News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Re: NAF Update Bits 'n' Pieces

Date: July 22, 2000

National Alliance of Families
For The Return of America's Missing Servicemen
World War II - Korea - Cold War - Vietnam - Gulf War

Bits 'N' Pieces July 22, 2000

URGENT! URGENT! URGENT! URGENT! URGENT! URGENT!

POW/MIA Family Members - Reporters - Researchers

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT LAWS UNDER ATTACK

An obscure section of the 2001 Defense Authorization Bill S. 2549 would allow the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) to exempt operational files from release under the Freedom Of Information Act. If this section stands it will effectively eliminate access to POW/MIA information, as well as ALL OTHER intelligence information.

S. 2549 passed the Senate last week. Within the next week the House of Representatives will consider their version of the 2001 Defense Authorization Bill and a conference committee will be established to reconcile the two versions. The House of Representatives must stand against Section 1045 of the Senate version of the 2001 Defense Authorization Bill and they must remove any provision that would allow DIA to withhold its operational files.

Should section 1045 stand, the DIA's operational files would remain classified indefinitely. File reviews would occur once every 10 years. In the words of researcher Roger Hall, "This is bad law; this is the DIA trying to obtain more power equal to the CIA. Covert POW/MIA operation will be withheld for at least another 10 years..."

Hall continued; "The 1983 Nhom Marrott covert operation (reconnaissance) in Laos was based on NSA radio intercepts, Satellite information and Human intelligence. The information obtained was from the DIA. The CIA had taken over the operation. The CIA has never acknowledged or released information on the operation. If the DIA had this law in effect in 1992 the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA affairs would not have been able to get this information released to the public. There are other covert operations involving POWs, that are still hidden. Don't let them get away with this...."

They Thought They Would Sneak This One By Us - If Section 1045 of the 2001 Defense Authorization Bill stands, it will tie the hands of every citizen, searching to the truth no matter what the issue is.

WE MUST STOP SECTION 1045

We don't know who is on the conference committee, yet. When we get that information, we will pass it on immediately. However, we can't waste a precious moment, because, in the words of Roger Hall "our POW's don't have another 10 years to wait for a review." Contact your congressional representative and ask them to make sure Section 1045 is removed from the final version 2001 Defense Authorization Bill. Send your letter to your Congressional Representative at US House of Representative, Washington, DC 20515. To contact your representative by phone call the United States Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask for your Representative, by name . You may also get their local number from the phone book and call the local office, also.

Remember Section 1045 was added to the 2001 Defense Authorization Bill without benefit of public hearings, testimony or Senate debate. In fact, aides to several Senators admitted they were unaware of Section 1045.

What Could The DIA Be Hiding - In 1982 the DIA denied a FOIA appeal filed by a POW/MIA Family Organization for the release of live sighting reports "of US personnel in Southeast Asia received after 1 August 1979."

In a letter dated 9 April 1982, signed by E. A. Bunkhalter, Jr., Rear Admiral , USN, as Acting Director, the DIA stated; "Release of the information in the form you requested would enable the Vietnamese and Lao Governments to equate this released information to that which may exist. Obviously, these governments know the location of any American prisoners they might hold. By comparing this information to the released documents, even though they may be sanitized, would confirm to them the fact that we know the location of these prisoners and show the extent and capability of our collection efforts . Thus release of the information in the form you requested would be counterproductive to our intelligence efforts in this vital area."

We don't know if any of the reports, denied in 1982, have subsequently been released. The question is do we really want to give the DIA a law to hide behind. A law that would all them to justify the withholding of POW/MIA information. Section 1045 would do that. Write your letter and may your call, now!

Project on Government Secrecy - Federation of American Scientists - Sent us the following email - Subject: DIA operational files exemption

"The "operational files" of the Defense Intelligence Agency would become exempt from public access under the Freedom of Information Act if legislation approved by the Senate last week is enacted into law.

DIA operational files are an exceptionally valuable and politically significant category of government records. The release of thousands of such records under the FOIA in the last several years has proved particularly important to official commissions examining human rights violations in Central America.

