Well, according to FOX News, Bush did manage to make some fiscally responsible
decisions while golfing in Crawford.

The Bush Administration
intervened to prevent veterans from Gulf War I getting access to frozen Iraqi
funds in the US. Seems the group of soldiers in question had been captured
during the war in the 90's and tortured by Saddan Hussein's lackies in Iraq.
After many years, and no doubt huge numbers of dollars spent on attorney fees,
this group of veterans actually won a lawsuit against Iraq for pain and
suffering endured while in captivity. The judge ordered that the damages should
be paid from Iraqi funds froozen in the US. Sounds like a realtively happy, or
at least fair, ending.

Oh, but wait! Fiscal George steps in and
says, "Blocked by presidential order! You can't touch that money! We need it to
protect the rest of America from weapons of mass destruction and to support our
troops presently in Iraq!"

But then again, there may be no substance at all to this story. It was reported
by Fox News, and everybody knows Fix is part of the liberal media with an
anti-Bush agenda.

FOXNews.com


American POWs Blocked From Iraqi Assets
Friday, August 15, 2003
By Kelley Beaucar Vlahos

WASHINGTON — Americans who were POWs in the Persian Gulf War (search) are
struggling to understand why the Bush administration is trying to block them
from receiving a $1 billion settlement they won against Saddam Hussein's regime
in July.


Despite a law overwhelmingly passed by Congress last year that would allow
victims of state-sponsored terrorism to sue for frozen Iraqi assets, Bush is
issuing a waiver to block compensation for POWs like Col. David Eberley
(search), who was beaten, tortured and held captive by Iraqi forces for 46 days
in 1991.

"It is unfortunate that they are now fighting the people they sent into
combat," Eberley told Foxnews.com. "It would be nice if the executive branch
stopped trying to fight this thing."

According to officials and outside experts, no matter who is in office, the
U.S. government has always considered private lawsuits against foreign nations
– even those on the State Department's list of states that sponsor terrorism
– a nuisance to diplomacy.

"The basic principle is, that the executive branch does not want any
interference in its ability to conduct foreign affairs," said Larry Rothenberg,
international law expert for the Center for International and Strategic Studies
(search).

Attorney Thomas Fortune Fay, who has won judgments and successfully pursued
assets in at least four cases, said he did so against the "objections, shouting
and screaming," of both the Clinton and the current Bush administrations, which
"fought like hell to avoid payments."

Fay, along with attorney Steven Perles, won a judgment on May 30 against Iran
on behalf of the families of the 241 American troops who were killed in a 1983
suicide bombing at the Marine barracks in Lebanon. Iran was found liable in the
case after being implicated as a sponsor of terrorist group Hezbollah (search),
which was blamed for the bombing. The plaintiffs have moved forward with
collecting damages, Fay said.

In a rare departure, the Libyan and U.S. governments did sign an agreement this
week to set up a $2.7 billion fund for families of the 270 victims of the 1988
Pan Am bombing (search) — a key step to lifting U.N. sanctions against Libya.

Fay said over the last decade, the U.S. government has stepped in to block
payments in cases involving states deemed terrorist sponsors, including Cuba
and Iran, but hasn't always won.

Even so, plaintiffs in other pending cases involving American victims of Iraq
could lose out if the administration maintains its current position.

In the case of the POWs and their families, the U.S. District Court for the
District of Columbia ordered Iraq to pay $1 billion in compensatory and
punitive damages for beatings that included being struck with cattle prods and
having eardrums burst, starvation, disease and long-term psychological trauma.
The money was to come from assets that had been frozen in U.S. banks since
1990.

But the Bush administration stepped in after the judgment with heavy hitters
like L. Paul Bremer (search), head of the coalition provisional authority of
Iraq, to argue against freeing up the assets for the POWs. The administration
said the frozen funds of the now-toppled Iraqi regime must be used for the
reconstruction of Iraq. If not, U.S. interests and Iraqi civilians could be
placed at risk.

"While the United States … regrets the injuries that they suffered at the
hands of the former tyrannical regime in Iraq, these plaintiffs' interests in
collecting on their private judgment do not outweigh the interest in using
these funds to protect the safety and lives of U.S. personnel in Iraq and Iraqi
civilians," Justice Department lawyers argued.

In a July 30 ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Richard W. Roberts accepted the
administration's argument that it had authority under the supplemental war
budget passed earlier this year to waive Iraq from any liability under the 2002
Terrorism Risk Assurance Act (search), which allows victims of terrorism to
access frozen assets to satisfy their claims.

But the judge did express surprise about the government's stance.

"The [administration's] position that the POWs are unable to recover any
portion of their judgment as requested, despite their sacrifice in the service
of their country, seems extreme," Roberts wrote.

On Aug. 6, Roberts also refused administration requests to have the entire
judgment thrown out of court.

The situation has drawn fire from members of Congress, some of whom are
incredulous that Bush was able to receive a waiver for the Iraqi government
when it was the intent of Congress to make Iraq pay for its brutality against
Americans.

The administration's actions "undercut the vital, long-term objectives of
deterring terrorist acts against American citizens, and achieving
accountability against terrorist states which target Americans and which have
tortured American POWs in war after war," wrote Sen. George Allen (search),
R-Va., in a letter to the Treasury secretary.

Rothenberg said that with few exceptions, Congress and the courts have
historically deferred to the executive branch in regard to international
lawsuits, and any attempt to legislate on behalf of victims in recent years has
turned out to be largely symbolic.

"Everybody wins politically, except for the people who it is supposed to
benefit," he said.

Tony Onorato, an attorney for the 17 POWs, said his clients are willing to wait
for their settlement, realizing the government's priorities in stabilizing
post-war Iraq. However, "it's time that this moves up on the priority list," he
said.

"Our POWs have been mistreated and killed – this is a way to finally say this
is enough, you cannot have a free pass on torturing our guys."