By Kevin Kim
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
“The cost of state-sponsored terrorism just went up,” said U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth, who ordered Iran to pay 2.65 billion to the families of 241 marines killed in a 1983 bombing of their Beirut barracks. The ruling allows nearly 1,000 family members and survivors to try to collect Iranian assets from around the world.
But the ruling is likely to remain symbolic.
Getting the money will be difficult because Iran is estranged from the United States. The Iranian government has denied responsibility for the attack and did not even respond to the six-year-old lawsuit. The families are currently backing a law in Congress that would make it easier for terrorism victims and their families to claim such compensation.
Although family members hoped that the decision would “pressure foreign governments not to sponsor terrorism,” many still felt that monetary damages alone will not stop them from sponsoring another attack.
The judge’s ruling was issued more than four years after he found that the bombing was carried out by the militant group Hezbollah with the approval and funding of Iran’s senior government officials. Iran was instrumental in the founding of Hazbollah in the 1980s, and Hazbollah is blamed for anti-Western and anti-Israeli terrorist acts dating since its inception.
The US troops were deployed in Lebanon in 1983 as a peacekeeping force during the Lebanon’s civil war. On October 23 of that year, an explosives-laden truck disguised as a water delivery vehicle rammed through barricades at the entrance and detonated in front of the barracks, demolishing the building and killing more than 300 people. A French barrack was also bombed, killing 58 French soldiers.
The attack was the “most deadly state-sponsored terrorist attack made against American citizens” until the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center in 2001.
Symbolic or not, Judge Lamberth’s decision on Friday was cheered by weeping spectators who jammed the courtroom with “a sense of victory“ and relief.
This is not the first time families are compensated a large sum by another country for their role in terrorist plots. In 2003, Libya accepted responsibility for the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am flight over Scotland. The Libyan government agreed to compensate $2.7 billion to the families of the 270 victims.
For more information please see:
BBC News: “Iran faces $2.65bn US bomb award” 7 September 2007.
The NY Times: “Court Orders Iran to Pay for Lebanon Bombing” 7 September 2007.
CNN: “Iran must pay $2.6 biliion for attack on U.S. Marines, judge rules”
7 September 2007.
Al Jazeera: “US judge fines Iran for 1983 attack” 7 September 2007.
Fox News: “Libya, Families of Victims of Pan Am 103 Bombing Agrees on $2.7B Compensation Fund” 14 August 2003.
