Law Review: Critical Juncture For 9/11 Lawsuit Against Saudis

I refer you to Fact #35. - Jon

Source: www.philly.com

By Chris Mondics
Inquirer Staff Writer

At the moment the north tower of the World Trade Center collapsed at 10:28 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, Sharon Premoli was scrambling up an escalator from the below-ground concourse toward the street with dozens of other office workers in a desperate bid to escape.

She looked behind her and saw two things that are burned forever in her memory: A human chain of evacuees riding the escalator and a boiling cloud of dust and debris racing toward them.

The force of that swirling storm picked her up and threw her into nearby storefront. After she awoke, she said, she soon realized she was lying on the lifeless body of a man and that she was covered with his blood.

"I remember taking my nails and scraping my tongue to remove the debris from my mouth," said Premoli, at the time a vice president for development with a financial services software company based in the North Tower. "I tried to get up and I realized I was lying on the body, and I am profoundly haunted by that."

Strip away all the arcana and legal angels dancing on heads of pins, and Premoli is the human face of litigation alleging Saudi Arabia financed the 9/11 hijackers.

She is one of 6,000 World Trade Center victims and their families who have charged in lawsuits that the government of Saudi Arabia or its officials funded Islamic charities that in turn helped finance the 9/11 attacks. The Saudis did so even as U.S. government officials warned that their money was ending up in the wrong hands, the lawsuit charges.

The case is likely to reach a critical juncture this month when the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide whether to hear arguments on Saudi Arabia's legal exposure.

The firm leading the appeal of lower court rulings dismissing Saudi Arabia as a defendant is Cozen O'Connor of Center City. It is representing insurers that suffered damages at ground zero along with appellate lawyers from the Washington office of Sidley Austin. Premoli's firm is Motley Rice, a leading plaintiffs' firm based in South Carolina that came to prominence, and significant wealth, in the tobacco litigation of the 1990s.

"All we are asking for is our day in court," said Premoli, who has moved to Vermont and now works as a consultant.

It seems like a simple premise, in fact the very pillar of the American civil justice system.

Yet by law and tradition, the United States government has long made such lawsuits against foreign governments excruciatingly difficult.

The hurdle for the plaintiffs, both insurers and individual victims, isn't simply facts and law, but also the political dimensions.

Saudi Arabia is one of the United States' most important allies in the Middle East. It has been a forward staging area for the U.S. military, deemed an important counterweight to Iran's regional ambitions, seen as a huge source of energy, and a very big purchaser of American goods and services.

U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan, in a friend-of-the-court brief filed May 29, said political questions lie at the heart of laws governing lawsuits against foreign governments.

And she emphatically urged the Supreme Court not to hear the case. Kagan asserted that there were no significant unresolved issues of law, the baseline standard for Supreme Court review, that would compel the high court to take the case.

Yet, if the defendants in this case were U.S. citizens, it is possible that the litigation would have been settled long ago.

The case includes uncontroverted information that Saudi government supported charities suspected by U.S. intelligence agencies of funneling funds to al-Qaeda as it grew from a regional threat to a pivotal player in the Balkans conflicts in recent years and a huge source of international terrorism.

Two delegations of U.S. officials traveled to Riyadh, one in 1999 and the other a year later, giving the Saudis a list of suspect charities, banks, money exchanges and terrorism financiers. According to senior American government officials, the Saudis did nothing.

Kagan's May 29 brief, representing the opinion of the Obama administration, was significant because the Supreme Court in most cases follows the solicitor general's lead.

But not always.

One threshold requirement for Supreme Court review is whether the law on a given subject is unsettled, and it is conceivable that the court may make that call in this case. That is because two separate appellate rulings holding foreign governments responsible for killings in the United States seem to conflict with another appellate court ruling last year throwing out the lawsuit against Saudi Arabia.

The plaintiffs say those decisions make clear that foreign governments, even strong allies of the U.S., can be sued. And, they maintain, that is the only way 9/11 victims will achieve justice.

"Why would the Obama administration give less weight to the principles of justice, transparency, and security and more to the pleadings of a foreign government?" asked Tom Burnett Sr., whose son, Tom Jr., died when United Flight 93 crashed near Shanksville, Pa., on Sept. 11, 2001.

He added of Kagan's brief in the case, "It strikes a blow against the public's right to know who financed and supported" the 9/11 attacks.

Eventually...

This will be added to my facts sheet.

