WP,pg1: Admin. Blocks Ex-Hostages' Bid for Damages From Iran (whattup?)

[DeepModem Mom]

Administration Blocks Ex-Hostages' Bid for Damages From Iran
By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 19, 2006; Page A01

At an emotional meeting this month at the State Department, steps from the office of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a group of former American hostages released by Iran a quarter of a century ago, accompanied by lawyers and some relatives, confronted two of Rice's most senior aides.

The families' grievance: Why has the Bush administration, which has labeled Iran one of the world's most dangerous regimes and has called the hostages American heroes, fought their efforts to win damages for their ordeal from the Islamic republic?...

***

....last week the State Department objected when Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) tried to address the issue in a House bill that would maintain sanctions against Iran for its links to terrorism, forcing the lawmaker to withdraw his proposal.

"We have 52 of our finest Americans who were held hostage," Sherman said. "They go to court, and you know who appears against them? The State Department."...

***

....on the eve of a hearing (in 2001) to consider damages, the Bush administration intervened, saying the suit violated an agreement with Iran that had secured the hostages' release. The judge threw out the suit in 2002 after Congress twice tried to intervene by passing legislation favoring the hostages. The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal in 2004...."This administration has not been shy about breaking international agreements," said Barry Rosen, who was press attache at the U.S. Embassy and who now heads the Afghanistan Education Project at Columbia University's Teachers College. "The administration appears to be in contradiction of itself. It seems to me the Algiers Accords should be dead and buried."...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/18/AR2006031801126.html

[TomInTib]

1. Didn't they do the same thing with some pilots from the first...

Gulf "war"?

Froze their awarded damages (a couple of billion) to help pay for the "cause".

Well, that was a few hundred billion dollars ago.

Do not allow those bastards to get anywhere near the kids' piggy bank.

[Kagemusha]

5. Absolutely they did. This practice is not new for this WH

nt

[ConcernedCanuk]

2. What did I read about the USA "moving Heaven and Earth" to protect

.
.
.

it's citizens abroad?

Well

Unless it's a deep cover operative that has some info for the PNACers

I wouldn't count on them for a dime

From the posted Article:

"But on the eve of a hearing to consider damages, the Bush administration intervened, saying the suit violated an agreement with Iran that had secured the hostages' release. The judge threw out the suit in 2002 after Congress twice tried to intervene by passing legislation favoring the hostages. The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal in 2004"
__________________________________________________________________________

Nice guvment y'all got down there

I visited a VA hospital in SanDee in 79

I already had a preview of how your government treats it's people

From what I saw in the Veteran's Hospital,

Gitmo must be just one notch above the dungeons of decades ago - - maybe.

(sigh)

[NorthernSun]

3. October Surprise scandal

This is to keep details of Bush Sr's "October Surprise" coup against Carter from going to trial. That's where Bush and Casey made deal to ship arms to Iran if Iran held on to hostages until after 1980 election.

[DeepModem Mom]

4. I was wondering if anyone else would see a possible connection --

yours was my first thought.

Welcome to DU, NorthernSun!

[TomInTib]

7. You should repost this on Monday

it sank like a stone today.

Maybe preface it with some commentary on the October Surprise angle.

You should go to your library and see if they have Barbara Honnegger's book, "October Surprise". Look in the back of the book and read all the interesting fates of the players.

[DeepModem Mom]

8. I'll give it a kick this a.m. -- thanks, Tom!

[salin]

6. Protecting Poppy

from the embarassment of a trial... he is widely suspected to be the key conduit for info per the october surprise (when an all but done deal to release the hostages was scuttled and the hostages instead remained captive for nearly a month longer.)

[0007]

9. Just like James A. Baker III defending Saudi Arabia against

the suit of the 911 victims of the World Trade Centers.

[AngryAmish]

10. This is a complicated question

These folks have had judgments for a long time. We have frozen a lot of assets of Iran since the Revolution in '79. Some of these folks wanted to attach the old embassy of Iran and sell it. The problem is we could have a foreign court attach our embassies and sell them. This gets into some distinct sovereign immunity problems and huge diplomatic problems. The State Dept. has hated this law since it was passed.

[shadowknows69]

11. So, we've pissed on just about every other

international treaty we've signed, but when it comes to an agreement with "The enemy" we have to honor it. We're in bizarro world.

[Robb]

12. There's big money to be made if Iran gets all friendly

This admin has been working on the "New! Improved Friendly Iran" angle. ILSA keeps U.S. companies from investing in the oil shelfs there, but Japan and others have no qualms, and thus, reap the benefits.

[pinniped]

13. Yup, the former Iraq hostages got fucked by *, too.

This comes as no surprise.