The Senate action is incisively critiqued in a July 19 Washington Post op-ed by Tom Blanton, director of the National Security Archive: http: //washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3246-2000Jul18.html

The National Security Archive has posted several notable examples of the kind of declassified HUMINT reports obtained under the FOIA from the Defense Intelligence Agency that could henceforth become unavailable, along with further analysis of the Senate legislation by Tom Blanton, Michael Evans, and Kate Martin, here:

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB34/index.html

For good measure, the Senate approved two other provisions last week that will further erode the FOIA: A new exemption for unclassified foreign government information, and an expanded exemption for Defense Department "geodetic products." The latter exemption is used by the Pentagon to withhold unclassified imagery and maps from release under FOIA. The text of the new exemptions is posted here:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/congress/2000/sen-def.html

Steven Aftergood Project on Government Secrecy Federation of American Scientists

http://www.fas.org/sgp/index.html

"Seeking Secrecy Where There Was Sunshine" -- from the Washington Post, July 19, 2000, by Tom Blanton "The Senate voted last week to throw a cloak of secrecy over foreign death squads, by exempting the "operational files" of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The Senate didn't intend to cover for death squads, of course, but that will be the effect of its action."

"The DIA had falsely claimed that these files were so highly classified that they were "always exempt from release." But thousands of declassified documents from these same files testify to the contrary. Ever since 1984, when Congress granted the CIA a Freedom of Information exemption for its operational files, the DIA has longed for one of its own. Few bureaucrats appreciate the FOIA, but in the intelligence community, this hostility is often carried to extremes."

"The CIA exemption was granted by Congress after much debate and many hearings--mainly because the agency could show that it hardly ever released anything from the operational files, filled as they were with the reports of covert agents abroad. The CIA said the exemption would save money and increase the agency's releases from other, non-operational files by reducing the number of futile searches for documents that couldn't be declassified anyway."

"But in fact, CIA's response time for FOIA requests has only gotten worse since 1984. This year, for example, the agency finally answered a FOIA appeal that was filed in 1985."

"Meanwhile, the DIA has developed one of the most professional and responsible FOIA shops in the government. Over the past 15 years, the DIA has released thousands of documents from its operational files. The most recent spectacular example of DIA openness can be found in its declassification of hundreds of cables and "humint" (human intelligence) reports from its military attaches in Guatemala and their sources in that country's notoriously opaque military and military-sponsored death squads. These documents proved "invaluable" to the work of the UN truth commission in Guatemala, according to the commission's coordinator."

"Examples of the DIA's releases include a 1994 human intelligence report describing clandestine cemeteries created by Guatemalan death squads and a 1976 report describing a torture session hosted by Pinochet's air force. The DIA documents provide a degree of transparency in foreign military affairs that we take for granted with regard to the US military but that is nonexistent in most countries."

"But now the DIA is nearing its long-sought goal of getting its own exemption from the Freedom of Information Act. The agency managed this year to slip into the pending defense authorization bill a provision exempting its operational files from FOIA, claiming its operational files "invariably contain sensitive information on sources and methods," which means "these files are always exempt from release." In truth, the thousands of declassified examples show that the sources can usually be blacked out and the rest of the file released."

"The DIA's explanation says the exemption is to cover the Defense Humint Service. But that service is not so steeped in secrecy as the name might imply. It's more like the State Department's Foreign Service than a spy operation, staffed primarily by military attaches who work openly and officially in US embassies abroad--not covertly, as the CIA's operators do."

"A recent Army history (from 1992) gives statistics on the kinds of humint reports the DIA collects; it reveals that 87 percent of the material came from open sources and only 13 percent from clandestine sources that year. The DIA exemption would radically reduce the amount of information released under the FOIA. Specifically, it would enshroud in secrecy files that have been invaluable for human rights investigators looking into foreign militaries."

"Moreover, even the CIA's exemption doesn't withstand close examination. We now have several thousand pages of documents from the CIA's operational files, not through the Freedom of Information Act but from special releases such as those ordered by President Clinton for the UN truth commissions in El Salvador and Guatemala. It is clear that the substance of many of these documents, with sources deleted, could and should have been released under the Freedom of Information Act."

