b.Log

February 04, 2008 ::
When Will the Publishers and Pundits Get it Right?

OP ED: AII POW-MIA

Somewhere between John McCain is a true-blue American Hero and John McCain is a brainwashed Manchurian Candidate, and there are/aren't any American POW-MIAs alive somewhere, the truth lies.

I just wish someone, somewhere, would do enough research and less creative editing and get it right. For once, just once.

Recent in-depth articles analyzing why McCain is so generally disliked by the POW-MIA community, once again, speak only of the fringe element and the more obstreperous activists. They refer, as if carved in stone, to the McCain/Kerry "findings" of the flawed Senate Select Committee on POW-MIAs (colloquially called the SSC), and one always reads...

"Given the Committee's findings, the question arises as to whether it is fair to say that American POWs were knowingly abandoned in Southeast Asia after the war. The answer to that question is clearly no."

However, and it is a huge however, the paragraph continues....

"American officials did not have certain knowledge that any specific prisoner or prisoners were being left behind. But there remains the troubling question of whether the Americans who were expected to return but did not were, as a group, shunted aside and discounted by government and population alike. The answer to that question is essentially yes."

There. You have it. Men were left behind. Not intentionally, no one specific, not purposefully abandoned, but nonetheless, left behind.

So the "clearly no" quote that is getting so much air time as the ultimate finding is wrong. Careful or callous editing of one single paragraph can change the entire direction and policy of a nation.

People refer to the SSC report (people I suspect that have never read the WHOLE SSC Report) as if it were the gospel according to government. It is not. People also assume, wrongly, that the POW-MIA issue and the SSC deal exclusively with the Second IndoChina War - Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. It does not.

It was an investigation into the issue of POWs and MIAs from ALL wars. Although 90% of the investigation and testimony deals with Southeast Asia - World War II, the Cold War and Korea were included in the overall mission of the Committee. (SSC Chapter XI - "Although the Committee's investigation focused primarily on efforts to account for Americans missing from the war in Southeast Asia, the principle of accounting for lost American servicemen is the same, whether the war occurred 20 years ago or 50 years ago. Accordingly, the Committee undertook a review of information and allegations concerning Americans missing from earlier conflicts and hired a full time investigator to work in Moscow on this and related issues.")

The Issue
The POW-MIA issue is not about Vietnam. It is about the 88,000 plus unaccounted-for men and women from ALL wars.

It is not about men in Tiger Cages and Caves somewhere in Laos. It is about the continued information and intelligence that came to the USG that certain personnel were seen in captivity, yet remain unrepatriated.

It is about the former USSR's incalcitrance to provide information on Cold War Shootdowns and come forward with the truth about their involvement in the Korean War.

It is about China's refusal to cooperate with USG investigators even though the Chinese ran POW camps during the Korean War.

It is about North Korea's paranoid ramblings and lack of access to Death March routes, camps and combat sites. Not to mention the decades of reports that stated caucasians were seen in North Korea, teaching English.

It is about curious reports, testimony and information that states men were taken to third-party Soviet Bloc nations for exploitation in all wars. That Cuba trained and sent torturers to the SEA area of conflict. It is about men missing from latter day conflicts such as the 1st Persian Gulf War and Operation Iraqi Freedom, who remain unaccounted-for. It is about captured American Service Personnel being executed by their captors in the Global War on Terrorism and the complete disregard of the Geneva Accords.

So, now that we have cleared up that misunderstood area of the POW-MIA issue, let us move on to the suddenly revered SSC.

The Senate Select Committee
We had a number of Hearings and investigations previous to the SSC (and post SSC I might add). To wit - The Helms Report, the Interim Report on the Southeast Asian POW/MIA Issue (1990); An Examination of U.S. Policy Toward POW/MIAs (1991); Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs (1991); Hearings before the Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs of the Committee on Foreign Affairs (1980), to name a few.

The SSC's genesis came at a peculiar period in American history. Just short 20 years since our withdrawal from SEA, there was still much concern about reports of men, presumed American POWs, in SEA. Known as Live Sighting Reports, these came on the heels of even more intriguing satellite imagery that could be interpreted as Escape and Evasion markers or Authenticator Codes - laid down by stranded/captive/left behind service personnel who did not manage to make it back to the US during Operation Homecoming in 1973.

