D.C. Circuit finds political questions, dismisses Sudan pharmaceutical plant bombing suit.

In March 2009, a panel of the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit affirmed dismissal of a suit against the United States by El-Shifa Pharmaceutical Industries Company and Salah El Din Ahmed Mohammed Idris. (6) The case grew out of President Bill Clinton's 1998 decision to order a missile strike against the plaintiffs' pharmaceutical plant in North Khartoum following deadly terrorist attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya (Nairobi) and Tanzania (Dar es Salaam). The United States justified the attack, inter alia, on the ground that El-Shifa and Idris were connected to Osama bin Laden's terrorist activities.

The suit was the plaintiffs' third attempt at seeking relief. They first brought a takings claim in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, which was dismissed as posing a nonjusticiable political question. (7) They also filed an unsuccessful administrative claim with the Central Intelligence Agency under the Federal Tort Claims Act. (8) The D.C. Circuit summarized their third effort:

After the CIA denied the claim, plaintiffs filed this action against the United States under the FTCA seeking at least $50 million in damages for the government's alleged negligence and trespass in carrying out the attack. At issue on appeal are two further claims. The plaintiffs also sought declaratory judgments that the statements linking them to "Osama bin Laden, international terrorist organizations and the production of chemical weapons" were false and that the government's refusal to compensate them for the attack violated the law of nations. The district court granted the government's motion to dismiss plaintiffs' complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, concluding that sovereign immunity barred all of plaintiffs' claims. El-Shifa Pharm Indus. Co. v. United States, 402 F.Supp.2d 267, 270-73 (D.D.C. 2005). The court also noted that the complaint "likely present[ed] a nonjusticiable political question." Id. at 276. Plaintiffs filed a motion to alter the judgment with respect to their claims for equitable relief, which the district court denied. El-Shifa Pharm. Indus. Co. v. United States, No. 01-731 (D.D.C. Mar. 28, 2007). On appeal, plaintiffs challenge only the dismissal of their claims for equitable relief for defamation and under the law of nations. They restrict their defamation claim to statements about Idris and their law of nations claim to the refusal to pay compensation for the attack. (9) The D.C. Circuit affirmed dismissal on the ground...

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