National Alliance of Families
For the Return of Americas Missing Servicemen
World War II Korea Cold War Vietnam Gulf Wars
May 3, 2008
Bits N Pieces
The POW Status -- Matt Maupin was buried last week. Among the honors
bestowed was the awarding of his medals. These medals included the
Purple Heart and the POW Medal.
Isnt it ironic that a captured serviceman, returned under his
countrys flag is now designated a POW, by our government. Yet, our
government denies that same individual a POW status when it is needed
most, when he is in enemy hands.
We recognize this enemy, like the Viet Cong before them, does not
adhere to the Geneva Conventions. However, the designation of captured
American service members as POW tells the world the value we place on
our personnel and tells the enemy how we expect these men and women to
be treated.
The designation POW paints a picture. It clearly states a service
member is in enemy hands. Missing/Captured is ambiguous. There was
no ambiguity to Maupins status; he was a POW under the Geneva
Conventions. Had this been the Vietnam War, under the same
circumstances, Maupin would have been designated a POW. Weve proven
that, over and over again.
The public understands the POW designation. A Missing/Captured
designation is a question mark. Clearly, in the case of Matt Maupin
there is no question. Yet, sadly our government refused to provide
Maupin the moral protection a POW designation provides.
In our March 15th newsletter, we related two incidents, one involving
the media the other personal, that illustrated the general publics lack
of awareness regarding service members captured in Iraq. Thats what
the Missing/Captured designation does. It misleads the American
public.
Good News,
Bad News The Good News - H. Res 111 now has 272 cosponsors. This
represents 62% of the congress, with support crossing party lines,
making H. Res 111 truly a bi-partisan effort.
The Bad News We are still stuck in the Rules Committee. So, once
again, we are going to ask all organizations and individuals to contact
both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rules Committee Chairperson Louise
McIntosh Slaughter.
Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Tel:
202-225-0100 or Toll Free at 866-727-4894
Office of the Speaker
Fax:
202-225-8259
H-232, US Capitol
202-225-4188
Washington, DC 20515
And dont forget Rules Committee Chairperson
Honorable Louise McIntosh-Slaughter
2469 Rayburn Bldg
Tel:
202-225-3615 or Toll Free at 866-727-4894
Washington D.C. 20515
Fax:
202-225-7822
Please DO NOT give up! And, remember if your Congressional
Representative is not a cosponsor, keep working on them!
Not sure if your Congressional Representative is a cosponsor, visit
www.nationalalliance.org/legis/110congress.htm If your Representative
is highlighted in red, he/she is a cosponsor.
The Top Seven Reasons We Need H. Res 111 calling for
the formation of a House Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs
1. The Gulag Study 5th Edition issued Feb. 11,
2005 - compiled by the Joint Commission Support Directorate (JCSD), the
investigative arm of the U. S/Russian Joint Commission on POW/MIAs,
concluded; "Americans, including American servicemen, were imprisoned in
the former Soviet Union...."
2. The Tourison Memos - My review of JCRC
casualty files has surfaced several messages which list a total of nine
American servicemen Vietnam has acknowledged were captured alive, all of
whom are listed by DOD as having been declared dead while missing....
This information has come from Vietnamese officials a piece at a time
over the past two years. Another memo states: My review of POW/MIA case
files disclosed DIA/JTFFA message traffic referring to individuals DOD
now has information survived into captivity. Thirteen cases are cited
representing 19 servicemen. These memos were written by former Defense
Intelligence Agency analyst Sedgwick Tourison, during his tenure as an
investigator with the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs.
Whatever the reason, this information was not made public during the
life of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs.
3. Failure to Investigate the "185 Report" - In
1993, the Defense POW/MIA Office (DPMO) received a report that 185
American POWs had been held in Southeast Asia after 1973, possibly as
late as 1976. The report was recognized as possibly credible. During
the mid-l 990's a Russian geologist was interviewed and reported that he
was told in 1976 by Vietnamese counterparts that the Vietnamese
Government at that time was holding live American POWs. Neither report
has been properly investigated.
4. Failure to Authorize Live Sighting
Investigations and the attempt to limit Stony Beach activity. Reports of
live POWs in Southeast Asia are not investigated.
5. Failure to Properly Investigate Reports of
POWs in North Korea - A Background Paper prepared, in 1996, by I.O. Lee,
analyst Defense POW/MIA Office (DPMO) stated: "There are too many live
sighting reports, specifically observations of several Caucasians in a
collective farm by Romanians and the North Korean defectors' eyewitness
of Americans in DPRK to dismiss that there are no American POW's in
North Korea."
6. Failure to Properly Investigate the case
of Capt. Michael Scott Speicher - A well placed source provided the
following information to the National Alliance of Families in the summer
of 2003; "The one source that claimed to have been held with Speicher
and fed him on a daily basis stated they had been held for 10 years in
the underground prison; that individual was released and left Iraq. The
individual that reported feeding the pilot was talking to an individual
outside Iraq when he made the claim, and the U.S. side never interviewed
him.... Don't be misled by those who would pooh pooh the Speicher
reporting."
