About the POWs

In 2001, 17 former POWs from the 1991 Gulf War and 37 of their family members initiated a legal effort to hold Saddam Hussein’s Iraq accountable for the torture it illegally inflicted upon the POWs. They filed their case before the Court because they believed that a judgment would help deter the future torture of Americans by terrorist foreign governments, and that it might provide the financial resources to establish a Foundation to help support future American POWs, MIAs, and their families.

Although POWs in other wars such as Vietnam have had it even worse, the stories of the first Gulf War POWs are grim. As all human rights struggles teach, only when the brightest light is cast on human rights abuses can they be halted. The POWs’ court judgment is the public record of what they endured in defense of their country and in defense of freedom. They have told their stories in the hope that our sons and daughters who serve this country in the future never face the same.

Colonel (Ret.) Clifford Acree, USMC