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Reuters, file
The ruins of the Khobar Towers military complex in Saudi Arabia after the June 1996 attack.
NEW YORK — The families of 17 U.S. servicemen killed in a 1996 bombing in Saudi Arabia linked to Iran can collect damages from Iran-funded accounts at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel in Manhattan ordered the bank, which did not oppose the motion, to hand over more than $260,000 in various accounts linked to Tehran, still a far cry from the full amount to which the families are entitled.
In June 1996, a truck bomb destroyed the Khobar Towers, a housing complex in Saudi Arabia, killing 19 U.S. servicemen. The FBI would later conclude that Iran provided training and support for the attack.
The families won a default judgment in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. against the Iranian government in 2006 for more than $250 million, an amount that was later increased to $337 million. Iran refused to defend the lawsuit in court, claiming it had sovereign immunity.
Billions of dollars in default judgments have been issued against Iran over the years, but plaintiffs have had little luck in collecting the money.
The accounts at the Bank of Tokyo's New York branch had been frozen pursuant to U.S. presidential executive orders and directives issued by the Treasury Department as assets controlled by companies linked to Iran.
In court papers, the bank described itself as a "disinterested stakeholder" and did not fight the request.
The bank is a unit of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.
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Iran's fingerprints on Hamas weaponry
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Leave a Comment:
Because this is presumably legit and above board, other frozen Iranian assets abound so make up the shortfall, and don't waste any time about it.
These folk need settlement pronto!
somehow, waiting 17 years for 15k doesnt seem like any form of justice
Article said 19 dead soldiers. 17 families to receive a small payment. What about the other two ? What about seizing other Iranian gubmint assets elsewhere ? We know they use international banks. Must be an op somewhere to seize their stuff.
“Slain US troops’ kin get cash”
Is NBC using sixth graders to write and check their articles? This sloppy journalism calls into question the content of all that they report.
Cold comfort to the families of those killed, for sure.
Give the account to some of these collection agencies that call all the time and threaten your credit score if you don't pay and then give them Amenijad's (sp?) phone number and let them try to collect. After they call him while he's having dinner four or five times, he just might pay up LOL.
It isn't going to bring these people back, but it really is about separating the terrorist state of Iran from its wealth. If they won't act responsibly, they should be made to, like anyone else. And some nations are NOT equal among others, given their actions. Iran stands out, far and beyond any other (except North Korea) as a criminal state.
I'm sure US government spent at least a couple of millions trying to get that $260,000...
US 'war on terrorism' is the biggest scam in the history of the world. And the longer it goes, the more terrorists it makes.
Are you, my fellow posters, dancing to the tune of the Saudi despots?
Do you even care?
The Saudis could NOT have anyone believe that it was home grown Sunni militants trying to get US forces off "sacred grown".
The Saudis said "not us!" and pointed their fingers at their enemy Shia Iran.
Are you willing puppets of the Saudi despots?
Well?
Good start. Now Israel must pay a settlement to the families of the victims of the attack on the USS Liberty, and we must pay the victims of murder and torture in Chile for our funding and sponsoring the coup that brought Pinochet to power, as well as for having provided the training to carry out such atrocities.
We need to make Iran pay also for bombing USS Stark, and killing our Marines in Beirut, also make the SA pay for the massacre at the WTC, and don't forget Egypt for WTC in 1993. US will have to get busy finding billions in assets the ayatollahs have stolen from Iran and are stashed in foreign bank accounts.
Wow! "Here is 15K for your dead soldier/child." Pitiful!
If the families of these soldiers killed can receive compensation due to wrongful death from a country which helped fund the terrorists which brought about their deaths, then there are an awful lot of other dead soldiers whose families deserve to be paid since then.
Not to mention all the innocent victims from 9/11 and afterwards. Perhaps if those countries currently funding terrorists and training them must pay financially for such support, and the deaths they cause to other countries innocent citizens and soldiers suddenly attacked on their own soil, they will think twice.The U.N could easily require such a thing. Yet we know, the banks and financial institutions which are holding such funds, will never turn over their money. There is much money and spoils to be made in killing and war for such institutions.
