"No amount of money can truly compensate these brave men and women for the suffering that they went through at the hands of this very brutal regime and at the hands of Saddam Hussein." White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan November 2003.

no amount of money is exactly what the 17 american pilots--who were tortured in abu gharib prison by saddam hussein's thugs after being captured and  held as pows during the first gulf war--are gonna get if the bush administration has its way.

to that end, the government has done everything in its power to keep the group from collecting nearly $1 billion from Iraq that a federal judge awarded them as compensation for their torture

to add insult to the injuries these former pows suffered, defense secretary rumsfeld has publicly backed paying compensation to those iraqis who were tortured in 2003-04, telling a congressional committee investigating abu gharib wrongdoing, "I am seeking a way to provide appropriate compensation to those detainees who suffered grievous and brutal abuse and cruelty at the hands of a few members of the U.S. military. It is the right thing to do,"

oh..and once again, the war president is on the wrong side of the geneva accords since the united states and other signers pledged never to "absolve" a state of "any liability" for the torture of pows.

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the pilots--joined by 37 family members--were represented by dc lawyers steptoe & johnson who filed suit on their behalf in april 2002.  in  " Acree vs. Republic of Iraq", the plaintiffs  asked for monetary damages for "acts of torture committed against them and for pain, suffering and severe mental distress of their families"   since hussein's government didn't respond or appear before us district judge richard w. roberts, there was no trial.

judge roberts rendered his decision on july 7, 2003, awarding the group $653 million in compensatory damages plus  $306 million in punitive damages and the group sought a hold on iraq's frozen assets.  then things began to go down hill pretty rapidly.

the same group of whitehouse lawyers who attempted to subvert our constitutional balance of power--one of whom is now attorney general--began hustling to block the award claiming  bush had voided any such claims against iraq.

citing language in the emergency bill which appropriated  $80 billion for military operations and reconstruction efforts in iraq--you may remember it as the one kerry voted against--authorizing the president to suspend all  sanctions against iraq imposed following the invasion of kuwait, the administration asked the us court of appeals for the district of columbia circuit to toss out the judgement. 

the president's legal team claimed that same clause permitted bush to take iraq off the  state department's list of state sponsors of terrorism and void any  pending monetary judgments against iraq

a three-judge panel unanimously agreed with this argument and tossed out the pow's award.

the whitehouse then turned its efforts towards blocking a congressional resolution intended to ensure the pows were paid.

. "U.S. courts no longer have jurisdiction to hear cases such as those filed by the Gulf War POWs," then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage said in a letter to lawmakers. "Moreover, the president has ordered the vesting of blocked Iraqi assets for use by the Iraqi people and for reconstruction."

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the pilots and their families are hoping the supreme court will hear their appeal.  the case title has now been amended to (get this): Acree vs. Iraq and the United States.

the administration has adamantly refused to settle the case--even for pennies on the dollar according to jeffrey f. addicott, a former army lawyer and director of the center for terrorism law at st. mary's university in san antonio.

david o. savage who reported this sorry ongoing episode in the la times, february 15, 2005 notes:  "The POWs say the justices should decide the "important and recurring question [of] whether U.S. citizens who are victims of state-sponsored terrorism [may] seek redress against terrorist states in federal court."

the justice department--acting on behalf of the pows' brother-in-arms who now occupies the whitehouse--intends to file a brief this week calling for the court to deny the pilots' appeal.