Bush Administration Steals Money from Tortured American POW's

Dr. Dennis Cuddy | April 2 2004

On Nov. 23, CBS' "60 Minutes" aired a segment on American POWs tortured during the first Gulf War who had recently been awarded by a court nearly $1 billion from frozen Iraqi assets in the United States. The amazing part of this story is that the Bush administration took those assets and sent them to Iraq for reconstruction, thus denying the tortured POWs the court award.

Sen. Harry Reid, of Nevada, has been a leading supporter of the POWs and should be commended for his efforts. While most Americans support the administration's desire to help the Iraqi people, this should not be done at the expense of tortured American POWs.

The purpose of the POWs legal action was not simply to obtain money for themselves, but also to set up a foundation to assist future American POWs who are tortured, and to serve as a deterrent to future regimes who may consider torturing American POWs.

Not only has the Bush administration taken this money from POWs, but the Justice Department has even tried to get the court's judgment thrown out. The POWs say they can't understand why this is being done to them by our own government. After all, this should be a "no-brainer" for the administration -- supporting our courageous soldiers.