Ex-POWs fight for right to torture payments.

[Guest guest]

Monday, October 27, 2003, 12:00 a.m. PacificEx-POWs fight for right to torture payments.By Miles BensonNewhouse News ServiceWASHINGTON — The Bush administration is quietly piling up victories in alegal battle to block payments to 17 U.S. combat veterans who were capturedand tortured in the first Persian Gulf War and won a lawsuit against Iraqfor nearly a billion dollars.The former POWs — whipped, beaten, burned, electrically shocked and starvedby their Iraqi captors in 1991 — say they are baffled by theadministration's refusal to let them collect any of the Iraqi assets nowunder U.S. control, and by the Justice Department's efforts to overturn afederal-court decision upholding their claims to compensation."I don't understand why they want to see this case go away," said Lt. Col.Dale Storr of Spokane, who today is an airline pilot and serves in the AirNational Guard."My country can be mistaken," Storr said, "but I'll still serve it and loveit. I'm proud to wear the uniform, no matter what comes."He has proved that. Parachuting through a fireball after his Air Force planewas hit by ground fire on Feb. 2, 1991, Storr was captured by the Iraqis andbeaten, kicked in the head and urinated on.During interrogation sessions, guards shocked him with an electrical device,beat him with clubs, broke his nose, dislocated his shoulder and burst hisleft eardrum. He was held for 33 days.The government that heaped praise and medals on the ex-POWs has drawn a lineat extracting a financial price from Iraq for their ordeal.White House spokesman Trent Duffy referred all questions about the disputeto the Justice Department, where officials would not comment because thematter is still in litigation.In court filings, the government asserts sweeping presidential power toblock the claims because of the "weighty foreign-policy interests at stake."It does not dispute details of the POWs' suffering."The United States government fully recognizes the brutal actions to whichthe plaintiffs here were subjected as they heroically served their countryand made sacrifices during the Gulf War in 1991," the Justice Departmentacknowledges. "Plaintiffs' suffering at the hands of the former Iraqigovernment officials cannot be excused or forgotten."Nevertheless, the political branches of our government have decided that,now that the oppressive regime of Saddam Hussein has been removed frompower, U.S. sanctions against Iraq based on its support of terrorism must beremoved."The former POWs launched their lawsuit in April 2002 under a 1996 law thatallows terrorist nations, so designated by the State Department, to be suedfor personal injuries to U.S. nationals, including prisoners of war. Theyargued that they were tortured in violation of the Geneva Conventions' banon mistreatment of POWs.Their position was strengthened last November when Congress passed andPresident Bush signed into law a terrorism-insurance bill allowing Americansto collect court-ordered compensatory damages from frozen assets ofterrorist states.The torture of Marine Lt. Col. Craig Berryman began almost immediately afterhis capture on Jan. 28, 1991, when the Harrier aircraft he piloted was shotdown near Kuwait City.His captors punched, kicked and spat on him. He was later transported toBasra in Iraq, where his left leg was broken with blows from a club. A litcigarette was pressed against his forehead, nose and ears, then crushed outin an open wound on his neck. Berryman finally was moved to Baghdad, wherebeatings continued with rubber hoses, clubs and pistol barrels. He was heldcaptive 37 days.Berryman said he believes that Bush, himself a former National Guardsman,must be unaware of the Justice Department's effort to extinguish thelawsuit. "But it certainly makes you wonder," he said. "I'm sure he'd do theright thing if he knew. He's really a nice guy, but he's got a lot on hismind right now."On July 7 — three months after the fall of Saddam's regime — U.S. DistrictJudge Richard Roberts ordered Iraq to pay the 17 ex-POWs and their families$653 million in compensatory damages and $306 million in punitive damages.Roberts ordered a temporary freeze on $653 million in Iraqi assets then heldin the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, as a source of money for thesettlement.At that point the Justice Department stepped in, asking the judge to throwout the judgment.The government's attorneys quoted L. Paul Bremer III, the U.S. administratorof Iraq: "Restricting these funds as a result of this litigation wouldaffect adversely the ability of the United States to achieve security andstability in the region, would compromise the safety of U.S. forces andIraqi civilians, and would be harmful to U.S. national security interests."On July 30, Roberts ruled that Bush had the power to prevent the frozenIraqi assets from being awarded to the ex-POWs. But Roberts refused tooverturn his original finding that the men are entitled to compensation fromIraq. He said the Justice Department's motion to have the entirecompensation judgment thrown out was "meritless."Lawyers for the ex-POWs appealed the judge's decision upholding thepresident's power to deny access to the frozen Iraqi assets, but theadministration position was affirmed. Now the Justice Department isappealing Roberts' original decision that the POWs are entitled tocompensation."It does surprise me a little bit that Bush is not helping," said Jeff Foxof Surfside Beach, S.C., who was held 15 days after his A-10 was shot downover southern Iraq on Feb. 19, 1991. "It sends a very bad message that acommander in chief would place veterans and prisoners of war second behind aforeign nation."On Oct. 14, the U.S. Senate passed a nonbinding "sense of Congress"amendment urging the administration to drop all resistance to the claims ofthe ex-POWs. The amendment, sponsored by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., was addedto the bill providing $87 billion for U.S. military action and rebuilding inIraq and Afghanistan."We must send a message to would-be tormentors of other governments that ifthey torture American POWs, they will be held accountable," Reid said. 2003 The Seattle Times Company.