Arlen Specter: “I have been asked to pursue this legislation on behalf of the 158 families of the brave servicemen who died when the…”

“I have been asked to pursue this legislation on behalf of the 158 families of the brave servicemen who died when the terrorist faction Hezbollah--with the support of the Government of Iran--sent a suicide bomber into the Marine Corps Barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, on October 23, 1983, killing 241 U.S. servicemen--18 sailors, 3 soldiers, and 220 Marines. This legislation will provide an explicit private right of action for United States citizens against state sponsors of terrorism in our Federal courts, and will ultimately allow victims of such acts to collect court-ordered damages against state-sponsors of terrorism. The specific provisions of the legislation have been drafted to harmonize existing statutory law with the recent direction of the District of Columbia circuit in Cicippio-Puleo v. Islamic Republic of Iran, 353 F.3d 1024 (D.C. Cir. 2004), which held that 'neither 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1605(a)(7) nor the Flatow Amendment to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act . . ., nor the two considered in tandem, creates a private right of action against a foreign government.'”