WASHINGTON - Edwena Hegna waited 18 years for a measure of justice for the murder of her husband by terrorist hijackers.
Yesterday, she finally got it when President Bush signed into law a bill letting victims of terrorism collect multimillion-dollar judgments from about $4 billion in frozen assets of suspected terrorist groups and the seven nations the United States accuses of sponsoring terrorism.
"I know my husband's looking down," she said after attending the signing at the White House. "The sense of relief after 18 years is just so overwhelming."
The provision was part of a terrorism insurance bill that Bush supports as an economic stimulus measure. The core of the bill will provide federal backup insurance against damages caused by future attacks.
"We're defending America by making our economy more secure," Bush said.
But it was the lesser-known provision dealing with the frozen assets that drew victims of terrorism and their families to the White House.
"One way to confront terrorist organizations is to hit them in the pocketbook," said Rep. Vito J. Fossella, a New York Republican who was a leading sponsor of the bill in Congress.
It is unknown how many people are affected by the provision, but it is estimated to be in the hundreds. Cases range from terrorist bombings in Israel to kidnappings in Iraq and confinements in Kuwait and Libya.
Charles Hegna, 50, a father of four and an auditor for the U.S. Agency for International Development, was flying from Kuwait to Pakistan in 1984 when Hezbollah militants hijacked the plane to Tehran.
Hegna was beaten, shot in the stomach and shoved out the airplane door to the tarmac. As he lay on the ground, the terrorists shot him again.
Earlier this year, Hegna's family won a $42 million court judgment against Iran.
Six years ago, Congress gave victims of terrorism the right to sue countries on the State Department's list of nations that sponsor terrorism - Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria. Currently, no Syrian funds are blocked.
But Americans who have won court cases for attacks on them or their families have had difficultly collecting.
The State Department resisted releasing the assets, contending they can provide an important bargaining chip in U.S. diplomacy. Officials were also worried that releasing the funds could provoke attacks on U.S. property abroad.
"[Foreign] assets are blocked in the national interest; so they can be used as leverage and bargaining chips with states not friendly with the U.S.," said a State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The assets "are also used to assist our foreign policy in dealing with successor regimes that turn out to be friendly to the U.S."
The legislation is expected to pave the way for release of the funds, families of victims and their attorneys said.
"Finally, the victims are going to see justice," said Dan Wolf, a Washington attorney representing Americans who allege they were seized and used as "human shields" on potential targets in Iraq when President Saddam Hussein's regime invaded Kuwait in 1990. All were released shortly before the Persian Gulf war.
Wolf's clients include Jack Frazier, a former Santa Ana, Calif., resident waiting to collect $1.7 million 12 years after he was held hostage for three months by the Iraqis.
"Even if we don't get the money by Christmas, it'll still be a good Christmas present," said Frazier's wife, Deanna. "Jack isn't doing well at all. He will never get over what happened. He sometimes feels like a forgotten man."
Richard Simon and H.G. Reza are reporters for the Los Angeles Times, a Tribune Publishing newspaper.