The Bush Administration vs. POWs

American pilots beaten and tortured by Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War have a new set of problems -- the Bush administration.

The POWs sued Saddam Hussein's Iraq after the war and courts awarded them $1 billion.

But now the White House says Iraq's changed. So the country shouldn't have to pay. The administration suggests the US should pay compensation to Iraqis tortured at the hands of Americans in the current war -- but not a dime to Americans tortured in the same Abu Ghraib prison at Iraqi hands 13 years earlier.

Congress allowed lawsuits against nations that sponsor terrorism back in 1996. The 17 Gulf War POWs filed suit in 2002 for a share of $1.7 billion in Iraqi assets frozen in the US. A judge awarded roughly $1 billion to the POWs when Iraq refused to respond to the suit. (LAT)