"The net effect of the differing approaches of the two agencies over the past 15 years has been that when the DIA withholds information sought under the Freedom of Information Act, it has a certain credibility precisely because it has released so much. The CIA's over-the-edge secrecy claims, on the other hand, actually discredit its own security controls and therefore encourage leaks."

"Passing the exemption for the DIA would do even more damage not only to the credibility of our security system but also to our national interest in encouraging human rights and the rule of law abroad and at home."

"The Bring Them Home Alive Act of 1999" - HR 1926, "would provide amnesty or refugee status to any national, and their family, from Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, North Korea, China, and the former states of the former Soviet Union if they assist in bringing out a live American Prisoner of War." is now in the Subcommittee of Immigration and Claims, chaired by Lamar Smith (R-TX). Calls are needed to Representative Smith at 202-225-5727. Ask him to move the bill from his committee to the Judiciary Committee so this important legislation can be voted on in the House of Representatives.

To Our Texas Members - Smith is one of yours. Let him know how important this legislation is. Numbers for his local offices are: San Antonio (210) 821-5024, Midland (915) 687-5232, or Round Rock (512) 218-4221. Thanks to Danny "Greasy" Belcher, for this information.

If They Are Holding South Koreans, They Are Holding Americans - July 19, 2000 - Seoul, July 19 (Yonhap) -- "Vice Defense Minister Park Yong-ok said Wednesday his ministry has secured a list of 343 South Korean prisoners of war (POWs) who, captured by North Korea during the Korean War (1950-53), are still held in the North. The list was prepared on the basis of information given by "returned" POWs and other sources, he added. Of these POWs still alive in the North, 285 were confirmed by the POWs who defected to the South, 40 by other North Korean defectors and the remaining 18 by their relatives in the South...."

"...Cho Chang-ho, a POW who defected to the South in 1994, said he thinks there are thousands of South Korean POWs in North Korea, considering what he had heard about the POWs while he was in the North...."

Servicemen's Remains Repatriated from North Korea - July 22, 2000, from the Associated Press - Tokyo (AP) -- "Remains believed to be those of 12 American soldiers missing in action since the Korean War were returned to the US military on Saturday. To the drone of a solo bagpiper, an honor guard removed the caskets from the plane that flew them to the US Yokota Air Base in Japan from Pyongyang, North Korea, Air Force Master Sgt. Gordon Van Vleet said. The remains were to be taken next week to an Army laboratory in Hawaii for identification, Van Vleet said."

"A U.S.-North Korean team working in Unsan and Kujang counties, about 60 miles north of Pyongyang, recovered the remains during an operation started June 25. The area was the site of November 1950 battles between communist Chinese forces and the US Army's 1st Cavalry Division and 2nd and 25th Infantry Divisions, the US Air Force said..."

Clinton Administration Honcho's Try To Intimidate Miss America - July 19, 2000, from Associated Press by Larry Margasak - Washington (AP) -- "On the eve of her House testimony in support of a veterans employment bill, Miss America Heather French says a high-ranking Clinton administration official was "trying to intimidate" her into changing her position. While French did not waver in testifying July 12 for a bill the administration opposed, the Republican chairman of a Veterans' Affairs subcommittee has demanded an explanation from Labor Secretary Alexis Herman and the panel's top Democrat has told the official to resign."

"French said in an interview Thursday that she spoke in a conference call July 11 with Espiridion Borrego, assistant secretary of labor for veterans' employment and training, and two other Labor Department officials. The officials had asked to speak with her, but she said she did not know the topic would be the legislation. Borrego testified the next day in opposition to key sections of the bill, which would make major changes in veterans training and employment programs. The Labor Department, not the Department of Veterans Affairs, has jurisdiction over these veterans' issues. "He (Borrego) never said, 'I would like to change your opinion,'" but did say the bill "would cause more than 3,000 veterans to lose their jobs and become homeless," French said. "I took that as if he was definitely trying to shake my testimony." The conversation was "very uncomfortable. I felt they were trying to intimidate," said French, who is engaged to Kentucky Lt. Gov. Steve Henry, a Democrat. Borrego did not return a telephone call requesting an interview. "

