Families pledge aggressive legal campaign to collect $2.6 billion Federal Court Judgment against Iran for its sponsorship of terrorism leading to the death of 241 US Marines on a Peacekeeping Mission in 1983 in Beirut, Lebanon.

On Jan. 29, PR Newswire-US Newswire reported from Washington : “Yesterday was a great day; section 1083, based on the ’Justice for Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Act’ (S. 1944) became the law of the land. By including section 1083 in the Defense Authorization bill, Congress and the Bush Administration took a definitive step toward ending terrorism and holding terrorists accountable for their heinous crimes,” said Lynn Smith Derbyshire, the sister of Captain Vincent Smith, who was killed in the 1983 Beirut bombing, speaking on behalf of the families of U.S. Servicemen killed or injured in the Beirut bombing.

Mrs. Derbyshire continued: “Before yesterday, state-sponsors of terrorism could avoid being held accountable for their actions. That is no longer the case.”
“Our focus now turns back to the court system, where we intend to move vigorously and rapidly to identify and attach the $2.6 billion in Iranian assets awarded by a Federal Court on September 7, 2007 to the victims and their families of the Iranian sponsored terrorism,” Mrs. Derbyshire further stated. Thirty Senators sponsored the bill.