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Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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28Sep16
Congress votes to override Obama's veto of 9/11 bill
Congress voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to allow families of Sept. 11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia for its alleged backing of the attackers, handing Barack Obama the first veto override of his presidency.
Both the House and Senate voted decisively to reverse Obama's decision to scuttle the legislation. Democrats abandoned the president in large numbers despite warnings from Obama and top national security officials that flaws in the bill could put US interests, troops, and intelligence personnel at risk.
The Senate vote was 97-1. The House vote a few hours later was 348-77.
Lawmakers said their priority was the 9/11 victims and their families, not Saudi Arabia.
"The White House and the executive branch [are] far more interested in diplomatic considerations," said Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and a sponsor of the bill. "We're more interested in the families and in justice."
Speaking at a forum in Washington, CIA Director John Brennan said he was concerned about how Saudi Arabia, a key US ally in the Middle East, would interpret the bill. He said the Saudis provide significant amounts of information to the United States to help foil extremist plots.
"It would an absolute shame if this legislation, in any way, influenced the Saudi willingness to continue to be among our best counterterrorism partners," Brennan said.
After senators acted, White House spokesman Josh Earnest called the vote the "single most embarrassing thing" the Senate has done in decades and "an abdication" of its responsibility. He accused members of the Senate Judiciary Committee of not understanding the bill and its effect on the military.
Five weeks before elections, lawmakers refused to oppose a measure strongly supported by 9/11 families who say they are still seeking justice 15 years after attackers killed nearly 3,000 people.
Despite reversing Obama's decision, a group of senators acknowledged that defects in the bill could open a legal Pandora's box, triggering lawsuits from people in other countries seeking redress for injuries or deaths caused by military actions in which the United States may have had a role.
In a letter sent Tuesday to Senate minority leader Harry Reid, Obama said the bill would erode sovereign immunity principles that prevent foreign litigants "from second-guessing our counterterrorism operations and other actions that we take every day."
Reid was the lone senator to side with the president.
But proponents of the bill dismissed Obama's concerns as unpersuasive. Senator John Cornyn of Texas and other supporters said the bill is narrowly tailored and applies only to acts of terrorism that occur on US soil. "This bill is about respecting the voices and rights of American victims," he said.
The legislation gives victims' families the right to sue in US court for any role that elements of the Saudi government may have played in the 2001 attacks. Fifteen of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers were Saudis. Courts would be permitted to waive a claim of foreign sovereign immunity when an act of terrorism occurred inside US borders, according to the bill.
The fact that legislation could pass both chambers of Congress without closer scrutiny left at least a few senators chiding themselves for not examining its ramifications.
The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act moved to the floor of the Senate in May and was passed by voice vote. The bill cleared the House earlier this month, also by voice vote.
"We didn't pay much attention to this," said Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. "And boy is that ever a lesson learned."
Of the Massachusetts delegation, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey and Representatives Michael Capuano, Katherine Clark, Joseph Kennedy III, William Keating, Stephen Lynch, Richard Neal, and Niki Tsongas backed the veto override. James McGovern and Seth Moulton voted to uphold the veto.
[Source: By Richard Lardner, AP, Washington, 28Sep16]
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 | This document has been published on 30Sep16 by the Equipo Nizkor and Derechos Human Rights. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. |