Suit Begins Against Iran in Marine Barracks Bombing


By Neely Tucker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 18, 2003; Page A11

More than 600 relatives of the U.S. servicemen killed in a 1983 bombing attack in Beirut charged yesterday that Iran was responsible for the bombing, as a landmark lawsuit began in U.S. District Court in Washington.

The Oct. 23, 1983, truck bombing of the Marines' 24th Amphibious Unit barracks killed 241 and injured scores more, and was the blow that eventually led to the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Lebanon.

Under rules of combat, U.S. troops would have no clear legal rights to sue. But because they were on a peacekeeping mission under peacetime rules of engagement, U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth has ruled that survivors and family members can sue Iran under the provisions of a 1996 law that allows U.S. citizens to take legal action against nations that sponsor terrorism.

"The U.S. military force . . . embodies everything that is resented by the enemies of this country," Lamberth wrote. "Failure to permit military service member [lawsuits] would create a perverse incentive for state sponsors of terrorism to target noncombatant U.S. military personnel."

Hundreds of family members turned out for the first day of what is expected to be two days of testimony and evidence designed to document Iran's role in the bombing. Iran did not send a representative to the trial.

Attorneys Thomas Fortune Fay and Steven R. Perles began their case yesterday by making their main point -- that while militants belonging to the Lebanese group Hezbollah participated in the bombing, the leadership of Iran designed and carried out the attack, using an Iranian suicide-bomber to drive the truck.

If Lamberth rules the that plaintiffs have proven their case, he would then hold hearings to determine damages. Perles said yesterday that those would be "north of $2 billion," and said he would pursue Iranian government assets in the United States or abroad to settle the claims.

"I want Iran to hurt. They made us hurt," said Deborah Peterson of Virginia, the lead plaintiff in the case. Her brother, Marine Cpl. James Knipple, 20, was killed in the blast.

But the odds of actually collecting a judgment are low. The only money paid to victims of Iranian terrorism so far has come from a set-aside fund in the U.S. Treasury that matches the $400 million remaining in a frozen Iranian account.

Iran contends that money belongs to it. The matter is before the U.S.-Iran tribunal at The Hague.


Sempers,

Roger