On 1/8/2008, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that "a huge lawsuit against the government of Saudi Arabia and key members of its royal family was put to a crucial test today as lawyers for victims of the 9/11 attacks urged a federal appeals court to reinstate the government of Saudi Arabia as a defendant." The Cozen O'Connor law firm in Philadelphia "was the first to file suit against the government of Saudi Arabia in 2003, charging that the desert kingdom bears responsibility for the attacks because it permitted Islamic charities under its control to bankroll Osama bin Laden and his global terror movement." The lawsuit "suffered a setback in 2005 when New York federal district court judge Richard Conway Casey ruled that the federal foreign sovereign immunity act barred lawsuits against Saudi Arabia and members of the royal family."

On 11/13/2008, it was reported that "thousands of victims of the 9/11 attacks appealed to the Supreme Court yesterday, asking it to overturn a lower court decision barring lawsuits against Saudi Arabia for supporting acts of terrorism."

On 1/6/2009, it is reported that "lawyers for Saudi Arabia have asserted in court papers that the Supreme Court should reject arguments that the desert kingdom be held accountable for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks because, over a period of many years, it financed al-Qaeda. In papers filed with the Supreme Court, lawyers for the kingdom and several high-ranking Saudi royals say that U.S. law provides blanket immunity to Saudi Arabia from lawsuits over the 9/11 attacks."

On 2/24/2009, it is reported that "the Supreme Court yesterday asked the U.S. Solicitor General's office to weigh in on whether a huge lawsuit against the government of Saudi Arabia charging that it was a source of terrorist financing before the 9/11 attacks should move forward."

On 5/29/2009, the New York Times reports that "the Justice Department, in a brief filed Friday before the Supreme Court, said it did not believe the Saudis could be sued in American court over accusations brought by families of the Sept. 11 victims that the royal family had helped finance Al Qaeda. The department said it saw no need for the court to review lower court rulings that found in the Saudis’ favor in throwing out the lawsuit." 9/11 Family Member, and "Jersey Girl" Kristen Breitweiser said, "I find this reprehensible. 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."

On 5/30/2009, the victims family members released two press releases. The first one states, "today the Obama Administration filed in the Supreme Court a document that expressed the Administration's decision to stand with a group of Saudi princes and against the right of American citizens -- 9/11 family members -- to have our day in court. Let there be no doubt: The filing was political in nature and stands as a betrayal of everyone who lost a loved one or was injured on September 11, 2001." The second one states, "on the day that President Obama holds his first summit with Saudi Arabian King Abdullah in Riyadh, the 9/11 Families United to Bankrupt Terrorism charged that recent actions by his administration would enable five of the king's closest relatives to escape accountability for their role in financing and materially supporting the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks." The second press release lists "allegations made in 2002 of the Saudi royal family's sponsorship and support of al Qaeda that the families believe have been ignored by the Obama Administration."

On 6/9/2009, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports that this case "is likely to reach a critical juncture this month when the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide whether to hear arguments on Saudi Arabia's legal exposure." It goes on to say that "the hurdle for the plaintiffs, both insurers and individual victims, isn't simply facts and law, but also the political dimensions. Saudi Arabia is one of the United States' most important allies in the Middle East. It has been a forward staging area for the U.S. military, deemed an important counterweight to Iran's regional ambitions, seen as a huge source of energy, and a very big purchaser of American goods and services." Tom Burnett who lost his son on Flight 93 asks, "why would the Obama administration give less weight to the principles of justice, transparency, and security and more to the pleadings of a foreign government? It strikes a blow against the public's right to know who financed and supported" the 9/11 attacks." "Kagan's May 29 brief, representing the opinion of the Obama administration, was significant because the Supreme Court in most cases follows the solicitor general's lead."

I want to see what the outcome is. As if we didn't know... prediction: "The Obama Administration successfully convinced the Supreme Court not to overturn the 2005 ruling."

Edit: On 6/11/2009, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports that "lawyers representing victims of the 9/11 attacks charge that the government sought to "appease" Saudi Arabia by urging the Supreme Court not to hear arguments that the kingdom could be sued for its alleged role in funding the attackers." A "brief filed by the Center City law firm of Cozen O'Connor and other lawyers representing victims, employed unusually scathing and at times emotional language, suggesting at one point that the government's brief was timed to coincide with President Obama's visit to Saudi Arabia last week." "A spokeswoman for U.S. Solictor General Elena Kagan said the May 29 filing of the government's brief had been determined by the schedule of the Supreme Court, which is expected to decide whether to hear the case by the end of the month."


Do these people deserve to know how and why their loved ones were murdered? Do we deserve to know how and why 9/11 happened?

For those...

Who think this story isn't important, if it goes to trial, imagine how much will come out.


Do these people deserve to know how and why their loved ones were murdered? Do we deserve to know how and why 9/11 happened?