Supreme Court Rejects Appeal by 1991 POWs in Iraq

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Seventeen American prisoners of war in the 1991 Gulf War failed on Monday to get the U.S. Supreme Court to review of a ruling that threw out a nearly $1 billion judgment against Iraq, Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi Intelligence Service.

The justices refused to review a U.S. appeals court ruling that dismissed the lawsuit by the 17 servicemen and by 37 of their immediate family members on the grounds they could not bring the case under the law at issue.

Bush administration attorneys opposed the appeal by the POWs and argued the lawsuit had been properly dismissed. President Bush had determined such judgments "would seriously undermine funding for the essential tasks of the new Iraqi government," they said.

The lawsuit was filed in April 2002 under a 1996 federal law that allows lawsuits by U.S. citizens against state sponsors of terrorism. The servicemen said they had been brutally tortured while held captive by Iraq during the war.........

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