Video: Saudi Lobbying Scandal Gains First National TV Exposure

May 23rd, 2017

Awake Goy

Misconduct by Saudi lobbyists working to weaken a law enabling 9/11 lawsuits against the kingdom garnered its first televised reporting yesterday, with an in-depth segment on Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson, a nationally syndicated Sunday news show.

Full Measure’s report centered on an interview with Marine veteran Tim Cord, who says he and other veterans were flown to Washington by Qorvis MSLGROUP to lobby against the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), but weren’t told Saudi Arabia had organized and funded the venture.

Cord first shared his account in a February 23 story at 28Pages.org that was first to reveal that veterans who traveled to Capitol Hill were kept in the dark about the campaign’s sponsorship—and its underlying motives.

The strong Full Measure report would have been even better had it included:

A deeper examination of the rationale used to persuade veterans to oppose JASTA. Veterans were told that, if other countries passed their own equivalents of JASTA, individual military service members would face trials in foreign courts. According to a former counselor on international law at the State Department, that’s false: JASTA only enables suits against governments.

Elaboration on the breadth and depth of the lobbyists’ apparent violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. More on that in our story on a complaint filed with the Department of Justice by a group of 9/11 families and survivors.