9/11 Families Angered As U.S. Backs Saudis

Victims' Relatives Say Justice Dept. Bid To Shield Royal Family From Lawsuit Undermines Fight Against Terror

(CBS/AP)  Relatives of Sept. 11 victims say they're angry that the Justice Department is supporting the Saudi royal family's bid to be removed from a 9/11 lawsuit.

The families of some victims have accused the royal family of financially backing terror groups that carried out the 2001 attack.

Their complaint alleges that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Saudi High Commission for Relief to Bosnia and Herzegovina (SHC), and four Saudi Princes (acting in both official and personal capacities) made donations to charitable organizations with the knowledge that those organizations were diverting funds to al Qaeda, and that a fifth Saudi prince knowingly provided banking and financial services to Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda.

The Justice Department filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday. It supports the Saudis' argument that the royal family as a sovereign state cannot be sued in a U.S. court.

"The lower courts correctly concluded that Saudi Arabia and its officials are immune from suit for governmental acts outside the United States," wrote Solicitor General Elena Kagan. "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."

The brief also disputes the litigants claims that their lawsuit falls within acceptable parameters of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), which grants immunity to foreign officials performing their duties but also allows exceptions for certain noncommercial claims involving injuries "occurring in the United States and caused by the tortious act or omission of [the] foreign state."

Last August the Second Circuit Court of Appeals held that the FSIA exceptions to immunity did not apply, and held it lacked jurisdiction over the Saudi princes' personal acts.

The lawsuit, Federal Insurance Co. v. Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia, was initiated in 2003 by a consortium of insurance companies seeking to recover more than $300 billion for losses incurred by the 9/11 attacks.

The Saudi princes cited in the claims were:

• Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, president of SHC, who was warned in 2000 of his organization's ties to al Qaeda;
  
• Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, the designated successor to King Abdullah, who received warnings as early as 1994 that some Muslim charitable groups were fronts for al Qaeda;
  
• Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, who as Saudi Minister of the Interior monitors and controls the charities operating in Saudi Arabia;
  
• Prince Turki al-Faisal bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, who was the director of the Kingdom's Department of General Intelligence ("DGI") until August 2001; and
  
• Prince Mohamed al Faisal al Saud, who unlike the other princes named is not a government official but a bank manager alleged to have knowingly provided material sponsorship to international terrorism.

Bill Doyle's son was killed at the World Trade Center. He says the Obama administration's court filing undermines the nation's fight against terrorism.

"I find this reprehensible," Kristen Breitweiser, a leader of the Sept. 11 families, told The New York Times. "One would have hoped that the Obama administration would have taken a different stance than the Bush administration, and you wonder what message this sends to victims of terrorism around the world."

Breitweiser's husband was killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center.

Several lower courts have dismissed the lawsuit. The Supreme Court has not decided whether to hear the case.

[truthforhumanity]

Building 7 and the Pentagon?they don?t pass the test.
Bldg. 7 came down at freefall speed into its own footprint, was not hit by a plane,
explosions were reported by first responders on the scene, but not accounted for in the 9/11 commission report. Residue of nano-thermite was found and verified at the scene?an explosive cutter charge used to synchronistically bring down the building.
The Pentagon hole from the ?plane? was 18 feet/6meters in diameter documented with photos before the façade collapsed?too small for the plane they said had
crashed into the building, plane was flown by Hani Hanjour, who had trouble navigating a small Cessna.
The plane penetrated highly restricted airspace even after the country knew it was under attack for over an hour. Authorities confiscated video footage of the supposed plane crashing into the Pentagon and have yet to release the video. Nothing to hide? Then release the videos.
Evidence points more probably to a cruise missile. Prove me wrong?release the videos.
Wake up, America. There?s a cobra slithering around your house, and denying it won?t make it safer. www.ae911truth.org for info on the collapse?all scientific?all fact?all documented, not opinion. Crystallized for your consumption.

[nolies74621]

Maybe 9/11 really was an INSIDE JOB.


Posted by gunownerdan at 9:40 AM : Jun 2, 2009
+ report abuse + permalink

Hey you dropped your aluminum foil hat!

Posted by nolies74621 at 3:14 AM : Jun 3, 2009

[nolies74621]

Maybe 9/11 really was an INSIDE JOB.


Hey you dropped your aluminum foil hat!

[texasbeta]

Hmm - once again the Barry regime has disappointed the liberals.

How's that hope and change working out for y'all anyway ?
Posted by hoseobama at 2:09 PM : Jun 1, 2009

Not perfect man...definitely not perfect. I support the guy and his administration strongly, but this and a few other decisions have really ticked me off. For the most part, I am very happy with most of the things he has done, and to the extent that he has initiated some dramatic changes...I couldn't be happier, but yes, there are a few things that just aren't the way I wanted them to go. However, for the most part...isn't that what this is supposed to be like? I was thinking today that it has become where one side does or says something, and the other side immediately...the other has to respond with disgust....regardless of the issue.

[gunownerdan]

Maybe 9/11 really was an INSIDE JOB.

[kansas1946]

Hmm - once again the Barry regime has disappointed the liberals.

How's that hope and change working out for y'all anyway ?
Posted by hoseobama at 2:09 PM : Jun 1, 2009
+ report abuse + permalink
****************************************************************

Just fine, thanks. Hope that we NEVER see George Bush again, and all the change we need is NO BUSH.

