I did a little research on this today and found out a few things. The timeline of this case shows how despicable bu$h really is.
First of all, the name of the lead plaintiff in this case is Clifford Acree. Keeping his name out of the public eye is important, since it's the easiest way to find the pleadings and court orders online.
The case was brought by 17 former POWs against the Republic of Iraq in April of 2002. At that time, the war with Afghanistan was going on, but Iraq wasn't really on the front burner (this changed when bu$h addressed the U.N. in September of 2002). After the lawsuit was filed, service was made on Iraq through diplomatic channels. They ignored the lawsuit (no surprise there) and a default judgment was entered against Iraq in September of 2002. After that, bu$h signed a law in November, 2002 called the Terrorist Recovery Insurance Act (TRIA). It allowed the assests of terrorists (and states which supported terrorists) to be used to pay the victims of terrorist acts. Since Iraq fit this definition under a law passed in 1990 (prior to the first Gulf War) this would apply to the case brought by Acree and the other POWs.
Here's where it gets suspicious. On Monday, March 31, 2003, a hearing was held before DC District Court Judge Richard W. Roberts for the plaintiffs to show their damages. I don't know this for certain, but it does not appear that any dollar amounts for damages were entered by the judge at that time. The very next day, Tuesday, April 1 (fitting, isn't it?) Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska introduced S. 762 to the Senate, which was the first supplemental spending bill for the Iraq war. The next day, Rep. C.W. Bill Young of Florida (I checked his web site and that really is his name)introduced HR 1559, which was the House version of the Supplemental. Both passed by wide margins, and on April 16 the "Emergency Wartime Supplemental Act of 2003" was signed by bu$h.
Buried in the supplemental was a provision, section 1503 (or 1504), which gave the president the authority to exempt Iraq from "any provision of law that applies to countries that have supported terrorism." In other words, even though Iraq was advertised to be part of the war on terror, no terrorist-based legislation applied to it, including the TRIA. When bu$h came back from his show on the USS Abraham Lincoln, he signed Presidential Determination no. 2003-23 on May 7, 2003. His remarks on that day, made in the presence of the president of Spain, boasted that the determination lifted the sanctions on Iraq (which it did), but curiously made no mention of this other provision of the determination. Since there was no award of damages in the Acree case at the time, there probably wasn't much to say about it anyway.
When judge Roberts made his final judgment on July 7, 2003 he awarded $35 million to Clifford Acree, $10 million to Cynthia Acree (who I presume is his wife) and other monies to ex-POWs and their families totalling more than $650 million. In addition, $306 million in punitive damages were also awarded against the Hussein regime. To collect on this judgment, another action under TRIA was filed in the DC district court. The money was in frozen Iraqi accounts in this country and, under TRIA, was available to pay off the judgment. The frozen amount was over $1 billion, which was enough to pay the judgment in full. The goverment, through Treasury Secretary John Snow, opposed this action on the basis that the determination of May 7 removed the possibility of collecting from the frozen Iraqi assests. The court agreed, and granted summary judgment in favor of the governnment and against the ex POWs.
The gap between March 31, when the plaintiffs made their case for damages, and July 7, when the ruling for damages was handed down, was less than 100 days. However, this gap offered congress and the bu$h administration all the time they needed to cut the POWs' case off at the knees. So the president basically stiffed these men and denied the hell they went through while in captivity. If you want specifics, you can go to
http://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/02-632.pdf. It's tough reading, but each of these men had to live through what is being described.
It makes me sick that bu$h is effectively taking the money, which a federal court decided they were entitled to, and sending it to Paul Bremer and Halliburton instead. Our lapdog media should be reporting this but won't. Our Congress should act to overturn this, but they're debating judges instead. In the meantime, bu$h gets favorable coverage for laying a wreath on Veteran's day and talking about "sacrifice" which he never has made and never would make. And these 17 POWs, who did make sacrifices, are getting screwed.
If you read all of this, thanks. If you share the story with people you know or, better yet, bu$h supporters, thanks even more. I can't imagine that anyone who hears about this would want this man running the country for four more years.
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