assist these families in their pursuit of justice and do whatever we can to prevent another attack in the United States."
Still, an organization representing family members and victims of the attack, many of whom had demonstrated in front of the White House this week urging the president to sign the measure, voiced anger at Obama's decision.
"We are outraged and dismayed at the president's veto [of the bill] and the unconvincing and unsupportable reasons that he offers as an explanation," said a statement released by the group, 9/11 Families and Survivors for Justice Against Terrorism.
The bill, called the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, was passed unanimously by the House on May 17 and by the Senate on Sept. 9. It would amend the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act to make clear that U.S. citizens can sue foreign governments for acts of terrorism, even if only a portion of the plot occurred in the U.S.
The Saudis have long maintained that they bear no responsibility for the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks and the plane crash in Shanksville, Pa. But they also have argued that U.S. law permits terrorism lawsuits against foreign governments only if the entire act takes place in this country.
JASTA also would amend the law to make it clear that foreign governments can face lawsuits for providing aid and support to terrorists, even if they do not participate in the attack itself.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) said they expected their members would vote to override the president next week. If that happens, it would be the first override of Obama in his two terms in office.
"This is a disappointing decision that will be swiftly and soundly overturned by Congress," said Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.). "If the Saudis did nothing wrong, they should not fear this legislation. If they were culpable in 9/11, they should be held accountable."
Both presidential candidates, Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, have supported the bill. Clinton, breaking with Obama, said recently that she would have signed the legislation.
Josh Earnest, the president's spokesman, has repeatedly said that expanding the basis for U.S. citizens to sue foreign sovereigns would expose U.S. military, diplomats, and even private companies to litigation abroad.
Supporters of the bill deride that notion, however, pointing out that U.S. law, while establishing broad immunity from lawsuits, already permits suits against foreign nations that engage in unlawful acts, such as murder.
For example, federal judges have allowed suits to proceed in two notorious cases involving state-sanctioned assassinations.
In one, the survivors of Orlando Letelier, a former Chilean ambassador to the United States, were allowed to sue the Chilean government after it was established in criminal proceedings that Letelier had been killed in a Washington bombing involving four operatives and senior officials of the Chilean intelligence services and two Cuban exiles.
In the other, the widow of Henry Liu, a Chinese journalist and critic of the Taiwan government, was allowed to sue Taiwan after a federal court ruled her husband had been slain in California by two Chinese gang members acting for Adm. Wong Hsi-ling, former director of Taiwan's Defense Intelligence Bureau.
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