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Originally Posted by MolsonInBothHands
How does one sue Saudi Arabia, or any other country. In what court? How do you collect?
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That's the whole issue - the Saudis have billions, if not trillions, of dollars in assets to seize in the US. Mostly in Goldman Sachs, etc. So you get a judgement, march down to Goldman with an order, and seize your funds.
Obviously, this imperils a great number of Wall Street banks and the funds they hold for the Saudis. If the Saudis tried to pull that money out (or some of it) because they felt it was at risk, it would be a severe problem for the banking system.
Wall Street is the real driver behind not having the ability to sue foreign governments on US soil, not really any one particular country.
This also kind of answers the question: "why is no one calling out Saudi Arabia as the worst sponsor of terrorism?" Because the US financial system depends on having that money in the US to operate. A crisis with the Saudis brings down Wall Street.