With Iran deal, the big picture is not always the best view

This week the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will mark up the Justice for Former American Hostages in Iran Act of 2015 (S.868), a bill that establishes a fund to make payments to the Americans held hostage in Iran. As the administration works to strike a deal with Iran on its nuclear program and easing of economic and trade sanctions, this legislation makes sense.  What does not make sense is why it falls short and excludes other, equally significant victims of Iran’s past acts. 

Several years ago, Congress passed a law giving families like mine the explicit right to seek damages from the Iranian regime for acts of terrorism committed against U.S. citizens. The Congress also stipulated clearly that any judgments were to be paid from assets and funds seized by our government.  It was one of those rare instances where Congress spoke loudly, clearly and unequivocally.  Unfortunately, no one at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue has been listening.

{mosads}My father, Kenneth Welch was murdered on October 20, 1984 by a suicide bomber who drove a bomb-laden truck into the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon where our dad was serving as an Army warrant officer. Another soldier was killed and scores of service personnel were also wounded. The driver was a Hezbollah operative acting under orders from Tehran.

Years later a court in Washington, D.C. ruled favorably in our wrongful death suit against the Iranian government and awarded damages for Iran’s role in planning and executing the attack that killed our father. It was a victory for our family after years of suffrering. Little did we know that day that we were beginning the first chapter in what has become years of neglect and obstinacy from the same government that sent my father to Beirut to protect its embassy.

It is not just our family that has been mistreated. Hundreds of families wait in the same line for our government to end its empty condolences and hollow promises. Our own government is failing to honor commitments made by U.S. courts. Is this a reflection of a great nation? Don’t great nations keep their promises, honor their commitments?   

In recent years, when members of Congress have championed our cause, the feds ascend to Capitol Hill, appealing to members to “look at the big picture” and not let personal stories like ours influence the outcome of the larger issues at stake. 

Callous, dismissive, indifferent are all words that best define our government’s attitude towards the families who have suffered losses as a result of Iran’s terror campaign.

As the debate continues on a nuclear agreement with Iran, Congress owes families like ours a duty to also keep our important issue within sight. Our issue is in fact part of the big picture. 

With Senator Isakson’s (R-Ga.) Justice for Former American Hostages in Iran, we see promising signs of hope that Congress will no longer stand by and ignore victims and their families.  The Senate bill instructs the Administration to devise a plan to address claims brought by the diplomats held hostage in the U.S. Embassy in Tehran after the demise of the Shah.  No one questions that this group deserves justice, but so do the families whose brothers, sisters and fathers and mothers were tortured, imprisoned and killed by individual acts of terrorism.

We implore Congress not to overlook us but rather treat all victims equally.

Over the past five years, the administration has collected over $10 billion in fines and penalties from companies that have violated sanctions against Iran.  Yet, not a single penny has gone to the individuals, surviving families or former diplomats.

The time has come for Congress to direct the federal government to attend to all of us who may be relatively small in the scheme of the big thinkers but who are, nonetheless, an important part of the larger picture involving Iran and its past behavior involving Americans. 

Welch resides in Alexandria, Virginia.