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To: ALL
From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci
(POW-MIA InterNetwork)
Re: NAF Bits 'N' Pieces
Date: March 14, 2001
National Alliance of Families
For The Return of America's Missing Servicemen
+ World War II + Korea + Cold War + Vietnam + Gulf War
BITS 'N' PIECES - February 24, 2001
More On Gulf War POW/MIA - From the Los Angeles Times, February 9th 2001, by Paul Richter, - "Washington - Recent publicity about the first U.S. casualty of the 1991 Persian Gulf War has loosed an outpouring of new leads in the mysterious case, including information that could support the notion that the flier survived his crash and was taken prisoner by the Iraqis, according to a U.S. lawmaker. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the leads have come to light since last month, when Navy Lt. Cmdr. Michael Scott Speicher was officially reclassified from "killed in action" to "missing in action."
"The leads still need to be verified, Roberts said. But he added: "We're getting a better picture that he certainly did survive the crash. . . . The jigsaw puzzle of what happened to Michael Speicher is becoming more complete." Roberts declined to identify the sources of information except to say that people with knowledge of the case contacted U.S. authorities after the burst of worldwide media attention last month. Some of the sources, however, may be similar to the Iraqis who over the years have given U.S. authorities tips that a Navy flier fitting Speicher's description was captured, hospitalized and held prisoner in Baghdad. The U.S. government has been skeptical of some of those accounts. Intelligence officials declined to elaborate on the new information...."
"Some U.S. veterans, and lawmakers such as Roberts and Sen. Bob Smith (R-N.H.), have argued that the military hasn't pushed hard enough to solve the mystery of Speicher's fate. U.S. officials, explaining the reclassification of Speicher, have said they still have no "hard evidence" that he is alive. And they say that many pieces of evidence are ambiguous or unverified. They say they had simply come to doubt that the earlier evidence, including the wingman's report, was sufficient to conclude that Speicher was killed in the crash. The Iraqis have consistently contended that Speicher did not survive the crash."
"After the State Department last month called on the Iraqis to give a more complete accounting of the case,
Iraq denounced the pressure. Roberts said he has talked about the case with Vice President Dick Cheney, who was Defense Secretary during the war, and Donald H. Rumsfeld, the current Defense Secretary, and found their interest "keen."
"Roberts said the United States continues to try to coax more information from the Iraqis. Roberts acknowledged that it remains "very questionable" that Speicher is alive. But he said that some nights he wonders if Speicher wakes up in a Baghdad prison cell wondering, ' "Where is my country?' That's a haunting question."
Iraq Accuses U.N. Monitors of Searching For Speicher - from Retuers, February 11th - "Baghdad (Reuters) - Iraq has accused United Nations weapon inspectors of looking for a U.S. pilot shot down during the 1991 Gulf War instead of searching for prohibited weapons."
"I was informed by former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter that a team of U.N. weapons inspectors was looking for the body of the American pilot," said Hussam Mohammed Amin, head of the Iraqi National Monitoring Directorate, in an interview carried by Nasirriya weekly newspaper on Sunday. The newspaper was evidently referring to a period several years after the end of the Gulf War...."
Unilateral Investigations - We are all familiar with the term. A Unilateral Investigation is when the Vietnamese conduct an investigation without a U.S. presence. In a Unilateral Investigation the Vietnamese locate and interview "witnesses" and report back to U.S. authorities. It is important to remember that the U.S. long ago provided the Vietnamese with all available information on a case, and all personal information regarding our missing servicemen.
Knowing that the Vietnamese have all available information relating to a case, we must ask the question: how good is a Unilateral Investigation and should case related decisions be made based on information obtained by these investigations?
We know DPMO is pushing for more Unilateral Investigation, relating to both investigations and recovery. In a Reuters article, dated August 9th, 2000, David Brunnstrom writes; "Robert Jones, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State (sic) for Prisoners of War/Missing Personnel Affairs, said Vietnamese officials had expressed to him their commitment to the task of accounting for U.S. missing. Asked what the Untied States wanted to see more of, he replied: "As we seek ways to be more efficient, we are looking at ways that the Vietnamese can do more unilateral work in terms of recovery operations."
