9/11 bill passes US Senate despite Saudi 'warning'

A bill that would allow the families of 9/11 victims to sue the
Saudi government has passed a key hurdle in the US Senate.
The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) now
moves to the House of Representatives.
Saudi Arabia's foreign minister warned that the move could
cause his government to withdraw US investments.
President Barack Obama said he will veto the bill, but a
Democratic senator is "confident" he'd be overruled.
If it became law the legislation would allow victims' families to
sue any member of the government of Saudi Arabia thought to
have played a role in any element of the attack.
Saudi Arabia denies any involvement in the 2001 attack on the
World Trade Center and the Pentagon, which killed nearly
3,000 people.
Fifteen out of the nineteen hijackers in 2001 were Saudi
citizens.
In 2004 the 9/11 Commission Report found "no evidence that
the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials
individually funded the organisation".
A White House spokesman said President Obama had serious
concerns about the bill, and it was difficult to imagine he
would sign it into law.
It was sponsored by Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer of New
York and Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas and is
expected to be passed by the House of Representatives as
well.he 9/11 bill puts Congress on a collision course with the
Obama administration, which has lobbied intensely against it.
The White House argues the legislation would remove the
sovereign immunity that prevents lawsuits against
governments, and could expose Americans to a legal backlash
overseas.
For Congress, however, this is about fighting terrorism and
pursuing justice for victims, and there is unusual bipartisan
support for the bill. Some of its most outspoken supporters
are Democrats who are confident that Congress has the
necessary two-thirds vote to override a presidential veto.
There is no evidence to support claims that Saudi officials
provided financial support to the hijackers, although some
believe a classified section of the report into the 9/11 attacks
might show otherwise.
But Congress is also playing to the strong emotions triggered
by this dispute - the relative of a victim recently told the New
York Times it was "stunning" to think the government would
back the Saudis over its citizens. One suspects many
Americans might agree.
Senator Schumer said: "Today the Senate has spoken loudly
and unanimously that the families of the victims of terror
attacks should be able to hold the perpetrators even if it's a
country a nation accountable.
"It will serve as a deterrent and warning to any other nation
who assists in terror attacks against American."
He said he was confident the bill would be passed by a large
margin in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia denied it had threatened to sell its
US bonds, which would pull billions of dollars from the US
economy.
"We said that a law like this is going to cause investor
confidence to shrink," Foreign Minister Ahmed Al-Jubeir said
while attending a conference in Geneva. "Not just for Saudi
Arabia, but for everybody".
Last year an inmate in US custody, Zacarias Moussaoui,
claimed that a Saudi prince had helped finance the attack that
flew passenger planes into the World Trade Center in New
York and the Pentagon in Virginia.
A fourth plane crashed into an empty field in western
Pennsylvania.
Saudi Arabia had rejected the accusation from a "deranged
criminal" with no credibility.