"February 18th, 2005 -- the Board of Directors of the National Alliance of Families has, by unanimous vote, recorded a vote of "no confidence" in Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, and Chairman of the U.S./Russian Joint Commission Jerry Jennings.
The Alliance Board of Directors also recorded, again unanimously, a vote of "no confidence" in the Defense POW/MIA Office (DPMO), as a whole. We believe the long entrenched policy makers within that office have actively tried, and in many cases succeeded in blocking access to POW/MIA documentation; they continue to roadblock avenues of investigation, members of that office have passed information to foreign governments in order to "resolve" cases, and actively participated in the decision making process eliminating the Prisoner of War status for our service personnel, while misleading the media claiming the status still exists."
BITS 'N' PIECES
THE NEWSLETTER OF THE
NATIONAL ALLIANCE OF FAMILIES
FOR THE RETURN OF AMERICA'S MISSING SERVICEMEN
+ WORLD WAR II + KOREA + COLD WAR + VIETNAM + GULF WARS +
Feb. 19, 2005
Americans, including American servicemen, were imprisoned in the former Soviet Union . . . " From the Gulag Study 5th Edition.
No Confidence Ð Following the lead of two prominent POW/MIA Family groups, the National League of Families and the Korea/Cold War Families of the Missing, Inc., the Board of Directors of the National Alliance of Families has, by unanimous vote, recorded a vote of "no confidence" in Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, and Chairman of the U.S./Russian Joint Commission Jerry Jennings.
The Alliance Board of Directors also recorded, again unanimously, a vote of "no confidence" in the Defense POW/MIA Office (DPMO), as a whole. We believe the long entrenched policy makers within that office have actively tried, and in many cases succeeded in blocking access to POW/MIA documentation; they continue to roadblock avenues of investigation, members of that office have passed information to foreign governments in order to "resolve" cases, and actively participated in the decision making process eliminating the Prisoner of War status for our service personnel, while misleading the media claiming the status still exists.
Our "no confidence" in DPMO dates back to 1993, when they attempted to withhold the first major report issued by the Joint Commission Support Directorate, from POW/MIA families. Titled "The Transfer of U.S. Korean War POWs to the Soviet Union," this report was presented to the Russian government, as an official document of the United States government. Shortly thereafter, it was leaked to the media. When family members learned of the report, they requested copies from the Defense POW/MIA Office (DPMO.) In an effort to withhold this report, DPMO quickly reclassified the report "Working Papers." Under the law "Working Papers" are not subject to release. As the report was already in the hands of the media, family members were able to obtain copies, in spite of the best efforts of DPMO.
Over the years we have seen DPMO deny the existence of documentation available at the Library of Congress, and posted on the Alliance Website.
Recently, Intelligence Research Officer Warren Gray, formerly of DPMO, described how that office ignored a report that 185 American POWs were held in Southeast Asia, after Operation Homecoming, possibly as late as 1976. According to Mr. Gray, the report was "deemed to be so important and possibly credible that the collection representative was directed to follow the situation and to conduct frequent follow-ups which did not happen."
No action was taken on the report. In 1998, members of the Joint Commission Support Directorate (JCSD), the group responsible for the Gulag Study and the finding that ÒAmericans, including American servicemen, were imprisoned in the former Soviet Union . . . " requested the collection representative provide access to the document. Mr. Gray told us " The collection representative stated that she had no idea which report they were talking about, therefore could not furnish it."
According to Mr. Gray, "Personnel from the JCSD threatened to initiate an Inspector General investigation into the lost report." Suddenly, the lost report was "found." Mr. Gray stated; "Later in 1998 JCSD did what it could with limited resources to investigate the report; that was the last action to check out the possible credible information. Details of the report have never been taken to any country within SEA to demand an explanation, perhaps because the implications of the report were that the country in question could never have been deemed to be cooperating in the POW issue if the report was true,"
Mr. Gray also told us; "the same collection representative that received the report in 1993, that lost the report in 1998 and who would have been responsible for any follow-up since its receipt, remains in place, and the report remains unresolved."