Additionally, Boris Yeltsin, in a moment of extreme clarity, madness or drunkenness, passed along to the US a purported list of American personnel who may have been transported to the former Soviet Union during times of war, (known as the Russian List) previous to the creation of the SSC.

Add to this numerous other events, reports, documents, FOIA'd material, Ronald Reagan and General John Vessey and we literally had a cosmic convergence of all things POW and MIA.

Hence the birth of the SSC.

Much hope had been pinned on the SSC, especially by WW II, Korean War and Cold War families. Little did they know they would become merely a footnote in the final report after a 2 year investigation. So, with a Congressional Mandate, investigators, researchers, airline tickets and a large staff, the SSC set about its work to find the truth.

Evidence of witness tampering vis-a-vis rehearsing and scripting, document destruction, sub-rosa sessions, was described in detail. Certain, questionable, witnesses were trotted out, much to the displeasure of the families and the researchers. Credible witnesses were harassed and their research blasted. Others, with significant insight and experience in the issue were simply ignored or dismissed.

Unfortunately the Committee was hampered by personalities, politics and some highly questionable antics during its tenure. In the long run, the Committee produced a lengthy, interesting report, that was long on adjectives and mea culpas, and short on hard core answers.

When the SSC's time ran out, boxes of material had yet to be vetted, leads and witnesses went by the wayside and the answers the SSC promised were never fully realized.

Some may say it sounds like sour grapes. Family members, advocates, activists and veterans didn't get their desired result, so they bashed the Committee and its personnel.

Not true.

MANY, many people in the POW-MIA issue were thrilled with the SSC and its efforts. And, since the findings of the SSC clearly stated Americans were left behind, there was no argument from the POW-MIA Issue camp.

The problem was that so much was left undone, unanswered.

Look at it this way - if the SSC was the end all and be all of the POW-MIA issue... if the SSC was able to definitively answer the question 'what happened, where did he go' we would all happily go on our way and live our lives.

But it didn't. It couldn't.

As a result, we have continued to have Hearings on numerous aspects of the issue; Jackson-Vanik Amendment Hearings, Hearings on the Cuban Torture Program, WW II Pow Hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Military Personnel Subcommittee Hearings (Dornan), Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific (Ackerman), and now the huge momentum behind House Hearings on POW and MIAs known as H. Res 111 (King).

So, now that we have put a lie to the veracity of the Senate Select Committee and its Report stating no one was left behind as the ultimate word on the Issue, where do we go from here.

Oh yes, John McCain and John Kerry.

Let's start with Kerry. I don't give a hoot whether or not his Purple Hearts are legitimately earned. Let the Order of the Purple Heart and our WIAs fight that battle. I do not care what he did in Vietnam. Let the Swift Boaters handle that. Nor do I care about his anti-war activities, the Winter Soldier fiasco or Jane Fonda. We have millions of vets in the country, I am certain they are more than capable of handling that as well.

What I DO care about is his behavior during the SSC. How his staffer, Francis Zwenig, was permitted to run rampant during the SSC's tenure and the numerous reports of document desctruction, witness tampering and stacking the deck against witness researchers, analysts and specialists. Zwenig went on to become a respected member of the US-Vietnam Trade Council after her term with the SSC expired.

Troubling at the very least.

Now on to McCain. I will never dispute his service record or his time in captivity. I am of the firm belief only Ex-POWs may judge other POWs. Period. His uniformed service and his captivity do not make him more or less eligible as a candidate for anything in my opinion.

His actions and inactions once he became a civilian and public servant do. I am not speaking of anything other than his impact on the POW-MIA issue. After the SSC folded up its tent and everyone went their merry way, McCain was responsible for one of the most damning pieces of legislature ever - The Missing Service Personnel Act of 1995 (MSPA 1995). Almost singlehandedly McCain insured that many of the protections provided POW-MIAs and the responsibilities of the government in its accounting of them was undermined. By undoing the Missing Persons Act of 1942 and replacing it with the 1995 version, McCain essentially legislated what the Families feared the most,

"... (the) basic argument is that, rather than reflecting a genuine legal problem, the 1995 Act reflects America's loss of faith in our government's credibility." (STUDIES IN LAW, POLITICS, AND SOCIETY: VOL. 28, by Austin Sarat and Patricia Ewick)

Basically, it gave the responsible parties all the wiggle room they needed to strike names off lists without the 1942 requirements.