7. Failure to follow-up on the Conclusions and
Recommendations of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs,
January 1993 - There is evidence, moreover, that indicates the
possibility of survival, at least for a small number, after Operation
Homecoming...." Isnt it time we ask the next question, what happened to
that small number?
mt-DNA Our
regular readers and long time members are well aware of our skepticism
when it comes to using mt-DNA testing as a sole or primary means of
identification. The story we are about to share sharply illustrates
why mt-DNA testing can never be used as a sole means of identification.
The following is excerpted from an article, dated May 3rd by T. J.
Wilham, and comes from the Albuquerque Journal.
[Begin Article] Donny Denman isn't dead, after all. True, he's had a
funeral. True, a death certificate was issued in his name. And yes,
police have been looking for his killer ever since they made a DNA match
to some bones found on the West Mesa. But there was one problem. "I'm
very much alive," he said on a recent Thursday. "It's a trip, isn't
it?"
Denman has been missing since 2003, when he walked away from his
family's Albuquerque home in a drug-fueled rage. His family started
looking for him a year later after his mother died and he failed to show
up for the funeral. They had few answers until 2006, when they read a
story in the Journal about the remains of a man found on the West Mesa
wrapped in a jacket. The jacket looked like one Denman often wore. So
they contacted the police and gave DNA samples.
More than a year later, the FBI reported that there was a mitochondrial
DNA match on the bones to all three of Denman's siblings. The family
had a funeral, an obituary appeared in the newspaper and a death
certificate was issued.
Recently, one of Denman's friends, a mechanic, was laying down old
newspapers in his garage beneath a car he was working on. He saw
Denman's photograph with the March 6 story and immediately called
Denman. Not knowing what to do, Denman went to Immanuel Lutheran,
church his family belonged to, and sought the advice of the pastor who
presided over his funeral. The Rev. Randy Walquist reacted by saying,
"Donny, you're not dead."
Walquist, who helped Denman reunite with his brothers and sisters,
said in an interview, "It sends tingles down your spine. We thought he
was dead. He was given up for dead, and now he is alive. It is truly a
phenomenal series of events."
Those events have investigators and forensic
scientists scratching their heads. Because there was no sample of
Denman's DNA and all they had were the bones found on the mesa,
investigators had to use the mitochondrial process. That process isn't
as effective distinguishing individuals as the more common nuclear DNA
process. There have been about 13 mitochondrial matches in New Mexico
.
Denman's case was the first time the FBI lab has had
a "coincidental match." Experts say there is no way to tell what the
odds are for a coincidental match. Police knew the science behind
mitochondrial DNA wasn't a 100 percent guarantee. They even warned
Denman's family of that when they notified them and handed over the
remains they found.
"Based on everything we had, we were so confident that those remains
were Donny Denman," said cold case investigator Rich Lewis. [End
Article]
Coincidental Matches -- The FBI
needs to check with AFDIL on coincidental matches. In two cases
airmen aboard the same aircraft had the same mt-DNA. In one case two
individuals matched each other. In the second case three individuals
matched each other.
All this proves the point that mt-DNA testing can not be used
without strong circumstantial evidence indicating identification.
Strong circumstantial evidence does not mean Vietnamese officials
stating the remains are a certain individual
Two Cases -- Where mt-DNA Testing was used as the
sole and primary means of identification are Mark Judge and Victor
Apodaca. Remains eventually identified as Judge and Apodaca were
returned with no circumstantial evidence to support the Vietnamese name
association. While it is true that a dog tag bearing Apodacas name
was returned it is important to remember the remains and dog tag were
not together. The tag was returned with several other dog tags and was
not associated to the remains.
In both cases the identification were based solely on mt-DNA testing.
Since were talking about coincidental matches, we remind our readers
that the mt-DNA extracted from the remains identified as Mark Judge
matched a total of 64 individuals in the database used at the time.
Why does Johnie Webb still have a job?
New Book To Be Released
Perfidy - The Government Cabal That Knowingly Abandoned Our
POWs And Left Them To Die by John (Top) Holland is about to be
released. Place your order now! To Pre-order contact The American
Free Press at 202-544-5977.
We havent seen the book but based on Tops many years of experience
in the POW/MIA issue, we are sure this will be a great read.
National Alliance of Families 19th Annual
Forum is scheduled for June 19th 21st, 2008. 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
briefing. The government will provide free airfare to two family members
to attend the government briefings. There is no charge or registration
fee to attend these briefings and you DO NOT have to belong to an
organization to attend the government briefings.
This year our meeting will be held at the Holiday Inn National Airport,
located at 2650 Jefferson Davis Highway Crystal City, VA. The special
Alliance rate is $129.00 per night, plus tax. Parking rate under the
Alliance is $10.00 per night. Cutoff date for reservations is May 20th
so make your reservations early. There will be no extension on this
date. To reserve your room, call 1-703-684-7200. 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 Alfond --- 425-881-1499
Lynn OShea ------ 718-846-4350
Web Site -- www.nationalalliance.org
Email ------ lynn@nationalalliance.org