JASTA

Saudi Lobbying Armada Grows Even Larger; Governors Targeted

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Texas Capitol Building
Texas Capitol

With governors as new political targets, Saudi Arabia has again expanded its already formidable array of lobbying firms. Following a September surge that brought the tally to 10, an October expansion now brings the total to 14.

The influence spending spree has spanned nearly a year and has coincided with three major developments:

  • Saudi Arabia’s war and blockade on Yemen, which has taken a terrible humanitarian toll.
  • A campaign that prompted the July release of 28 pages detailing a variety of Saudi government links to the 9/11 hijackers and their associates.
  • The September passage of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), which cleared the path for 9/11 family members and other victims to sue the government of Saudi Arabia.

The repeal of JASTA is the clear objective of this latest round of lobbying investment, according to reports at al-Jazeera, The Hill and Washington Post.

The measure passed both houses of Congress by unanimous voice votes; President Obama vetoed it and then endured the first override of his tenure. The fight is far from over; Saudi Arabia is now waging a fierce, multi-pronged attack on the measure with an eye on reversing it during the upcoming lame duck session of Congress.

Coming Soon: Governors Against JASTA

A document filed with the Foreign Agents Registration Unit (FARA) indicates one of the lobbying firms, Flywheel Government Solutions, will, for an initial fee of $25,000:

  • “Conduct outreach to Governors and Lieutenant Governors from across the United States, educating them on the impacts and potential risks/threats that JASTA poses on their states’ business and economic interests, members of the military and national security”
  • “Engage and align selected Governors and Lieutenant Governors to take grasstops action, such as writing letters to their respective state’s congressional delegation, to appeal to Congress to repeal JASTA.”
  • “Attempt to enlist Governors and Lieutenant Governors to write opinion pieces in newspapers or other publications or to make public statements opposing Congress’ passage of JASTA.”
Flywheel's David Beightol
Flywheel Co-Founder David Beightol

What the Saudi lobbying effort boasts in budget, it lacks in facts. For example, though JASTA only enables lawsuits against foreign governments, and merely modifies an existing allowance for suits against terror sponsors, the kingdom and its many domestic sympathizers routinely claim that it is an unprecedented departure from the principle of sovereign immunity and will somehow expose individual U.S. military service members to litigation in foreign courts.

As Flywheel gets to work in immersing state executives in the kingdom’s false arguments and urging them to publicly oppose JASTA, other voices have already started a stream of misleading opinion pieces and editorials. Two representative samples:

  • Former CIA agent Chet Nagle: “JASTA abrogates the principle of sovereign immunity….JASTA means that American diplomats and soldiers will be sued in Iraq and other foreign courts, crippling our ability to…defend our national security.”
  • Defense Intelligence Agency veteran Paul Crespo: “JASTA would gut the 500-year-old principle of sovereign immunity across the board…without sovereign immunity, countries…could prosecute our soldiers.”

Once the election is over, expect the anti-JASTA drumbeat to grow ever louder; it will be up to the same coalition that made JASTA the law to now guard it against Saudi counterattack—and in so doing, preserve for 9/11 victims the chance to present their case in court.

Brian McGlinchey’s journalism has moved to a Substack newsletter—Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey: https://starkrealities.substack.com/

Kerry Collaborating with Saudi Official to “Fix” 9/11 Lawsuit Bill

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False Arguments Aside, White House Knows JASTA is Only a Threat to U.S. Government Hypocrisy in War on Terror 

By Brian P. McGlinchey

Secretary Kerry and Foreign Minister al-Jubeir
Secretary Kerry and Foreign Minister al-Jubeir

Following a meeting with Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters the two explored how to “fix” a recently-passed law that cleared the way for 9/11 survivors and family members to sue the kingdom for its alleged support of the hijackers.

Kerry and al-Jubeir both claimed JASTA puts at risk the entire concept of sovereign immunity, which limits the rights of individual people to pursue justice for the crimes of governments. “If this issue takes hold, we will have chaos in the international order, and this is something that no country in the world wants,” said al-Jubeir.