The MSPA 1995 was so detrimental to accounting that HR 4000 IH was introduced..."To amend title 10, United States Code, to restore provisions of chapter 76 of that title - relating to missing persons - as in effect before the amendments made by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1997." (August 1996)

HR 4000 failed in the House.

So, now that we have clarified the Kerry/McCain situation and why the POW-MIA Issue Community, for the most part, cannot embrace either man or the SSC Report as the final say, let us use the United States Government's own words to define the reason that family members, advocates, activists, citizens, veterans and others continue to fight for answers and truth about our unaccounted-for fathers, brothers, sons and friends.

It is not manic mumblings, or an inability to accept reality or a means to bash the Government through an emotional issue. It is the following, words from our very own Gorvenrmnent and its serviant agents and agencies, that demands we continue:

On the Korean War
"Executive Summary: "US Korean War POWs were transferred to the Soviet Union and never repatriated." Peter Tsouras, The Transfer of US POWs to the Soviet Union, Joint Commission Support Branch, Research & Analysis Division, DPMO, 26 Aug 1993"

On WW II
"An undetermined number of American POWs liberated by Soviet forces during World War II from Nazi Germany POW camps, were NOT repatriated to the United Sates or otherwise accounted for by Soviet Authorities." Dr. Paul M. Cole, POW-MIA Issues, Vol. 1, 2 & 3 National Defense Research Institute, Rand, 1994

"Information from the Soviet archives indicates that Soviet authorities deliberately misled US officials concerning the fate of American POWs." Rand, 1994

On the Cold War Era
"U.S. military service members may have been imprisoned and died in Soviet forced-labor camps during the 20th century, according to a Pentagon report to be released Friday.

Researchers for the U.S.-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIAs have been investigating unconfirmed reports of Americans who were held prisoner in the so-called gulags."

"I personally would be comfortable saying that the number [of Americans held in the gulags during the Cold War and Korean War] is in the hundreds," said Norman Kass, executive secretary of the commission's U.S. section.
Norman Kass, 11 February 2005
A separate internal Pentagon document has concluded "there is a high probability" that American citizens and U.S. and British prisoners of war died in the camps.

"This report presents documentation of the United States Government's conclusion that some of these crew men were captured alive by Soviet forces but not repatriated." Rand, 1994

"Foremost among the major findings in this report is the conclusion that direct evidence suggests that American servicemen were transferred to the territory of the USSR from the Korean War zone of combat operations." Rand, 1994

Executive Summary: "US Korean War POWs were transferred to the Soviet Union and never repatriated." Peter Tsouras, The Transfer of US POWs to the Soviet Union, Joint Commission Support Branch, Research & Analysis Division, DPMO, 26 Aug 1993

On the Vietnam War
"The intelligence indicates that the American Prisoners of War have been held continuously after Operation Homecoming and remain in captivity in Vietnam and Laos as late as 1989." Oral Intelligence Briefing before the Senate Select Committee on POWs-MIAs, April 8, 1992

"Despite adherences to internal policies and public statements after April, 1973, that "no evidence" existed of living POWs, DIA authoritatively concluded as late as April, 1974, that several hundred living POW/MIAs were still held captive in Southeast Asia." Interim Report on the Southeast Asian POW/MIA Issue By the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Republican Staff Release Date: Monday, October 29, 1990

"In fact, classified and unclassified information all confirm one startling fact: That DOD in April, 1974, concluded beyond a doubt that several hundred living American POWs remained in captivity in Southeast Asia. This was a full year after DOD spokesmen were saying publicly that no prisoners remained alive." Interim Report on the Southeast Asian POW/MIA Issue By the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Republican Staff Release Date: Monday, October 29, 1990

And, how could we forget the Senate Select Committee
"We acknowledge that there is no proof that U.S. POWs survived, but neither is there proof that all of those who did not return had died. There is evidence, moreover, that indicates the possibility of survival, at least for a small number, after Operation Homecoming:

• First, there are the Americans known or thought possibly to have been alive in captivity who did not come back; we cannot dismiss the chance that some of these known prisoners remained captive past Operation Homecoming.

• Second, leaders of the Pathet Lao claimed throughout the war that they were holding American prisoners in Laos. Those claims were believed--and, up to a point, validated--at the time; they cannot be dismissed summarily today.

• Third, U.S. defense and intelligence officials hoped that forty or forty-one prisoners captured in Laos would be released at Operation Homecoming, instead of the twelve who were actually repatriated. These reports were taken seriously enough at the time to prompt recommendations by some officials for military action aimed at gaining the release of the additional prisoners thought to be held.

