House to vote this week on letting 9/11 families sue Saudis

WASHINGTON -- The House will vote this week on whether to allow 9/11 survivors and family members of those killed that day to sue Saudi Arabia in connection with the attacks, a spokeswoman for House Speaker Paul Ryan confirmed Wednesday.

he Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) passed the Senate unanimously in mid-May.

President Obama has threatened to veto the legislation, saying it could open the door for other countries to allow lawsuits against Americans in courts abroad. But Congress appears to have enough votes for an override.

"We are firm believers nobody is going to vote against this bill,'' Terry Strada, national chair of the 9/11 Families and Survivors United for Justice Against Terrorism, said Wednesday.

Strada, whose husband was a Cantor Fitzgerald bond trader who died when the World Trade Center collapsed on 9/11, was in Washington with two other 9/11 families lobbying for a House vote on JASTA before Sunday, the 15th anniversary of the attacks.

"All we've ever wanted is accountability for 9/11,'' Strada said. "Nodbody has ever been held accountable. I don't care if it's the Saudis. We have a right to accountability and justice. What kind of lesson are we teaching our children? That we can get away with murder? That's what the lesson is now for my three children."

Strada's youngest child, Justin, was four days old on 9/11. He turned 15 on Wednesday.

The surviving terrorists involved in 9/11 have been held at the military detention camp at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, where they are awaiting trial. But others who helped plan and finance the attacks haven't been identified or tried in U.S. courts, according to Strada and the other 9/11 advocates.

In July, the Obama administration finally declassified 28 pages of the report from the 9/11 Commission that pointed to multiple links between the terrorists and associates of Saudi Arabian Prince Bandar, the former longtime ambassador to the United States. The report also mentions possible conduits of money from the Saudi royal family to Saudis living in the United States and two of the 9/11 hijackers in San Diego. The documents also indicate substantial support to California mosques where radical Islamist sentiments ran high.

Families of the 9/11 victims say the legislation would allow several lawsuits -- consolidated into one case on behalf of 9/11 victims and several insurance companies -- to proceed, as lawyers attempt to prove Saudi government involvement in the terrorist plot.

The bill specifically provides an exception to sovereign immunity for countries involved in terrorist attacks inside the United States.

Senate could vote next week to allow 9/11 lawsuits against Saudi Arabia

Families who lost loved ones in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon say they've never received an explanation of how the attacks were financed. They have pursued a lawsuit since 2003 in federal court in the Southern District of New York seeking to find out.

The lengthy legal battle has stretched out as lawyers have battled over whether the Saudi government has immunity from prosecution under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976 or whether they are covered by an exception for terrorist acts in the U.S.

The latest setback for the 9/11 families came last September in a ruling by U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels, who said the court lacked jurisdiction. Attorneys for the 9/11 families have said the legislation merely clarifies existing law.