Kerry also repeated previous Obama administration claims that JASTA threatens those serving in the U.S. military. “We discussed ways to try to fix this in a way that respects and honors the needs and rights of victims of 9/11 but at the same time does not expose American troops and American partners and American individuals who may be involved in another country to the potential of a lawsuit for those activities,” said Kerry.

“What happened yesterday is outrageous,” said 9/11 widow Terry Strada in a statement issued yesterday. “The fact that Secretary Kerry would lead off his public remarks not by talking about ISIS or Iraq, but instead by assuring the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that he would work to destroy the 9/11 bill, speaks volumes and is very painful for all September 11th families,” continued Strada, who helped lead the effort to pass the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA).

Dishonest Arguments

The Obama administration and Saudi monarchy want us to believe two things:

  • JASTA represents a major departure from the previous U.S. approach to sovereign immunity.
  • U.S. military service members will face suits in foreign courts as other nations reciprocate with similar adjustments to their own laws.

Bolstered by a multi-million dollar effort coordinated among Saudi Arabia’s armada of lobbying and public relations firms, these arguments are sadly working wonders on credulous pundits and editorial boards—but they’re flatly dishonest.

First, JASTA represents a very narrow adjustment to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA)—one that only addresses state sponsorship of terrorism. What’s more, prior to JASTA, the FSIA already provided an exception that allowed U.S. citizens to sue foreign state sponsors of terror. That exception was enacted in 1996 without sparking the disproportionate global retaliation that Kerry says will result from JASTA.

Further, JASTA only allows plaintiffs to sue foreign governments—not individual officials or military service members—and only for acts of terrorism, specifically excluding acts of war. How does Kerry propose “fixing” a law that already protects U.S. servicemen and women from reciprocity?

What’s Really at Stake

The principal effect of JASTA is to now allow plaintiffs to sue foreign governments:

  • For actions those governments take abroad in aiding terrorism on U.S. soil. Before JASTA, a government that handed a briefcase full of cash to a terrorist in New York could be sued, but if that same act happened in Montreal, it enjoyed immunity.
  • That are not on the State Department’s list of official state sponsors of terror. The Secretary of State unilaterally decides who makes the list; today, it’s Iran, Sudan and Syria. [Nov 3 correction: Please note that, even before JASTA, State designation as a sponsor of terror was not a prerequisite for suits relating to injuries that occur on U.S. soil.]

It’s that second attribute that represents JASTA’s real threat—not to American soldiers, marines and airmen, but to an abused executive branch monopoly on declaring which countries are sponsoring terrorism. Rather than providing an honest catalogue of real-world villainy, the American government uses the terror list as a blunt force weapon to economically and diplomatically isolate selected countries that defy it.

Cuba was on the list until the Obama administration decided to abandon decades of counterproductive isolation of the country; one day it’s a menacing fomenter of terror, the next it’s not. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is absent from the list, despite 28 pages of damning details illustrating a variety of Saudi government links to the 9/11 hijackers and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s declaration in a leaked 2014 email that the kingdom was “providing clandestine financial and logistical support to ISIL.”

An exchange at a July House judiciary committee hearing on JASTA between State Department legal advisor Brian Egan and Tennessee Congressman Steve Cohen summed up the situation nicely.

Egan: Under the existing terrorism exception, cases are allowed against countries that are designated state sponsors of terrorism…The existing exception was crafted between Congress and the executive branch to allow for a decision and evidence to be looked at by the executive branch as to whether the relevant government has repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism. We think that’s an important part of the process and one that would change with this law.

Rep. Cohen: Mr. Egan, Saudi Arabia is not on the list, right?

Egan: That’s correct, sir.

Rep. Cohen: And if we change this law and they’re subject to liability, might we find that they should have been?

In a forgivable breach of decorum, 9/11 widows and widowers in attendance applauded.

McGlinchey is the founder and director of 28Pages.org and principal at Liberty Messaging. Follow him on Twitter: @LibertyMcG.

Brian McGlinchey’s journalism has moved to a Substack newsletter—Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey: https://starkrealities.substack.com/

Clinton Email May Help Preserve Power to Sue Saudis for 9/11

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Clinton with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal
Clinton with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal

A 2014 email released by Wikileaks, in which Hillary Clinton asserted that the governments of Saudi Arabia and Qatar were directly aiding ISIS and other extremist groups, may help stave off a Saudi lobbying effort aimed at reversing a newly-enacted law giving 9/11 families the power to sue the kingdom.