• Fourth, information collected by U.S. intelligence agencies during the last 19 years, in the form of live-sighting, hearsay, and other intelligence reports, raises questions about the possibility that a small number of unidentified U.S. POWs who did not return may have survived in captivity.

• Finally, even after Operation Homecoming and returnee de- briefs, more than 70 Americans were officially listed as POWs based on information gathered prior to the signing of the peace agreement; while the remains of many of these Americans have been repatriated, the fates of some continue unknown to this day. Given the Committee's findings, the question arises as to whether it is fair to say that American POWs were knowingly abandoned in Southeast Asia after the war. The answer to that question is clearly no. American officials did not have certain knowledge that any specific prisoner or prisoners were being left behind. But there remains the troubling question of whether the Americans who were expected to return but did not were, as a group, shunted aside and discounted by government and population alike. The answer to that question is essentially yes."

August 26th, 2007 ::
Soldiers Case Proves Law Needs Fixing::
The news report on current legislative efforts to increase intelligence monitoring and the contnuous repitition of the names of POWs Fouty and Jimenez are raising some red flags again.

Although any opportunity to protect US troops and to find POW servicemembers is welcome, once again this administration leaves us wondering if the ONLY time POWs and MIAs are mentioned is when they are to be expolited for political gain.

Monitoring enemy communications is not new... we did it in every previous confict. Whether or not we did anything with that information remains debatable... just look at the case of Jerry Mooney and the NSA.

Nonetheless, we can live in hope that a meaningful resolution will come from such intelligence. HOWEVER, it has not gone unnoticed that the Bush Badministration has a habit of simply ignoring POWs, MIAs and their families unless and until they are needed to advance a particular agenda.

Case in point - Michael Scott Speicher - Spike - KIA, then MIA, then CAPTURED, then... since the end of the PGW, no one uttered his name. Then, President Bush and his minions became the biggest Speicher supporters on earth, screaming his name everywhere including the UN as grist for the mill that became the Iraq War.

Then, after we went to Iraq, Speicher once again became a non-entity, someone the reports slowly edited out.

So now we are hearing about Fouty and Jimenez in the same breath as this new legislative measure. As if passage will ensure their swift and safe return.

The biggest problem about the POW-MIA Issue is that is has been politicized... although touted as Humanitarian Issue, it has endlessly been used as a hot-button or go-go issue for politcos and pundits, who say a lot but do nothing.

Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines who are Missing, Presumed Captured, POWs, MIAs, KIA/BNR, Detainees, or whatever name they dream up this week, are human beings with families. They are not political footballs with faces and stories used solely invoke collective sympathy and angst to gain momentum for the Legislative Flavor of the Month.

June 10th, 2007 :: Mark Your Calendars - The NGO's Favorite Day of Observation is Coming Up...

16 days...

The United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture

The day when the UN decrees that we should all stop and "focus on helping torture victims"... unless of course they are American Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines.

(See a previous rant on this subject : The Double Standard : 26 June, 2006)

During the Spring of 2007, the US military raided a number of "safe houses" run by various terror organizations. During the raids poor souls held captive were recovered along with a spectrum of tools used... blow torches, wire cutters, meat cleavers and whips. (Witnesses to the recovery of Joseph Anzack's remains said there were whip marks along with other signs of torture.)

Additonally, the raiding US troops found numerous illustrations of various torture methods, one more gruesome than the next... gouging out of eyes, drilling hands, dismemberment by meat cleaver, blowtorch to the skin, dragging behind vehicles, electrocution, ceiling suspension, beating, breaking limbs, whipping and using a clothes iron on the skin... to name a few.

DoD classified the images at first. They were released shortly before Memorial day.

So, why have all the NGOs and Mass Media suddenly gone silent? The same folks wh ran more than 6,000 stories on Abu Ghraib, haven't spilled an ounce of ink on this one. Where are the NGOs who loudly criticized the President for having his picture taken with General Shamanov, Russian Chair of the US-Russia Joint Commission, because he was an alleged war criminal?

They are deafeningly silent.

It brings to mind the words of the martyr, Sir Thomas Moore - Qui tacet consentire - Silence is Consent.

