Following the Supreme Court’s refusal yesterday to hear the appeal of 17 Gulf War POWs seeking compensation from Iraq, Jeffrey Addicott of the Center for Terrorism Law said:
“We send a signal to tyrants that we are not going to hold you responsible if you torture our people.”
And since we now torture their people, all bets are off. More below — only corporations get the spoils of war — and a poll:
A lower court awarded the 17 959 million dollars in damages and interest in July 2003 but this was later thrown out by an appeals court saying it was not founded in law.
The Supreme Court gave no reason for its refusal to consider the case again.
Tony Onorato, a lawyer for the 17 ex-soldiers and their families, said the case was launched in April 2002 when the soldiers submitted evidence about the torture they had endured.
A 1996 law gave the US Justice Department the right to examine torture complaints against states on a US list of countries accused of supporting terrorism. A 2002 text gave courts the right to award damages from these countries’ assets frozen in the United States.
The US government had argued against the award to the ex-soldiers saying the money was needed for Iraq’s reconstruction after the US-led invasion in 2003.
“Our position has always been you can do both things, you can rebuild Iraq and hold Iraq accountable,” Onorato told AFP.
“The fact is that there are corporations and countries the world over who have outstanding debt that is owed to them by Iraq. We want to be able to stand in that line at least.”
The lawyer went on: “The difficult part to swallow is that the United States is saying you really shouldn’t be able to stand in that line.” … (AFP)
Raytheon’s?
Surely a glance at those figures will be all the compensation they need.
Halliburton over-billed the US government…just take that amount and re-distribute it amongst these vets and all others involved in both Iraq wars.
I’m embarrassed to admit that just five years ago I thought one of the few positive things one could say about modern times was that we were making progress against state-sponsored torture. Mostly this was because of the spread of the EU, forcing governments like Romania to stop torturing (and in a few cases actually castrating) gay people and EU-aspirants like Turkey to work to reform their police culture of torture and abuse.
Now here we are, five years into the new Millennium, and we’re back to the “standards” of the 20th century. All non-EU governments, not just ours, can now torture with utter impunity, and torture is justified and rationalized in Senate committee hearings (I’m thinking of Schumer, may he rot in hell) besides being “dismissed” as not worthy of the Supreme Court’s consideration.
I despair. In fact, I feel so strongly about this that I believe that countries, like ours, that sanction and abet torture, should lose their right to self-government. Time for a worldwide dictatorship of the EU and the wholesale transfer of hundreds and hundreds of thousands of torture-loving Americans to the International Criminal Court. Maybe a time will come when Americans reject torture. But that time is not now.
continues to decline, there may come a time after Bu$hCo has left office that it may be advantageous for America to turn over the lot of them for prosecution… I hope I live to see the day. How sad that these GI’s find themselves as international pawns… trying to sue the Iraqi government is equivalent to trying to sue the US government… they are the same.
Sorry for shouting but to me it is just so obvious that Bushco wants all of Suddam’s money and oil and nothing will ever be done about it. Let’s see. The war would pay for itself through rapid profits from Iraqi oil production…have we seen any of that yet? And just why should the Iraqi’s pay us for invading, occupying and destroying their country? Oh, silly me…I forgot we gave them freedom and democracy. Yep and then there is Halliburton’s pockets. I agree take the over billing monies and give it to these 17 vets. But no, we no longer have use for them so just toss them away and forget what they sacrificed for their country? I say…”LET’S ROLL” folks. Is anyone doing anything for these soldiers?