Appeal set to be heard in case of tortured POWs

Jace Radke

Tuesday, April 6, 2004 | 8:41 a.m.

A federal court on Wednesday is expected to hear the Bush administration's appeal of a judgment that gave a Las Vegas resident and 16 other former POWs from the first Gulf War $959 million.

The appeal of the ruling in the case, Acree v. Republic of Iraq, argues that legal remedies for what happened in a war cannot be pursued through the U.S. District Court. Arguments are scheduled Wednesday before the Washington, D.C., Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals.

In July U.S. District Judge Richard Roberts, in Washington, issued a default judgment for $653 million and $306 million in punitive damages to Las Vegas resident Jeffrey Tice and 16 other former POWs for pain caused by torture during their imprisonment.

The suit was originally filed in April 2002, and the plaintiffs were supposed to collect the money from Iraq's assets but the White House froze the assets once the second war with Iraq began and is now using them to rebuild Iraq.

Retired Col. David Ederly, the highest-ranking of the 17 former POWs, said in a statement that he was saddened by the appeal.

"It is hard to comprehend how on one hand the administration can say that Saddam Hussein has perpetrated some of the most heinous acts against humanity, and on the other seek to eliminate the only judgment proving he is guilty of these crimes," Ederly said.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., proposed an amendment to the Veterans Affairs spending bill last year to allow the POWs to collect the $959 million, but in December the amendment was stripped from the final version of the omnibus spending bill.

The Senate first approved the amendment Oct. 15 during debate on President Bush's $87 billion spending bill to fund the war and reconstruction efforts in Iraq, but the State Department sent a letter to House and Senate negotiators on the Iraq bill urging them to strip the relevant language. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage wrote that the Reid amendment was "inconsistent with our national objective regarding Iraq."

The amendment, though not binding, expressed Congress' intent that the administration recognize the case and negotiate the compensation out of Saddam Hussein's assets now held by the United States.