While the two civil suits brought against Osama bin Laden by families of Sept. 11 victims will be an easy win for them, getting a personal check from bin Laden is, obviously, pretty unlikely, reports Yigal Schleifer of Mother Jones. Although the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1996 allows Americans injured in terrorist acts to seek damages from a country proven to have been connected with the act, no country has been linked definitively to the Sept. 11 attacks. And even if a country was proven to be linked to the attacks, receiving payment from them would most likely not happen, says Schleifer. In past terrorism cases, lawyers have sought assets frozen by the U.S. State Department to pay for the victims. The government has opposed releasing those assets in every case, arguing that they need them as negotiating leverage.
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