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Updated at 6 p.m. ET: A Weston, Fla., family has won a landmark $323 million court decision against Iran and Syria, six years after their son was killed by a suicide bomber in Tel Aviv. When they’ll see the money is another matter.
A U.S. federal judge awarded Tuly and Cheryl Wultz the judgment against Iran for financially supporting the Islamic Jihad movement and Syria for allowing the group to train in its territory. The lawsuit was filed by an Israeli advocacy group on behalf of the family. The award includes $300 million in punitive damages.
Tuly Wultz remembers like it was yesterday how the terrorist looked moments before the April 17, 2006, blast that killed his son, Daniel, when they were vacationing in Israel. They were having lunch in Tel Aviv when the suicide bomber approached, standing 2 feet away from Daniel Wultz, 16.
Read the original story at NBCMiami.com
“I tried to jump on Daniel but he already detonated and the bomb was over 40 pounds of explosives,” Tuly Wultz recalled in an interview with NBC Miami. He was severely injured, and his son and 10 other people were killed in the attack by an Islamic Jihad militant.
“My heart is still bleeding for Daniel. I’ll never be recovered from that,” the father said.
Daniel Wultz died from his injuries on May 14, 2006.
On Monday, the sixth anniversary of his death, his parents received word of the court victory.
Wultz Attorney Robert Tolchin told msnbc.com that with the court judgment in hand his clients can seek Iranian and Syrian assets to collect the award.
Tolchin said he couldn’t be specific, but he would explore “various avenues.”
“There is a lot of litigation by people seeking the turnover of Iranian assets,” Tolchin said. “The Iranians have kept U.S. courts busy.”
The case was brought under a special provision of federal law that allows U.S. citizens to take court actions against foreign states providing support for terrorism.
As in the Wultz case, Iran often does not fight against a judgment, but hires major U.S. firms to fight the collection of the award, Tolchin said.
Syria, on the other hand, did fight the claim and was represented in court by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark.
"This is a sad result following from a tragic incident," Clark told msnbc.com. "Compensation should come from persons clearly responsible who committed the act. The idea that you can become a multimillionaire by getting some friend or relative killed is not terribly healthy."
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Clark said he defended Syria only over the issue of it being a sovereign state that should face the same protection from lawsuits as all states, which are considered equal under United Nations principles.
There were no facts to support the idea that Syria or Iran were present or had advance knowledge of the Tel Aviv bombing, Clark said.
He took issue with the federal law that allows a few Americans injured by terrorist acts to be paid “a lot of money” when thousands more, especially soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, cannot have the same access to compensation when they are hurt by roadside bombs or in other non-combat attacks.
"Iran and Syria are foreign states with substantial wealth and that have expended significant resources sponsoring terrorism," wrote Judge Royce C. Lamberth in his ruling.
"Barbaric acts like the April 17, 2006 suicide bombing have no place in civilized society and represent a moral depravity that knows no bounds."
The Wultzes say they are pleased with the decision, which they say is just one step towards justice and a way to ensure their son’s death was not in vain.
“This judgment was important because it’s the first time that there’s a judgment that concerns terrorism against Syria,” Cheryl Wultz said.
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Leave a Comment:
Is this court ruling one of those that are purely symbolic? How in the world would they get Syria and Iran to pay something like this (or any value at all for that matter)?
Hey, stuff happens. Why go vacationing in an area taken over by Zionist terror groups and built on Palestinian villages wiped out by the Zionist terrorists?
Mr. Wultz, next time use your brain and don't go on vacation where "colateral damage" is common on both sides of the fighting line.
Have a good day.
At least the ruling is correct, but how would anyone expect to collect anything from these muslim scum? An innocent child on vacation with his parents and killed by a muslim coward who only demonstrated the truth about islam, a hate filled, hideous culture that is disguised as a relgion, islam, the scourge of the earth and of every honest, truthful person on this earth.
Jack: stop being emotional<>I am not saying you are not right about the actions, but let be a bit more elusive for hate, and classification in regard to a whole culture, for we have done @!$%# others would like to kill us for. Now, I am with you those actions are wrong, but when a dog is corralled and threaten, it will defend itself just like human being would,>at whatever cost. Unfortunately, they don't have the system we have here, that would stop the wrong doing from others oppressing them so they can go on living a peaceful life.
You mean like our superior culture prevented the Oklahoma City bombing?
They won't voluntarily pay the judgment, but their assets will be seized. That's how judgements against rogue countries generally get paid to the victims.
