Court Panel Throws Out POW Judgment

[GreenPartyVoter]

"WASHINGTON - 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 (news - web sites), ruling Congress never authorized such lawsuits against foreign governments.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit overturned a lower court ruling that said 17 former POWs and 37 family members were entitled to the damages under a federal statute allowing suits involving countries which financed or aided terrorists.

The three-judge panel said the statute only allows lawsuits for pain and suffering if they are filed against agents and officers of those foreign states responsible for the torture who are not acting on behalf of their government.

Thus, even though the lawsuit also names Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), he is immune because the POWs sued him for his alleged activities as Iraq (news - web sites)'s president, the panel said."

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040604/ap_on_go_ot/us_pows_iraq_3

[Webster Green]

1. Smirky will be very pleased...

He sent James Baker ("The Fixer") to make sure the POWs got nothing from the Iraqis.

[Liberal_Dog]

2. This Was Inevitable

The Us Government was never going to share the booty with these POWs.