Recently, five former officers wrote columns condemning the new law that will allow victims and their families to sue Saugi Arabia for damages emerging from the 9/11 attacks. Normally, that would not be that important as different people can have different opinions on such a controversial law. However, when they all use extremely similar language it becomes propaganda. That raises the possibility that these retired officers are accepting Saudi money to write the articles, touching on their talking points.
For an example:
Air Force Major Gen. (Ret.) William Russell Cotney
“The principle known as sovereign immunity has governed relations between states for centuries. It holds that governments cannot be sued for civil wrongs without their consent. In international relations, it preserves the right and responsibility of governments to settle disputes with other governments on behalf of their citizens.”
Angela Sinkovits, a medical specialist in the U.S. Army:
“The principle of sovereign immunity has governed relations between states for centuries. It holds that governments cannot be sued for civil wrongs without their consent. In international relations, it preserves the right and responsibility of governments to settle disputes with other governments on behalf of their citizens.”
But wait. There’s more. On Nov. 28, the Cedar Rapids Gazette published an op-ed titled “JASTA’s negative consequences” by “guest columnist” Don Pugsley with exactly the same string of 47 words contained in the Oct. 5 op-ed in The Denver Post by Sinkovits.
The Gazette describes Pugsley as “a special forces Green Beret Sargeant [sic] Major with 87 military parachute jumps, a top Secret Security Clearance and a medi-vac in Vietnam.”
In the Concord Monitor on Nov. 20, a letter to the editor by Ken Georgevits — no description given — changes three words but is otherwise a carbon copy of the identical wording by Cotney, Sinkovits and Pugsley.
Furthermore on Oct. 27, the Miami Herald published an op-ed by Paul Crespo wrote:
“Sovereign immunity has been a bedrock principle governing relations between states for five centuries. It holds that governments cannot be sued for civil wrongs without their consent. It preserves the right of governments to settle disputes with other governments on behalf of their citizens.”
All of the above also made the claim that there is no evidence that Saudi Arabia was involved in the attacks, also using similar language.