I'm willing to listen to explanations as to how the US thinks it has jurisdiction over Iran and Syria for an act committed on Israeli soil. I mean, I've got a neighbor whose bird feeders are encroaching on the property line, and I've had lawyers tell me the courts don't have jurisdiction.
How much should the USA pay to the families killed in our errant drone strikes in Afghanistan? To the 50 family members at an Iraqi wedding, slaughtered by us by mistake? For the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians dead at our hands or at the hands of the extremists we created after we invaded? At 300,000,000 each, we should be on the hook for many trillions of dollars. So let's get an answer to this: Should we be paying the 300 million for every civilian we murdered? We are the richest nation, and we can best afford it.
Really @Angry Guy? You consulted a lawyer about bird feeders? I don't see why anybody would bother trying to explain anything to you.
Follow the money. Iran gets paid for oil shipments. Seize one of those payments, at the bank.
Seems to me we paid the Japanese ( although they refused to do the same stating that war is war ). I am quite sure ths is some kind of compensation that would be acceptable.
This is just another knee jerk reaction judgement designed to make people feel good.
I can scream my head off all day long about how many trillions the US government owes me for 'wrongs/ perceived wrongs', but that doesn't mean that there is any validity in my claims.
The same goes for this embarassment of a judgement.
"Could be difficult to collect.?" Quite an understatement. Condolences to th family though.
For anyone wondering how this family would collect remember we have frozen tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of Iranian assets as part of our sanctions. A judge could order to simply take the award from that frozen money, so there you go. This is why the Iranians are fighting the courts decision. Although I am no supporter of Israel, I would enjoy the idea of this family giving a large portion of this blood money to Israel for its defense. I would prefer that people who support Israel to be able to give this money tax free, and for the United States to stop sending a dime of tax payer money. I highly doubt that their commitment to Israel is that strong though.
Dear Olias -
Given your obvious grasp of history and facts......perhaps you should actually gather all the information out there. You'll find that the world has been around for more than 65 years, and that the Jewish people actaully have the first and oldest claim on the land that was eventaully called Palestine.
But you knew that, as well as the fact that the origin of the Palestinians is from another region. Anyway, your attitude in general, your obvious stupidity and your lack of empathy make clear why your people haven't risen above hapless victims regardless of what the land is called, and will forever remain their own worse enemy.
Hey, btw, you want that land so bad...go take it!
We owe a lot of money to the innocent we killed looking for those elusive WMDs ... hell ... we aren't even capable of saying we were wrong ... but I guess it was fun filling all of those folks with "Shock & Awe" .....
Death to Islam or death to those who don't follow Islam. Go read the Koran, thats what it says. End of story.
They won't see any money. It's the same as putting on trial a murderer and then the murderer is living over in the middle East somewhere. These people won't see a dime of this money unless the US government that sends them billions deduct the amount from the billion our government continues to give to these terrorists.
Why the hell is our own government handing over the taxpayers money to these people. All this handing out cash to foreign countries needs to come to an end, and now.
Start taking car of our own for a change.
Yes that's what it says. But only about 1% of the Muslim population believes that.
The other 99% follow the peaceful, easy-living style of the Qu'ran.
Don't let mass-media distort your view. That'd be like other world citizens thinking we're all supermodels in the USA because their only scope into our lives is Hollywood.
Just think how much money Mexico owes the Americans who live on the border and have to put up with their filthy illegals year after year.
Well I am sure the government can think of a lot more reasons to confiscate every Iranian interest here in the US.
What about those Palestinians killed by Israeli soldiers? Will they be able to sue Isreal in US?? I don't think so. Judiciary in this country is dominated by Israeli americans....including Congress.
For an encore, we'll sue the Great Underground Empire of Zork for a million Zorkmids and vacation on the beaches of Flathead Ocean.
The Israelis live on stolen land...Israeli was created through relatively recent uninvited immigration, zionist massacres of arabs in the nakba spring of '48..Irgun terrorism against UL soldiers, wholesale ethnic cleansing...In short the Israelis deserve all the enemies they have..We should butt out..Israel has nothing to do with us and nothing to offer us.
Isn't this from the same "justice system" that has been determined to have no jurisdiction when innocent parties are detained in one country, transferred across borders and "renditioned" to yet another country for "enhanced interogation".
Just asking you know, facts and data being hard to come by in these parts.
Our courts gave this not so smart person that took his son over to a country that is constantly in threat of being shelled by the palestinians and murdered by suicide bombers and got his son killed and our government gave him 323million dollars but yet one of our soldiers murders women, children and men in a mass killing spree and our government gives those peoples family a few thousand dollars and tell them it is all they are worth.... go figure.
