{"id":14356,"date":"2016-09-29T09:48:29","date_gmt":"2016-09-29T15:48:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=14356"},"modified":"2016-09-29T09:48:29","modified_gmt":"2016-09-29T15:48:29","slug":"opinion-salvaged-justice-act-will-have-bad-consequences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2016\/09\/opinion-salvaged-justice-act-will-have-bad-consequences\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: Salvaged ‘justice’ act will have bad consequences"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lohof\"<\/a>

Bruce Lohof<\/p><\/div>\n

On Wednesday, the U.S. Congress overrode President Obama\u2019s veto of the so-called \u201cJustice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act\u201d (JASTA). The act permits 9\/11 families to sue the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for any role that it might have played in the tragedy.<\/p>\n

Sadly, Montana Sens. Steve Daines and Jon Tester and Rep. Ryan Zinke supported the override.<\/p>\n

There are two dollops of feel-good in JASTA. It expresses once again our abiding sympathy for the 9\/11 victims and their survivors. And, hey, who doesn\u2019t love to hate the Saudis? Amid the dollops, though, JASTA\u2019s unintended consequences make it a bad idea.<\/p>\n

For one, suing the Kingdom for its alleged collusion in 9\/11 is almost certainly a litigation too far. In 2004 the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (aka the 9\/11 Commission) \u201cfound no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials\u201d were conspirators in the attacks. The commission investigated the tragedy for 19 months and, it is said, interviewed more than 1,000 individuals in nearly a dozen countries, and reviewed more than 2\u00bd million pages of documentation.<\/p>\n

Will the litigation made legal by JASTA investigate more vigorously? It\u2019s hard to imagine. Will it find some evidence of Saudi guilt? Again, it\u2019s hard to imagine. Poses will be struck and attorneys will be enriched. For the survivors, however, there is another agonizing, heartbreaking rollercoaster ride ahead.<\/p>\n

Long after the litigations have concluded, though, JASTA will continue to threaten what\u2019s known in the trade as \u201csovereign immunity,\u201d a tradition that since the 16th\u00a0century has discouraged\u2014and often prohibited\u2014citizens from suing a foreign government. It is the tradition of sovereign immunity that protects a government and its officials\u2014diplomatic, military and otherwise\u2014from prosecution by a foreign national.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>What happens when this fundamental tenet is weakened by legislation such as JASTA? A recent op-ed in the New York Times puts it right in your face: \u201cIf the United States reduces the immunity it accords to other nations, it exposes itself to an equivalent reduction in its own immunity abroad.\u201d Turnabout is fair play.<\/p>\n

For instance, supporters of JASTA might fast-forward 18\u00a0months beyond 9\/11 to \u201cShock and Awe,\u201d the Pentagon\u2019s March 2003 aerial bombardment of Baghdad. Three thousand civilians, mostly Americans, died in 9\/11. More than twice as many Iraqi civilians\u2014estimates hover at 7,300\u2014were killed by Shock and Awe. Should their survivors be encouraged to sue the U.S. government? Or its Air Force? Or its pilots? I think not. Does JASTA encourage exactly that? I think so.<\/p>\n

If Shock and Awe is too hypothetical, too exaggerated, perhaps Zinke could have informed his vote with a more measured example of unintended JASTA consequences. We are not privy to his activities as a U.S. Naval officer. Nor should we be. He served with distinction, I\u2019m confident. As a SEAL commander, though, he must have done some things that would raise a foreign national\u2019s bile to the level of litigation or beyond. Fortunately\u2014and thanks to sovereign immunity\u2014it didn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n

It is meet and right to honor 9\/11\u2019s victims and to provide succor to their survivors. Can we not find ways that do not impair the tenet of sovereign immunity, a tenet that has protected governments and their sworn officers for 500\u00a0years? Or shall we enjoy a few dollops of feel-good and let the future fend for itself?<\/p>\n

Bruce A. Lohof is a native of Montana. A former professor and a retired diplomat, he lives in Vienna and in Red Lodge.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday, the U.S. Congress overrode President Obama\u2019s veto of the so-called \u201cJustice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act\u201d (JASTA). The act permits 9\/11 families to sue the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for any role that it might have played in the tragedy. Sadly, Montana Sens. Steve Daines and Jon Tester and Rep. Ryan Zinke supported […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":14357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3864],"tags":[5026,5024,3084,953,628,5025,528],"class_list":["post-14356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-5026","tag-jasta","tag-jon-tester","tag-president-obama","tag-ryan-zinke","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-steve-daines","prominence-category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}