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Obama Vetoes 9/11 Victim Justice Bill
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You may have heard about the “missing 28 pages” of the 9/11 Commission Report that implicated Saudi Arabia in the terror attacks which took place 15 years ago. For over a decade, families of victims in the attacks have been wondering if the pages would ever be released. Now that they have, it can be seen that individuals from the Middle Eastern kingdom were indeed connected to the events and helped to finance the tragedy.
Family members of the victims have been lobbying Congress to allow them to sue the government of Saudi Arabia directly and any other foreign entities proven to have had a hand in the strikes. Congress has heard their appeals and many lawmakers such as Republican Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Bob Goodlatte agree wholeheartedly that American citizens should have the right to file lawsuits.
In the meantime, the Saudi Arabian government has retained the counsel of at least eight Washington, D.C. lobbying firms, including The Podesta group, which was founded by Tony Podesta, the brother of Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager Jon Podesta.
Saudi Arabia has vigorously protested the potential for suits against it, denying responsibility for the attacks, despite 15 of the 19 hijackers being citizens of the country. Saudi foreign minister Adel bin Ahmed al-Jubeir had previously threatened to withdraw assets worth $750 billion from American banks and financial institutions in order to reduce potential liabilities in the face of such action.
A bill called the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) was written and passed in both the House and the Senate and reached President Obama’s desk, only to be vetoed by the president despite tremendous pressure from victims’ relatives and legislators in Congress. It was the president’s twelfth veto in office and one of his most controversial.
How could the president elevate the desires of a human-rights-violating regime such as Saudi Arabia over the losses of American families?
It should be noted that this is the same presidential administration that approved arms sales worth more than $29 billion to the kingdom under the oversight of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and continues to approve them today.
Perhaps Clinton’s Saudi Arabian ties have something to do with it?
Hillary Clinton’s longtime personal assistant Huma Abedin grew up in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and her mother Saleha Mahmood Abedin (who Clinton has supported and appeared in public with) is a defender of barbaric Muslim practices such as female genital mutilation, wife beating and child marriage.
The Clintons’ connections to the country go much deeper than that. The kingdom has donated around $25 million to the Clinton Foundation, and Bill Clinton is a close friend of former longtime Saudi ambassador to the U.S. Prince Bandar bin Sultan, whose wife Haifa gave money to Saudi businessmen Omar al-Bayoumi and Osama Bassnan, who in turn financially supported 9/11 hijackers Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi.
Even President Obama has literally bowed down before the fundamentalist Saudi regime previously, such as when he visited the kingdom earlier this year. Obama was seen bowing before Saudi King Salman, despite not being greeted personally at the airport by the leader even as the king greeted nearly every other visiting foreign dignitary this way.
To say that Saudi Arabia has been short-changing the United States public relations-wise would be an understatement. King Salman chastised Obama for his recent support of Iran and drew fire from the U.S. State Department for executing an Iranian cleric, Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, in January of this year.
The country has been a longtime pariah in the eyes of human rights non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Last year, the kingdom publicly beheaded 157 people (twice as many as ISIS) under Sharia law.
This is on top of annual deaths that have occurred from trampling and overcrowding in the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca when more than two million Muslims journey from all parts of the world to the holy city to perform religious rites.
Last year the number of dead was 2,411; in 2006, it was 346; in 2004, it was 251 — this has been a recurring scandal for the kingdom that no amount of media attention seems to be able to mitigate.
Saudi Arabia has also drawn fire from human rights organizations for its brutal attacks on Houthi rebels in the neighboring nation of Yemen, which have killed children, doctors, patients and newlyweds. Many of the attacks have been called war crimes.
A number of them have been executed using weapons such as cluster bombs supplied by the United States. Congressmen like Republican Representative Ted Yoho of Florida are wondering why we’re still selling weapons to the extremist regime.
The New York Times has editorialized in favor of curtailing arms sales to the country, saying “the [Saudi] coalition would be grounded if Washington withheld its support.” A recent $1.15 billion arms sale to the country was opposed by 27 senators, including a number of Republicans.
In fact, one wonders why our government backs the Wahhabist state of Saudi Arabia at all, knowing its connections to 9/11 and seeing that it has a propensity to commit horrible atrocities using weapons it purchases, on top of being one of the worst human rights violators in the world, according to NGO Freedom House.
Perhaps it could have something to do with our dependence on their precious oil reserves?
According to President Obama, he vetoed JASTA because he claimed that other countries would take reciprocal actions against the U.S. itself or against American citizens, members of the military or U.S. diplomats. Many members of Congress aren’t so sure — even if they are, they don’t care.
Some GOP Senators such as John Cornyn of Texas are threatening to override the president’s veto on the bill and allow 9/11 victims’ families to sue the Middle Eastern monarchy.
“I look forward to the opportunity for Congress to override the President’s veto [and] provide these families with the chance to seek the justice they deserve and send a clear message that we will not tolerate those who finance terrorism in the United States,” Cornyn vowed.
This is absolutely the right thing to do, and in the wake of the president’s veto, conservatives should urge their senators to unequivocally overrule Obama’s rejection of JASTA.
~American Liberty Report
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