"Barbaric acts like the April 17, 2006 suicide bombing have no place in civilized society and represent a moral depravity that knows no bounds," says Judge Royce C. Lamberth.
Get off your high horse, judge; the USA has regularly meted out or abetted similar kinds of destruction on numerous communities throughout the world.
frances: the government paid Japanese that were citizens and legal residents of the United States who were put in internment camps. It was considered compensation for the land and personal assets that were seized and destroyed. Maybe I am not aware of the fact that we paid Japanese prisoners of war - can you please provide some documentation of this?
BTW: you can't compare that situation to this one.
Where's all the money for the families of the victims of 9-11?
Nice gesture...but will have as much effect as Malaysia convicting Bush and Cheney on war crimes.
Not much to that one considering in Malaysia it is ILLEGAL for an ethic Malay to be anything but a "Muslim". The Malaysian Regime itself is a War Crime, so what does it do... blame Bush by falsely charging him with War Crime. Newsflash, getting rid of Despotism is not a War Crime rather tolerating Despotism such as that in Malaysia in "forcing" all Ethic Malayians there to be "Muslim" is a War Crime
You are so smart Kurt, if the USA just shoved its foot up every dictator's as.s on the planet we'd be so much better off!
Because nobody appreciates anything more than foreigners coming onto their land and telling them their way of life is wrong or primitive.
Don't be ignorant, it is not our duty to rid the world of their problems.
When conditions in a country become bad enough revolution will happen, and if the government is strong enough to put down the movement, that's when they whine to NATO.
Actually, if Dubya had been intent on having a real impact on terrorism and instability in the Middle East he would have invaded Syria and implemented a regime change there. He could have set up a ruling council advised by Jordan until a new constitution and government could be established. It would hve eliminated Iran's influence in the region and brought peace to Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, and Syria. It also might have changed Iraq without having to put one foot on its soil. One will never know, but it just might have worked.
Winning is one thing, collecting from Syria and Iran is another.
Most people in this country who even think of suing a foreign country don't do it to collect anything... they do it for what amounts to ... "the sport" of it...
They know they have a good case... so they go and get a lawyer... pay him... then when they win... that's all they seem to get... "The Win"...!
You actually hear it from people when they sue here in this country... "It's not about the money, they say, it's about winning and sending a message...!
Well... what message did this guy send...? "I won"...! That is all... and... "so what"...!
He isn't going to get a penny... he is going to get laughed at by these countries... and that's it...!
His lawyer is going to get some money... but this poor fool... he has only got a bill from his lawyer... and a story to tell at the bar...!
wow...!
Um...didn't GI-Joe say winning isn't everything or was it, it's the only thing?
Good luck with collecting that.
My thoughts exactly!
I agree with Suds, Good Luck in collecting that!
I don't think luck is going to help, maybe an army....but that could get messy.
It's not that hard. You get your judgment from assets held by the countries in a friendly nation. You don't get a check from Iran and Syria. The problem is that 1) there are lots of people with judgments against these nations and 2) like the article said, the nations fight the collection of the judgments in court. So you get to stand in line to fight in court just to get lucky and win just to stand in line to receive the judgment. It doesn't take an army; it just takes patience.
And a long life span doesn't hurt.
Bush Jr. better get his checkbook out since his declaration of 'Mission Accomplished' meant the successful raiding of Iraqi banks had been completed and Bush's personal war with Saddam had ended. Show them the money Shrub!!!!
Iran, not Iraq, right?
KNEW it wouldn't take long for the "bush did it" idiot to surface
American-American really?
Where does Iraq come to play in this story? You do realize that Iran and Iraq are not one the same?
Set the kool-aid down, you are obviously to drunk to think!
I do believe that both countries have assets here in America that can be taken to pay the award, that will get their attention
I like that thought!
I hope that is true and that the Court system will follow thru
I second that notion..hoping the lawyers for this family petition for that to happen.
Well Iran and Syria can just raise the price of crude oil or hold back supplies.....judgement paid by each person who pumps gas.
Why was the judge so bias in that the money be awarded to the JEWISH family, when in fact, the money should have been split among all the family who suffer the consequences of the murder suicide. The judgement and the judge's decision to award the money to a sole family is wrong. It should have been equally divided, with the Wultz getting most of the purse for having file the Law suit..
We'll it was a US citizen using the US courts, so that would be why they were getting the $$. They are the ones that brought the suit alone, so there was no one else to award the money to.
I thought all jewish had dual citizenship for israel and the US. Guess I could be wrong.
