Iran, the New Iraq - Propaganda a Prelude to War

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Iran, the New Iraq - Propaganda a Prelude to War

Source: TheTip, 2003-05-30

Candidate: Big Business

A federal judge on Friday ruled that Iran was responsible for the 1983 truck bombing of a U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut and should pay damages to relatives of the victims.

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U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, noting that the U.S. government has designated Iran as a "state sponsor of terrorism" since 1984, said Iran and its Ministry of Information were liable to the 661 relatives of the victims who are plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

The bombing on Oct. 23, 1983, killed 241 U.S. military members and wounded many others. The lawsuit was filed at the end of 2001. Lamberth ruled in December 2002 that the lawsuit could go forward under a 1996 law used by U.S. citizens to sue nations found to sponsor terrorism.

Iran never responded to the lawsuit and was not represented in the case. The country has not responded to other similar lawsuits brought in the past.

The plaintiffs filed claims for wrongful death and common-law claims for battery, assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress -- all resulting from an act of state-sponsored terrorism.

Lamberth cited testimony from the trial in March showing that past top Iranian government officials and some currently in senior roles in the government knew of and helped plan the bombing, in conjunction with Lebanon's Hizbollah guerrillas.

"The court finds that MOIS, acting as an agent of the Islamic Republic of Iran, performed acts on or about October 23, 1983, within the scope of its agency ... which acts caused the deaths of over 241 peacekeeping servicemen at the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon," he wrote.

"The court therefore concludes that MOIS actively participated in the attack on October 23, 1983, which was carried out by MOIS agents with the assistance of Hizbollah."

Lamberth ordered the plaintiffs to submit damage claims to "Special Masters" appointed by the court to calculate damages. The process is expected to last months and it will be up to Lamberth to set the total amount of damages.

At the two-day trial in March the lawyers did not mention a specific amount being sought but they have estimated it could end up exceeding $2 billion, based on other past cases.

It was not clear how much, if any of the damages would ever be collected even though the U.S. government has frozen certain Iranian assets.

In 1997 a German court ruled Iran's political leadership had ordered the killings of four Iranian Kurdish dissidents in Berlin's Mykonos restaurant in 1992.

The court avoided names but said the assassinations were ordered by a secret special operations committee whose members included Iran's president, religious leader, intelligence minister and head of foreign policy. Iran repeatedly denied all responsibility for the killings.
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User Originated Comments:

From: Linda
1999-11-30 00:00:00
this is a good one.

what the hell were
american marines doing in beirut?

and
is it suprising to anyone that american marines
should be killed? isn't that what marines
do?

i guess the citizens of iraq
shoulod sue the us in u.s. district judge royce
lamberth's court for damages, too. at least they'd
have a case. iraqis belong in iraq.

From:
1999-11-30 00:00:00
not surprising, the bush 'regime' does nothing but
proliferate propoganda

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