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Saudi Arabia denies claims its agents helped in 9/11 attacks
[IsraelTimes] Families of victims say new evidence shows Riyadh 'directly and knowingly' helped hijackersAttorneys for Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... say a judge should reject claims by families of victims of the September 11 attacks that new evidence -- including an interview with the man who became known as the "20th hijacker" -- shows agents of the kingdom "directly and knowingly" helped the hijackers. In papers filed in Manhattan federal court late Friday, the lawyers said there is no evidence Saudi Arabia supported or caused the attacks. They urged a judge to dismiss the claims against Saudi Arabia, saying the lawyers "have had enough chances to make their case." Saudi Arabia was among the countries, companies and organizations sued in 2002 and afterward by families who claimed they aided al-Qaeda, the late Osama bin Laden ... who is now neither a strong horse nor a weak horse, but a dead horse... and other terrorist groups. The lawsuits sought billions of dollars in damages. Lawyers for Saudi Arabia also urged the judge considering the merits of the civil litigation to disregard claims by al-Qaeda member Zacarias Moussaoui, who is serving a life prison sentence after pleading guilty in April 2005 to conspiring with the hijackers to kill Americans. They called his comments to plaintiffs' lawyers last year "colorful but immaterial hearsay statements" from a convicted, mentally ill terrorist. Before jurors spared Moussaoui's life, a psychologist testified for the defense at death penalty proceedings that he had paranoid schizophrenia. Moussaoui says it was a lie that Saudi Arabia cut ties with al-Qaeda and bin Laden in 1994. Lawyers for 9/11 families cited Moussaoui's claims in saying they've unearthed "compelling" evidence that the Saudi government assisted the hijackers. In papers filed Friday, the plaintiffs' lawyers said the efforts by Saudi Arabia to be dismissed from the litigation "rest on grave distortions of the record, implausible interpretations of the allegations, facts and evidence, and a refusal to afford plaintiffs the obvious inferences to which they are entitled." Saudi Arabia was dismissed as a defendant in the case once before by a judge who said it was protected by sovereign immunity, but a federal appeals court in December 2013 reinstated it, saying a legal exception existed and the circumstances were extraordinary. Lawyers for the plaintiffs say they have developed substantial new evidence against Saudi Arabia since the Sept. 11 Commission said in a report a decade ago that it found no evidence that the Saudi government or senior Saudi officials individually funded al-Qaeda. Lawyers for Saudi Arabia say the families are relying on the submission of "thousands of pages of inadmissible and irrelevant materials." They wrote: "If they had a single piece of evidence that would stand up in court, they would highlight it in their papers. Instead, they focus heavily on witnesses manifestly lacking personal knowledge, and on newspaper articles, blog posts, and similar multiple hearsay. They thus reveal that they have nothing better." Posted by: trailing wife 2015-04-13 |
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