Speaking of Inspector General Investigation, according to what weÕve heard, DPMO is currently the focus of a IG investigation, but not for the reasons you would think. The investigation, has nothing to do with their mishandling of the POW/MIAs issue. Instead the focus is.... how shall we say this..... something to do with what might go on in Peyton Place.....
DPMO employees have back channeled information to Hanoi, so that cases could be "resolved." In a memo written April 28, 1997, Dr. Timothy Castle, author of "One Day Too Long," detailed DPMOÕs mishandling of Refno 2052 with eleven men unaccounted for. Many of you are familiar with this case, better known as Site 85 or Lima Site 85. One of the men unaccounted for, at that site, is T/Sgt. Melvin Holland, husband of Alliance Board member Ann Holland.
In his memo, Dr. Castle detailed unauthorized contact with Hanoi stating; "in their efforts to ensure that Hanoi's version is accepted, Mr. Destatte and LtCol Schiff have engaged in unauthorized contact with the Vietnamese government and Detachment 2, JTF-FA. In January 1997, Destatte, LtCol Schiff, and myself were directed by the DPMO Chief of Staff to prepare our views on the case for a full scale review by Plans and Policy. In coordination with Mr. Rosenau, I quickly complied. Mr. Destatte and LtCol Schiff, however, produced a memo on the case and faxed it directly to Detachment 2/JTF-FA in Hanoi where they knew it would become available to the Vietnamese government. Despite being told in December that she (Lt. Col. Shiff) could not claim to know conclusively that eight of the eleven missing were killed at LS-85, the memo to Hanoi asks for help in learning Òwhat happened to the bodies of the eleven Americans." "We have," referring to Schiff/Destatte, "sufficient knowledge to conclude that ten bodies were lying on top of the mountain and one on the face of the cliff." Under a section entitled "Next Steps," Det 2 and the Vietnamese are told to ask "How long did the remains stay at the site? Were the remains moved? If the remains were moved, who moved them; when did they move them; and where did they move them? So, after being told that her analysis was insufficient to meet an official board authorized to determine fate, she and Mr. Destatte told Det 2 and the Hanoi government the U.S. had concluded all were killed on the mountain! LtCol Schiff and Mr. Destatte believe they are above the rules - that even though they have been told their analysis is flawed, they still presented it to Detachment 2 and the Vietnamese government as an official DPMO position. And with regard to SSgts Springsteadah and Gish both were last seen by U.S. witnesses as mortally wounded on the west side of the mountain. In an effort to support Mr. Muc's version, Destatte/Schiff now have one of the known bodies placed on the top of the mountain. LtCol Schiff knows this, but allows Mr. Destatte to misrepresent the facts in order to continue to stall any meaningful movement on this case."
At the 2003 meeting of the National Alliance of Families, a DPMO representative presented inaccurate and misleading information on one aspect of the Speicher investigation.... the initials M S S found on a jail cell wall. During the Question and Answer session, with DPMO, one of our members asked about the cell and the initials. Another of our members had a hand held tape recorder and had the question and answer on tape.
The questions & answers were transcribed as follows:
Question: "My question is to you, Mr. Cronauer. Where is the piece from the jail cell. Do we have this back in the United States and are we testing it...and have we tested the jail cell to find out any more information?"
Comment: You can hear muffled discussion and one individual says "I can answer that" and Mr. Cronauer indicates he should do so.
Answer: "Yes, the answer to the question is...Yes, we have that portion of the wall, Yes it is in the United States and Yes, it is being examined by a forensic laboratory."
Question: "And how long will that take?"
Answer: "I can't tell you that. I can tell you that it has been here for about the last three weeks."
Question: "So we will have some answers very shortly then...it won't take years, since they have that piece?"
