Biden is forcing terrorism victims to fight each other

President Biden’s February executive order on $7 billion in frozen Afghan funds, in which half will be used for humanitarian purposes and the other half for American victims of terror, seems at first glance to be a straightforward, benevolent policy.

But peel back a layer or two and you quickly find an ugly and embarrassing legal drama unfolding.

There is no doubt the question of the Afghan funds is a complicated one, involving a complex web of war, government collapse and a hostile foreign adversary responsible for multiple terrorist attacks. In fact, such a situation is unprecedented in American history.

The solution lies with the U.S. Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund, which was created by Congress in 2015 to handle complicated questions of statecraft such as this.

The creation of the fund raised an ugly question: How should courts handle the distribution of limited funds to thousands of equally deserving victims? The answer: they shouldn’t.

Instead, the money would be administered by the Department of Justice, which would then distribute the money to all eligible victims on an equitable basis. There would be no fighting. No victims against victims.

And no legal authorities are put in the uncomfortable position of deciding which victims deserve to collect on their judgments, no weighing one victim’s suffering against anothers.

It was a fair, equitable solution with the broad support of the victim community, serving both 9/11 victims and non-9/11 victims. The fund has bipartisan support in Congress.

The fund means a lot to me, because I am a part of the community it is designed to help.

I was a Naval Intelligence Specialist stationed in Lebanon when Hezbollah attacked the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in 1983 with a devastating car bomb. The attack left me wounded, traumatized and scarred – the sleepless nights, constant fear and resulting trauma has haunted me ever since and impacted much of my life, including my career.

My suffering linked me to a community of American victims of terrorism.

Over the years, that community – including those victimized at the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia, the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, the attack on the U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon and the bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Tanzania, Kenya and Lebanon – have engaged Congressional and other leaders to personally advocate for the justice we deserve.

The fund has disbursed about $3.3 billion to roughly 13,000 victims and families since its creation in 2015.

You can imagine our dismay that

President Biden bypassed this system and the drama that has unfolded as a result. Victims are fighting victims in court, resulting in unnecessary legal conflicts between those who have sacrificed for their country. And it gets even worse, as trial lawyers and insurance companies stand to benefit at the detriment of victims and their families who lost their lives or were horribly injured.

Under the fund, legal fees are capped, and only personal injury claims are eligible. That is not the case in court.

A new executive order – or congressional legislation with the same effect – directing the money into the fund, can stop this ugliness at once.

All it will take is political will and courage.