Posted on 07/31/2012 9:43:13 AM PDT by bayouranger
The families of 59 Americans killed in the Sept. 11 attacks, including eight from Bucks County, are now legally entitled to seek more than $6 billion in damages from Iran, Hezbollah and any remaining members of the al-Qaida terrorist network.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Frank Maas on Monday issued a ruling, which holds the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Ayatollah Ali Hoseini Khomeini, the late Osama bin Laden, and his al-Qaida network responsible as “entities that carried out, or aided and abetted” in the greatest terrorist attack on American soil and the murder of nearly 3,000 people.
Maas's decision came on the heels of a federal judge's ruling in December that there was enough evidence to link Iran and Hezbollah to the al-Qaida attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. The lawsuit was filed in 2006 and spearheaded by seven families from Bucks County.
The judge’s award now authorizes the families of 59 victims to seek compensation from multiple sovereign and non-sovereign sources, said Thomas Mellon, the Doylestown attorney who led the case.
“Now we have to go about the business of collecting this money both domestically and overseas,” said Mellon. “We are very hopeful that in the next six to 18 months we will be in the process of seizing Iranian assets, such as Iranian airlines, oil tankers and wells.”
For the families of the victims, the case was never about money and property, said Ellen Saracini. It was about holding the rightful parties responsible, the widow from Lower Makefield said.
“It just didn’t seem like our government was moving forward in trying to determine who was responsible for these attacks,” Saracini said Monday. “Maybe the mindset will change now, but I doubt it.”
Her husband, Victor Saracini, was the pilot of hijacked United Flight 175, which crashed in the Tower Two of the World Trade Center.
With this legal action, she and others said they hope to strip away at the monetary resources of known terrorists.
“If we can get this money or seize these assets, then perhaps we could save some other person who might fall victim to terrorism,” Saracini added. The Saracini estate is to receive $9.5 million, under the judge's order.
Maas awarded $5.9 million to the family of Michael Bane, of Lower Makefield, and $5.4 million to the estate of Peter Chirchirillo, formerly of Middletown. The family of Joshua Reiss, of Lower Makefield, is to receive $7.7 million.
Bane, Chirchirillo and Reiss were last seen in Tower One of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.
Damages of $16.6 million were awarded to the family of William Godshalk and $6.7 million will go to the family of Donald Havlish, according to court documents. Both men resided in Lower Makefield and each was last seen in Tower Two.
The estate of John Rodak, formerly of Upper Southampton, is to receive $24.4 million, according to court records. Rodak was living in Mantua at the time of the terrorist attacks and was last scene in Tower Two.
The judge awarded another $5.7 million to the family of Joseph Lostrangio. The resident of Bristol Township was last seen in Tower One.
So far, there has been no public reaction from Iran on the judge's order. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly denied any connection to al-Qaida or to the events that occurred on 9/11. Iranian officials have ignored every legal notice connected to the lawsuit, lawyers said.
Maas' ruling provides the parties with 14 days to file objections or relinquish any chance at an appeal.
During the trial in 2011, Iranian defector Abdolghassem Mesbahi, once a close confidant of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, revealed that he had firsthand knowledge of terrorist plots dating to the 1980s.
Mesbahi, whose identity was kept secret until the hearing, said he knew in August 2001 that there was a plan in place to hijack airplanes and fly them into buildings.
Another defector testified that he was with al-Qaida's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, when the terrorist attended four days of meetings with top Iranian officials in January 2001 to plan the 9/11 attacks.
The third defector told the judge that he helped write up the debriefing reports of Iran's al-Qaida liaison, Imad Mugniyeh, after he returned to Iran from Afghanistan following 9/11.
To further prove Iran's complicity in the attacks, Mellon had presented the testimony of Janice Kephart, a former counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Technology, Terrorism and Government Information and former immigration counsel to the Sept. 11 Commission.
Kephart said Iran put a "senior Hezbollah operative" on flights with the 9/11 hijackers in the months before the attacks, to ensure that the terrorists' passports, which they obtained in Saudi Arabia, wouldn't be stamped with Iranian or Afghan travel stamps, red flags that would have jeopardized their plot.
Kephart noted that travel documents are "important weapons" for terrorists.
Despite overwhelming evidence, many Americans remain unclear on the roles played by foreign agents before Sept. 11, said Mellon on Monday.
“The average American citizen doesn’t yet realize that a major player in the Sept. 11 attacks was Iran and Hezbollah,” Mellon said.
“Back in 2001, six widows and one mother began this fight with a trip to my office," he continued. "They wanted to get to the bottom of this and they’ve worked long and hard to hold Iran and Hezbollah to account.”
There were huge awards made to the families in the early years following 9/11, some taxpayer money and some from private donations. Does anyone know how much they have received so far??
There were huge awards made to the families in the early years following 9/11, some taxpayer money and some from private donations. Does anyone know how much they have received so far??
Are they going to hire Byron from "Worked Up" to serve the papers?
Seeking it , and getting it, are two different subjects.
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