White House Seeks to Void Judge’s Award to POWs

The Bush administration urged an appeals court Wednesday to overturn a judge’s award of nearly $1 billion in Iraqi money to 17 Americans taken prisoner by Saddam Hussein’s government during the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

Attorneys for the POWs, who were tortured and starved, said the award -- to be paid from Iraqi government assets frozen in this country -- in no way threatens the rebuilding of Iraq, taking issue with the central argument of the administration.

Justice Department attorney Gregory Katsas said that foreign policy interests were at stake, and that the POWs’ claims should be handled through diplomatic channels rather than the courts.

The administration maintains that countless people suffered at the hands of Hussein and plenty will be seeking compensation from the new government, jeopardizing its existence. Once the Iraqi government gets on more solid footing, the administration believes, reparations could be negotiated.

Retired Col. David Eberly, who was held by the Iraqis for more than 40 days, said the government’s effort to void the ruling was disappointing.

“Today, the argument boils down to the fact that the government simply wants to say, ‘Thank you very much for your service and now go home and live forever the horrors and the memories of your captivity and the torture that went on,’ ” he said. “I think that’s unjust.”

Eberly was shot down over northwestern Iraq on Jan. 19, 1991, and captured by Iraqi soldiers who beat him daily and fed him just bread and broth.

The POWs filed suit against Iraq in April 2002 under a 1996 law that allows victims to pursue blocked assets if they have won damages from foreign governments that sponsor terrorism.

U.S. District Judge Richard W. Roberts sided with the POWs last summer and ordered payment of $653 million in compensatory damages and $306 million in punitive damages.

The Justice Department said the POWs could not have access to any of the $1.7 billion of Iraqi assets frozen in 1990, arguing that President Bush formally seized those assets after the invasion of Iraq last year to be used for rebuilding the country. Roberts agreed that the government could keep those funds.

Stewart Baker, attorney for the POWs, told a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that his clients wanted the judgment in their favor to be upheld to affirm their suffering and allow them to collect later.