Punisher, you are not only wrong, you are absurd...but so is your grasp of the English language.
Arthur - you are thinking of a Class Action lawsuit. In a Class Action lawsuit the settlement is divided. Unfortunately for the plaintiffs the judgement is only divided among the lawyers.
So the concept of legal jurisdiction is officially dead according to the government then?
what???
That's what I got out of the article. The US has decided that it is king of the world, and will simply take what it wants from other countries.
No wonder why so many people hate the US.
WOW we are so "just" , "fair" and "balanced" it indeed is a day of celebrations, now all the Palestinian families can collect $323 million each from the US for the murder of their loved ones by weapons and ammunition produced here in the US and donated to "poor" Israel.
.
ah, yes, and palestinians should pay Israelis for helping Hamas drop bombs on Israeli kids in kindergartens...I'm sure you wouldn't like it if it was your 4 your old there...just trying to study ABCs...
That would be for real and justified, if Palestinians were to bring their cases to the UNITED STATES Courts and begin Law proceeding to collect compensation for their dead due to weapons made in the USA and given by the Armed Forces to the criminals and murderers Jews. Those arms are use to kill those opposing oppression and the right to personal freedom, right to live in their homes without others kicking them out by force to move in their citizens when the properties aren't theirs, and the right to Education and Economic well being to the Palestinians.
I guess when the U.S. attacks IRAN & SYRIA, the family can get their money?
I see people talking about Bush need to get his check book out. This situation has nothing to do with Bush. To clear the record. I am not a Bush fan @ all, but 2 wrongs do not make it right. Bush was Comandor -n- Cheif. Not a sucidal Muslim. My heart goes out to the family and I pray this never happen to anyone else. I am glad that the courts ruled in their favor. Although they may never see a dime we can all see the tides turning. Things about to shift.
i just dont know what to say. this govt. allegedly fights iran with tooth and nail. yet they continue to allow prominent laws firms to represent terriosts. yes, this a free country. but i say these petty thieves ie. law firms should some way be 'outed' each time they take money from terriosts.
and as for ramsay clark, well, just knowing the past of this piece of s..., speaks volumes of the democrats.
Remember guys. When the US honor their mistakes in Afghanistan to the families of those who were killed by mistake, we only gave them a few thousand dollars<>I believe it was $ 10,000.00, right!!!!!?,
But they didn't have to go to court over it... it was immediately handed to them... how much have the terrorists dished out to the innocents they murdered accidently on purpose??? And we are the bad guys?
What the f*ck does that have to do with anything?
What, you think a Jew's life is worth hundreds of millions, but ten grand is good enough for some Afghani's?
What a pathetic f*cking joke.
Wow, comparing ourselves to terroists? Really? Negotiating with a terrorists is like arguing with a retarded kid. You can't win.
That judge should have gone to Afghanistan and ran those proceedings, Crap, where was he?
The payment may take a little while.
A check that size will require two signatures.
Okay, first of all vacationing in one of the world's hot spots is detrimental to your life... that includes Mexico... wake up...
Second, whether it be $323 trillion, $323 billion, $323 million, $323 thousand, $323 or $3.23 - good luck in collecting from corrupt, terrorist-harboring countries.
Victory in this case has already waned as Iraq and Syria do not abide by our laws or courts or the UN for that matter.
Sorry for your loss but this court decision was fruitless. Guess that means the lawyers won't get paid either.
Simply cut off all payment of lawsuits won by illegals until all Americans are paid back!!!!
Since a US court has no standing in Iran or Syria this is totally stupid.
Doesn't make any sense to me either. Does this mean we can sue Mexico for the problems they give the U.S.?
And you wonder where your hard earn tax dollars goes............................
Incorrect. They can collect money against Frozen Assets held by the US Government.
A federal judgment should allow assets of the two countries currently deposited in the US to be attached and garnished.
Let's see, the U.S. "government" overthrew Iran's democratically elected government illegally, causing torture in future years and many deaths. Judgment 1 trillion. The U.S. "government" helped S. Hussein to commit atrocities using chemical weapons, wmd's in an act "to balance the "Middle East", where a million people in total were killed. Judgment, 100 trillion dollars for war crimes.
Israel killed and or maimed 5,000 Palestinians in a massacre based on the supposed crimes of a few, have suppressed the Palestinians and treated them like animals, do not allow full rights to the Palestinians in Israel, used fragment bombs on the Lebonese, terrorism, no legitimate opposition, 25 trillion dollars, killed an American citizen, and more than one, but Rachel Cory was killed by a bulldozer for standing in front of a house of Palestinians, killed in cold blood, judgment, 500 million dollars.
