New Bill Expands Terrorism Suits

In 1996 Congress enacted the Anti-terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act. The bill was introduced at the request of then President Bill Clinton who called on Congress to provide tools for the fight against state sponsors of terrorism. The law gave American citizens access to US courts for the purpose of holding accountable those states sponsoring terrorism for the death and injury of Americans overseas in terror attacks.
An examination of the new law found many weaknesses, and as a result, the Flatow Amendment, named after terror victim Alisa Flatow, was passed. The Amendment put teeth into the law where none existed before.
As a result of subsequent laws, the original bill and the Flatow Amendment were weakened. On August 1, 2007, a bill designed to reinvigorate the law was introduced by Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and 13 other sponsors.
You can find a report of the new bill at
http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/news/article/20070802flatowlautenberg.html