Sept. 11 Victims' Families Sue Saudis : Families of 600 people killed in the Sept. 11 attacks filed suit yesterday against Saudi Arabian banks and charities and members of the royal family, accusing them of financially sponsoring the al Qaeda terrorist network and its leader, Osama bin Laden. Named as defendants in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court here were three Saudi princes, seven banks, the government of Sudan and international charities that the U.S. government has contended are linked to terrorist groups.

My, my, my. Isn't that interesting? Somewhare in the halls of government, some undersecretary is thinking, "Well, that's JUST what we need." Along with a number of four letter words that don't need repeating. After all, this is a family weblog! ... wait, no, it isn't.

In any event, things will move at a nicely glacial pace in this case. There will be all sorts of continuances and discovery and whatnot. That said, the discovery phase ought to be particularly interesting. I would imagine that the plaintiffs will be subpoenaing the government for its records on the matter, and the government will be citing confidentiality, intelligence and executive privilege in its attempts to keep information away from them. The case will wend its way to the Supreme Court, which, three years or so from now, will likely tell the government that it has a responsibility to provide some information, if not all that the plantiffs desire. The government will then provide heavily redacted copies of cretain information, and the case will go back to the Court for just a touch less redaction, please. Eventually -- say, ten years or so from now -- we'll actually get around to hearings on the merits.

Or possibly not, since the principle has generally been that you may not sue foreign diplomats, heads of state and governments in quite this manner. It is allowed in certain circumstances -- such as those resulting in large numbers of deaths or imprisonments, as with the Iran hostage crisis and Libyan bombing of the Pan American flight and a few others. So somewhere along the line, the courts will need to decide if this case fits those circumstances. It should, but who knows? Our government will be heavily on the side of the defendants, trying to get this case out of court, out of the papers and out of the way of their foreign policy of appeasement for oil.