The email, sent to Clinton presidential campaign chairman John Podesta, lays out an assessment of the situation in Syria and Iraq and includes various policy prescriptions.

One of them leveled a pointed indictment at Saudi Arabia: “We need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups in the region.” (ISIL is an abbreviation for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant—an alternative reference for ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.)

Clinton ISIS Email ExcerptAs Daily Caller’s Alex Pfeiffer noted in breaking the story, the email’s format matches previously revealed intelligence reports prepared for Clinton by her confidante Sidney Blumenthal. Though it may have been drafted by Blumenthal, Clinton’s sharing of the material without attribution seemingly signals her embrace of its contents, including the damning assertion about Saudi Arabia.

This isn’t the first time Wikileaks has revealed a Clinton assertion of ties between Saudi Arabia and terrorism. In a 2009 cable, then-Secretary of State Clinton said “donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide.”

The newly-released email is particularly significant because, rather than vaguely implicating unidentified “donors” that may or may not include individual members of the royal family acting independently, it specifically points a finger of guilt at the Saudi government itself.

Former Senator Bob Graham
Former Senator Bob Graham

The email validates former Senator Bob Graham’s previous assertions that, by classifying Saudi links to the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. government helped pave the way for the rise of ISIS.

“I believe that the failure to shine a full light on Saudi actions and particularly its involvement in 9/11 has contributed to the Saudi ability to continue to engage in actions that are damaging to the US—and in particular their support for ISIS,” Graham told Patrick Cockburn in a 2014 interview.

Strengthening the Case for JASTA

The Clinton email leak comes just a few weeks after the enactment of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), which amended the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) in a way that enables 9/11 family members and victims to sue the Saudi government for its alleged financial and logistical support of the hijackers.

President Obama vetoed the bill and, though his veto was overwhelmingly overridden, JASTA supporters are bracing for a determined Saudi counterattack in the lame duck session of Congress. That counterattack will likely take the form of a new alteration of FSIA to reverse some or all of JASTA’s effect.

Though JASTA explicitly limits its scope to terrorism and only applies to governments, opponents—under heavy pressure from Saudi Arabia and the U.S. intelligence community—are claiming JASTA will leave individual U.S. military service members vulnerable to lawsuits filed abroad if foreign governments modify their own sovereign immunity laws in reciprocation.

In a statement issued after Obama’s veto, attorneys for 9/11 families said “a reciprocal statute could not permit claims against individual U.S. officials, employees or military personnel, as JASTA prohibits such actions…the inescapable conclusion is that the president’s rationale for opposing JASTA has nothing to do with JASTA itself.”

What remains to be seen: Whether the revelation of Clinton’s assertion that Saudi Arabia was funding ISIS as late as 2014 will strengthen legislators’ resistance to pressure from a foreign government…and from an intelligence community that often appears to be more closely aligned with an oppressive Middle Eastern monarchy than with its own citizens.

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White House Protest Will Counter Obama-Saudi Campaign to Kill 9/11 Lawsuit Bill

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White HouseAs the Obama administration and the Saudi government lobby Congress to prevent an override of the president’s promised veto of a bill that would enable 9/11 lawsuits against the kingdom, family members are organizing a White House protest of that veto for this Tuesday.

9/11 family members, survivors and other concerned citizens will convene near the White House at Lafayette Square on Tuesday, September 20 at 12:30 pm and organizers are arranging for bus transportation. If you can join them, you’re encouraged to sign up at passJASTA.org (whether you need transportation or not).

Effort to Kill 9/11 Bill Quietly Strengthens

The bill at the center of this controversy is the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), which has now passed both the Senate and House via unanimous voice votes. President Obama has until Friday, September 23 to veto the measure, and appears likely to use all of that time to lobby lawmakers against overriding him.

With Congress poised to go on a lengthy election-season recess, the delay could also prevent the override vote from happening until much later this year, when legislators won’t face voter retaliation if they help Obama kill the measure.

