Also see:     
AOL/Microsoft-Hotmail Preventing Delivery of Truthout Communications    [

    Gulf War POWs Push for Iraqi Reparations
    By William H. McMichael
    The Army Times

    Friday 25 January 2008

    U.S. veterans of the 1991 Gulf War who were captured and tortured by Iraqi forces are renewing their efforts to get President Bush to relent and allow them to pursue damages against the Iraqi government that were awarded by a federal court in 2003.

    Bush vetoed the 2008 defense authorization bill Dec. 28 over a provision that, in essence, would allow former prisoners of war to sue Iraq for damages for their torture while in captivity. Bush claimed that enacting the provision would, among other things, "allow plaintiffs' lawyers to tie up billions of dollars in Iraqi funds for reconstruction that our troops in the field depend on to maintain security gains."

    According to a Dec. 28 report in Congressional Quarterly, Bush issued his veto after lawyers for the Iraqi government threatened to withdraw $25 billion worth of assets from U.S. banks if the provision was allowed to become law.

    The American POWs were granted damages by a U.S. federal district court in July 2003. But earlier that year, after signing a bill that allowed Americans to collect court-ordered damages from the frozen assets of terrorist states - a list that included Iraq at that time - Bush had confiscated what was then $1.7 billion in Iraqi assets held in private banks. He allowed the payment of two judgments, including one for so-called "human shield" hostages held by Iraq in 1990, but none for the Americans taken prisoner in the 1991 Gulf War.

    Two of the former POWs, their attorneys and Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, made the case for a reversal of the Bush administration's position at a Friday morning news conference in Washington.

    "We are not here ... to criticize the president of the United States," said John Norton Moore, one of the attorneys and a former U.S. ambassador and counselor on international law for the State Department. "We are here, however, to call attention to a shameful failure by the administration with respect to the treatment of American prisoners of war tortured by Iraq - a failure which we firmly believe is a matter of national honor, with serious implications for our military, and particularly for future American POWs held by the enemy."

    "I was stunned and shocked and outraged and ashamed when I read why the president was choosing to veto this important bill," Braley said. "This is outrageous, and we're going to do something about it."

    Braley said he is about to introduce a bill, tentatively titled The Justice for Victims of Torture and Terrorism Act, that would point out that the U.S. is a signatory to Article 131 of the third 1949 Geneva Convention, which essentially states that no country or entity "shall be allowed to absolve itself or any other" country or entity "of any liability incurred by itself or by another" country or entity regarding violations of the convention. A separate bill is being co-sponsored by Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., who was invited to the news conference but could not attend.

    Braley said that provision "prohibits the United States from absolving the government of Iraq of any liability incurred due to the torture of prisoners of war, such as these Gulf War POWs," regardless of the fact that the Saddam Hussein regime that committed the torture is no longer in power in Iraq.

    Despite Bush's public comments, Moore said he didn't know why the administration would balk at the provision. "What I am certain of, it's not about money.... I've been told by the staff of a number of committees of the Congress that that's not the issue. There's plenty of money."

    The court awarded $959 million in compensatory and punitive damages to the 17 POWs - some of whom remain on active duty today and are serving in Iraq, according to attorney Tony Onorato - and 37 of their family members.

    Critics who say the veterans and spouses are only seeking to cash in on their misfortune "couldn't be more wrong," said retired Navy Capt. Larry Slade, a former F-14 pilot who was shot down by a surface-to-air missile on Jan. 22, 1991, captured and beaten black and blue throughout his 43 days of captivity. "Most of us wore the uniform for the majority of our adult lives. And all of us faced danger and hardship for service, not money.

    "What we seek now is justice under the law - and a strong message to our future enemies that our nation will not tolerate abuse and torture of prisoners of war," he said. "We cannot expect change if we as a nation refuse to take a stand."