Saudi royal family should compensate 9/11 families, not Afghanistan: Analyst

Real accomplices, such as the Saudi royal family, ought to compensate the victims’ families of the September 11, 2001 attacks, not Afghanistan, according to an American political analyst and activist.

A US judge on Friday ruled that the victims’ families should not be allowed to seize billions of dollars of Afghanistan's central bank assets to satisfy court judgments against the Taliban.

US Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn in Manhattan stated that Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB) was immune from jurisdiction and that allowing the seizures would effectively endorse the militant group as the Afghan government, a call that can only be made by the US president, local news outlets reported.

"The Taliban's victims have fought for years for justice, accountability and compensation. They are entitled to no less," Netburn wrote. "But the law limits what compensation the court may authorize, and those limits put the DAB's assets beyond its authority."

Netburn's recommendation is to be reviewed by US District Judge George Daniels in Manhattan, who also oversees the litigation and can overturn her recommendation.

The ruling marks a defeat for four groups of creditors that waged legal action against a variety of defendants, including the al-Qaeda terrorist group that they hold responsible for the September 11 attacks, and obtained default judgments after the alleged defendants failed to show up in court.

In an interview with Press TV on Sunday, Myles Hoenig, a former Green Party candidate for Congress, asked, “So did the courts argue that holding the banks accountable for 911 legitimizes the Taliban government or that the Taliban government was responsible in part for 911?”

“No country recognizes the Afghan government, yet the Taliban government before 9/11 was wined and dined in halls of DC’s elite. The only thing that has changed in 20 years is, like all other empires, the US got its butt kicked while trying to occupy it. I would never argue that we should have normal relations with the Taliban. They are a misogynistic, conservative, intolerant government. But so many other countries are as well, and countries that the US has strong, cordial relationships, such as Saudi Arabia. Recognizing a government should not be the equivalent of approving of it,” he said.  

“The other question is how much should we hold the Taliban accountable for 911? Should relations with the US be suspended by other countries because the US does not recognize the KKK as a terrorist group? Or that so many in law enforcement are its members? Other countries should take a hard look at who does what in the US and perhaps even have an effect on its relationships, but the US has enormous military and economic powers to prevent a real re-evaluation. Enough has been documented that the Taliban was willing to give up Osama bin Laden, but the US government under George W. Bush rejected all approaches. War with Afghanistan was inevitable, and encouraged,” he added.  

“The US has placed sanctions on Russia for its war in Ukraine. And for the US and those who support the military-industrial complex (MIC), Putin is the 21st century Hitler. Yet relations with Russia remain intact. It all depends on whose ox is being gored. So far more than 14000 Russian Ukrainians have been killed by the Ukrainian government in Eastern Ukraine but instead of condemning this, the US and its NATO allies continue to arm the murderers,” he noted.

“The victims’ families of 9/11 should be compensated, but by the perpetrators and their willing accomplices, such as the Saudi royal family,” he concluded.

Families of victims of the attacks have for years pushed the US government to declassify and make public more information about 9/11, which was a series of strikes that killed nearly 3,000 people and caused about $10 billion worth of property and infrastructure damage in the United States.

US officials assert that the attacks were carried out by 19 al-Qaeda terrorists but many experts and independent researchers have raised questions about the official account.

They believe that rogue elements within the US government, such as former Vice President Dick Cheney, orchestrated or at least encouraged the 9/11 attacks in order to accelerate the US war machine and advance the Zionist agenda.

Certain documents related to the FBI's investigation of 9/11 reportedly contain evidence of Saudi involvement in the strikes.

Successive US administrations have refused to release the classified documents because they reportedly could expose a potential link between Saudi Arabia and the 9/11 attacks. Fifteen out of 19 alleged 9/11 attackers were Saudi nationals.

Several US senators and House lawmakers have been calling for the disclosure of 28 pages that purportedly contain evidence of Saudi involvement in financing and backing the alleged 9/11 hijackers. The pages were extracted from a 2002 Congressional inquiry into the September 11, 2001 attacks.

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