Answer: "Well that...the...I can't give you a specific time, in terms of how long it will take them to run all of the different tests that they can run. There is a limited amount of information that we can get from that piece of wall. We can find out, perhaps, how long ago his initials were put in the wall. Unless there is a blood or some sort of DNA sample near the initials, we cannot necessarily say who put those initials in the wall. But a whole series of tests is being conducted right now and like I said, I don't have a time frame for when those....Let me just say this. That particular bit of evidence is not under the control right now of the Defense Prisoner of War Missing Personnel Office. There are entities in country, in Iraq right now, who are looking...who are gathering evidence for war crimes prosecution. So other elements of the government are looking at this. If Speicher was in fact captured and was alive for a period of time after the downing, and he was killed, then this is potentially evidence to charge those involved in the former Iraq regime with. So that evidence is on that side of the house right now, not just the US Army, CILHI, the Central Identification lab....
Question: "We're kind of on a time limit here, so I wanted to know...What's being done with the rest of the jail cell. Have they made any....I mean just because they have this one piece of block, there could be something in that jail cell...and is it top priority?"
Answer: "Yes, of course......The jail cell....
Question: "But it won't take a long time if it's a top priority, on the front burner?"
Answer: " It has already been done. The jail cell has already been done. There is a considerable amount of effort, ongoing, in Iraq at this time. Every single known detention facility, jail cell......
Question: "Okay, Okay...we're on a time line....
To hear the tape, visit http://www.nationalalliance.org/gulf/audio.htm
On June 27th, based on information provided by a DPMO representative, we believed the section of the jail wall bearing the initials M S S along with the smaller H was in the United States.
We would never have questioned this, had we not seen a July 7th photo of Senator Bill Nelson, in Baghdad, displaying rubbings of the two sets of initials take from the cell wall. Did he bring the rubbings to Baghdad or did he do them during his visit? If he did them during his visit, how and when was the section of the cell wall returned to Baghdad?
Dolores Alfond contacted Senator Nelson's office and spoke with Gretchen Hitchner. Ms. Alfond was told the only thing taken out the cell was material for DNA testing including a hair. Ms. Hitchner also said "the cell is intact."
On June 27th, DPMO says the section of the cell with the initials is in the United States and had been for three weeks.
On July 7th, Senator Bill Nelson displays rubbings of the initials taken from the wall of the cell in Baghdad. A member of his staff, says "the cell is intact."
At the same meeting, members of Stony Beach detailed their frustration with DPMO's failure to authorize live sighting investigations, and the DPMO attempt to limit Stony Beach activity. Unfortunately, we were unable to video tape their presentation. Fortunately, unknown to us, another of our members did make an audio tape of the presentation.
According to Warren Gray, "bias towards Stony Beach has continued to this day since the Stony Beach personnel in Hawaii are relegated to conducting only Last Known Alive (LKA) investigations of the few remaining LKA cases. DPMO has been fully supportive of JTF -FA (now JPAC) limiting the professional interrogators and debriefers within Stony Beach to a few LKA investigations, and has made no effort to review, examine or expand the Stony Beach mission. Are the Stony Beach personnel being squeezed out of course they are. At this point in time, when the few LKA cases have been investigated, and without DPMO support, they will effectively be without a mission."
Regular readers of "Bits" have followed our quest for answers, from DPMO, to questions submitted last May at their request. Regular readers also know that we were assisted with two of the questions by Warren Gray.
Those questions were:
1. "How many reports has DPMO received since 1990 to the effect that live Americans, POW or MIA, were being held in Southeast Asia? We would like to know the originating agency, date of information, date of acquisition of information for each report and when each report was received by DPMO and all actions taken by DPMO on this report including dates of action? Do you have reporting that live Americans are being held in SEA at this moment?"
2. "A classified report, released under FOIA, indicates that in 1987 the Lao maintained a file cabinet of POW/MIA-related information relative to Americans, which the Vietnamese removed when some of the information was compromised. The Lao President was the custodian of the file cabinet. What research has DPMO conducted into the location of the file cabinet, i.e., was the cabinet returned to the Lao by the Vietnamese; has this subject been discussed with the Lao Government; with the Vietnamese Government? Which of the communist governments has provided information from the file cabinet? Isn't it true that DPMO has a number of credible reports that the Lao maintained wartime records, in addition to the file cabinet, all of which would have contributed to the search for Americans in Laos, and all of which have not been made available to the U.S. Government? If the U.S. Government has elected to not surface the information with the communists, please explain why."
