POWs Deserve Payback

During the 1991 Gulf War, my plane was shot down and, after evading capture for three nights, I was taken prisoner. I was held in four different prisons in Baghdad during the 43 days of my captivity. My treatment was barbaric.

At gunpoint, my captors tried to force me to make a videotaped statement for Iraq’s use as propaganda.

As the senior-ranking POW, I tried to secure better treatment for my fellow captives, but these efforts simply resulted in more beatings.

I was one of 21 American POWs held during that war. The torture to which we were subjected included severe beatings, electric shock, starvation, incarceration in filth, genital inspections to determine whether we were Jewish, and use as “human shields.”

Our story is not widely known, and no serious government action has been taken to hold Saddam Hussein or his henchmen accountable.

So, in an effort to achieve accountability and deter future acts of torture against POWs, 16 other Gulf War POWs and I filed a lawsuit a year ago against Hussein, the Iraqi Intelligence Service and the Republic of Iraq.

The suit was brought under a 1996 statute that allows civil suits to hold terrorist states accountable for their torture. Evidence of the torture and deprivation we suffered was presented to the court last month, and we are awaiting a judgment.

Sadly, this mistreatment of American POWs occurs in war after war. Reports from the current war indicate, yet again, coerced propaganda tapes and raise fears of savage mistreatment, even death. As of this writing, there are an estimated seven POWs being held in Iraq.

How can we stop this abuse? Realistically, we have few options. But taken together, several policies offer a real hope for deterring this brutal mistreatment of future American POWs.

First, we must publicize the evidence of torture. Abuse thrives on silence, and all evil regimes seek to manipulate public opinion by concealing their brutality.

Second, we need to search for those responsible for such mistreatment and bring them to justice before our criminal courts. Killing and torture of POWs are grave breaches of the Third Geneva Convention (the POW convention). Signatories are obligated to search for those who commit such breaches and to bring them before our courts.

It is not enough to gather evidence, as was done after the 1991 Gulf War. Violators must be sought out and tried.

Third, we need to hold any state that tortures Americans accountable for its actions.

Again, the POW convention leads the way. Article 131 provides that no nation that has signed the convention may absolve any other for such breaches. Holding nations accountable also should include compensation for the victims and their families, as Congress intended. This is also an important weapon in the war against terrorism.

Recently, however, a presidential executive order has undermined the efficacy of civil suits as a tool in the effort to end torture of American POWs.

The order said $1.73 billion in blocked Iraqi assets should be used to help rebuild that country. It did not set aside anything for a potential favorable judgment in our case. This order seems to be at odds with a law signed by President Bush last November expressly permitting judgments against terrorist states to be taken from their blocked assets.

I salute our commander in chief and the brave men and women fighting in Iraq today. We must promote democracy and the rule of law in Iraq at the end of this war. But I do not believe that the goals of this lawsuit should be sacrificed.

It is a special travesty to ask American POWs brutally tortured by Iraq to pay for Iraq’s reconstruction by, in effect, overriding the November law that allowed them access to the frozen Iraqi funds.

I suspect this executive order was a creature of the bureaucracy. Surely more reasoned analysis will note that resolving Iraq’s serious legal obligations is also part of the effective reconstruction of that country.

In doing so, the president has an opportunity to adopt and implement important new policies for the protection of American POWs.

Even in the despair of my captivity, I never doubted that former President Bush would bring us home. He made good on his promise to do so, and I trust that George W. Bush, our current president and commander in chief, will make good on the vow to hold Hussein accountable for his torture of the POWs.

After 12 long years, it is time to send a message to the world that the torture of American POWs will not be tolerated or cost-free.