Winners of judgments against Iraq want funds

NEW YORK -- Eleven Americans held hostage by Iraq before the Gulf War filed a lawsuit seeking to release Iraqi funds from U.S. bank accounts to pay millions of dollars a court decided is owed to the "human shields."

The lawsuit was filed Monday against Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

The plaintiffs are seeking the money to pay a December 2001 judgment by U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson in Washington awarding them damages ranging from $136,000 to $1.74 million. Money in the frozen bank accounts has grown to $9.4 million with interest.

In December 1999, the plaintiffs sued Iraq and Saddam Hussein, saying Americans were owed damages for being held several weeks or months by Iraqi security forces as "human shields" to prevent air attacks.

Hostages taken into custody after Iraq invaded Kuwait on Aug. 2, 1990, were released by the following December.