[kansas1946]

(CBS/AP) Relatives of Sept. 11 victims say they're angry that the Justice Department is supporting the Saudi royal family's bid to be removed from a 9/11 lawsuit.

The families of some victims have accused the royal family of financially backing terror groups that carried out the 2001 attack.

*****************************************************

Not possible. It was Saddam and Iraq that caused 9/11. President Bush said so and started a war over it and we lost another four thousand Americans. Just because 11 of the twelve guys on the planes were Saudi didn't mean a thing. It was Iraq.

[noloyalisti]

Thanks for calling us liberals, that is the highest compliment. Yes, we are disappointed in Obama but we are happy that we got rid of the war criminals. And having another clueless, fake Christian racist wacko like more of the McSame would have been a nightmare.

[eeodonnell]

BTW - at least Obama isn't personal, hand-holding friends with them, co-investors in the Carlyle group (keep those oil prices high boys) as are both former Bush Presidents. They're been very cozy with the Royal family for decades and go to each other's birthday parties - I'm sure we would have heard about that for the last 8 years if a Democrat had been President.

[eeodonnell]

Well, does anyone think that the leader of a country we didn't like/weren't dependent on for oil, would be exempt from crimes? Saddam tortured his people - well Saudi Arabia does a pretty good job of it, too and severely curtails the rights of it's citizens, particularly women. This wasn't even an act done in their capacity as leaders, but acts by private citizens. There may be a case that these men are not guilty because they didn't know where the funds were going, but that's not the case they are making. There are about 12,000 royal princes; are they all exempt from prosecution for anything? Every administration follows the same basic foreign policy, proping up dictators when they're allies and criticising/trying to overthrow them if they don't like the *free market* or want to preserve their own resources for themselves

[hoseobama]

Hmm - once again the Barry regime has disappointed the liberals.

How's that hope and change working out for y'all anyway ?

[DaBroiler]

Pay attention this article isn't about Bush, It's about your homie
Posted by dsr57 at 11:15 AM : Jun 1, 2009


Word.

[nofoolling]

Anyone who has ever watched a building being demolished on purpose knows that if you're going to do this you have to get at the under-infrastructure of the building to bring it down. [Peter Jennings, ABC News 9/11/2001]

In perfect conditions the maximum temperature that can be reached by hydrocarbons such as jet fuel burning in air is 1520° F (825° C). When the World Trade Center collapsed the deeply buried fires would have been deprived of oxygen and their temperatures would have significantly decreased.

One week after 911

The temperature at the core of "the pile," is near 2000 degrees Fahrenheit, according to fire officials, who add that the fires are too deep for firefighters to get to. [ABC News, 9/18/01]

Why was the temperature at the core of "the pile" nearly 500° F hotter than the maximum burning temperature of jet fuel a full seven days after the collapses?

The picture at the very bottom of the website listed below shows what appears to be a classic thermite signature (which burns at about 2500 degrees), from explosives typically used on core girders in controlled demolitions. Or perhaps you could explain how the core girders shown were sheared so exactly and melted as is clearly shown?

Or maybe you refuse to believe your own eyes as you watch 2 steel framed buildings fall at the rate of gravity, impossibly defying any known physics except deliberate demolition.

http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/thermite.html?q=thermite.html

Keep asking questions.

[dsr57]

You would have a point if Bush was still in office, sorry but the focus is now on the guy WHO IS in office. I know it really burns your b utt that the Obama Admin. must know face the music.
Posted by promaclaura at 6:49 AM : May 31, 2009
------

Sorry, but you can't run and hide from 8 years of GOrPse Failure. No matter how hard you try.
Posted by nextgenman09
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Would you listen to yourself ? ? ? BUSH IS NO LONGER IN OFFICE. Your boy is screwing up and you don't want to admit it. Pay attention this article isn't about Bush, It's about your homie

[YrSoWrong]

There's a story about dateless wonders who post at CBS that the media hasn't reported. It's not a cover-up, it's just that loners who pick fights at bookstores aren't interesting.

[wyodutch]

The 911 families are following the lead of the Holocaust Industry... a perpetual money-machine.

So McHinegy, none of us believe Bush could find his ass with both hands nor do we think he had anything to do with 911 just as we don't think he had a hand in much of anything besides clearing brush. That doesn't mean 911 wasn't an inside job pulled off by Cheney and his cronies in the PNAC who plainly stated that they needed another "Pearl Harbor" to accomplish their goals. Nofooling, has made a very succinct post declaring some of the glaring discrepancies in the "Official" story of 911 aside from the fact it was Bldg 7 not bldg 5 that went down never having been on fire nor having been hit by a plane and was never reported in the MSM either. He also correctly reported that numerous Policemen and Firefighters reported hearing demolitions going off in all three bldgs.....do your homework, check the news reels (by the way when have you ever seen an aluminum planes nose go entirely though a concrete and steel bldg and come out the other side intact?) look at everything yourself....911 WAS an inside job, the 911 Commission report is a bigger cover up than the Kennedy report and really pretty badly botched....

[rememberthis]

blatant bigotry
- insist that visas not be granted to muslims of any stripe

[incog-nito]

This was decided by the lower courts. The families can and should appeal to the Supreme Court if they want. The executive branch is not the courts. It's called separation of powers.

[cspanny]

Didnt most of these victims become millionaires from this tragedy? And now they want more money? Ridiculous!