Gold Star families join in lawsuit against Iran
One of our Gold Star mothers send us a link to an article about Gold Star families who have joined in a lawsuit, (Holladay, et al. v. Iran) against Iran in US District Court in Washington, DC to hold the state sponsors of terror responsible for the deaths and injuries of their family members in the war in Iraq from 2003 – 2011.
“Every day we work on this case, we are finding more ties between Iran and the attacks on our citizens and service members in Iraq,” said Gavriel Mairone, whose law firm, MM-Law, joined Levin Papantonio in the lawsuit. His firm is devoted exclusively to representing victims of terrorism.
Mairone said, in a press release, “This investigation gives us the opportunity to hold state sponsors of terror, and those who support and facilitate terrorism, responsible for their abhorrent, systematic killing and maiming of U.S. soldiers and civilians who were on the ground to maintain peace and stability.”
Data suggests that the majority of the 36,000 + U.S. casualties in the war resulted from attacks that can be linked to Iranian-sponsored terrorists.
Congress voted to override President Obama’s veto on the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) in the Fall of 2016. The law allowed US citizens to seek legal retribution from state sponsors of terrorism, which Iran is according to the United Nations.
The article also states that banks which supplied Iran with US dollars to pay their agents are also targets of the lawsuit;
Obtaining U.S. currency was a challenge for Iran because of economic sanctions. They needed help. Enter nine European banks that facilitated the money-laundering. The banks have already pleaded guilty, or admitted and entered into deferred prosecution agreements with U.S. regulators that they conspired with Iran, the Central Bank of Iran, and several other Iranian banks, to illegally provide billions of U.S. dollars to Iran during the Iraq War.
“Without those U.S. dollars, Iran could not possibly have committed the acts of terror that it did in Iraq and certainly could not have had the lethality or the efficiency that it truly did,” said Paulos. “In some parts of Iraq, 70-percent of the casualties at any given time were being caused not by the Iranian army or the Iraqi army or some act of war but by acts of terrorism being committed by known, specially designated terrorists on the ground in Iraq using money and munitions provided by the State of Iran.”
If you think that you might have a claim, the lawyers have set up a website at the Iraq War Fund.
Category: Politics
In a just world, Obamao and his traitorous lackeys would be arrested and put on trial together ala Nuremberg and be made to account for their treasonous crimes of aiding and abetting a sworn enemy of the United States by assisting Iranian state terrorism and abetting it to become a nuclear power; but we don’t live in a just world…
We never have, and likely never will.
That’s why DoD exists.
+1
In God We Trust.
Everyone else: keep your hands in sight and avoid sudden moves.
Not a real fan of Lawfare, setting precedents, etc. Perhaps, this will be for the best.
I can certainly understand their motivation. I would be, too.
So basically if anyone was in a PEBID or VEBID in Iraq and maybe a few cases in Afghanistan
They can sue Iran now for damages????
How much of that money illegally transferred to Iran went to North Korea and its nuclear program?
We’ll never know, but all of that should never have been allowed to start.
Good luck for them collecting on this. A friend of mine and the families of Kobar towers sued Iran and for the better part of twenty years fought, sometimes with our own government, in court. Finally a decision was made in there favor and the previous administration released all the funds back to Iran.
if i get a payout beers on me
Thinking outside the box, they should be asking for Letters of Marque and Reprisal.
Plenty of folks would take the work “on spec”. Some of them are -very- capable. And in practical terms, we would be fighting back in a very favorably asymmetric way.
We haven’t done that sort of thing in a while, but we were actually pretty good at it.
Sure. All sorts of reasons why we don’t do that sort of thing anymore. But since we are fighting a regime that does -not- play by the Laws and Customs of War, we are actually not obligated to do so ourselves. “Reprisal” is a -fundamental- part of the Customs of War, because it is the -only- thing that ultimately can force compliance with them, short of simply conquering them.
And yes, we -could- conquer them. We beat two much better and badder empires simultaneously. But bleeding them into regime collapse is probably -far- less bloody, and will give -major- pause to a number of other global assholes.
Just a thought…
11B – according to this and other articles, in essence, this was the net effect of sanctions imposed by both the US and the UN. And it was working, which was the reason Obama cited as giving Iran over a billion dollars in pallets of cash. Because they were suffering economically due to sanctions. Because this money was interest on the principal of assets we seized when they declared war on us and took US Embassy personnel hostage.
A few comments –
First, this doesn’t apply to me as my son was KIA in Afghanistan, albeit by a VBIED.
Second, I know quite a few Gold Stars who have been contacted by various legal firms who are joining in this fight. The families I know don’t ever expect to see a penny. They would settle for a legal victory that would prevent funding of more attacks and more members of our club.
THIS is reason eleventy-two zabillion, four hundred and twelve I despise Obama, his entire administration and say he was the worst President in the history of the US.
So, let’s play a game of connect the dots.
dot.dot.dot.As early as 2012, and as recent as 2015, foreign banks have plead guilty to laundering money for Iran, because Iran needs US dollars to fund terrorism as it’s own currency is worthless outside Iran.
dot.dot.dot.Iran pays (or thru proxies) terrorists in US dollars.
dot.dot.dot.Iran pays (or thru proxies) the families of suicide bombers in US dollars.
dot.dot.dot.Iran buys supplies (or thru proxies) weapons and bomb-making apparatus with US dollars, as it can’t have agents spend it’s dollars on Amazon(/sarc on Amazon)
dot.dot.dot.Iran’s supply of US dollars is pretty much shut down.
dot.dot.dot.In 2016, when the banks Iran had been using for decades were no longer able to launder money and supply Iran with US dollars, Obama decides it’s a good idea to give Iran pallets full of hard currency, mostly, supposedly, Swiss Francs.
dot.dot.dot.Swiss Francs can be converted by any bank to US dollars.