Well, that would open up a whole canful of worms. Our own government has been involved in many a shady operation over the years ......
Windancer: Yes, The Saudi's would have to give back a bunch of money then. As Homesick yank wrote, the US would have claims filed against it too . Somehow I think Our negotiators would pay out a million for every thousand they collected. We have that kind of folks working for us.
If you're going to take that route Windancersong, then our government owes a large amount of money to innumerous amount of people.
Conrad, the high price of oil has more do with increased demand caused by the expansion of the Chinese economy (and, to a lesser extent, the expansion of the Indian middle class), not from any action by Zionists.
By the way, perhaps you should take a refresher English course concentrating on the proper use of upper case letters.
Good thing we have Obama in office! If we had Reagan or some other neo-con, all of this money would go to the contras!
Good they were able to intercept some money, not enough tho. Now we need to help the families of the 30 servicemen killed by israel on the USS Liberty. Oh wait, it's israel, God forbid anyone brings israel to justice,let's do just the opposite, give israel more of our hard earned tax money, $5B a year.
RIP to all service members
If your IQ allows you, you could google the information that is readily available, telling you that those families were compensated. yet Iran needs to pay for bombing USS Stark, killing our Marines in Beirut, as awll as your other muslim countries who funded, harbored and trained WTC terrorists (SA and Pakistan), and while we are at it, let Spain, UK and Australia also file claim against your terrorist muslim brethren.
farideh, ease up will ya. That's the second time you've mentioned the Stark.
It was Iraq that attacked the frigate!
Apart from that, I'll go along with you.
The US did pay a little better when we shot down an Iranian airliner over Iranian airspace , 300k for dads and 150k for wives and kids . Yet we never admitted guilt and then gave the crew medals for doing a great job .
Makes you wonder why they just can't seem to find some love for us .
How about seizing Saudi funds to top up the compensation. The US forces were there to protect the autocratic Saudi monarchy after all.
That might be a little difficult , didn't the Saudis put Blackwater/Xe on retainer to protect the royals and train the Saudi version of the CIA . You also have Hallubutons new world headquarters in the area , ( just a business tax move ??? ) , so it might be against an American Special Interest to go after the Saudis for anything .
I am not a big fan of war, but if there was ever a country that we should have beat the living hell out of, it is Iran. Yet for some reason we picked on Iraq. Most Arab countries we cheer us for beating the daylights out of them. Oh well. Maybe what our sanctions should be is that any and all countries taking oil or other minerals from Iran are no longer able to trade with the United States. That would get their attention quickly and alos force U.S. companies to source products with a greater eye toward the political risk of doing business with countries that back rogue states.
Man you are one XENOPHOBIC isolationist right winger. You definitely can't write lucidly.
"Most Arab countries we cheer us for beating the daylights out of them"
HUH ? WHAT ?
When you are isolated by the rest of the world as the united states and israel together ALREADY ARE, you wanna make it worse ?
WHAT the FORK did IRAN ever do to the united states except ask them to shut their embassy and get the fork out? DID they EVER attack us or call for sanctions on us ? Maybe the sanctions idea is a good one. How about the oil Arabs and Iran raise their prices another hundred bucks a barrel. YOU would be paying 22 dollars a gallon to drive your 11mpg shelby cobra.
Knee jerk israeli brainwashed by the media TYPICAL response. I'm tired of people just repeating what they hear .... Realllllllllllly tired of it. Go get a brain and work it DAILY see ????
Man you are one XENOPHOBIC isolationist right winger. When you arew isolated by the rest of the world as the united states and israel together ALREADY ARE, you wanna make it worse ?
WHAT the FORK did IRAN ever do to the united states except ask them to shut their embassy and get the fork out? DID they EVER attack us or call for sanctions on us ? Maybe the sanctions idea is a good one. How about the oil Arabs and Iran raise their prices another hundred bucks a barrel. YOU would be paying 22 dollars a gallon to drive your 11mpg shelby cobra.
Knee jerk israeli brainwashed by the media TYPICAL response. I'm tired of people just repeating what they hear .... Realllllllllllly tired of it. Go get a brain and work it DAILY see ????
