The lawsuit brought by families of the Sep. 11 Victims appears to have backfired with America's African Blacks demanding slavery reparations and an Israeli Bus Company riding the wave. Several Saudi banks and Islamic charities named in a lawsuit by families of Sept. 11 victims vehemently denied Sunday any role in funding terrorism and blasted the case as an attempt to extort Saudi wealth abroad. The suit has sparked rare calls by commentators and newspapers in the kingdom to review traditionally strong Saudi-U.S. ties. Saudi Arabia has yet to comment officially.

Offended that the lawsuit named members of the royal family, including Defense Minister Prince Sultan -- the third highest official in the kingdom -- many Saudis accused Washington of putting pressure on the Gulf Arab state to make it conform with U.S. policies on Iraq and the Middle East.

In a civil suit filed in a Washington court Thursday, relatives of some 900 people killed in the attacks by hijacked jets accused three senior Saudi princes, several Saudi and other foreign banks and Sudan's government of funding Osama bin Laden, the prime U.S. suspect in the attacks.

The lawsuit seeks damages of over 100 trillion U.S. dollars.

"This is an act to extort Saudi money deposited in the United States and a way of meddling in the region," an official at Al Rajhi Investment and Development Corp, one of several Saudi banks named in the lawsuit, told Reuters by telephone.

Officials at the banks involved said they were mulling a response but would not act or issue statements before consulting with government authorities in the Saudi kingdom.

Some commentators in Saudi newspapers, which reflect government thinking, blasted the lawsuit as part of a wider campaign against the kingdom and called for a review of ties.

Khaled al-Dakheel, writing in London-based al-Hayat daily, seconded a call by al-Riyadh daily "that Saudi-U.S. strategic relations are at the forefront of ties that need reviewing."

He said a U.S. media campaign launched against the kingdom after the September attacks, in which 15 Saudis were named among the 19 hijackers, was being fed not only by commentators but also by officials and decision makers in the administration.

Saudi and U.S. officials have gone to great lengths to stress that relations between the two countries remain strong
Saudi investments in the United States are put at 750 billion U.S. dollars.

Relations between the oil superpower and Washington have been strained since the attacks and by Riyadh's refusal to allow Washington to use its territory to attack Iraq. Saudi Arabia has also repeatedly criticized perceived pro-Israel U.S. bias.

PRECEDENT BACKFIRES WITH BLACKS DEMANDING SLAVERY REPARATIONS

Hundreds of blacks rallied in front of the Capitol on Saturday to demand slavery reparations, saying that compensation is long overdue for the ills of that institution.

"It seems that America owes black people a lot for what we have endured," Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan told the crowd. "We cannot settle for some little jive token. We need millions of acres of land that black people can build."

While Farrakhan and Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., did attend, many major names in the black civil rights movement were absent, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton.

"The people on the ground are the ones we want to give exposure to," said one speaker, Hannibal Afrik, 68, of Port Gibson, Miss. "If it's grounded in the people, it will be victorious."

Conyers, who has proposed a commission to study the institution of slavery for the past 13 years, urged the crowd to pressure Congress.

The reparations movement has gained momentum in the past year.

Earlier this year, a group of slave descendants sued three companies, claiming the companies - or their corporate predecessors - unjustly profited from slavery.

The Reparations Coordinating Committee, which includes many prominent attorneys and scholars, is working on a separate lawsuit against the federal government.

Those at the rally said it was time for action.

ISRAEL RIDES THE WAVE

Riding the reparations wave, Israel's national bus company said Sunday it would sue Palestinian President Yasser Arafat for damages it incurred in dozens of Palestinian attacks, including Resistance bombings.

Palestinian Communications Minister Imad Falouji said Egged had chosen the wrong defendant and blamed Israeli policy in the occupied territories for the attacks that caused the damages.

Since the start of the Palestinian uprising in September 2000, more than 100 passengers on buses owned by the Egged bus cooperative have been killed and some 600 wounded in Resistance attacks, roadside bombings and shootings, the company said.

Egged has yet to put a final sum on the damages suit, which Ratner said it would file in an Israeli court by the end of the month. But he estimated the figure would be in the tens of millions of dollars.

PHOTO CAPTION

(L) Family members of victims of the September 11 attacks have filed a lawsuit against people they believe financed the al Qaeda group. The attacks are shown in this file photo. REUTERS/Jeff Christensen
- Aug 16 2:57 PM ET.

(R) Israel's national bus company said August 18, 2002 it would sue Palestinian President Yasser Arafat for damages it incurred in dozens of Palestinian attacks, including suicide bombings. 'At this point in time, we are asking for reparations for a large part of the damages incurred by those responsible for the attacks: the Palestinian Authority, the head of the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian Legislative Council,' Ron Ratner, Egged's vice president of marketing told Reuters. File photo from August 8, 2002 shows the manager of Egged's maintenance garage in Kityat Ata inspecting the wreckage of a bus damaged by a bomb. (Reinhard Krause/Reuter