Will Obama Veto Legislation Allowing 9/11 Families to Pursue Justice?
In symbolic political timing, the House of Representatives unanimously passed legislation on Friday that would allow the families of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers of the September 11 attacks were from Saudi Arabia, and it has long been suspected that people in the Saudi government helped finance those terrorists. The release this summer of the previously-classified 28 pages of the Joint Inquiry report into the 9/11 attacks heightened interest in allowing 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia.
One particularly interesting revelation in the 28 pages involved a Saudi national named Omar al-Bayoumi. The 28 pages reveal that:
“The FBI has received numerous reports from individuals in the Muslim community, dating back to 1999, alleging that al-Bayoumi may be a Saudi intelligence officer. FBI files suggest that al-Bayoumi provided substantial assistance to hijackers Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi after they arrived in San Diego in February 2000. Al-Bayoumi met the hijackers at a public place shortly after his meeting with an individual in the Saudi consulate and there are indications in the files that his encounter with the hijackers may not have been accidental.”
That’s just a slice of what the report says about al-Bayoumi and his interactions with the 9/11 hijackers (Khalid al-Mihdar and Nawaf al-Hazmi were on the plane that crashed into the Pentagon). But revelations like this give many 9/11 families good reason to believe that members of the Saudi government were complicit in helping and funding the 9/11 terrorists.
The legislation that passed the House was already unanimously passed by the Senate earlier this year, which means it now goes to President Obama. He has 10 days to either veto the bill or sign it, and it’s unclear what he will do. The White House has expressed displeasure with the bill but has not said whether it will be vetoed.
If the bill is vetoed, however, signs are good that the veto will be overridden. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. (F, 2%) told The Hill earlier this year, “I think we easily get the two-thirds override if the president should veto.” (For more from the author of “Will Obama Veto Legislation Allowing 9/11 Families to Pursue Justice?” please click HERE)
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