Victims of terrorism and their families must not be sacrificed in the interest of securing contracts with current and former state sponsors of terrorism.

One by one, top executives of American oil companies met privately over the last year with LibyaÂ’s leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, often in his signature Bedouin tent, as they lined up contracts allowing them to tap into the countryÂ’s oil reserves.

But now, the new allies are working Capitol Hill, trying to weaken a law that threatens those deals. The Libyan government, once a pariah, and the American oil industry have hired high-profile lobbyists, buttonholed lawmakers and enlisted help from the Bush administration, all in an effort to win an exemption from a law that Congress passed in January that is intended to ensure that victims of terrorist attacks are compensated.

The law allows victims of state-sponsored terrorism to collect court judgments by seizing foreign assets in the United States or money from those governments held by American companies doing business with them. If Libya loses a half-dozen court cases still pending, $3 billion to $6 billion could be at stake, according to lawyersÂ’ estimates.

The US has shamefully sacrificed the rights of such victims of state terrorism before. Whether it was Carter's renunciation of the right of hostages to sue Iran or the Bush administrations opposition to awards of damages to families of victims, blocking such awards blocks justice. Given Libya's history of state-sponsored terrorism, allowing Qaddafi to walk away from his misdeeds witha pocket full of cash while his victims get noting is a moral obscenity -- and another bad precedent.

Posted by: Greg at 10:28 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 273 words, total size 2 kb.