Obama flays Congress for overriding his 9/11 bill veto

Justice important even at cost of diplomatic discomforts

WASHINGTON: The US Congress voted overwhelmingly to override a presidential veto, the first time for President Barack Obama, to allow families of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia over its alleged support to the terrorists who carried out the attacks.

The senate passed it by a 97-1 vote on Wednesday, with the House of Representatives following up with a 348-77 decision later in the day, sending the bill back to Obama, who now has no choice but to sign it into law.

“Overriding a presidential veto is something we don’t take lightly, but it was important in this case that the families of the victims of 9/11 be allowed to pursue justice, even if that pursuit causes some diplomatic discomforts,” Charles Schumer, the Democratic Senator from New York who co-authored the bill with Republican Senator John Cornyn from Texas, said in a statement.

Obama angrily denounced the outcome, saying lawmakers had been swayed to cast a political vote for legislation that set a “dangerous precedent” with implications they did not understand and never debated.

“I think it was a mistake, and I understand why it happened,” Obama said at a CNN town hallstyle meeting with military personnel in Fort Lee, Virginia. “It’s an example of why sometimes, you have to do what’s hard, and frankly, I wish Congress here had done what’s hard. I didn’t expect it, because if you’re perceived as voting against 9/11 families right before an election, not surprisingly, that’s a hard vote for people to take. But it would have been the right thing to do.”

The Obama administration had opposed the legislation arguing it would open up the US to similar legal action in other countries, and also that Saudi Arabia had long been an important ally in the region and a cornerstone of American policy there.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest called the override vote “the single most embarrassing thing the United States Senate has done possibly since 1983”, when Congress overrode President Ronald Reagan’s veto on a land transfer bill.

There was some disquiet even among lawmakers who had supported and voted for the legislation, and reports in US media stated that efforts were already under way to whittle down certain more troubling provisions of the law.

One proposal being considered was to narrow the scope of this law to only 9/11.

Saudi Arabia’s alleged role in the 9/11 attacks has long been a subject of speculation because 15 of the 19 terrorists were Saudi citizens. The recent release of 28 pages of the 9/11 commission report also confirmed, in a way, the suspicions. There was stony silence from Riyadh on Thursday on the congress move, but some Saudis bristled, saying the kingdom could curb business and security ties in response to an ally’s perceived affront.

The Saudi government financed an extensive lobbying campaign against the “Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act” in the run-up to the vote, and warned it would undermine the principle of sovereign immunity. But Saudi officials stopped short of threatening any retaliation if the law was passed.

First Lady Michelle Obama took a dig at Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, saying America “needs an adult in the White House” and not a person who is “erratic and threatening”.

“When making life-or-death, war-or-peace decisions, a president just cannot pop off or lash out irrationally. No, we need an adult in the White House, I guarantee you,” she said at a rally in support of Hillary Clinton in Philadelphia as she made a strong pitch for the 68-year-old Democratic presidential candidate.

Michelle, without mentioning Trump, 70, said the US needs someone who is compassionate.

“Someone who will be a role model for our kids. Someone who is not just in this for themselves but for the good of this entire country - all of us. At the end of the day, the presidency does not change who you are, it reveals who you are and the same is true of a presidential campaign,” she said.

US presidential campaigns, Michelle said, are very long nearly two and a half years, or half of one presidential term.

“So if a candidate is erratic and threatening; if a candidate traffics in prejudice, fears and lies on the campaign trail; if a candidate thinks that not paying taxes makes you smart, or that it is good business when people lose their homes; if a candidate regularly and flippantly makes cruel and insulting comments about