June 9th, 2007 :: If We Can't Have POW then at Least Use Missing/Captured

Last week we learned that the ID cards of 2 remaining DUSTWUN soldiers, Byron Fouty and Alex Jimenez, were shown in a video released by the purported captors.

We KNOW that Joseph Anzack, the 3rd soldier who was captured with Fouty and Jimenez, was tortured and murdered, his body abandoned in the Euphrates.

Someone had these 2 men in order to take their ID cards from them and to video tape the cards. Clearly someone had or has them. So why have they not been reclassified as Missing/Captured? No video tape? No in-captivity photos?

It is reminiscent of the WW II POWs who after liberation from Nazi Death Camps (yes, American POWs were held in Concentration Camps during WW II), by the Red Cross, were not believed. The VA did not believe they were held in Death Camps, the USG did not believe them. They have been in litigation with the USG for decades. They suffered extreme privation, had an endless litany of illnesses and disabilities, and no one believed them.

Anyway, back to Iraq and 2007. Joseph Anzack, Byron Fouty and Alex Jimenez were captured. The extent of the survival in captivity is unknown in 2 cases, although the captors claim they were executed. Nonetheless, we know what happened to Joseph Anzack... locals observed the recovery of his remains, and the evidence of torture. The USG is offering a reward. The same USG who said it never offers rewards for captured personnel.

Maybe they only offer rewards for Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown personnel.

June 8th, 2007
H. Res 111 - 47 MOCs onboard. 126 Days since introduction. That's .373 people a day. At this rate it will take 1,164 days or 3 years and 2 months to get the whole House on board.

April 22nd, 2007
HR 111 - Nobody Cares

If they did, This Wouldn't be the 16th YEAR this Resoution was in House.

EVERY Congress since 1991, Someone in Congress introduces a House Resolution "Establishing a Select Committee on POW and MIA Affairs". This year's introduction came on the 30th of January, 2007.

Let's see...

110th Congress - HR 111 - January 30, 2007
King, Peter (NY)
26 Cosponsors ... thus far

109th Congress - HR 123 - February 17, 2005
King, Peter (NY)
28 Cosponsors

108th Congress - HR 103 - February 25, 2003
King, Peter (NY)
54 Cosponsors

107th Congress - HR 65 - February 27, 2001
King, Peter (NY)
8 Cosponsors

106th Congress - HR 16 - JANUARY 6, 1999
King, Peter (NY)
19 Cosponsors

105th Congress - HR 16 - JANUARY 7, 1997
King, Peter (NY)
25 Cosponsors

104th Congress - HR 21 - January 4, 1995
King, Peter (NY)
10 Cosponsors

103rd Congress - HR 122 - March 9, 1993
King, Peter (NY)
39 Cosponsors

102nd Congress - HR 207 - July 29, 1991
McEwen, Bob (OH)
2 Cosponsors

This isn't pathetic, it is sinful, almost criminal.

Congress will happily hold Hearings on the opening of an envelope, yet the issue of American POWs and MIAs, unresolved Live Sightings, unrepatriated men KNOWN and SEEN in captivity, remains warehousing and manipulation, terminal medical experimentation, ad infinitum, is not worth the time or energy of elected officials.

Rep Peter King, living and serving in the shark-infested waters of Long Island, NY, long a hotbed of hard-core POW-MIA Family Members, Ex-POWs, combat veterans, Gold Star Mothers, activists and advocates, has responded every Congress with a POW-MIA Affairs bill. He's been doing this for 13 years now.

And we STILL do not have a Select Committee.

What is wrong with our MOCs? More importantly, what is wrong with the American public? Yes, Congress can stonewall. But if our Congressional Reps do not hear from their tax-paying, VOTING constituents, then they will do nothing. Most are blissfully unaware that there is even a bill in the House on this issue. Some, knowing that the POW-MIA issue can be a political career killer, sit and wait out the storm praying to God none of their constituents start demanding they sign on.

Ultimately, it is up to us, the American people, to get this bill through and get a Select Committee on the schedule. It is not enough to say,

'...What a pity, someone should do something.'

YOU are that someone.

You have the telephone. You have the stamp for the letter. You, if you ar reading this, can send an email. You pay taxes. You vote.

You are the most powerful citizen on earth, yet your Representative not only is not signed on, they probably do not even know it exists.

There are 435 MOCs in the House. As of this writing, 26 intrepid souls have signed on... that is 6% (.5977) of the House of Representatives. And that is disgraceful.

