setting precedents
yesterday, the september 11 victim compensation fund of 2001 wrapped up its business. they’ve processed over 7300 claims and 98% of the eligible families elected to participate in the fund. and no wonder… the “average deceased victims award after offsets” was $2,075,345 – just a shade over $2 million for an average american killed by terrorists in new york.
from an administration that is so concerned about setting precedents (consider the rice testimony before the 9/11 commission – she couldn’t testify under oath, but she could talk the media about everything), this just doesn’t sit entirely well with me. i don’t recall a big compensation package for previous [berlin 1986, beirut 1983, new york 1993, oklahoma city 1995, dhahran 1996, nairobi 1998, dar es salaam 1998 – and that’s just the big ones] terrorist-attack victims, but i guess we’re on the hook for $2 million a pop (plus inflation) for all future attacks now…?