Mr. Gray also offered the following comment: "If they deny the information in questions 1 and 2, then they are lying."
"Do you have reporting that live Americans are being held in SEA at this moment?" If they deny the information...... then they are lying." No wonder DPMO wonÕt answer our questions.
The Joint Commission Support Directorate is, clearly, the only objective, open-minded POW/MIA investigative unit within the Dept of Defense. For their efforts, policy makers within DPMO, some of whom have been with that agency for years, transferring from the Defense Intelligence Agency's POW/MIA unit, giving them a decade or more shaping POW/MIA policy, tried to dismantle the JCSD not once but twice.
Lastly, Mr. Jennings and the majority of his staff has continually exhibited a total disregard for the POW/MIA families. That was clearly demonstrated by a DPMO decision affecting this yearÕs annual meeting in Washington D.C.
The National Alliance of Families has long supported a "one meeting" concept involving both members of the Alliance and League. This year, the meeting will not be a two hotel meeting with the government and the League in one hotel and the Alliance in another, as in past year.
Instead the League and Alliance will each have a hotel with DPMO in a third hotel, posing a major inconvenience for POW/MIA family members, many of whom are up in years. Now, in order to attend the government briefings family members will have to travel to a third hotel. One can only guess at DPMOÕs motives for this new arrangement.
From our point of view the new concept for the annual meeting, serves no benefit to either the Alliance or the League and certainly no benefit to our POW/MIA families.
Isn't it interesting that an organization whose stated purpose is serve the POW/MIA families, serves them so badly. We can only imagine, based on past performance, what continues to go on within DPMO.
No Confidence in Jerry Jennings and DPMO....... ya think!
Vindicated! - When we listed individuals vindicated by the findings of the 5th edition of the Gulag Study, that "Americans, including American servicemen, were imprisoned in the former Soviet Union....", we knew we couldnÕt name everyone, and we'd forget some who by the sheer volume of their work and support of the POW/MIA issue needed to be named.
Vindicated!
John M.G. Brown, author of "Moscow Bound."
Larry Jolidon, author of "Last Seen Alive."
Attention POW/MIA Family Members - The National Alliance of Families is in the process of preparing a letter to the President of Russia, asking his personal intercession to all records to JCSD investigators, in hopes that we may learn the truth about what happened to our World War II, Korean War, Cold War and possibly Vietnam War POW/MIAs. We believe the letter would be more powerful, if POW/MIA family members signed on.
All POW/MIA Family Members are welcome to sign on. You don't have to be a member of the Alliance. This is an "all hands" effort, with one goal..... learning the truth about the fate of the men imprisoned in the former Soviet Union.
If you support this and wish to sign the letter, email us at lynn@nationalalliance.org You can also call us at 425-881-1499, with the following information:
Your name, relationship
Serviceman's name
Date of Loss
War of Loss
Please get this to us as quickly as possible.
We've Got A New Look - Actually not us but our web site. The site has undergone a major reorganization. Hopefully, making it easier to navigate. We are also in the process of replacing typed versions of documents, with the actual document. The site is a work in progress. We hope you like the results. Visit www.nationalalliance.org and check it out.
Why does Johnie Webb still have a job?
National Alliance of Families 16th Annual Forum is scheduled for June 16th - 18th, 2005. Our forum is conducted to coincide with the Governments annual Vietnam POW/MIA Family Briefings. We urge all family members to attend this years government briefings. The government will provide free airfare to two family members to attend the government briefings. There is no charge or registration fee to attend the government briefings and you do not have to belong to an organization to attend these briefings.
Other than the dates of the meeting, no other plans have been finalized. We will keep you posted as to our location and hotel rates.
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
DOLORES ALFOND
National Chairperson (dolores@nationalalliance.org)
425-881-1499
LYNN O'SHEA
Director of Research (lynn@nationalalliance.org)
718-846-4350