This is just silly.
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http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=...7-054105-7452r
9/11 victims awarded damages against Iraq
By Shaun Waterman
From the Washington Politics & Policy Desk
Published 5/7/2003 5:47 PM
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WASHINGTON, May 7 (UPI) -- A federal judge in New York Wednesday awarded damages against the government of Iraq after ruling that the families of two victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, suicide hijackings had shown "albeit barely" that Iraq had provided material support to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida.
Judge Harold Baer ruled that the two families were entitled to $104 million compensation from Iraq, bin Laden, al-Qaida, the Taliban movement and their government of Afghanistan. He had entered a default judgment against these defendants on Dec. 23, 2002, after they failed to show up to contest the case.
But he dismissed the families' suit against deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on the basis that -- as head of state -- he enjoyed absolute immunity.
Lawyers for the two families said they would attempt to recover the money from the $1.7 billion in Iraqi assets frozen in the United States.
"Although the president has recently indicated he's earmarked that to help rebuild Iraq, he did set aside $300 million to pay any judgments outstanding against the old government there," attorney Slade McLaughlin told United Press International.
He said that $118 million of that had been paid out recently to the so-called "human shields" from the 1991 Gulf War, and that he hoped to be able to secure the whole $104 million for his clients from the remainder.
Baer, in a written decision released Wednesday, said that the standard of proof required for the case was much lower than that in a normal civil action, because the defendants did not contest the case.
Even so, he said that the families had only scraped over the evidential bar, referred to in a quotation from the relevant legislation as "evidence satisfactory to the court."
"Plaintiffs have shown, albeit barely, 'by evidence satisfactory to the court' that Iraq provided material support to bin Laden and al-Qaida."
Baer said that most of the evidence the families had tried to introduce -- such as TV interviews with unidentified Iraqi defectors -- was "classically hearsay" or even "multiple hearsay" -- second or third hand. He said his decision was based only on the opinion testimony of the families' two expert witnesses, former CIA Director James Woolsey Jr., and author Laurie Mylroie.
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