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New 9/11 Victim Lawsuit Filed under JASTA

JASTA_Saudi_Arabia

As  reported in the NY Daily News, a new 28 page 9/11 victim lawsuit was filed on March 17th, 2017 in federal court against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia under the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, also known as JASTA.

Specifically, the families of 9/11 victims allege that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia:

  • knowingly providing material support and resources to the al Qaeda terrorist organization and facilitating the September 11th Attacks,

  • raised, laundered and paid substantial financial support to al Qaeda to fund its budget and terrorist activities, including the preparation and execution of the September llth Attacks;

  • funded the terrorist training camps in Afghanistan where al Qaeda indoctrinated and taught their hijackers the skills they used to carry out the September llth Attacks;

  • provided critical logistical support and resources to al Qaeda around the world, funding safe houses, furnishing false passport and travel documents, transferring al Qaeda money, weapons and equipment across international borders and other assistance, all of which enabled al Qaeda to conduct the September 11th Attacks;

  • actively supported al Qaeda in its final preparations for the September 11th Attacks through a network of the Kingdom’s officers, employees and/or agents who met with and aided the hijackers, providing them with money, cover, advice, contacts, transportation, assistance with language and U.S. culture, identification, access to pilot training and other material support and resources.

  • For years prior to and on September 11, 2001, Saudi Arabia established, owned, operated and controlled a series of state-run “charity” organizations, namely:

    • the Muslim World League (MWL),

    • the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), • the Rabita Trust,

    • the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY),

    • the Benevolence International Foundation (BIF),

    • the al Haramain Islamic Foundation (AHIF),

    • the Saudi High Commission for Relief of Bosnia and Herzegovina (SHC),

    • the Saudi Joint Relief Committee for Kosovo and Albania (SJRC), and

    • the Saudi Red Crescent (SRC),

  • these  Saudi “charity” organizations:

    •  (i) were so closely related to Saudi Arabia that they must be considered as part of Saudi Arabia, and/or;

    • (ii) were government agents of Saudi Arabia and/or;

(iii) were alter-egos of Saudi Arabia, because Saudi Arabia: established, controlled, operated and regulated each organization through its King, Council of Ministers, the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs, the Council of Senior Ulema, Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, other Ministries and bodies and Saudi Arabia’s Embassies throughout the world; maintained significant, repeated and extensive control of the day-to-day operations of each organization; provided each organization with virtually all of its funding and determined how its funds were distributed; established guidelines, plans and policies that each organization was required to follow; appointed Saudi Arabia officials and employees to the lead positions within each organization; staffed each organization with Saudi Arabia’s officials and employees; hired, fired and directed each organization’s officers and employees; required each organization to obtain its approval for ordinary business decisions, including purchases, the locations of its operations and offices, banking, budgeting and grant decisions; used each organization’s personnel and property as its own; ignored the separate legal status, if any, of each organization; treated each organization as a part of Saudi Arabia; used each organization to perform its core governmental functions, including foreign affairs and the advancement of Saudi Arabia’s state religion of Wahhabism throughout the world; and operated, controlled and used each organization in such a manner that it would work a fraud or injustice to regard the organization as a legal entity separate from Saudi Arabia.

  • Saudi Arabia adopted an extremist version of Islam, Wahhabism, as the state religion; declared that its propagation was a core function of the state; and, sought to advance it around the world through Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Embassies, Saudi Arabia’s charity organizations and other government agents.

  • Saudi Arabia knew from at least the early 1990s that al Qaeda had begun to pursue and carry out terrorist attacks against the United States, and used Wahhabism to justify its campaign of anti-American violence, but Saudi Arabia’s charitable organizations and Saudi Arabia’s officials, employees and agents continued to provide material support and resources for al Qaeda through and including September 11, 2001.

  • From 1988 to 1990, Saudi Arabia knew that Osama Bin Laden made public speeches at his family’s mosque in Jeddah and other locations in Saudi Arabia where he declared that the United States was the primary target of al Qaeda; as an example, in 1990 he stated that:

    “The Americans won’t stop their support of Jews in Palestine until we give them a lot of blows. They won’t stop until we do jihad against them.”

  • For years prior to September 11, 2001, as further detailed herein, Saudi Arabia had a relationship and communications with Osama Bin Laden and al Qaeda’s operatives, associates and activities throughout the world.

  • For at least a decade prior to and on September 11, 2001, as detailed herein, Saudi Arabia knew that numerous officials, employees and agents of Saudi Arabia were al Qaeda operatives or sympathizers who actively supported al Qaeda’s terrorist agenda against the United States.

  • For years prior to and including September 11, 2001, Saudi Arabia’s passport offices and authorities applied a secret marker/indicator to the passports of persons who had known ties to al Qaeda, and this marker/indicator was found in the passports of at least three of the 19 hijackers responsible for the September 11th Attacks, including Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Mihdhar, and others who assisted them, including Omar al Bayoumi, a Saudi Arabia employee and agent who aided the hijackers in 2000-2001 in California, as detailed herein, and information about this marker/indicator was not known by United States consular officers, immigration or law enforcement agencies.

  • For at least a decade prior to and on September 11, 2001, as detailed herein, Saudi Arabia had knowledge of the violent goals of al Qaeda and its leader Osama Bin Laden to wage terrorist attacks against the United States and its citizens and that al Qaeda had engaged in numerous terrorist attacks and attempted attacks against United States targets.

  • For at least a decade prior to and on September 11, 2001, support for al Qaeda’s terrorist agenda against the United States was pervasive among officials and employees of Saudi Arabia, and Saudi Arabia was duplicitous: it presented a public face to the United States and other Western countries of a nation fighting al Qaeda and terrorism while at the same time,  Saudi government actors gave al Qaeda substantial material support and resources.

  • For many years prior to and on September 11, 2001, Saudi Arabia knew of many attempts by al Qaeda to conduct terrorist attacks directed against the United States, including the December 1992 attempt by al Qaeda to attack the United States by bombing two hotels in Sanaa, Yemen where al Qaeda thought U.S. military personnel were staying.

  • On or shortly after February 26, 1993, Saudi Arabia knew that terrorists affiliated with al Qaeda exploded a truck bomb in the parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City, with the intent to topple one of the towers into the other, resulting in 6 deaths and over 1,000 injuries.

  • In or about October 1993, Saudi Arabia knew that al Qaeda was involved in the attack on U.S. military forces in Somalia that resulted in 18 deaths and numerous injuries to U.S. soldiers.

There are more disturbing allegations in this long legal complaint. We are not publishing the actual legal complaint so as to protect the names of victims and their families.  If you would like a copy of the public document, you may call us at 631-518-6155.  It is disturbing reading.

Saudi Arabia continues to spend millions of dollars on lobbyists in Washington, DC to influence members of Congress to repeal or amend the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, also known as JASTA.  It would be a travesty of justice for Congress and the President  to allow this to happen.

If you have questions about your eligibility to join the new 2017 9/11 JASTA lawsuit, please call one of the Turley Hansen 9/11 JASTA lawyers at 1-855-WTC-INFO (1- 800-887-7299).