Local reps fail our POWs
By: Gail Chatfield - Commentary
North County Times - Escondido,CA,USA
After being starved and brutally tortured by the Iraqi Army in l99l, Oceanside resident and retired Marine Col. Cliff Acree and 16 other U.S. military personnel believed the U.S. government would hold their tormentors accountable. It would take him 14 years to learn otherwise.
When Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, the State Department classified Iraq as a sponsor of terrorism and froze its U.S. assets. A 1996 amendment to federal law allowed terrorist nations such as Iraq to be held liable for personal injuries incurred by torture victims.
It was under this law that the POWs successfully sued Saddam Hussein and the Republic of Iraq in September 2002.
Two months later, President Bush signed a law that provided that Americans could collect court-ordered compensatory damages from frozen assets of terrorist states.
In March 2003, 20 former U.S. officials with national security and defense credentials told Bush that it was in our national security interest to set aside an escrow account to pay the POWs' eventual judgment.
Six days later, Bush confiscated the $1.7 billion in frozen Iraqi assets to pay two judgments against Iraq including "human shield" hostages held in 1990.
Unfortunately, no provision was made for compensation to the POWs even though the administration was well aware of the POWs' case.
In July, the POWs were awarded $1 billion in compensatory and punitive damages along with their request to temporarily freeze the remainder of the Iraqi assets that had not already been used for rebuilding Iraq, which was about $700 million.
Two weeks after the district court ruling, the Bush administration appealed, and the judgment was eventually reversed. Iraq, according to the administration, was no longer an enemy but a "state subject to our protection."
The POWs' next two years of appeals, attempts to compromise, and efforts to engage the Bush administration in talks were denied, rebuffed and declined. A phrase buried in an emergency appropriations bill was used to justify the government's position.
Ironically, Rumsfeld sought to compensate Iraqi detainees we abused saying, "It's the right thing to do."
The POWs' last chance was to appeal to the Supreme Court. A bipartisan group of 20 U.S. senators and representatives added their names to the brief filed by Acree, but the high court refused to hear the case.
Rep. Bob Filner was the local congressman to lend his support to the Oceanside resident. Darrell Issa, whose district includes Oceanside, Duke Cunningham, a decorated Vietnam veteran, and Duncan Hunter, whose son also served in Iraq, did not join the bipartisan group in support of the POWs' legal claim.
Do you "Support Our Troops"? If so, write your congressmen to urge the administration to negotiate with Iraq to resolve this claim. Ironically, an August 2004 audit found that at least $8.8 billion cannot be accounted for. There is $1 billion somewhere in Iraq that should go to the 17 former POWs and their families who want nothing more than to hold Iraq accountable and deter the future torture of
American servicemen and women.
This administration may have won the legal battle but it has lost the ethical and moral war.
North County Times - Escondido,CA,USA
After being starved and brutally tortured by the Iraqi Army in l99l, Oceanside resident and retired Marine Col. Cliff Acree and 16 other U.S. military personnel believed the U.S. government would hold their tormentors accountable. It would take him 14 years to learn otherwise.
When Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, the State Department classified Iraq as a sponsor of terrorism and froze its U.S. assets. A 1996 amendment to federal law allowed terrorist nations such as Iraq to be held liable for personal injuries incurred by torture victims.
It was under this law that the POWs successfully sued Saddam Hussein and the Republic of Iraq in September 2002.
Two months later, President Bush signed a law that provided that Americans could collect court-ordered compensatory damages from frozen assets of terrorist states.
In March 2003, 20 former U.S. officials with national security and defense credentials told Bush that it was in our national security interest to set aside an escrow account to pay the POWs' eventual judgment.
Six days later, Bush confiscated the $1.7 billion in frozen Iraqi assets to pay two judgments against Iraq including "human shield" hostages held in 1990.
Unfortunately, no provision was made for compensation to the POWs even though the administration was well aware of the POWs' case.
In July, the POWs were awarded $1 billion in compensatory and punitive damages along with their request to temporarily freeze the remainder of the Iraqi assets that had not already been used for rebuilding Iraq, which was about $700 million.
Two weeks after the district court ruling, the Bush administration appealed, and the judgment was eventually reversed. Iraq, according to the administration, was no longer an enemy but a "state subject to our protection."
The POWs' next two years of appeals, attempts to compromise, and efforts to engage the Bush administration in talks were denied, rebuffed and declined. A phrase buried in an emergency appropriations bill was used to justify the government's position.
Ironically, Rumsfeld sought to compensate Iraqi detainees we abused saying, "It's the right thing to do."
The POWs' last chance was to appeal to the Supreme Court. A bipartisan group of 20 U.S. senators and representatives added their names to the brief filed by Acree, but the high court refused to hear the case.
Rep. Bob Filner was the local congressman to lend his support to the Oceanside resident. Darrell Issa, whose district includes Oceanside, Duke Cunningham, a decorated Vietnam veteran, and Duncan Hunter, whose son also served in Iraq, did not join the bipartisan group in support of the POWs' legal claim.
Do you "Support Our Troops"? If so, write your congressmen to urge the administration to negotiate with Iraq to resolve this claim. Ironically, an August 2004 audit found that at least $8.8 billion cannot be accounted for. There is $1 billion somewhere in Iraq that should go to the 17 former POWs and their families who want nothing more than to hold Iraq accountable and deter the future torture of
American servicemen and women.
This administration may have won the legal battle but it has lost the ethical and moral war.
