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talkpoliticsIran Told to Pay $10.5 Billion to Sept. 11 Kin, Insurers
"Iran was ordered by a U.S. judge to pay more than $10.5 billion in damages to families of people killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and to a group of insurers. ... U.S. District Judge George Daniels in New York issued a default judgment Wednesday against Iran for $7.5 billion to the estates and families of people who died at the World Trade Center and Pentagon. It includes $2 million to each estate for the victims’ pain and suffering plus $6.88 million in punitive damages. ... Daniels also awarded $3 billion to insurers including Chubb Ltd. that paid property damage, business interruption and other claims. ... Earlier in the case, Daniels found that Iran had failed to defend claims that it aided the Sept. 11 hijackers and was therefore liable for damages tied to the attacks. Daniels’s ruling Wednesday adopts damages findings by a U.S. magistrate judge in December. While it is difficult to collect damages from an unwilling foreign nation, the plaintiffs may try to collect part of the judgments using a law that permits parties to tap terrorists’ assets frozen by the government."
I say good luck with that, bro. Perhaps Mexico will pay the bill. After all, it was Kenya that conducted the attacks, and Brazil that gave the go-ahead, after Spain said "do it", with Mongolia egging them on while the Koreans tricked them into doing so, all while Uganda organized everything behind the scenes, in the back of a van on a Moscow street at 12am on a moonlit New Zealand winter's night.
A bit more seriously, though. The way I'm reading the situation, this looks like a civil case that's been brought up in the US by some families of the victims against Iran. Because Iran was sanctioned at the time by the US government (and unable to participate in the "case"), it was an automatic "win" for the families. There's precedent for these kinds of rulings after all, as there is currently $1.5 billion in Iranian assets still frozen in a US bank, regarding a similar case in the past which the federal government acted upon (thereby seizing the assets). They're under no obligation to enforce a civil domestic ruling against a sovereign foreign entity, but they do because this is the US and this is regarding Iran. Probably some Saudi money/influence involved in the outcome, as well.
As ludicrous as this is, my guess is they'll freeze more Iranian assets, either in the US, or via a third party (Britain is a good proxy/puppet when it comes to this kind of stuff, with London being a major financial hub).
Ultimately, this may give yet more ammo to the argument that Iran needs to stay the hell away from the West, sanctions or no sanctions, and it'd better limit its transactions mostly to India, Russia, China and other friendlier nations. The lifting of some of the sanctions by Western institutions still doesn't mean as much as some have tried to present it. From an Iranian standpoint, it's just not worth the paper the promises are signed on. $200 billion of Libya's gold was seized and never returned. In fact they're "returning it" as conditional loans to the puppet Benghazi regime. So there.
When Iranians of the present regime paint "Death to America" (and its proxy Israel) on the sides of their buildings and on ballistic missiles and when they regularly burn US flags on their streets, they're not just doing it for shits and giggles. There's actually decades of torment kindling that hatred, and that torment is still there to a degree. You may refer to the above case as Exhibit A.
"Iran was ordered by a U.S. judge to pay more than $10.5 billion in damages to families of people killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and to a group of insurers. ... U.S. District Judge George Daniels in New York issued a default judgment Wednesday against Iran for $7.5 billion to the estates and families of people who died at the World Trade Center and Pentagon. It includes $2 million to each estate for the victims’ pain and suffering plus $6.88 million in punitive damages. ... Daniels also awarded $3 billion to insurers including Chubb Ltd. that paid property damage, business interruption and other claims. ... Earlier in the case, Daniels found that Iran had failed to defend claims that it aided the Sept. 11 hijackers and was therefore liable for damages tied to the attacks. Daniels’s ruling Wednesday adopts damages findings by a U.S. magistrate judge in December. While it is difficult to collect damages from an unwilling foreign nation, the plaintiffs may try to collect part of the judgments using a law that permits parties to tap terrorists’ assets frozen by the government."
I say good luck with that, bro. Perhaps Mexico will pay the bill. After all, it was Kenya that conducted the attacks, and Brazil that gave the go-ahead, after Spain said "do it", with Mongolia egging them on while the Koreans tricked them into doing so, all while Uganda organized everything behind the scenes, in the back of a van on a Moscow street at 12am on a moonlit New Zealand winter's night.
A bit more seriously, though. The way I'm reading the situation, this looks like a civil case that's been brought up in the US by some families of the victims against Iran. Because Iran was sanctioned at the time by the US government (and unable to participate in the "case"), it was an automatic "win" for the families. There's precedent for these kinds of rulings after all, as there is currently $1.5 billion in Iranian assets still frozen in a US bank, regarding a similar case in the past which the federal government acted upon (thereby seizing the assets). They're under no obligation to enforce a civil domestic ruling against a sovereign foreign entity, but they do because this is the US and this is regarding Iran. Probably some Saudi money/influence involved in the outcome, as well.
As ludicrous as this is, my guess is they'll freeze more Iranian assets, either in the US, or via a third party (Britain is a good proxy/puppet when it comes to this kind of stuff, with London being a major financial hub).
Ultimately, this may give yet more ammo to the argument that Iran needs to stay the hell away from the West, sanctions or no sanctions, and it'd better limit its transactions mostly to India, Russia, China and other friendlier nations. The lifting of some of the sanctions by Western institutions still doesn't mean as much as some have tried to present it. From an Iranian standpoint, it's just not worth the paper the promises are signed on. $200 billion of Libya's gold was seized and never returned. In fact they're "returning it" as conditional loans to the puppet Benghazi regime. So there.
When Iranians of the present regime paint "Death to America" (and its proxy Israel) on the sides of their buildings and on ballistic missiles and when they regularly burn US flags on their streets, they're not just doing it for shits and giggles. There's actually decades of torment kindling that hatred, and that torment is still there to a degree. You may refer to the above case as Exhibit A.
(no subject)
Date: 19/3/16 17:38 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 19/3/16 17:39 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 19/3/16 20:50 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 19/3/16 21:22 (UTC)O.o
I mean there's trolling and then there's outright farcial provocation of sovereign states for shits and giggles.
(no subject)
Date: 23/3/16 15:08 (UTC)