Perhaps Obama actually told the truth when he and his administration claimed those pallets of cash had nothing to do with hostages.
Iraq War Started by Bush.
Nothing else is more damming than that.
Without that fact, none of those Lost would have been there in the first place.
Damning fact: Iran’s Islamic Theocracy, and its multi-decade support of terrorism and more Islamic Theocracy, was started by Jimmy Carter – Democrat.
Thus -Carter- has the blood on his hands of the various folks murdered by the Mad Mullahs. You Democrats keep forgetting that blood debt y’all owe for that one.
Absent -that- set of dots, there would have been a whole lot fewer folks killed, including Americans. We are -still- dealing with that little bit of Carter’s abject stupidity.
Dot Dot Dot
Facts Help:
http://articles.latimes.com/1987-05-13/news/mn-4265_1_iran-claims-tribunal
https://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/092006.html
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/08/05/iran-nuclear-deal-cash-payment-hostages-editorials-and-debates/88070214/
Fact Iraq War Started not by Obama.
Fact: Iran does not equal Iraq.
Fact: Iran is an Islamic Theocracy thanks to one Jimmy carter, Democrat, who created this mess by supporting the Ayatollahs and their fanatical and lunatic version of Islamic Theocracy.
Fact: Obama doubled down on Carter’s stupid by cash-funding the Islamic Theocrats killing Americans and promising more, globally.
You Donks just cannot learn, can you?
Read the links.
1) Ronald Reagan unfroze Iranian cash in the 80’s and gave it to Iran.
2) Iran-Contra cash and weapons to Iran.
3) Bush unfroze millions of Iranian cash and gave it to Iran.
4) Iran is a Theocracy due to CIA involvement in the 50’s backing the Shah and his brutal oppressive regime.
5) The lawsuit is about Service members killed in Iraq by Iranian proxy.
Look who is talking about learning. Reading and Facts are not your friend I guess!
You Donks enabled the Ayatollah to return and sweep Iran. You can filibuster all you want, but that essential moment, throwing the US ally Shah under the bus, put the mad mullah Islamic theocracy onthe Peacock Throne of Iran, unleashing bloody mayhem globally.
-you- Donks, through your stellar genius Carter, though an Islamic Theocracy was better for th eWorld than a relatively secular, relatively modern, relatively -restrained- Shah.
The Shah was certainly brutal and repressive, but far -less- so than the local norms,and very, very much less so than the mad mullah you favor.
-all- that is on -your- hands, since you own Carrrter andd cannot seems to see the -spectacular- blunder of aiding and abetting one of the bloodiest and -craziest- Islamic regimes on Earth.
That is -all- on y’all, as absent Carter’s idiocy, the Shah probably hangs on until he dies of old age. And -his- trend was to more open, less harsh, society.
But you folks -cannot- see the damage done, any more than you can see the incredible -mess- made by Wilson in Wold War One, and the absolute -disaster- of the immediate post-war era. We are still trying to clean up -that- mess
But please stay your course. I am looking forward to four more years of Trump.
1st off in my opinion as a GSM I think this is a ridiculous lawsuit that will just bring more heart ache for many. Most of these lawyers doing this are ambulance chasers in my opinion. I was contacted by two different firms and told them NO. They are not look to help us, but to make money in the name of our loved ones. I researched all of this for the curiosity factor. My son for one knew the risk and joined and fought hard… He had the opportunity not go on his last deployment due to some personal things and choose to do so anyway.. I wish these families good luck with this but no good will come from this.
Every dollar it winds up costing the Mad Mullahs is money they cannot spend on more terrorism, more conquest.
Just like our son has stayed in the Army, and chose to transfer to a unit that was to be deployed even though he was in an excellent one that was staying here.
I pray to God that we not join the Gold Star fraternity, but it is his choice, his desire to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps.
That does not stop me from despising 0bama The Narcissist and the other DNC septic-tank-scumballs. It does not keep me from recognizing that the Peanut Farmer is responsible for the suffering of millions, despite his work with Habitat for Humanity.
But wars can be fought on many fronts. While I don’t generally favor lawsuits where only the lawyers get paid, it is a tool to hinder our enemies. Not as satisfactory as pulling the trigger on an evil Follower of the Great Pedophile, but a weapon.
Mickey,
I don’t disagree with you regarding the greed of the lawyers. I too have looked into this a few times, but this particular law group leaves a little bit of a different, less bad taste. This is all they do. Who they are and their personal backgrounds seem like they are acting from a more humanitarian, ideological stance than mere greed. Will they and the other law firms make a bunch of money and position themselves to make even more? Yep. But as others have said, depleting the enemy’s resources is a good enough motivation for me.
My time will come, I’m sure, when it will be about the Afghan casualties. Perhaps my opinion will then change, but I don’t think so. Either way, I fully support and respect your opinion and decision to take the course of action that is best for you.