The Sue Saudi Arabia Bill Could Bite U.S. Big Time

The “Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act,” vetoed by President Obama but widely expected to be passed in a Congressional override, would open the door to “an avalanche of lawsuits” targeting the United States, according to Stephen Kinzer, former New York Times reporter and senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University. For starters, he said, survivors of years of drone strikes, including parents of 160 children in Pakistan, would be potential plaintiffs, as would those who endured enhanced interrogation during the years since 9-11. “From there,” he writes, “the list is almost endless. Every country where U.S. intervention has produced bloody results would become fertile ground for lawsuits. Guatemalans could sue for our long support of regimes in their country that carried out murder on a grand scale. So could families of Salvadorans, Chileans, Brazilians, and others who were tortured and killed by U.S.-trained military units.” Kinzer also observes that if Americans can sue Saudi Arabia over support for terror groups, they could also sue Pakistan, and even countries in Europe over “negligence” for failing to monitor people who later committed terrorist crimes. “This circus,” he writes, “would run in both directions.” Kinzer’s analysis appeared shortly before the President issued his veto – a veto which the Senate was widely expected to override shortly, with the House predicted to do likewise later in the week.