Posted on 12/23/2003 9:41:14 AM PST by Tailgunner Joe
A senior government official says the State Department is interfering with a civil lawsuit, creating setbacks for family members of victims of the 1996 bombing of a military barracks in Saudi Arabia. The official, who spoke on condition that he not be named, told Insight that the State Department is taking "active measures" to prevent family members of some of the 19 victims of the Khobar Towers bombing from proceeding with a civil court case that alleges Iran sponsored the bombing and seeks a judgment against the Islamic nation which the State Department itself lists as a country that sponsors terrorism.
Former FBI Director Louis Freeh and the former head of the FBI's counterterrorism unit, Dale Watson, had been slated to testify in the trial and had even shown up in court to testify on one occasion but were told they couldn't appear, even though lawyers for the victims said they had received permission from the Justice Department for their testimony to go forward. In court, attorneys stated that there was another agency that had not granted permission and was holding up the testimony. The government official, who does not work for the State Department but who does have dealings with it on matters pertaining to terrorism, told Insight that State was the agency holding up testimony and attempting to prevent it from occurring altogether. "First they did everything they could to prevent Freeh and Watson from testifying," the official says, "and now they are putting pressure on the judge to dismiss the case."
A spokesman for the State Department said that "We reviewed the request without objection," but could not say when the Justice Department was notified of State's clearance of testimony by Freeh and Watson.
Another source close to the Justice Department told Insight that U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, the boss of presiding judge U.S. Magistrate Deborah Robinson, was approached by the State Department and told that the Khobar Towers case was "still under investigation" and a "matter of national security" and that the case should be dismissed. When asked about allegations that the State Department applied pressure on the judge, a department spokesman told Insight, "We do not discuss ongoing cases."
Last Friday, after two weeks of hearing testimony, Robinson indicated her desire to dismiss the case even if Freeh and Watson are allowed to testify. "What evidence will be presented to make the trial worth holding over?" the judge asked attorneys for the families of the victims. Freeh and Watson both had concluded and previously had testified in other venues that Iran's assistance in the Khobar Towers bombing amounted to state sponsorship of the attack.
Robinson, however, raised questions over whether testimony of the two would divulge "classified" information. Attorneys responded that they only intended to pursue information provided by Freeh and Watson that already had been made public in other court depositions. The government official says that claims of national security in this case are "specious at best. This is about the State Department putting the interests of Iran and Saudi Arabia ahead of that of their own citizens." Testimony by the two former FBI officials is viewed as the cornerstone of the case for the family members and, according to several attorneys without an interest in the outcome of the case, would go well beyond the evidence necessary to win in a case where the defendant doesn't show up and put on a defense.
On Tuesday the court learned that the Justice Department had agreed to allow testimony from Freeh and Watson to go forward. However, family members of victims of the Khobar Towers bombing said they were disheartened by Robinson's statement about whether the family members who previously were scheduled to testify would be allowed to testify. Last week the judge told the victims' family members who had traveled at their own expense to testify at the trial to just "go home." Marie Campbell, wife of Air Force Sgt. Millard Dee Campbell, fighting back tears, told Insight, "It hurts a lot to have to prepare to testify about the loss of my husband" and then to be told "to just go home." Campbell says being involved with the lawsuit "may be the only justice we get" for the attack.
"My tears never stop," said Jennie Haun, wife of Air Force Capt. Timothy Haun, another Khobar Towers victim.
"We have so many things that make us suffer. Our loved ones were murdered and we only want what little bit of justice this provides," Haun told Insight. Haun also was scheduled to testify but says that after what happened in court yesterday she sees a chance for "a little bit of peace" slipping away.
Attorneys for the victims' families had no comment.
Sounds like the State Department is operating on an "America (and Americans) Last" mentality. Where does Secretary Powell stand?
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