Two Americans who were held hostage in Lebanon during the 1980s have sued the government of Iran for $100 million for sponsoring their terrorist kidnappers. Eight other victims of terrorism or their families have won large judgements since a law was passed in 1996 permitting lawsuits against countries that sponsor terrorism. Also, rather than allow litigants access to frozen assets and to reduce pressure to seize embassies, which would interfere with foreign policy, Congress recently enacted another law allowing the United States government to pay some of the plaintiffs' damages, with the idea that it would later try to collect the damages from the terrorist sponsor states. Good luck!

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