So, the question remains: How good are Unilateral Investigations? We've read one Unilateral Report provided by the family of Morgan J. Donahue. While the report does not contain specific information relating to Donahue, It does contain specific information relating to two of his crewmates. The report was turned over to U.S. officials in November 1999 and provided to the Donahue family in March 2000.
On December 13, 1968, a C123K and B57 were involved in a mid-air collision. The crew of the C123K consisted of Lt. Thomas Turner, pilot (rescued); 1Lt. Joseph P. Fanning, co-pilot; 1Lt. John S. Albright, navigator; 1Lt. Morgan J. Donahue, navigator; SSgt. Samuel F. Walker, SSgt. Douglas V. Dailey, and TSgt. Fred L. Clarke, all missing. On board the B57 were Thomas W. Dugan; Francis J. McGouldrick, both are still missing.
Lt. Turner reported that the cockpit was empty when he left the aircraft. He also observed at least one parachute below him but could not identify the crewman in the chute. Over the years, numerous intelligence reports indicate that, Donahue, at least, landed safely, was captured and subsequently moved to various locations.
Among the many reports is a Joint Casualty Resolution Center (JCRC) message, dated January 1988 stating a "source also provided the names of three alleged American Prisoners which the Vietnamese were considering releasing to General Vessey on the occasion of his visit to Hanoi in August 1987. The message continued; "The Vietnamese were prepared to turn over seven or eight live POW's if Vessey "told them what they wanted to hear." It turned out, he continued, that Vessey was not as forthcoming as they had hoped, and so no Prisoner were turned over. Source stated that [ ] provided him with the name of three of the Americans the Vietnamese were prepared to release. They were: "Morgan Donahue........."
The names of the other two POWs are redacted. As with the vast majority of live sighting reports, this report was dismissed as a fabrication by U.S. officials. Over the years, the government has stated there is no evidence to believe Donahue survived his loss incident. Yet, reports continue to surface on Donahue.
Now, we come to the governments double standard on the POW/MIA issue. Over the last 33 years, the Donahue family has traveled to Southeast Asia on numerous occasions in an attempt to locate Morgan. They've advertised and spread information on Morgan across Southeast Asia. The government believes that the Donahue family's effort, to locate Morgan, have made him a well known POW/MIA and a target for fabricated reports. In other words, because the family has provided information on Morgan, any information obtained on Morgan is, therefore, suspect.
Yet, we are to believe reports of Vietnamese investigators are creditable, even though we have supplied the Vietnamese investigators with all available information on loss incidents and missing servicemembers.
Rule of thumb - If the family provides information on a missing serviceman, any subsequent reports are less than creditable. If the U.S. government provides information on missing servicemen, to investigators, any subsequent reports they provide are creditable. In fairness we must state that the JTF-FA report of this Unilateral Investigation offers no opinion on its credibility.