What has Iran ever done to the US? Iran hasn't started a war with another country in almost 200 years. America had Iran's democratically elected leader overthrown, in order to get their oil. We are such wonderful people, always doing good for our oil companies.
There is absolutely no proof that Iran had any part in the Khobar Towers bombing. As Conrad said, this all a Zionist/ Jew conspiracy to put Iran in a negative light and drain the Iranian economy.
Iran's only crime is compassion for the oppressed people of Lebanon and the Palestinian people. Israel has bombed the daylights out of both of them, killing over 1400 in Gaza and over 1000 in Lebanon. They should sue the Israel government.
Perhaps those innocent people in Iraq should be sueing the US government for our "shock and awe" bombing campaign, which killed thousands of civilians in Iraq. There is no secret that we did the bombing, hell we televised it.
A large majority of the 9/11, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan foolishness would have been avoided if then-Pres. Carter would have handled the Iranian embassy situation properly. After a reasonable period of diplomatic negotiation (maybe 2 weeks), Carter should have gone before a Joint Session to ask for a declaration of war against Iran. If approved by Congress, Carter should have mobilized the US on a war footing and applied the full resources of the US to get our diplomats, embassy, and military personnel back. This would have included seizing any Iranian assets anywhere they could be found, destroying any Iranian military resources (and any infrastructure which could support the military, like industry, roads, ports, food, medical supplies and facilities, oil facilities, water and sewage infrastructure - basically anything standing or underground in Iran.)
The Arab tribes respect strong leaders, not apologetic weaklings. They have always been controlled by fierce brutality, which can only be countered by swift and sure application of overwhelming power.
Again with the "declare war" on Iran ... Ridiculous comments. Who do we think we are deciding to attack anyone we want whenever we want? The comment above PROVES that the amerikan mentality is an aggressive , ignorant and supremacist+racist in nature.
The amerikan enbassy fiasco could have been COMPLETELY avoided had it not been for the stupid cia trying everything they could to foil a legitemate ousting os a u.s puppet INSTALLED by the u.s. We were interering with their revolution pure and simple.
Does anyone ever wonder WHY the amerikan embassy incident happened? Do you people really think that it just happened in a vacuum and that the Iranians decided to suddenly gang up and capture the embassy for no reason ?
The Iranians were in the middle of a revolution and we were MEDDLING to say the least if not seriously working against them. Seizing the embassy was the only way to freeze all activity by the cia in Iran at that time. What a trojan horse of an embassy that was ...
EVERYBODY accepts the premise proposed by the zionist inflitrated amerikan administration. We all simply believe what the administration says. Then, and immediately afterwards, typical by amerikan nature, we all compete with one another trying to out do each other INSTEAD of thinking on our own and trying to find out where the truth was ....
Very typical comment by the mailworker above me. He shows absolutely no ability to develop any originality in thought much less exhibit basic understanding of this very subject.
Hey mailman - The war in Iraq will end up costing America over 3.5 trillion dollars and your solution to a situation like the hostage crisis would have been to do the same. Are you playing with a full deck?
All the hostages were released, with none of them killed and it didn't cost 3 trillion dollars.
The Iranians wanted the former Shah returned to Iran to face trial for his crimes, but America would not send him back. That is why the students took over our embassy. We were the ones at fault for removing their democraticaly elected leader and installing our puppet, the Shah. The Shah was a ruthless tyrant, but he was our tyrant.
You should stick to your mail deliveries. I hope you are better at that than you are understanding what is good for America.
Conrad.
You seem to be a little small minded. Maybe you are to young to remember the Hostages Iran took and held our people for a few years. And You say They caused Oil to go over $100 a barrel. They were not getting $100 a barrel. OBL said if they could get oil over $100 a barrel it would bring down the American economy. He also said that American Greed would do the work for them. He was right and the Greed on walstreet did all the work for Him. Opec said they were not getting $100 a barrel, It was walstreet that drove up the price of oil. Walstreet made all the money, not the producers. Who makes all the money on Wheat, Milk, and all other commodes that are traded. As always walstreet. And it was Walstreet that drove this country over the cliff.
