President Barack Obama will veto legislation that would allow families of the victims of 9/11 to sue Saudi Arabia in US courts, a measure opposed by the USA ally, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Monday.
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“That’s not an effective, forceful way for us to respond to terrorism”, Earnest said.
On Monday, asked whether Obama still meant to veto the bill, White House press secretary Josh Earnest replied, “that’s still the plan”. “The president feels quite strongly about this”.
The bill was passed by a voice vote in the House Friday, just two days before the 15-year anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon in 2001, the Washington Post reported. The US largely supports this, except for a few hand-picked exceptions, like allowing 9/11 victims to sue Iran, even though Iran had nothing to do with the attack.
Saudi Arabia has threatened to dump hundreds of billions of dollars of USA assets if Congress passes the law, but like Schumer, experts have pointed out the unlikelihood of Saudi Arabia following through on the threat to dump US assets, because its own currency would suffer from the resulting economic turmoil since it is tied to the dollar and because it would be very hard to pull off on such a large scale. The U.S. will meet President Barack Obama’s goal of admitting 10,000 Syrian refugees into the country, the White House announced. Officials have stressed the need to maintain the tradition of extending sovereign immunity to foreign officials, for the sake of ensuring American officials don’t become subject to foreign lawsuits, or worse.
Both the Bush and Obama administrations sought to cover up these and other facts pointing to Saudi complicity in the September 11 attacks. Earlier this summer, Congress released a set of previously classified pages from a congressional inquiry into the September 11 attacks, exploring allegations that Saudi officials supported the perpetrators. The President begins a six day trip to strategize with his counterparts in Saudi Arabia, England and Germany on a broad range of issues with efforts to rein in the Islamic State group being the common denominator in all three stops.
JASTA is created to allow victims of 9/11 to sue Saudi Arabia over the attack, based on Saudi government involvement in the scheme, as detailed by the 9/11 Report’s 28 pages. Administration officials cited fears that foreign governments might exploit the legislation to drag American officials into court.
Earnest said Obama would try to persuade lawmakers in both houses to change course. The president “has a pretty persuasive case to make”, the spokesman said.
“That is still the plan”, press secretary Josh Earnest said. “But again I think the president’s words and deeds when it comes to standing up for the interests of 9/11 families speak for themselves”. While legislators are expected to attempt an override, a success would be the first one during Obama’s presidency.
The Senate has been aiming to leave the capital as soon as this week and the House next week.
President Barack Obama and Saudi Arabia’s King Salman walk together to a meeting at Erga Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on April 20, 2016.
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The bill passed on Friday – sponsored by Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas and Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer of NY – is a response to information pointing to Saudi involvement in the September 11 attacks.
