A Legal Counterattack

April 21, 2003 2:58 PM

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia hires a huge U.S. legal team to defend them against the landmark $1 trillion lawsuit on behalf of the victims of 9-11 (msnbc link)

Baker Botts is the lawfirm representing the Saudis.
I find it interesting that this lawfirm boasts former secretary of State James Baker as one of its senior partners. Its recent alumni included Robert Jordan (Jordan, a corporate lawyer in the Dallas office of Houston-based Baker Botts, defended Bush in a probe of insider trading allegations in 1990. Bush was cleared of wrongdoing), the former personal lawyer for President Bush who is now U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
posted by bureaustyle (10 comments total)

huh?
posted by xmutex at 3:11 PM on April 21, 2003

huh?

he said:

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia hires a huge U.S. legal team to defend them against the landmark $1 trillion lawsuit on behalf of the victims of 9-11 (msnbc link)

Baker Botts is the lawfirm representing the Saudis.
I find it interesting that this lawfirm boasts former secretary of State James Baker as one of its senior partners. Its recent alumni included Robert Jordan (Jordan, a corporate lawyer in the Dallas office of Houston-based Baker Botts, defended Bush in a probe of insider trading allegations in 1990. Bush was cleared of wrongdoing), the former personal lawyer for President Bush who is now U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly at 3:17 PM on April 21, 2003

I know what he said, but I can't make out what he's sayin'.
posted by xmutex at 3:18 PM on April 21, 2003

...."Gee are old LaSalle ran great..."
posted by clavdivs at 3:24 PM on April 21, 2003

This is the part I found interesting:

"But in laying out their arguments, Sultan’s U.S. lawyers also presented highly detailed new evidence of the Saudi government’s role in funneling millions of dollars to a web of Islamic charities that are widely suspected by U.S. officials of covertly financing the operations of Al Qaeda and other international terrorist groups."

Oops.

Also on WarFilter, btw.
posted by homunculus at 3:30 PM on April 21, 2003

Bush and the Saudi princess
Now, is Bush with U.S. or agains U.S. ???
posted by bureaustyle at 3:46 PM on April 21, 2003

Waitaminit, didn't we go to war on a completely different country over that terrorist thingy?
Doesn't that mean that:
a) we should go to war on Saudi Arabia, too.
or
b) SA had nothing to do with it.

I'm confused.
posted by spazzm at 6:29 PM on April 21, 2003

Um, so what?
posted by delmoi at 9:44 PM on April 21, 2003

You don't think it would be kind of hard to "go to war" against Saudi Arabia with Saddam right next door?
posted by techgnollogic at 5:11 AM on April 22, 2003

BureauStyle: I followed that linked story, but it threw me when it rattled off the lists of terrorist acts that AQ was involved in and mentioned the Moscow musical hostage debacle. I though Chechen rebels had to do with that, not Osama & co.
posted by dr_dank at 9:08 AM on April 22, 2003