In its brief to the Supreme Court, Jordan called the trial court’s ruling a “grave affront to its sovereignty” and a threat to stability in the surrounding region.
The State, Justice and Treasury departments (the Solicitor General’s clients) are reportedly divided over whether the high court should take the case. (Treasury and Justice seem to want a nuclear weapon in their fight against Swiss bank-secrecy statutes — however great the collateral damage.) Again, this case isn’t about the infraction of US criminal statutes. It can’t be in America’s interest to, in effect, legalize the blackmail of foreign banks by American trial lawyers — with potentially ruinous consequences for the international financial system.
Terror victims were blown up, shot at, stabbed, or beaten. Now, we are accused of threatening the sovereignty of Jordan and being stooges for a bunch of greedy trial lawyers.
I can guarantee Mr. Lamont that our only goal is to see justice for the horrific suffering we have endured. I know fellow plaintiffs who lost loved ones. Our son, then seven years old, was wounded when the head of a screw passed through his right brain, while I myself had two screws pass through my left arm.
Could Mr. Lamont imagine suffering similar injuries to his body or to his family? Would he not wish to hold those responsible for his suffering accountable according to the law? Would he be amiss in hiring lawyers to hold the relevant parties accountable for their actions?
The Second Intifada required a complex mechanism of moving money to allow for attacks and to support the families of “martyrs” who blew up and killed innocent civilians. We have claimed that the Bank played a critical role in that mechanism, and we are asking for our day in court to present the evidence and let judge and jury determine the outcome. The bank was sanctioned because it did not play fair by American—not Jordanian or even British–rules. Let the bank turn over the documents which triggered the sanctions in the first place and Mr. Lamont can save his energies for other activities, such as his role as the chairman of the British Iranian Chamber of Commerce.