Gulf War POW judgment overturned

[Rosco T.]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5139751/

Court panel tosses $959 million award for tortureThe Associated Press
Updated: 7:19 p.m. ET June 04, 2004WASHINGTON - An appeals court panel threw out a $959 million judgment Friday for U.S. prisoners of war who say they were tortured by the Iraqi military during the 1991 Gulf War, ruling Congress never authorized such lawsuits against foreign governments.

(snip)

The Iraqi government never appeared in U.S. court to argue its case, leading to the default judgment last July. But the Justice Department intervened after the POWs sought to be paid from frozen Iraqi assets in the United States, saying the money was needed to rebuild Iraq.

(snip)


They also argued that the POWs weren’t entitled to the money because President Bush made an official determination in May 2003 that a statute allowing payment from frozen assets wasn’t applicable to Iraq because it no longer supported terrorism after Saddam was overthrown.

In his concurring opinion, Roberts agreed. Denying Bush’s authority to make these determinations and having them apply retroactively could unfairly force new regimes like those in Iraq to pay for the wrongs of the previous ones, he said

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Ok 'Rolling Thunder'... roll with that....