US Court Reinstates 9/11 Lawsuit by Philadelphia Firm Against Saudi Arabia
By Paul Kurtz
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A center city law firm's lawsuit that attempts to link Saudi Arabia to the September 11th hijackers is back on track.
A federal appeals court has reinstated the lawsuit filed by Cozen O'Connor in 2003. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals essentialy reversed its 2008 ruling that Saudi Arabia was protected by sovereign immunity.
The law firm is representing 9/11 victims and relatives, along with insurance companies that covered businesses and property owners damaged by the terrorist attacks. They claim that Saudi Arabia and some Islamist charities provided funding to Al Qaeda groups in the years leading up to the 2001 attacks.
It's a blockbuster allegation, and Russ Baker, editor of the news web site "WhoWhatWhy," thinks all Americans should be paying attention.
"We spent quite a bit of time investigating one piece of this story, and in that particular piece it's hard to see how there is not some kind of culpability," Baker tells KYW Newsradio. "There really is not a bigger or more consequential story in recent times than this one. Whatever the truth, people would like to know what happened here."
Pressure on the Saudis has been mounting. The Hoover Institution recently disclosed that a CIA memo found concrete evidence that the kingdom helped the hijackers.
Additionally, two members of Congress have said they were "absolutely shocked" by revelations of foreign state involvement after reading a censored section of an 800-page Congressional report on the attacks.
The lawmakers are legally not allowed to reveal the nation involved.
