Finally! Palestinian Murderers While Abbas In Charge Who Killed 3 Americans Can Be Sued

First the embarrassing background on how the US has handed this till now.

I first blogged about this in 2005 about the deliberate murder of John Branchizio, John Linde Jr. and Mark Parsons in When Palestinians Murder Americans:

Michael Freund notes in an op-ed column for the Jerusalem Post that October 15, just a few days before Bush's meeting with Abbas, was the 2nd anniversary of the murder of 3 Americans by Palestinian Arabs terrorists when they blew up a US diplomatic convoy in Gaza:

TWO YEARS ago, John Branchizio, 37, of Texas; John Linde Jr., 30, of Missouri; and Mark Parsons, 31, of New Jersey, all died in Gaza as a direct result of Palestinian terror. They are among the more than 50 American citizens murdered by Palestinian terrorists since the signing of the Oslo accords, and none of their killers have yet to pay for their actions.[emphasis added]

I wrote at the time that at the time, PA military intelligence chief Musa Arafat told Reuters in September 2004:

Palestinian security forces know who was behind the killing of three Americans in Gaza nearly a year ago but cannot act against the factions while fighting with Israel continues.

A Washington Times editorial described at the time the deliberate murder of the Americans. The vehicles that had been vehicles targeted all had diplomatic license plates and were traveling on a road closed to Israeli traffic. In other words the, it was obvious to the Arab attackers that they knew whom they were attacking. It was a methodical and intentional assault.

At the time Abbas assured Condoleezza Rice that the Palestinian Authority would bring justice to those who murdered John Branchizio, John Linde Jr. and Mark Parsons--a testimony to what Abbas's assurances are worth

On the issue of prosecuting the case and pressuring Abbas, the US dropped the ball I wrote at the time:In October 2007, Not only is there a bill languishing in the Senate requesting that Secretary of State Rice to give a report on what steps are being taken to bring the Palestinian terrorists to justice--now Israel Matzav has a copy of a letter (provided by John Parsons, the brother of Mark Parsons) sent by Congressman Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) to Rice requesting action be taken. The letter was sent on September 6--and though the State Department has acknowledged receipt of the letter, Rice has not responded.

But now things have changed, and John Parsons--Mark Parson's brother--has been allowed to sue the Palestinian Authority at last:

An appeals court ruling allows a case to proceed against the Palestinian Authority by the family of a contractor killed by a roadside bomb while providing security to State Department employees during an October 2003 trip to the Gaza Strip.

On Friday, the three-judge panel, members of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, released a ruling explaining that the family of Mark Parsons can sue the Palestinian Authority under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1991 over questions of material support by the PA to a terror group. The decision overturns part of a lower court's summary judgment in favor of the PA.

The US State department in 2010 under Hillary Clinton dragged its feet on finding the killers:

Though the State Department mentioned the three men who were killed in its 2004 annual report on Patterns of Global Terrorism, IPT said infighting between the FBI and State Department had hampered the investigation.
IPT [Investigative Project on Terrorism] reported that John Parsons, the brother of Mark Parsons, said he was told in October 2010 that the FBI had closed the case on the deaths of Parsons as well as John Branchizio and John M. Linde Jr., although no perpetrator was ever caught.

Perhaps now there can be a small measure of justice.

Technorati Tag: Palestinia Authority and Abbas and Gaza and Palestinians.