The AP reports that Iran has been found liable for the 1983 Hezbollah attack in Lebanon that killed 241 Marines and now must pay over $2 billion in damages:

Iran must pay $2.65 billion to the families of the 241 U.S. service members killed in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, a federal judge declared Friday in a ruling that left survivors and families shedding tears of joy. U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth described his ruling as the largest-ever such judgment by an American court against another country. “These individuals, whose hearts and souls were forever broken, waited patiently for nearly a quarter century for justice to be done,” he said…

Hundreds of people crowded into a federal courtroom to hear Friday’s ruling. Parents have grown old since their children were killed. Siblings have grown into middle-age. Children have married and started families of their own. Weeping spectators stood and erupted in applause and hugs as Lamberth left the bench.

The ruling allows nearly 1,000 family members and a handful of survivors to try to collect Iranian assets from various sources around the world. Finding and seizing that money will be difficult, however, and the families are backing a law in Congress that would make it easier for terrorism victims and their families to do so. Families were encouraged by Libya’s decision to ultimately accept responsibility for the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am flight over Scotland. The country, once a pariah by Washington’s view, agreed to compensate the families of the 270 victims. Part of the $2.7 billion has been paid. A final $2 million installment to each family is outstanding.

Collecting is another matter entirely. WaPo:

Even if a victim of terrorism wins at trial, however, it is almost impossible to collect damages. Iran’s assets in the United States, for instance, are worth only about $20 million, mainly in diplomatic property, according to State Department officials. Congress passed legislation in 2000 authorizing the payment of $380 million in U.S. Treasury funds to claimants in cases involving 14 victims who were held hostage or killed by Iranian-supported groups such as Hezbollah. Lawmakers ordered the State Department to try to get that money reimbursed by Iran.

Other victims of terrorism, however, have received nothing. The Bush administration proposed a plan in 2003 that would have given any victim of terrorism $262,000. But the idea has languished, largely because of complaints that the amount was too low…

“This is a sense of victory, of winning a battle,” said Paul Rivers, who was a 20-year-old enlisted Marine on the second floor of the barracks when it exploded. “When we win the war is when we collect, when we make them pay for what they did.”

Judge Lamberth also ruled last year that Iran was liable for $254 million in damages from the Khobar Towers attack in Saudi Arabia in 1996. Although he featured prominently in a number of Clinton era scandals, including the Linda Tripp matter, Judge Lamberth is not simply a right wing fellow with a thing for Iran, as his record illustrates

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