News-Info-Alerts

Re: PGW Ex-POws Sue Saddam

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: March 24, 2003

"Ex-POWs demanding millions from Iraq

Seventeen Americans are suing for $910 million for the abuse they suffered. Saddam Hussein has not responded.
By Edward Colimore
Inquirer Staff Writer

Iraq and Saddam Hussein have failed to offer a defense or respond to the $910 million lawsuit by 17 U.S. servicemen - including Cherry Hill's Jeffrey Zaun - who said they were tortured while imprisoned during the Persian Gulf war.

The former prisoners of war and their families are seeking compensatory and punitive damages and will provide written testimony and videotaped evidence in late March to the U.S. District Court in Washington, said their attorney, Stephen Fennell.

Fennell said Judge Richard Roberts was expected to issue a judgment in the case, with or without representation from Iraq.

Attempts to reach officials for comment at the Iraqi Embassy in Washington were unsuccessful. Iraq has more than $1.7 billion in frozen assets in American banks.

"I wasn't surprised that they haven't shown up," said Fennell. "After what these fellows [Iraqis] did - if we go in again - we can expect the same treatment. We hope this kind of lawsuit will be a little bit of deterrence."

Co-council John Norton Moore said the suit "is one of the first serious efforts to add deterrence against the continuing pattern of brutal torture of American POWs. It's very important to make sure there's an ability to fully enforce any judgment against the frozen assets before they are returned to a successor government."

Zaun said he sees the damages as a more effective economic sanction than the government simply freezing assets.

"When you freeze the assets of a country, it still has access to them by borrowing on them in the capital markets," he said, adding that lenders would reconsider such loans "if the money was shown to be at risk. I have no problem taking money away from Saddam Hussein."

The lawsuit - running more than 100 pages - says the POWs endured starvation, electric shocks, beatings and threats of dismemberment and death.

It was filed last April, translated into the Iraqi language, and provided to the country's representatives, said Fennell. Iraq was found to be in default in September when it did not respond.

The plaintiffs, nine of them still in active military service, are each seeking $25 million in compensatory damages, plus $5 million each for 37 family members. The suit also asks for $300 million in punitive damages.

The 17 servicemen include retired Air Force pilot Jeffrey Tice, formerly of Bucks County and a graduate of Pennridge High School and Pennsylvania State University; and Robert Wetzel, a Virginia Beach, Va., native who flew with Zaun.

Tice said the Iraqis delivered electric shocks and beatings that dislocated his jaw, damaged his eardrums, and broke many of his teeth. He has lasting muscle and nerve damage.

Fellow POW Zaun said he was held in a tight blindfold and handcuffs for days at a time and often kept in a dark, unsanitary cell where the temperature dropped into the 30s.

Zaun said he also was beaten and forced - after threats of execution - to make a tape denouncing the allied military action against Iraq.

"I never got to my target in the gulf war," said Zaun. "I'd really like to get a piece of him [Saddam Hussein] now."

Contact staff writer Edward Colimore at 856-779-3833 or ecolimore@phillynews.com. "