by AWR Hawkins
Two days before Christmas 2011, while everyone was lost in the hustle and bustle of the season and making a last dash for gifts, U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels declared that Iran was “legally responsible for damages to hundreds of family members of 9/11 victims.”
In the historic decision in Havlish, et al. v. bin Laden, et al., Daniels ruled that “Iran and Hezbollah materially and directly supported al Qaeda in the September 11, 2001 attacks.” Yet, here we are, months later, with the Obama administration not only refusing to hold Iran to account for these things but actually playing the devil’s advocate for them by trying to keep nations like Israel from doing what they must do in order to prevent Iran from carrying out a potential nuclear strike.
And according to retired Admiral James Lyons, Iran’s aggression against the U.S. has been evident long before 9/11: “In addition to Iran’s direct involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks, we have a litany of Iran’s acts of war against the U.S. Since the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in November 1979, we have positive proof of Iran’s involvement in the April 1983 bombing of our embassy in Beirut and the October 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut.”
Yet Lyons points out that our response to these aggressions, and particularly to Judge Daniels’ findings concerning Iran’s involvement in 9/11, has only been to bury our heads in the sand.
According to Lyons, “[Judge Daniel’s ruling] was so devastating in implicating Iran’s role in the Sept. 11 attacks that the CIA tried to get it expunged” from final copies of official 9/11 investigative reports. Lyons wonders if this is just a way for the CIA to cover its butt for failing to see the Iranian connection?
Either way, the facts are the facts. Judge Daniels found that “the Islamic Republic of Iran” was “a principal responsible party” for the 9/11 attacks, and Lyons’ work has brought together myriad assaults on Americans and American interests abroad by Iran over the course of the last 30 years.
The time is now to attack Iran and halt its nuclear program. The time is now to support Israelis as they do what they must do to defend their land. This is Lyon’s conclusion, and it should be the conclusion reached by everyone who considers the atrocities of 9/11 and the culpability Iran shares in that day of infamy.
Big Peace
