WASHINGTON — President Bush surprised Congress by refusing to sign a Defense Department authorization bill, in part because the legislation could revive a lawsuit brought by American prisoners of war during the 1991 Persian Gulf War who say they were tortured by the Iraqis.
Their suit sought to establish the principle that war prisoners who were tortured in violation of the Geneva Convention were entitled to sue the country that tortured them.
By keeping the bill from becoming law, the president delayed pay raises for the troops and improvements in the care of wounded veterans. On Thursday, he pointed to a little-noted provision in the huge bill and said it could trigger a wave of lawsuits that might "imperil billions of dollars of Iraqi assets."
The chief reason
But he did not say that the main lawsuit that had drawn the attention of the White House and the Iraqis was a claim from American prisoners of war.
The 17 ex-POWs, most of them pilots who had been shot down, sued Saddam Hussein's regime for their brutal treatment after they were captured.
In 1996, Congress partly waived the rule that shields foreign countries from being sued. And after hearing evidence of how the former POWs had been beaten and starved, a judge awarded them a total judgment of $959 million.
But the verdict came shortly after the United States had invaded Iraq and toppled Hussein. Bush administration lawyers then intervened in the case and said the judgment should be thrown out.
The move rankled some military and veterans groups. "It seems so strange to have our country fighting us on this," said retired Air Force Col. David W. Eberly, who was the senior officer among the former POWs.
But a U.S. appeals court agreed with the administration and overturned the verdict. The judges ruled that individuals were not entitled to sue foreign governments for torture and abuse, despite the 1996 law. The case appeared to be at an end two years ago when the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from the ex-POWs.
"What message do we send for the future" if war prisoners can be tortured with impunity, asked Lt. Col. Clifford Acree at the time. A pilot in 1991, he was shot down by a surface-to-air missile on the first day of the Persian Gulf War and was blindfolded and beaten after he was taken captive. He later served as the lead plaintiff in the suit.
Amending the law