"The day after the hearing, Rep. Jack Quinn, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs subcommittee on benefits, wrote Herman that Borrego tried to convince French to change her mind "after she had already submitted her written testimony." Quinn told Herman that the Labor official "misrepresented what the subcommittee's legislation would do, insisted that French furnish him a copy of her testimony in advance of the hearing and told French that since she would be appearing with you at a function ... it would make her support of the ... bill even more problematical." He said Borrego's conduct was "outrageous" and that it "undermines the integrity of the ... hearing process." Rep. Lane Evans of Illinois, the subcommittee's ranking Democrat, wrote Borrego to demand his resignation the day of the hearing. Evans said the subcommittee staff informed him that Borrego "suggested" to French "that her appearance before the subcommittee may not be in her best interest."

"Such conduct "could only be taken by someone unfit for a politically appointed office, regardless of party affiliations," Evans wrote. French, the daughter of a Marine veteran who was wounded in Vietnam, has made homeless veterans her cause and testified several times before Congress about their plight...."

"...The 21st Century Veterans Employment and Training Act would provide priority to certain veterans in all federally funded employment and training programs. It also would require government contractors to take affirmative action to employ qualified veterans, set an appropriations level for veterans' employment and training and provide grants to states for their programs...."

Veterans Organization Tells It Like It Is - Pentagon Not Happy - From Stars & Stripes by David Eberhart - "SAN ANTONIO-Defense Secretary William S. Cohen wants to know why the National Veterans Organization (NVO) has put up highway billboards in Texas blasting this message: "Thinking about a military career? Think again! The government does not honor its promises to veterans!"

"It seems that our billboard graphic is turning up as a screensaver on Department of Defense computers all over the world," said NVO director Doug McArthur after a phone call late last week from Col. Curtis Taylor in Cohen's office. Cohen reportedly was concerned that the billboard message could aggravate the military's recruiting and retention problems. Calls to Defense Department and other officials had not been returned as this story went to press."

"McArthur said he "spent over an hour on the phone" with Taylor "addressing all of the major issues that the NVO has in its agenda. I covered health care, claims processing, USFSPA*, concurrent receipt and several other topics."

"Doug McArthur, NVO founder said Taylor "was totally ignorant of the issues that veterans are complaining about," McArthur said. "He mentioned that our signs have hurt the DoD's recruiting efforts and he wanted to know how to encourage veterans to support recruiting efforts instead of discouraging them."

"McArthur said Taylor "assured me that he was going to talk to [Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs] Hershel Gober as well as the White House that same day." McArthur added that he told Taylor that recruiting problems would get worse, "if I have anything to do with it, unless I see some real positive efforts by the government to change the way veterans are treated."

"I was polite with him, but very determined to convince him that he 'ain't seen nothing yet' as far as billboards go if we don't see some positive results soon. He sounded very concerned." McArthur said "high-ranking local Army officers and the Secretary of Defense's office contacted us" after the NVO started posting signs in the Albuquerque, N.M., area starting in January 1999...."

Pennsylvania Members - You may want to act. While this is not POW/MIA related, we believe no Serviceman should have his final resting place disturbed. The following email was sent to us, seeking our help.

Subject: Revolutionary Burial Ground to be destroyed

I am from Chester County Pa. There is a property in Schuylkill Township that is the final resting place of our own Revolutionary War Soldiers. This property is in danger of being developed. The graves of the soldiers are unmarked and there are other possible burial sites on the property as well. The original owner of the property was William Penn. The property was also home to local historical figures from a potter and artist to the High Sheriff of Chester County. We need to gain as much support as possible and media coverage. When you think of the "gone but not forgotten" I feel we also need to remember those who first fought for our freedom...." Kim Hunter

If you agree contact Kim Hunter at MRSH1097@aol.com and see how you can help .

We Were Going Fishing - It's that time. We usually suspend Bits N Pieces for the month of August to allow us to catch up on R&R. That's "reading and research." However, we will publish one more edition of Bits in order to bring you the names of the members of the Conference committee for the 2001 Defense Authorization Bill.

Dolores Alfond - 425-881-1499
Lynn O'Shea --- 718-846-4350 email
lynnpowmia@prodigy.net web site
www.nationalalliance.org