There are some wonderful words on an old piece of paper at the National Archives, they are...

WE THE PEOPLE

Yes, we are the people who need to educate and make aware those that we have elected. We are the people who must demand that they be repsonsible not only to past generations who have lost their best and brightest, but to this one and future ones. We are the people that must demand that the faith between our POWs, MIAs, their families and those charged with answers, accounting and the truth is not broken. We are the people who must demand accountability by our appointed and disappointing officials. And we are the people who must get this Hearing on the the books by calling, writing and emailing the other 409 Representatives in the House that we pay for.

Let's make this very easy - go here ---> http://www.house.gov/writerep/

15 April, 2007 :: The Letter No One Would Print
On March 26th, President Bush met with the new Russian-side Co-Chairman of the US-Russia Joint Commission, General Vladimir Shamanov. Human Rights Watch, which has done NOTHING for American POW-MIAs, condemned the meeting and Shamanov's appointment, based on allegations of human rights abuses by the General during the ongoing Chechan conflict. Every newspaper and wire service ran the story, here is my response to the gallons of ink used on the Human Rights Watch condemnation, which no newspaper would print:

Letter to the Editor / Op-Ed March 30, 2007

I have finished reading the comments of Rachel Denber, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia division and her condemnation of the Oval Office meeting between President Bush and General Vladimir Shamanov.

After doing so, there is only one question in my mind... who is looking after the rights of our POWs, MIAs, KIAs and their families? Are we not human? Do not our rights need to be watched as well?

Do men and women, who lay down their lives while wearing the uniform of our country, those who are captured and endure years of despicable, inhumane treatment, torture and privation, or those who simply go missing or were killed in some miserable place known only to God, deserve less?

Apparently so.

88,000 American men and women remain unaccounted-for. Hundreds of thousands of family members have suffered through the pain of not knowing. Their lives put into a permanent holding pattern of incertitude. Their faith shaken, their future just as uncertain as the fate of their loved ones.

At what point in time do the family members say they have had enough. At what point do they say, "We are no longer standing at the back of the line to be tossed some scraps of information or hope or meet with someone else's approval. For years we have watched and waited as others with more immediate needs or more politically correct or topical issues took precedence. For years we have waited for former adversaries to become allies, or simply a little less belligerent."

The former Soviets have answers. Answers that encompass World War II, the Korean War, Cold War Era, Vietnam and other conflicts. They have archives, officers, recovered materials, films, documents and survivors with memories.

The impediments that prevented any meaningful dialogue over the years have slowly been broken down and the Russians were finally engaged with the establishment of the US-Russian Joint Commission that promised to provide closure for so many. That Commission, more than a decade old, has perilously survived the loss of key members, access to archival materials, loss of funding and a near-complete derailment of the Russian side of the Commission.

We have waited almost 2 years for the Russians to get their side of the Commission back on track. And what do we hear? US Human Rights groups do not like the man in charge of the Russian side because they say he is responsible for human rights abuses. That our President should not have met with him. And, as quoted, "it just seems that folks in the Defense Department and the administration didn't do their homework."

Here's a little piece of information for these Organizations and their spokespeople... The US didn't pick the guy, the Russians did. Complain to the Russians.

Human Rights Organizations that have been COMPLETELY SILENT on the US POW-MIA issue are suddenly involved. NOT for the benefit of US POWs and MIAs either. Over the years we have asked, even begged, these groups and NGOs to put American Prisoners of War on their agenda. We have been either ignored or rebuffed. During the Vietnam War we were actually told that US POWs got what they deserved as aggressors. That American POWs and MIAs were not people they could advocate for because they were part of an organized militia during conflict.

The family members of men and women who have endured unimaginable horrors - torture, beatings, starving, forced death marches, executions, terminal medical experimentation on living subjects - know first hand what Human Rights abuses are. They do not need a lesson on suffering. They have lived that lesson and they got an A.

All of us who advocate for POWs and MIAs certainly do not condone the suffering of anyone, for any reason, at any time. But we also do not accept that everyone on the planet suffers except for Americans or American service personnel.

No one has a corner on misery.

The misery is endless, the list is endless... the Chechans, the Palestinians, the Jews, the Gypsy diaspora, Montagnards, the tortured tribes in Darfur, the Cambodians at the mercy of Pol Pot, the Kurds under Hussein, Sierra Leone's Blood Diamond sufferers, Sudan's slaves, and yes, Prisoners of War.

