A US judge in Federal Court ruled that Iran must pay $2.6 billion in damages to nearly 1,000 family members and a handful of survivors for being directly responsible for the 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon that killed 241 soldiers.
"This court is sadly aware that there is little it can do to heal the physical wounds and emotional scars," wrote U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth in his order. But he expressed hope that "this extremely sizeable judgment will serve to aid in the healing process and simultaneously sound the alarm to the defendants that their unlawful attacks on our citizens will not be tolerated."
Hezbollah carried out the attack, masterminded by Imad Mugniyeh.
Lamberth found that Iran was "legally responsible" for supporting Hezbollah with financial and logistical support to carry out the attack. Iran did not contest the charges...no surprise there.
The WAPO makes the point that there are few Iranian financial assets in America, and thus the judgment can be difficult to collect. They're right, but not entirely so, and much depends on how aggressively the judgment is pursued.
Iran has substantial assets in Europe and there is a precedent for some European courts `domesticating' the judgment ( saying that it applies in their country as well as in the US) as in this case.
Iran also has major assets in the UAE, and perhaps, since according to President Bush they're such great friends of ours and such loyal allies in fighting Islamic terrorism, I'm certain he could have a word with them about this matter and they'd be happy to cooperate.....OK, sarcasm off.
It's also possible that full settlement of this and other financial judgments rendered against Iran for their ongoing use and support of Islamic terrorism in their war against the US might be a condition addressed in future surrender, ceasefire or `normalization' negotiations between Iran and America.
One more question..if our courts can recognize that Iran is murdering Americans and committing acts of war against us, why can't our government? And more importantly, what are they planning on doing about it?
No comments:
Post a Comment