[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12499]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




      COMPENSATING IRAQI PRISONERS AT THE EXPENSE OF AMERICAN POWS

  (Mr. STRICKLAND asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. STRICKLAND. Mr. Speaker, according to The Hill newspaper, former 
American prisoners tortured by Saddam Hussein's regime in the first 
Gulf War are criticizing the Bush administration for fighting their 
compensation claims while planning to compensate the Iraqi victims of 
abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison.
  Rumsfeld told the Senate Committee on Armed Services last week that 
he is seeking a way to provide appropriate compensation to those 
detainees who suffered such grievous and brutal abuse at the hands of 
American Armed Forces. And yet this administration, this President, 
went to court to keep American POWs, those who were tortured by Saddam 
Hussein, from getting the compensation that was given to them by a 
lower court.
  Why would this administration, why would this President, why would 
this Secretary of Defense, want to compensate Iraqi prisoners who had 
been tortured, and fight the compensation of American prisoners who had 
been tortured? Whose side is this administration on?

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