GOP chairman lobbies against overriding Obama on 9/11 bill

The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee on Friday urged Republicans not to override President Obama’s veto of a bill allowing families of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia in U.S courts.

{mosads}In a letter circulated Friday, Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) became the first Republican to come out against a veto override, warning that the bill could put American military, intelligence and diplomatic personnel at risk of retributive lawsuits.

“As tempting as it may be to override President Obama’s veto for the first time, please take a moment to study the consequences of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act,” he wrote.

“This bill will increase the risk to our military and other personnel around the world, and I must oppose it on their behalf.”

Obama on Friday vetoed the measure which passed the House and Senate unanimously. The projected override was largely seen as a done deal up until this week, when cracks began to appear in support for the measure.

The White House has lobbied fiercely against the bill and several key Democrats this week began to express reservations.

Republican and Democratic leaders say they are committed to holding the override vote, and the bill’s backers believe they have the support to force the bill into law.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Friday that the upper chamber will remain in session until the veto override vote is done.

If Republicans defect, it could build a unique coalition of lawmakers who are concerned about lowering the barriers for suing foreign governments.

Thornberry’s letter hints at growing fears that the bill could push other countries to take similar measures, possibly resulting in American officials being forced to disclose sensitive information during the discovery process in foreign courts. 

“We should not go down this road. Americans are in countries all over the world. Many of those countries do not respect the rule of law, and we cannot expect their responses to be as measured and narrow as ours. We have more at stake than anyone else — and our personnel will incur the most risk,” Thornberry wrote.

He echoes the concerns of many senior intelligence and defense officials.

Several former national security officials from the Obama and Bush administrations, including former Defense Secretary William Cohen and former acting CIA director Michael Morell, warned this week of the risks to diplomats as well as intelligence and military officers.

A group of 17 retired senior military officers on Friday circulated an open letter to lawmakers, warning that “Congress must take great care to ensure that soldiers must be able to do their jobs without threat of foreign influence or repercussion.”

“It has been the principles of sovereign immunity which provide the protections to prevent our military personnel from being subject to the rules and actions of foreign courts. If sovereign immunity is degraded, as JASTA would certainly begin to do, then those protections will also go away,” they wrote.

The bill has fierce support from the families of 9/11 victims, who argue that the bill is written narrowly and poses no risks to U.S. personnel. 

The immunity provision concerns only the immunity of foreign states and has nothing to do with the immunity of individual foreign officials or employees, according to one group of victims’ families lobbying for the bill.