U.S. Freezes $2 Billion in Iran Case

[steven johnson]

Source: Wall Street Journal

More than $2 billion allegedly held on behalf of Iran in Citigroup Inc. accounts were secretly ordered frozen last year by a federal court in Manhattan, in what appears to be the biggest seizure of Iranian assets abroad since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The legal order, executed 18 months ago by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, is under seal and hasn't been made public. The court acted in part because of information provided by the U.S. Treasury Department.

President Barack Obama has pledged to enact new economic sanctions on Iran at year-end if Tehran doesn't respond to international calls for negotiations over its nuclear-fuel program.

The frozen $2 billion stands at the center of an intensifying legal struggle between Luxembourg's Clearstream Banking S.A., the holder of the Citibank account, and the families of hundreds of U.S. Marines killed or injured in a 1983 terrorist attack on a Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon.


Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126057864707988237.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLTopStories

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A federal judge in Washington ruled in 2003 that Iran orchestrated the bombing of the Marine barracks and later ordered Tehran to pay the victims' families $2.7 billion in compensation. You can run but you cannot hide.

[YankmeCrankme]

1. How much compensation did the US pay...

for shooting down the Iranian airliner? 290 people including 66 children died and the ship captain received an medal.

Just so you don't have to look it up...it was 61 million dollars. No billions there. What's an Iraqi life worth? I think they get about $1000 US dollars when we "accidentally" kill one of them.

Yeah, you can run AND hide. Just depends on who's doing the running, I guess. Oh, just so you know, I don't necessarily believe a federal judge in Washington would or could know whether Iran orchestrated the bombing or not, especially in 2003 during the Bush years.

[steven johnson]

2. I agree -- Karma is a Bitch

You might have to look it up, though.

In February 1996 the United States agreed to pay Iran $132 million to settle the case brought by Iran against the U.S. in the International Court of Justice relating to this incident of which $61.8 million of the claim was in compensation for the 248 Iranians killed in the shootdown ($300,000 per wage-earning victim, $150,000 per non-wage-earner).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655

A 1983 NSA intercept of a message sent from Iranian intelligence headquarters in Tehran to the Iranian ambassador in Damascus which said, "The message directed the Iranian ambassador to contact Hussein Musawi, the leader of the terrorist group Islamic Amal, and to instruct him ... 'to take a spectacular action against the United States Marines.'"

To give some indication of how stupid the crew of the Vincennes that shot down the Iranian airliner was, the officer in charge of the firing console pressed the wrong keys 23 times until a veteran petty officer leaned over and hit the right ones.

[YankmeCrankme]

3. No such thing as Karma

I'd already posted the damages the US paid to the victims of the shoot down of the Iranian airliner, but thanks for confirming. As you can see from your quote and link that was an international court decision. What the US has done is passed laws that allow it to use its own courts to sue nations, pass judgment and award damages. We don't even bother with the international court to hear our cases. As any nation would, they declared that they are not subject to US law. Also, reflecting the previous point, to show how little value we place on other lives, "you can run but you can't hide" doesn't really apply to the US, but then again that may have been your point.

A few observations, the damages are disproportionate compared to what we pay for lives terminated by the US, this was decided in a US court by a Reagan appointee during the Bush administration after 9-11 when the rhetoric against Iran heated up, there is no consensus who was behind the bombings, though there are some who say the US had forewarning and did nothing, which puts your quote by Judge Lamberth in a interesting context(wouldn't that make the US culpable). Lastly, the situation in Beirut was extremely complicated. Read up on the the whole Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the players involved and the events it that lead up the bombing. We aren't completely innocent in this drama and the only bad actors weren't Shia.

I realize that no other nation can force the the US to do, often times, what the US demands or forces other nations to accede to, but I little stomach for our hypocrisy and dislike to see people cheering for it.

Karma has nothing to do with it.