While the Human Rights groups are in the process of condemning the selection of a man with a questionable pedigree, these same organizations should take a long hard look at the inequality of their advocacy and ultimately their message rather than damning everyone and everything.

If we are to accept their condemnation, then the POW-MIA issue will never be resolved and we might as well all get on with our lives interrupted. The people in charge of the countries of our former, and present, adversaries are neither boy scouts nor alter boys. Continued abuses of all manner continue... human, political, religious, economic, cultural and ethnic. Our hope is that through our humanitarianism, our generosity in providing economic encouragement, materiel, education and support, these same countries may one day find themselves in a little softer light of scrutiny, looking for their missing and comforting their countrymen rather than harming them. To the Human Rights groups who disapprove so strongly over the meeting between President Bush and General Vladimir Shamanov, let me remind you of the following quote so often heard during the Vietnam War - "If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem."

Perhaps, if we had the Human Rights advocacy we needed years, decades, ago, the families of American POWs and MIAs wouldn't be in the predicament we are in now.

March 12th, 2007 :: It's Sunshine Week... Yes, Sunshine Week, a feel-good name appropriated by Congress to "breathe new life into open-government legislation, marking Sunshine Week with votes to protect whistle-blowers, smooth freedom of information requests and compel presidential libraries to disclose more about their donors. ".

The agenda is to make Government more transparent and records, documents and minutia more accessible.

To be perfectly honest, all Congress ever does is talk about things, hold Hearings on things, but they never DO things. Instead of discussing and voting to make information held by the USG more accesible, they should simply MAKE IT ACCESSIBLE.

After endless Presidential Determinations, Executive Decisions and changes to Federal Code that are SUPPOSED to make FOIA a less painful and more expedited experience, once again folks on the Hill are simply making noise about what should be done and pointing fingers at each other. Why can't they use their Good Offices to help family members and others who are despeartely trying to get information, some of it more than 50 and years old?

We really do not need any more Legislation, we just need what we have ENFORCED and we need the serviant agencies to respect and respond.

Executive Order 12951 :: February 22, 1995 -
Intelligence Imagery to be released.
http://www.aiipowmia.com/legis/eo12951.html

Executive Order 12937 :: November 10, 1994 -
Declassification Of Selected Records Within The National Archives Of The United STATES
http://www.aiipowmia.com/legis/eo12937.html

Executive Order 12958 :: April 17, 1995 -
This order prescribes a uniform system for classifying, safeguarding, and declassifying national security information. Our democratic principles require that the American people be informed of the activities of their Government.
http://www.aiipowmia.com/legis/legiseo12958.html

In EO 12958, of particular note, we find ::
" • Duration of classification. The new executive order, in Section 1.6, sets a 10-year limit on most new classification actions. No such limit existed under E.O. 12,356.

• Automatic declassification. The new executive order establishes an automatic declassification mechanism that likewise did not exist under the predecessor one. In section 3.4, it requires the automatic declassification of information that is more than 25 years old, with exceptions limited to only especially sensitive information designated as such by the heads of agencies. This major provision applies to information currently classified under any predecessor executive order and will lead to creation of a governmentwide declassification database. Under E.O. 12,958, agencies are given 5 years to accomplish this declassification mandate.

• Systematic declassification. For records that fall within any exception to the new executive order's automatic declassification mechanism, agencies are required to establish "a program for systematic declassification review" that will focus on a need for continued classification of such records. E.O. 12,958, Sec. 3.5(a). Under predecessor E.O. 12,356, such agency programs have been entirely voluntary, except for at the National Archives and Records Administration, which deals with volumes of long-classified files."

So, there we have it. Automatic Declassification and Systematic Declassification. And why is it that POW-MIA family members cannot get scraps of paper? Why is it that they have to wait YEARS for a response to their FOIA? Of even greater alarm is that Cold War and Korean War families are finding materials REMOVED from repositories and archives.

The events they are interested in happend 50 years ago. With the exception of Atomic Testing and legitimate National Security material, it is inconceivable that a loss incident involving a grunt on a hill in Korea should remain classified or be removed from what should be public view material.

Clearly, the majority oif agencies are simply overburdened. Many, as we have found from past experience, could not be bothered. Congress, rather than patting themselves on the back for "noticing" there is a problem, should do something to FIX the problem.

2004 - 2007 b.Log Posts