Justice for Victims of Torture and Terrorism Act

Floor Speech

JUSTICE FOR VICTIMS OF TORTURE AND TERRORISM ACT -- (House of Representatives - September 15, 2008)

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Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this piece of legislation. I was not aware of it in its earliest authorship. I became aware of it, in addition to the issue which I was aware of, only when it began to move toward our committee. As I looked at both the legislation and those affected, who had worked so valiantly for 17 years to try to bring justice to an unjust occurrence in the history of Iraq, I discovered that we had a large group of men and women who had been used as human shields, a relatively small group of people who had been tortured at Saddam's hands, Americans.

But what I also discovered was that these people had no other way to focus the injustice of what had happened to them than by seeking a remedy in the courts, and that had been denied them for so long. Now they have that remedy from the courts, and they're being denied the opportunity to avail themselves of it.

Mr. Speaker, if this were just about money, I wouldn't be standing here. This is not. This is about a much larger cause. Throughout our history, we have endeavored to compensate our men and women when we send them to war. We've endeavored to compensate them when they're prisoners of war, but we will never be able to compensate them for the torture that they've received at the hands of barbarians.

The very barbarian who ordered this misconduct, Saddam Hussein, has been executed by the new government of Iraq. The new government of Iraq every day is seeking to reenter the world of justice and civilized nations. They're doing so in a myriad of ways, including settling the wrongful acts of the Saddam regime. This is no different.

The amendments that I asked for, and on a bipartisan way were granted, in the Judiciary Committee sought to make it clear America wants no compensation from the new Iraq government unless it is consistent with other compensation for similar acts of the Saddam Hussein regime. As Mr. Scott has already said, the administration of Iraq is making those efforts today, and I know they will negotiate in good faith with the victims of torture if, in fact, they have standing to do so.

That's why we're working on a bipartisan basis to grant the President the ability, if there are not similar settlements, to withhold this capability until or unless there are. I don't want this to be about every past war, but it wouldn't be fair to ask for this if we hadn't previously seen Libya make settlements finally but only after the State Department had withdrawn their objections.

And to most people here on the House floor, World War II is but a memory or a piece of history they've read about. The men and women who were taken at Bataan and other places were tortured. Most of them died. Then, too, we felt that we shouldn't burden the new Japanese Government with the sins of the past government. I think that's a bad precedent.

I believe that the making whole of people for whom you have done more
than just conduct war is, in fact, the responsibility on an ongoing basis of a government if they have the ability and certainly if they grant similar compensation to people from other countries or, in the case of Japan, Libya and post-Saddam Iraq, if they grant money damages to companies who often lost nothing but money.

So, Mr. Speaker, I'm going to support this legislation wholeheartedly. I know my Republican colleagues will. I note that this is, in fact, a good message to the administration to facilitate the settlement rather than to stand aside on it.

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Mr. Speaker, many members of our armed forces faced horrible abuse and torture at the hands of Iraq's former dictator, Saddam Hussein, during the first Gulf War. We owe those members of the armed forces not only our sympathy, but our deepest thanks for enduring immense pain and suffering for a larger cause that helped keep all of us safe here at home. We also owe those members of the armed forces justice. And that's why we're here today to pass H.R. 5167, the Justice for Victims of Torture and Terrorism Act.

In the closing hours before the most recent House recess, I was very pleased to see the House, and the Senate, send legislation to the President that statutorily approved an agreement that was reached between the State Department and Libya regarding the compensation of Americans injured by Libyan-sponsored terrorism. That legislation was passed by both bodies under unanimous consent. It not only approved the negotiated agreement, which provides for hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation, but it also protected the agreement from being undone by lawyers and judges who would have otherwise interfered with its implementation.

The agreement with Libya shows that State-to-State negotiations for the compensation of victims of terrorism can work. It is a far more effective means of compensating victims than lawsuits, as domestic court judgments are always difficult to enforce, and foreign entities have many ways of moving their funds offshore to avoid collection. Negotiations worked to provide fair compensation for the victims of Libya, and they can work to provide fair compensation to the victims of the torture and terrorism perpetrated by Saddam Hussein's former regime.

I was very pleased to have been able to craft a bill with Chairman CONYERS that not only facilitates, but encourages, State-to-State negotiations with the new democracy in Iraq that is the surest means of providing ultimate compensation for deserving victims. An amendment I offered at committee with Chairman CONYERS, and which is now part of this bill, provides that the negotiations process will be allowed to continue as long as ``the President has certified to the Congress ..... that ..... negotiations are ongoing with the Government of Iraq to settle the claims in the [covered] cases ..... and the President believes that those negotiations are being conducted in good faith and could lead to a satisfactory settlement of those claims .....''

Under this provision, the President must, on a regular basis, provide Congress with a status report attesting to the continuing good faith negotiations between the parties, and to the prospect that those negotiations could lead to a satisfactory settlement. That provision is necessary to help balance several worthy goals.

One of those goals is the maintaining of a stable, free, and democratic Iraq that will help ensure horrors the likes of which were seen under Saddam Hussein will not be seen again. To that end, earlier in this Congress, Congress passed H.R. 4986, which authorized the President to waive lawsuits against the new democracy in Iraq if the President determined that the waiver is in the national security interest of the United States; that the waiver will promote the reconstruction of, the consolidation of democracy in, and the relations of the United States with, Iraq; and that Iraq continues to be a reliable ally of the United States and partner in combating acts of international terrorism. On the day the President signed that provision into law, he signed a waiver and issued a statement justifying the exercise of the waiver authority.

But H.R. 4986 also included a Sense of Congress that provides as follows:

``[T]he President, acting through the Secretary of State, should work with the Government of Iraq on a state-to-state basis to ensure compensation for any meritorious claims based on terrorist acts committed by the Saddam Hussein regime against individuals who were United States nationals or members of the United States Armed Forces at the time of those terrorist acts and whose claims cannot be addressed in courts in the United States due to the exercise of the waiver authority.''

It is now time to provide the statutory requirements necessary to implement that Sense of Congress. We do that here today by passing H.R. 5167, which gives our policy of encouraging good faith negotiations to provide fair and tangible compensation to victims of torture the force of statutory law. I urge all my colleagues to support it.

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