Ethics

Judge Orders Award for Victims of Torture

By Ed Brayton

Unfortunately, not for the victims of torture by the United States but by North Korea:

A federal judge on Tuesday awarded more than $65 million to several men who were captured and tortured by North Korea after the communist country seized the U.S. spy ship USS Pueblo during the Cold War...

The USS Pueblo was seized off North Korea while it was on an intelligence-gathering mission on Jan. 23, 1968. The North claimed the ship was inside its coastal zone while the U.S. Navy contended it was in international waters.

One of the U.S. ship's 83 crew members was killed and 10 others were wounded. The crew members, led by Cmdr. Lloyd Bucher, were released after 11 months of captivity and sometimes torture.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on December 31, 2008 (boomark / email).