International banks that launder money for terrorists shouldn’t be allowed to escape justice.
After 9-11, Congress passed laws intended to hold them accountable. But a loophole in the original law has allowed some banks to escape paying claims owed to American soldiers and civilians harmed in attacks the banks helped fund. In the case of Kaplan v. Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the defendant banks argued that the actions of terrorists they funded qualified as “legitimate act[s] of war” and were subsequently not subject to the Antiterrorism Act of 1992.
The fact that a known terrorist group uses “military-style weapons” instead of a fertilizer bomb or carries out an attack against a government building instead of a café shouldn’t free their financiers from facing justice, but that is exactly what these companies have been arguing.
The bi-partisan “Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act of 2018” closes many of the loopholes that financiers of terrorism have been using to escape justice and avoid paying damages to U.S. veterans and civilians harmed in terror attacks. The Act is co-sponsored by four Democrats and four Republicans: Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Senator Chris Coons (D-DE), Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL), Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), Senator Tom Tillis (R-NC), and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). And another bi-partisan version is moving through the U.S. House.
Please lend your support to injured vets, Gold Star families, and other U.S. victims of terrorism seeking to hold these banks accountable by signing the petition, and then encourage your friends to speak out on Facebook and Twitter.
Banks that fund terrorists shouldn’t be able to escape justice.
The bi-partisan Antiterrorism Clarification Act of 2018 closes legal loopholes international banks have used to avoid paying US soldiers and civilians harmed in terrorist attacks the banks helped fund. I want to thank the bill’s sponsors, and encourage Congress to quickly pass this legislation.
If you agree, please take a moment to sign our petition.