US Bars Torture Settlement, To Ex-POWs' Dismay

[joeunderdog]

WASHINGTON -- 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.

snip

"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."

http://www.rense.com/general43/USbarstorturesettlement.htm

1) I'm sure BushCo doesn't want to set any precedents for liability for War Crimes.
2) Chimp has his eye on the Iraqi assets already.

[Scott Lee]

1. But of course

It should no longer be questionable - this administration cares for the benefits to its own clique before it cares about America or Americans in general.

I wish I could express shock at this, but you know, to me this is just business as usual at BushCo.

[saigon68]

2. If this was Halliburton--YOU BET they'd be paid.

No doubt about it !!!

[bubba_fett]

4. or jessica lynch

They'd hand her a giant over-sized check, and have a big ceremony for her.

[pw]

5. Halliburton has dibs on that money

Can't let any ordinary citizens get hold of it.

(And of course it would set a dangerous precedent to suggest that people can collect large damages for violations of the laws of war)

[JackSwift]

3. Every dollar paid to American troops

on active duty or owed as a judgment is a dollar that Halliburton and Bechtel can't be paid.