Bob Corker and Saudi Prince Bandar
Senator Corker and Saudi Prince Bandar

The New York Times reported yesterday that “already, cracks are showing, even among Republicans who generally would love to exercise the first veto override against Mr. Obama.” One of those wavering Republicans is Tennessee senator Bob Corker, who told the Times that passing the law would encourage other countries to reciprocate, exposing the U.S. government to suits filed by family members of innocent victims of U.S. drone strikes.

Since he isn’t up for re-election this year, Corker is a logical point man for Republicans who are sympathetic to the administration’s drive to kill the bill. Corker has also supported Saudi Arabia’s U.S.-facilitated war in Yemen, which is creating mass suffering among Yemen’s population while strengthening al-Qaeda’s position in the country.

In July, 28 long-classified pages from a 2002 congressional intelligence inquiry into 9/11 were declassified. They catalog dozens of inter-connections between Saudi government employees, suspected intelligence operatives, al-Qaeda associates and individuals who aided the 9/11 hijackers. Some of the most important revelations concerned the then-Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan.

9/11 Commission’s Bob Kerrey Supports JASTA

In a piece for The Hill yesterday, former senator and 9/11 Commission member Bob Kerrey fully endorsed JASTA, declaring that “signing this bill into law will be an act of justice and will help make the United States homeland a safer place to live.”

He also refuted repeated claims by the Obama administration and the Saudi kingdom that the 9/11 Commission report is evidence of Saudi Arabia’s innocence. “This is not true.  It is true that the Commission did not conclude that the Saudis were guilty but we most definitely did not conclude that they were not involved.  In fact there was considerable evidence suggesting just the opposite,” wrote Kerrey.

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9/11 Families to Attend Speaker Ryan’s Memorial Event…to Either Thank Him or Condemn Him

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Speaker Ryan and Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman
Speaker Ryan and Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman

On Friday at 10:30am, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi will host a 9/11 memorial event on the Capitol steps.

9/11 family members, survivors and other citizens are planning to be there too. Depending on Ryan’s actions this week with the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), their purpose will either be to publicly thank him for scheduling a vote on the measure or to publicly reprimand him for failing to do so.

The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) would modify U.S. sovereign immunity laws in a way that would clear the path for the families and surviving victims of the attacks to sue Saudi Arabia. It passed the Senate by unanimous voice vote, but now requires a vote in the House of Representatives.

Peter J. Owens, Jr
Peter J. Owens, Jr

Kathy Owens, who lost her husband Peter in the attacks and is helping to organize Friday’s activism, says it’s difficult to watch elected officials commemorate the attacks while continuing to shield Saudi Arabia from facing 9/11 families in court.

“It’s outrageous that they would say they’re honoring the victims when they have been blocking justice for them. It’s really hypocrisy for them to attend ceremonies and make speeches about 9/11 victims when after 15 years there’s been no justice or accountability,” Owens said.

If you’re interested in attending, please fill out this online form to help the organizers gauge interest and plan for logistics, which may include transportation for 9/11 families and survivors in the New York area. If you have questions, email passjasta@gmail.com.

Help This 15-Year Fight for Justice

9/11 family members and survivors have been fighting for nearly 15 years for the chance to present a courtroom case against Saudi Arabia for its alleged role in supporting the hijackers who killed nearly 3,000 people. Whether you can attend Friday’s memorial or make a phone call, your involvement can help make that vote happen.

Please leave a voicemail for Speaker of the House Paul Ryan today.

Call 202-225-3031 and press 6 to leave a recorded message: “My name is _______ and I want Speaker Ryan to put the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act to the floor for a vote this week, before the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.”

Please take action right away: You can make this quick call any time of day. If you’d prefer to send a written message via the Speaker’s website, you can do so using this online form.  Extra credit: Call House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy at 202-225-2915 and tell him the same thing.

Another Avenue for Achieving Transparency

The declassified 28 pages revealed many new connections between the Saudi government and the 9/11 plotters, but the executive branch is still concealing important information from the American people—from 80,000 FBI pages relating to the disappearance of a wealthy Saudi family in Florida that was in apparent contact with the hijackers to countless 9/11 Commission documents. Through the discovery process associated with a court case, the judicial branch may be our best shot to pry these documents loose and bring the full truth about Saudi links to 9/11 to light.

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