House Set to Pass Symbolic Bill Allowing 9/11 Victims to Sue…

The concern is that the law could damage the U.S.’ relationship with Saudi Arabia and create a risky situation for American officials overseas.

The Gulf monarchies were also anxious that the historic accord would embolden Iran to adopt a more assertive foreign policy across the region.

The bill addresses a 1976 law that gives foreign nations broad immunity from American lawsuits by amending it to allow for nations to be sued in federal courts if they are found to have played any role in terrorist attacks that killed Americans on home soil.

An aircraft fires missiles during the Northern Thunder exercises, in Hafr Al-Batin, near Saudi Arabia’s border with Iraq, March 10, 2016.

The vote to send the bill to the President comes two days before the 15th anniversary of the attacks that killed almost 3,000 Americans. “The United States does not engage in worldwide terrorist activity”.

The documents released claim Omar al-Bayoumi, a Saudi national who helped two of the hijackers in San Diego, Calif., was suspected of being a Saudi intelligence officer. Supporters of the bill are confident they have the votes to override a veto from President Barack Obama. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is among the backers of the bipartisan legislation under review.

Summary⎙ Print The Obama administration has offered to sell Saudi Arabia a record $115 billion in weapons.

The House of Representatives passed a bill on Friday on a voice vote that would allow the family members of those who lost their lives during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, to sue the nation of Saudi Arabia in US courts. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., led a moment of silence on the Capitol steps, and lawmakers sang “God Bless America” in remembrance of 9/11, when lawmakers gathered in the same location to sing the song immediately after the attacks on NY and Washington. They had said they might sell up to $750 billion in USA securities and other American assets in retaliation if it became law. Nadler has said he wants the legislation brought to a vote before the 15th anniversary of the attacks, which claimed the lives of almost 3,000 people when terrorists hijacked and crashed commercial airliners into New York City’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C. and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The kingdom had never been formally implicated all these years. The report detailed substantial financial support from the Saudi royal family to people who facilitated the attack. Research shows that on October 20, 2010, US State Department had notified Congress of its intention to make the biggest arms sale in American history – an estimated $60.5 billion purchase by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. “That’s why the [Obama] administration is opposed to it, and that’s why every country in the world is opposed to it”. “If a court were to further find for plaintiffs that Saudi Arabia owes them money because of acts of terrorism, then that also affects Saudi Arabia’s reputation”.