That said, we offer the following excerpt from the translation of the Unilateral Investigation conducted by the Vietnamese. Begin Quote - "We met Mr. Nguyen Van Toan ((Toanf)), also know as Nguyen Van The ((Theer)), retired Major, former Political Officer at the 103rd Company, Binh Tram 32 (1965 - 1975), residing in Hamlet 3 ((Thoom 3)), Cam Due ((Caamr Zueej)) village, Cam Xuyen District Ha Tinh Province. (We had to go to his house two times to look for him. The first time he was not at home because he had work in Hoa Binh, and only the second time did we meet him.) He stated the 103rd company and the 102nd company, which were two independent companies belonging to Binh Tram 32, shot down a number of aircraft. Among those, the biggest was at 1700 on 15 April 1966; The 102nd and 103rd companies shot down one C-47 aircraft at kilometer marker 15 Route 128, from the Ta Le Ford ((Ngaamp Ta Lee)) to the Koc Mac ((Koc Mac)) three way intersection, belonging to Khammouan Province. On the aircraft were 11 people (nine Americans, one Saigon troop, and one Thai); at a location occupied by a chemical troops unit belonging to Bin Tram 32, therefore the fire was extinguished by the unit. The unit collected war booty consisting of parachutes, watches gold rings, etc and turned them over to Mr. Can's ((Caanr)). ((Caanr)) was the commander of the 220th regiment belonging to Group 559. Mr. Toan also let us see three identification cards belonging to U.S. personnel (because we did not have a camera, therefore we could not photograph them). Those were cards belonging to Lieutenant Fanning, Joseph P. (Date of Birth: 25 June 1944, Service Number [ ] Card Number: [ ]), Staff Sergeant Walker, Samuel F. Jr. (Date of Birth 10 July 1942, Service Number [ ] Card Number: [ ]), Airman King, Charles D. (Date of Birth 29 March 1946, Service number [ ] Card Number: [ ]), and a shot record card belonging to Walker, Samuel F. Jr.. Among the three cards above, the first two cards are names of service members we need to find who are associated with case 1340. (However, the date the aircraft was shot down, as Mr. Toan recalled, did not coincide with the date the aircraft crashed as brought up in documents and the circumstances of the aircraft crash did not coincide with the situation brought up in documents." End Quote
No, the circumstances do not coincide. In fact Mr. Toan's, information about the crash of a C-47 almost exactly matches previous witness statements regarding the loss, on May 15th 1966, of a aircraft designated "Spooky 10."
JTF-FA message traffic, dated 9 August 1994, reports on another Unilateral Investigation and states: "Vietnamese Unilateral Activities. VNOSMP finds a possible eyewitness to "off the scope" case 0339." Section 3B reads: New Information - While visiting Ho Chi Minh City, on 3 - 4 Aug. 94 to attend the planning and coordination conference for the 31st JFA, Senior Colonel Bien had a chance encounter with a retired member of the Peoples Army of Vietnam (PAVN). Upon learning that SrCol Bien is a Deputy Director of the VNOSMP, he said he witnessed the wreckage of a C-47 aircraft that crashed in May 1966. In the general area of Xepon, Laos killing about 10 crewmembers. Including two who appeared to be Asian..."
Section 3C reads: Field comments. An entry on page 12 of the Vietnamese record of U.S. Aircraft shot down by units of group 559 indicated that the C2 and C103 independent companies C2 & C103 Doc Lap. Group 559 received credit for shooting down a C-47 aircraft on 15 May 1966. Killing ten crewmembers. This entry appears to be the same incident the retired member of PAVN described to SrCol Bien which in turn appears to be case 0339..."
Coincidence or Orchestration - While the location of the witnesses seem to differ, the information provided in the two reports is so similar, we have to ask, are we dealing with the same witness?
As for the Identification Cards, the Vietnamese have offered no proof they exist, other then their say so. The information provided in the Unilateral Investigation, on Fanning, Walker and King, contains nothing more than information we have already provided to the Vietnamese. The fact that the Vietnamese had no camera to document evidence is plain sloppy. Nor, is there any indication in the report that any follow-up is planned. In fact, the Donahue family has not received any additional information, since receipt of this report.
We wonder, has anyone gone back to this witness and asked how he came to possess identification media for the three men, not involved in the crash he supposedly witnessed.
As with most reports relating to our POW/MIAs, few answers are found and more questions are raised.
Let's hope that someone provided the Vietnamese with a camera for Unilateral Investigations subsequent to this one.
Everything Old Is New Again - A look at W's Defense Department - Since we all have to deal with the Department of Defense, we thought we should take a look at the players in the Bush DoD. As you all know, Donald Rumsfield is the new Secretary of Defense. Mr. Rumsfield held that position during the Ford Administration (1974 - 1976). It was during this time frame that George H.W. Bush headed the CIA.
On February 9th President Bush nominated Paul D. Wolfowitz as Deputy Defense Secretary. The following is excepted from the American Forces Press Service: "...He served in both the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations. Under President Reagan, Wolfowitz served as the State Department's director of policy
planning and later became the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs. Reagan appointed him as ambassador to Indonesia in 1986."