2 million Vietnamese killed in a false crime war, judgment 200 trillion dollars. Iraq Crime Against Peace started falsely and pre-emptively by this "government", hundreds of thousands of deaths and maiming, many intentional war crimes, torture, outsourcing torture, waterboarding called non-torture by the then criminals in the government and the "law" advisors, when the U.S. government called it a war crime in earlier years - judgment, 90 trillion dollars. Many people torn apart by missiles, bombs, bullets, their guts, brains and genitals splattered all over, many unreconizable which is terrorism to the people affected.
Pay for these war crimes, including the deliberate massacre of 8 to 10 children and several adults, including women, drone terrorism or bombing where whole wedding parties were killed or maimed, other innocents and the like were essentially massacred, and other war crimes unmentioned - judgment 95 tillion dollars - the judicial system here is criminally selective to put it mildly. Condolences for this loss.
Iraq did not have any weapons of mass distruction at least according the Democrats in Congress who apparently all suffer from amnesia.
And a little more "truthin" for you - any claims that the rest of world has against the U.S. is more than offset by our claims against the rest of the world - i.e. Germany (x2), Japan and Italy; the Soviet Union and so on. Let's just call it a wash and move on.
What are you some kind of bozo? WakeUpAmerica? Open a history book will you? I'm starting to think the #1 affliction among Americans 18-188 is Tourettes. Just running off at the mouth and not saying a thing in particular that has any connection to reality.
Now America is the nation of the internationally picked on? Lots of international oppression against Americans within our own borders that you've seen? Really? Foreign military misusing international authority to effect regime change here in Washington and then setting up proxy wars using Americans trained on foreign soil to start up American civil war?
Hey buddy. Haven't you heard? Crack is wack.
Rhynn, I agree with you, but how do you explain texas and alaska? just saying. /sarc
God spoke to me and He said, "If you must continue senselessly killing each other, please stop doing it in My Name!" " If I want someone dead, I can accomplish this all by Myself!" One more thing. "If I took the time to make each and every snowflake different, why would you think I would want all of you to look the same, act the same and think the same?" "If you really want to do something in My Name, stop intimidating each other to believe in your ignorant doctrines." "Blowing each other up, slicing human's heads off?" "Are you kidding me?" "I never created a Hell, this, in all your infinite wisdom, you have created for yourself."
"If you must continue senselessly killing each other, please stop doing it in My Name!", Seriously?
I won't bore you and everyone else with an endless string of "Bible" quotations to the contrary; suffice it to say (accurately) that the Judeo/Christian holy books are replete with atrocities (the sickest imaginable) all in the name of your "God"!
May I suggest that if you cannot, or will not deal/cope with reality, then put a sock in it...please.
Anthony, thanks for your comment. I think you actually made my point. I never said "I" wrote the bible, humans claim "I" did, right? So if you want to believe the bible, the koran, the torah and the rest are all "My" words, then go on believing it. When I want you to follow "My word", I will show up and tell you face to face. Then and only then, should you believe they are "My Words". I won't tell you where to put your sock because it is probably already occupied by your head. I can see by your picture it already has a point on it so it was probably fairly painless to insert.
Anthony, you forgot to mention all of the innocent people killed in the name of the pagan moon god Allah
Collecting the debt will depend upon what assets there are in the U.S. of both governments and whether a Federal court will allow this family to seize those assets. Neither Iran or Syria will have power to do much about it. The Feds might try to stop it by saying they need the assets to force Iran or Syria to comply with something but that is a ways down the road. Good for the family.
My town is overrun with Mexicans. What was the name of their lawyer?
Rachel Corrie. Will Israel Pay punitive damages, or is Israel excluded from crimes against Americans. Her parents are Angelic compared as they are highlighting the plight of the Palestinians and the root cause of desperate acts as this. Desperate people will take desperate measures. The Wutzes are just a continuation of the Israeli effort to humanize anyone killed by the opposite side, while at the same time dehumanize anyone they murder through terrorist activities. My heart goes for both sides, but we never hear of the other side being looked at as human beings. They are just numbers and terrorists. Shame!
Rachel Corrie sat down in front of a bulldozer...and her parents should be seeking compensation from her college, which allowed a Hamas recruiter onto her campus.
Rachel Corrie died trying to protect the Palestinian people from Zionist genocide.
I feel their pain, but winning a lawsuit against Syria and Iran is just futile . Rachel Corrie die because she was an idiot.
Turn Iran and Syria into glass.
Debt paid.
glass like your brain