SR1: requesting the United States Congress to assure that compensation is provided to certain United States pilots held as prisoners of war during the 1991 Gulf War.

SR 1 – AS INTRODUCED

2005 SESSION

05-1078

10/09

SENATE RESOLUTION 1

A RESOLUTION requesting the United States Congress to assure that compensation is provided to certain United States pilots held as prisoners of war during the 1991 Gulf War.

SPONSORS: Sen. Burling, Dist 5; Sen. Barnes, Dist 17; Sen. Boyce, Dist 4; Sen. Clegg, Dist 14; Sen. D'Allesandro, Dist 20; Sen. Estabrook, Dist 21; Sen. Flanders, Dist 7; Sen. Foster, Dist 13; Sen. Fuller Clark, Dist 24; Sen. Gallus, Dist 1; Sen. Gatsas, Dist 16; Sen. Gottesman, Dist 12; Sen. Green, Dist 6; Sen. Hassan, Dist 23; Sen. Kenney, Dist 3; Sen. Larsen, Dist 15; Sen. Letourneau, Dist 19; Sen. Martel, Dist 18; Sen. Morse, Dist 22; Sen. Roberge, Dist 9

COMMITTEE:

ANALYSIS

This senate resolution requests the United States Congress to assure that compensation is provided to the 17 pilots who were prisoners of war in the 1991 Gulf War but whose damage award granted in Acree v. The Republic of Iraq was reversed by the federal appeals court.

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05-1078

10/09

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Five

A RESOLUTION requesting the United States Congress to assure that compensation is provided to certain United States pilots held as prisoners of war during the 1991 Gulf War.

Whereas, in the 1991 Gulf War, 17 United States soldiers serving as pilots and flight crew in Iraq were captured and held as prisoners of war; and

Whereas, these prisoners of war suffered brutal and inhumane acts of physical and psychological torture and lived in constant fear of death; and

Whereas, in 2002 the 17 former prisoners of war and their close family members sued the Republic of Iraq, the Iraqi Intelligence Service, and Saddam Hussein in his official capacity as President of Iraq, under the state sponsored terrorism exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and were awarded over $959 million in compensatory and punitive damages by a federal district court; and

Whereas, before the prisoners of war could seek to satisfy the judgment by attaching funds from seized Iraqi bank accounts, the award of damages obtained in the federal district court was vacated on appeal, and was subsequently not restored by the United States Supreme Court; and

Whereas, the 17 former prisoners of war and their close family members have not been provided adequate compensation for their suffering endured while acting in service to the United States; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate:

That the United States Congress is hereby requested to determine appropriate compensation for the service of the 17 former prisoners of war, and to assure that some reasonable and just measure of compensation is provided to the pilots and to their close family members; and

That copies of this resolution be sent by the senate clerk to the President of the United States, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the Majority and Minority Leaders of the United States Senate, and to each member of the New Hampshire Congressional delegation.