Support-Our-Troops Bush blocks POWs' settlement against Iraq

The Bush administration is quietly piling up victories in a legal battle to block payments to 17 U.S. combat veterans who were captured and tortured in the first Gulf War and won a suit against Iraq for nearly a billion dollars.

The former POWs -- whipped, beaten, burned, electrically shocked and starved by their Iraqi captors in 1991 -- say they are baffled by the administration's refusal to let them collect any of the assets of Iraq now under U.S. control, and by the Justice Department's efforts to overturn a federal court decision upholding their claims to compensation.

...In court filings, the government asserts sweeping presidential power to block the claims because of the "weighty foreign policy interests at stake."

...U.S. District Judge Richard Roberts ordered Iraq on July 7 -- three months after the fall of Saddam's regime -- to pay the 17 former POWs and their families $653 million in compensatory damages and $306 million in punitive damages for torturing the men. Roberts ordered a temporary freeze on $653 million in Iraqi assets then held in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, as a source of funds for the settlement.

At that point the Justice Department stepped in, asking the judge to throw out the judgment against Iraq.

..."The United States government fully recognizes the brutal actions to which the plaintiffs here were subjected as they heroically served their country and made sacrifices during the Gulf War in 1991," the Justice Department acknowledges. "Plaintiffs' suffering at the hands of the former Iraqi government officials cannot be excused or forgotten.

"Nevertheless, the political branches of our government have decided that, now that the oppressive regime of Saddam Hussein has been removed from power, U.S. sanctions against Iraq based on its support of terrorism must be removed."

Oops, should have gotten that hearing a little sooner. Darned courts. All backed up and everything.

How is collecting on a lawsuit a sanction?

"I don't understand why they want to see this case go away," said Lt. Col. Dave Storr of Spokane, Wash., one of the POWs who today is an airline pilot and serves in the Air National Guard.

"My country can be mistaken," Storr said, "but I'll still serve it and love it. I'm proud to wear the uniform, no matter what comes."

Well then, expect more of the same treatment, Dave. And try to understand.

"It does surprise me a little bit that Bush is not helping," said Jeff Fox of Surfside Beach, S.C., who was held 15 days after his A-10 was shot down over southern Iraq on Feb. 19, 1991. "It sends a very bad message that a commander in chief would place veterans and prisoners of war second behind a foreign nation. Deep down, I think he (Bush) knows very little about it."

I have a great idea, Jeff. Why don't you write a personal letter to him and see how quickly he comes to your side of the argument.

On Oct. 14, the U.S. Senate passed a nonbinding "sense of Congress" amendment urging the administration to drop all resistance to the claims of the former POWs and help them collect the damage awards from assets of the Saddam regime still controlled by the United States. The amendment, sponsored by Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), was added to the bill providing $87 billion for U.S. military action and rebuilding in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The pain and terror American POWs endured at the hands of the Iraqi government is unspeakable," Reid said. "We must send a message to would-be tormentors of other governments that if they torture American POWs, they will be held accountable."

But if the administration and the POWs themselves don't care, why should their torturers?

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