Re: Stop POW Torture

Date: April 09, 2004

A MUST VISIT web site:

Stop POW Torture - http://www.stoppowtorture.org/ Support Our Gulf War POWs.

Forr the past two years, former POWs held under the brutal Saddam Hussein regime during the Persian Gulf War in 1991 have had to battle a new enemy, their very own government.

In 2002, former POWs sued for Iraqi assets, on deposit in the US and elsewhere, to be awarded to them for the exceptional pain, suffering, torture and terror they were forced to endure. Before anyone gets their rompers in a snarl, the former POWs have every legal right to do so.

Over the years, a variety of claims have been presented to a variety of entities that would address and allow releif for the aggrieved parties. Only 10 years ago, the Foreign Claims Commission heard numerous claims and reviewed miles of documents and depositions from former POWs, business concerns and the US government with respect to frozen assets of Vietnam.

WW II POWs, as well as Civilian Prisoners have repeatedly gone to court to force Japan to make restitution.

Enter the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act otherwise known as FSIA. A complex legal morass that determines and empowers the Department of State (for the most part) to make decisions on whether or not a particular sovereignty meets immunity requirements with respect to legal claims. (see: http://travel.state.gov/fsia.html) In 1996, Congress amended the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) to allow lawsuits to be brought against countries on the State Department’s “State Sponsors of Terrorism” list. Therefore, as far as Congress goes, any American citizen murdered, tortured or kidnapped by officials of one of those countries—Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, North Korea, Cuba and Sudan—or by terrorists materially supported by the government of one of those countries, could bring suit if the country was on the list at the time of occurance.

As a result, those who suffered under the agents of a Terrorist State, had the legal remedy to file a lawsuit, the damages of which would come from frozen assets of said Terrorist State. The Gulf War POWs sued under the new provisions and prevailed in court, Acree v. Republic of Iraq, and on 07 July 2003, were awarded compensation for injuries received as well as punitive damages, "Plaintiffs in this case not only seek to obtain appropriate recompense for their own injuries but also to take actions which will deter others in the future from torturing American POWs."

Immediately, the USG lawyered up again in a round of appeals and requests that the judgement be vacated. Since then the ongoing legal battle has pitted a government against the very men it sent into harm's way.

We urge you to visit http://www.stoppowtorture.org/

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