Judge Finds Link Between Iraq and 9/11 Attacks

New York Times
May 7, 2003
By REUTERS

Filed at 3:23 p.m. ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. judge said on Wednesday that families of
two victims killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on America were able
to show a tenuous link between Iraq and Osama bin Laden in the deadly
strikes and awarded the plaintiffs more than $100 million in damages.

The decision was the first time a federal judge ruled on Iraq's role
on the hijacked airliner attacks on the World Trade Center and
Pentagon, a lawyer in the case said. Although the U.S. government
suspects Iraq supported the strikes it has accused bin Laden of
orchestrating, it has not been able to prove a connection.

U.S. District Judge Harold Baer ordered that a group of defendants
including bin Laden, his al Qaeda network, the Taliban, Afghanistan,
Saddam Hussein and the Republic of Iraq pay the families for pain,
suffering and economic losses.

'I conclude that plaintiffs have shown, albeit barely ... that Iraq
provided material support to bin Laden and al Qaeda,' Baer wrote
adding that a substantial portion of the evidence was hearsay.

'My decision reflects no more than that the facts and the available
inferences meet the plaintiff's burden of proof.'

Two witnesses testified they believed that Iraq had a role in the
attacks, including former CIA Director R. James Woolsey, who headed
the spy agency from February 1993 to January 1995, and Laurie Mylorie,
an expert on Iraq and terrorism.

Woolsey said non-Iraqi fundamentalists were trained in airplane
hijacking and other forms of terrorism in Iraq and he cited an alleged
April 2001 meeting between one of the attack's masterminds and an
Iraqi intelligence agent.

The judge said the plaintiffs also relied on a regional Iraqi
newspaper report in July 2001 that said bin Laden would try to bomb
the Pentagon after he bombed the White House.

James Beasley Jr., a Philadelphia lawyer representing plaintiffs, said
they may get some money because of the defendants' assets frozen in
the United States and overseas.

One of the cases was brought by the widow of Timothy Soulas, a senior
managing director and partner at Cantor Fitzgerald Securities, who
died in the World Trade Center attack. He was married with five
children and his wife was pregnant.

The other case was brought by family members of George Smith, a senior
business analyst at a World Trade Center firm.

Baer previously issued an unusual ruling that families of the victims
could serve bin Laden formal notice of the lawsuits through media
outlets including Qatar's al-Jazeera television and Afghan newspapers.

Defendants usually receive notice of a complaint by letter or personal
delivery. Without proper service, Baer would have lacked jurisdiction
over bin Laden, blamed by the United States for the attacks that
killed about 3,000 people.



Ken (NY)
Chairman,
Department Of Redundancy Department
____________________________________
email:
http://www.geocities.com/bluesguy68/email.htm

Democrats FOR the war:
http://www.geocities.com/bluesguy68/
Q: What the hardest thing about rollerblading?
A: Telling your parents you’re gay.