The U.S. Senate passed legislation on
Tuesday that would allow victims of the Sept. 11 attacks to file lawsuits
seeking damages from Saudi Arabia, setting up a potential showdown with the
White House, which has threatened a veto.
The Saudis, who deny
responsibility for the 2001 attacks, strongly object to the bill and have
threatened to sell up to $750 billion in U.S. securities and other American
assets in retaliation if it becomes law.
The "Justice Against Sponsors
of Terrorism Act," or JASTA, passed the Senate by unanimous voice vote. It
must next be taken up by the U.S. House of Representatives, where no vote has
yet been scheduled.
If it became law, JASTA would
remove the sovereign immunity, preventing lawsuits against governments, for
countries found to be involved in terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. It would
allow survivors of the attacks, and relatives of those killed in the attacks,
to seek damages from other countries.
In this case, it would allow lawsuits
to proceed in federal court in New York as lawyers try to prove that the Saudis
were involved in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Democratic Senator Charles Schumer
of New York, a co-sponsor, said the bill is overdue and that, because it only
applies to attacks on U.S. soil, does not risk lawsuits against the United
States.
"Today the Senate has spoken
loudly and unanimously that the families of victims of terrorist attacks should
be able to hold the perpetrators, even if it's a country, a nation,
accountable," Schumer told a news conference.
Republican Senator John Cornyn of
Texas, also a sponsor of the bill, said JASTA does not target the Saudis,
although he alluded to a still-classified section of a report on the Sept. 11
attacks that Saudi critics say might implicate Riyadh.
"We have yet to see the 28
pages that have not been yet released about the 9/11 report, and that may well
be instructive," Cornyn said at the news conference.
Other lawmakers who have seen the
28 pages have said releasing them would quiet such rumors.
Cornyn said it was up to the court
to decide whether the Saudis were liable. "I don't believe that this will
be destructive of the relationship that we have with the kingdom of Saudi
Arabia," he said.
The Obama administration has said
it opposes JASTA and that President Barack Obama would veto it. Asked if Senate
Democrats would back a veto, Schumer said he would vote against Obama.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle;
Editing by Bill Rigby and Jonathan Oatis)
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