Why the 9/11 Bill Establishes a Dangerous Precedent

Jennifer Hunt

Politics,

It wouldn't protect Americans from terrorist attacks or deter others from mounting them

It’s difficult to argue against a bill entitled the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism act and apparently even harder to vote against it. The so-called “9/11 bill” jointly sponsored by a Republican Senator from Texas and a Democratic Senator from New York, was passed by Congress over Obama’s veto this week. The White House called it the “single most embarrassing thing the Senate has done” in forty years.

The bill allows victims’ families to sue Saudi Arabia for the World Trade Center attacks, primarily based on the citizenship of the attackers (fifteen of the nineteen were Saudi citizens).

Saudi Arabia is an easy target for this legislation. Though officially an ally and quite a good customer of U.S. arms and defense equipment, it has long been viewed with suspicion by the American public. In Foreign Policy, Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal noted that Saudi Arabia gets “blamed for everything from global terrorism to high gasoline prices.” The country has been implicated by both sides of the political spectrum, though Saudi Arabia strongly condemned the attacks, and mounted campaigns against Al-Qaeda in concert with the United States. In regional operations, the Pentagon has used Saudi bases, and has a long relationship advising and training the Saudi armed forces.

The presidential veto was based not on an argument to preserve a strategic alliance, but to prevent blowback. The bill establishes a dangerous precedent of allowing victims to hold liable a state for the actions of its citizens. If other nations pass reciprocal measures, the United States could face politically motivated legal retaliation from foreign governments. In separate letters, the Pentagon, White House and intelligence agencies’ argued to uphold the long-standing principle of sovereign immunity as embodied in the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976. CIA Chief Brennan noted the consequences: “If we fail to uphold this standard for other countries, we place our own nation’s officials in danger. No country has more to lose from undermining that principle than the United States.”

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