Some Americans who were soldiers during the first Gulf War were tortured by Saddam Hussein's regime. They are seeking compensation in court.
Specifically, 17 ex-POWs and 37 of their family members are seeking compensation.
George W. Bush is trying to prevent them from getting compensated.
Money paid out to ex-POWs from Iraq would be money George W. Bush and his friends would no longer control.
From the Los Angeles Times ("White House Turns Tables on Former American POWs: Gulf War pilots tortured by Iraqis fight the Bush administration in trying to collect compensation" by David G. Savage, Feb. 15, 2005):
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-na-pow15feb15,1,4310297.story
The latest chapter in the legal history of torture is being written by American pilots who were beaten and abused by Iraqis during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. And it has taken a strange twist.
The Bush administration is fighting the former prisoners of war in court, trying to prevent them from collecting nearly $1 billion from Iraq that a federal judge awarded them as compensation for their torture at the hands of Saddam Hussein's regime.
Many of the pilots were tortured in the same Iraqi prison, Abu Ghraib, where American soldiers abused Iraqis 15 months ago..."It seems so strange to have our own country fighting us on this," said retired Air Force Col. David W. Eberly, the senior officer among the former POWs.
The case, now being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, tests whether "state sponsors of terrorism" can be sued in the U.S. courts for torture, murder or hostage-taking. The court is expected to decide in the next two months whether to hear the appeal...On July 21, 2003, two weeks after the Gulf War POWs won their court case in U.S. District Court, the Bush administration intervened to argue that their claims should be dismissed.
"No amount of money can truly compensate these brave men and women for the suffering that they went through at the hands of this very brutal regime and at the hands of Saddam Hussein," White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan told reporters when asked about the case in November 2003. Government lawyers have insisted, literally, on "no amount of money" going to the Gulf War POWs.
MORE AT:
http://www.moveleft.com/moveleft_essay_2005_02_21_greed_gone_wild_bush_wants_to_prevent_american_pows_who_were_tortured_by_saddam_regime.asp
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