In 2002, an unlikely coalition of victims, mostly represented by Motley Rice, and property insurers, mostly represented by Cozen O’Connor, sued Saudi Arabia and a clutch of Saudi princes and charities that allegedly funded al Qaeda. The suits were both praised and reviled as “the privatization of foreign policy.” Stephen Cozen, who offers the more cautious estimate of the two lead lawyers, puts the stakes as $150-250 billion, including interest and treble damages. The New York Times quoted Ronald Motley as saying: “I loooove to pick on the Saudis.”
The King of Saudi Arabia most likely heaved a huge sigh of relief in June 2009, when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review an August 2008 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit dismissing the plaintiffs claims against the Kingdom, its princes, and the one prominent charity that was shrewd enough to claim sovereign immunity. But the plaintiffs, determined to hold private sponsors of terror accountable, refused to walk away.
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