"Under President George H. W. Bush, Wolfowitz served as the undersecretary of defense for policy. He also served with DoD from 1977 to 1980 as the deputy assistant defense secretary for regional programs. Before that service he held a variety of positions with the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency...."
Over at the State Department, Richard Armitage has been nominated as Deputy Secretary of State....
At the U.N., from Reuters "President George W. Bush is expected to appoint John Negroponte....the chief American delegate to the United Nations... Thirty years ago, during the Richard Nixon administration, he was a member of the U.S. delegation to the Paris Peace talks and served as the National Security Council's officer-in-charge for Vietnam under Henry Kissinger..."
Everything old is new again.... Or should we say everyone old is new again....
Reminder - The Office of Senator Bob Smith is putting together a distribution list for POW/MIA updates. If you would like to receive these updates, by email, contact them at russ_thomasson@smith.senate.gov
The Dumbest Piece of Legislation We've Ever Seen - We say dumbest, because that is the nicest word we can use to describe H.R. 62, introduced in the House of Representatives by Shelia Jackson-Lee, on January 3rd, 2001. H.R 62 would "amend title 5, United States Code, to establish election day in Presidential election years as a legal public holiday by moving the legal public holiday known as Veterans Day to election day in such years, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. ESTABLISHMENT OF ELECTION DAY IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION YEARS AS A
LEGAL PUBLIC HOLIDAY.
Section 6103(a) of title 5, United States Code, is amended--
(1) by inserting `the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November in
2004 and each fourth year thereafter, and' after `Veterans Day,'; and
(2) by inserting `in any other year' after `November 11'.
SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING TREATMENT OF DAY BY PRIVATE EMPLOYERS.
It is the sense of Congress that private employers in the United States should give their employees a day off on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November in 2004 and each fourth year thereafter to enable the employees to cast votes in the Presidential and other elections held on that day.
As we understand this bill, it would eliminate Veterans Day, every fourth year, when a Presidential election occurs. Obviously, Ms. Jackson-Lee needs a history lesson on Veterans Day and its origin.
As this time, NO ACTION Need BE Taken, against this Resolution. We are extremely happy to report that as of 6:30 P.M. Friday February 22nd the bill had ZERO cosponsors. Looks like Ms. Jackson-Lee's colleagues, in the House, recognize a dumb piece of legislation when they see it.
We will be watching this legislation and if it gains co-sponsors, we will let you know.
National Alliance of Families Twelfth Annual Forum is scheduled for June 21st - 23rd, 2001. Our Forum is conducted to coincide with the governments annual POW/MIA Family Briefings. We urge all family members to attend this years government briefings, for Vietnam family members. Remember the government will provide free airfare to two family members to attend the briefings. There is no charge or registration fee to attend the government briefings. It is important that family members attend these briefings. We do not want to give DPMO
reason to implement their "dead" Strategic Plan and end active investigations by 2004.
We Have A Hotel - This years meeting will be held at the Crown Plaza Hotel, 1489 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington Va. Room rates are $106.00 single or double, plus tax. To make reservations call 703- 416-1600 Remember to say you want the National Alliance of Families Group Rate. The deadline for reservations is May 29th, 2001. The hotel is &Mac189; mile from Regan National Airport. If you plan to drive to D.C. hotel parking is $5.00 per night.
The Hotel is convenient to the Metro, and has three types of eating facilities, from nice to fast food. The Hotel is walking distance to the Government briefings. For those not inclined to walk, transportation will be provided.
Remember, the Alliance is an all volunteer organization. Our meetings are open to all, without charge. At this time of year, we actively seek contributions to finance our Forum. If you wish to contribute, donations may be mailed to:
National Alliance of Families
P.O. Box 40327
Bellevue, WA. 98015.
Remember All Contributions Are Tax Deductible.
Dolores Apodaca Alfond
National Chairperson - (dolores@nationalalliance.org)
Voice/Fax 425-881-1499
Lynn O'Shea
New York State Director - (lynn@nationalalliance.org)
Voice/Fax 718-846-4350
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