Conrad and Ralph - The nazi/radical muslim unholly alliance:
Had you passed a third grade school you would have known that attacking an embassy is attacking a soverign country. That is what Iran did, in addition to Khobar attack on US forces and Beirut attack on Marines, and offering $1000 for every dead US soldier - as recent as a year ago. Your pro-Iranian hallucinations are sickening while pedophile Iranian theocratic dictators are murdering their own people. While you are at it remember Iranian oil money, that you pay to them while at the pump, is set by them and kept high so they keep their murderous machine going while mullahs are stealing billions of dollars of the Iranian assets and hiding them in their pertsonal froeign bank accounts. "zionists" don't do that. Sorry to burst your propoganda bubble.
To Ralph:
Iran has compassion for Lebanon and Palestinians?
September 17, 2012 Briefs:
• Beirut asks
Iran for clarifications on Al Qods ops in Lebanon
Lebanon has
formally asked Iran to explain the statement by Revolutionary Guards commander
Gen. Ali Jafary that officers of Al Qods, the Guards' terrorist and intelligence
arm, are present in Syria and Lebanon. His statement was Tehran's first
admission that those officers were there.
What are these mullahs doing meddling in Lebanese affairs?
When the US shot down an unarmed Iranian passenger jet in 1985, killing 290 people, we paid the victims' families an average of $213,000 each (of course it took us 11 years to do so). There is no reason Americans should get any more money from the Iranian government than Iranians got from ours. Each event was an act of war.
Iran asset seizure is paying less than $15000 each, you contradict your own statement, what are you talking about?
Ok I'll respond en masse (for those of you who dont know wat dat eeez) IN BULK.
This is a typical JEWISH and israeli zionist response when the posters "gang up" on another poster and attack that poster's character and personhood. Essentially, I illustrated a very clear idea using the queens english and correct grammer (omitting capitalization and choosing it as disdain).
What did most of you do ? You DUMBED the conversation down to colloquial "rap" music which must be what you;re familiar with (amerikan whites listen to it all the time wanting to be cool).
This folks is a typical zionist tactic and it is called ATTACK THE MESSENGER instead of the message. The attack normally encompasses belittling the person in order to make them :shy" away in shame for standing out in a crowd.
If the target stands up for themselves (as I am) (additionally fork you animals attacking me) the next step is to "ignore" the person defending themselves. There will be references to "how about them cowboys or niners" and references to ANYTHING but the topic at hand.
FOCUS morons. The JEWSIH lawyers in the so called federal system in new york, new jersey and washington dc are behind this WHOLE thing. I betcha the lawyers got 50% - 60% of the total take and only divided them 3 or 4 ways.
Ok. Get your moronic minds working hard and try again ya piss ant nothings ....
OR talk about the SUBJECT !!!!
Conrad-1865098, Your RACIST remarks are not what these people need to hear. Your nothing but a racist hater.
Money Cures All Ill's (BS) Doesn't matter if their gone never coming back. "The Money Makes Me Feel Better" (BS)
It's a good start.
Are you, my fellow posters, dancing to the tune of the Saudi despots?
Do you even care?
The Saudis could NOT have anyone believe that it was home grown Sunni militants trying to get US forces off "sacred grown".
The Saudis said "not us!" and pointed their fingers at their enemy Shia Iran.
Are you willing puppets of the Saudi despots?
Well?
under $ 16,000 for a soldier's life
These precedents are dangerous, and may well be turned on the USA one day...
You mean to tell me, this is all there was in an Iran account?? R U fricken serious???
What a fricken joke, somehow I think their was more money, but this it the amount they let loose to the world to see. Hmmmmm Just does not sound right.
They have billions in oil money @over $100 per barrel, they have billions they pay to Russians, NK and Pakistan for nuke projects, billions more are stolen by the mullahs and stashed away in foreign bank accounts, but not enough for the Iranian people and their economy, and not enough for paying compensation for their terrorist acts. I am still waiting for them to pay for attacking the USS Stark, and killing 243 Marines in Beirut.