Smith Co-Sponsors Terrorism Victims’ Access to Compensation Act
WASHINGTON, April 16–U.S. Senator Bob Smith, R-N.H., introduced legislation yesterday that would allow victims of state-sponsored terrorism, like William Van Dorp of Kingston who was held hostage by the Iraqis during the Gulf War, to receive compensation from the frozen or blocked assets of those countries.
Smith co-sponsored the bipartisan Terrorism Victim’s Access to Compensation Act with U.S. Senators Tom Harkin, D-IA, George Allen, R-VA, John Warner, R-VA and Hillary Clinton, D-NY.
“Our nation is at war against terrorism, ” Smith said at a news conference yesterday, “and this is just one more tool to let the terrorists know they are going to be held responsible in many ways, and certainly compensating the victims is one of those ways.”
Van Dorp, 50, a native of North Carolina who was living in Kingston prior to the time of the Gulf War, was working as an English language instructor to the Kuwaiti Air Force when Iraqi armed forces invaded Kuwait in August of 1990.
He was taken into custody as the only American among sixteen other hostages, held at a fertilizer refinery for four months where he was forced to eat food contaminated by pesticides, and lost 35 pounds from malnutrition.
When he was contacted in December of last year to join a class-action lawsuit against the Republic of Iraq and Saddam Hussein by other victims of Iraq before the Gulf War, he expressed initial doubt the case would succeed, but decided to file a statement as a plaintiff and pursue $100,000 to $200,000 in lost income.
Upon his return to the United States, Van Dorp said he spent several years in therapy, suffering from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, consequently losing custody over his five children to his ex-wife.
Under the proposed legislation, which Smith called “long overdue,” Van Dorp and other victims of state-sponsored terrorism would receive compensation from the estimated $2.3 billion in Iraqi frozen assets, or the six other “terrorist states” designated by the U.S. Department of State, which include Iran, Libya, Syria, Sudan, North Korea and Cuba.
Currently, the U.S. government actively opposes the use of blocked or frozen assets to pay court-ordered compensation. Rather than having American taxpayers compensate the victims of terrorism, Smith argued, the states responsible for the terrorism should be punished by tapping their frozen assets.
“Saddam Hussein, ironically, as recently as this month, had offered $25,000 to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers,” Smith said, “and the State Department’s excuse for not supporting us on this is that if they want to do it, they want the liberty of negotiating with the Iraqis. I say come on now, let’s get real.
“Our diplomatic efforts to change these countries have fallen on deaf ears. It’s time that these countries compensate. We have the assets seized; let’s give them to those people that deserve them,” Smith added.
Smith is also working on behalf of Jeffrey Ingalls of Woodstock, who was held hostage as a passenger during the 1985 Lebanese hijacking of TWA flight 847 in Beirut. A New Hampshire couple, Claranne and Talmadge Ledford, were teachers in Kuwait who were also taken hostage by Iraq and are plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the Iraqi government.
Published in The Keene Sentinel, in New Hampshire
