US House of Representatives
"The Cuba Program: Torturing of American POWs by Cuban Agents"
October & November 1999
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS COMMITTEE TO HOLD HEARING TO INVESTIGATE INVOLVEMENT OF CASTRO REGIME IN TORTURING OF POWS
(House of Representatives - October 27, 1999)
[Page: H10864]
(Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, the Committee on International Relations will hold a hearing to investigate the involvement of the Castro regime in the torturing of American prisoners of war in North Vietnam in 1967 and 1968. The atrocities committed by Castro's men in a prison camp known as `the Zoo' resulted in the death of Air Force Captain Earl Cobeil, one of the 19 POWs held captive there. The family of Captain Cobeil and the other POW airmen who were part of what was later called the Cuba Program deserve that their government do everything it can to bring the guilty individuals to justice. This hearing is an essential step in the probe and should pave the way for additional investigations by the Department of Defense, the FBI and other Federal agencies.
I want to thank the gentleman from New York (Mr. Gilman) for his tremendous support during the preliminary phase of this investigation. There should be no statute of limitations when it comes to bringing to justice international war criminals who brutally abused our U.S. military officers. I thank the gentleman from New York for his decision to hold this important hearing. It is a testament to his leadership and to his character.
CUBA PROGRAM,' TORTURING OF AMERICAN POWS BY CUBAN AGENTS
(House of Representatives - October 27, 1999)
[Page: H10905]
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, the Geneva Convention prohibits violence to life and person, in particular murders of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture and outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment. That is an exact quote.
However, all of those barbaric acts are exactly what took place in a prison camp in North Vietnam known as the Zoo, seen here in a declassified photo. North Vietnamese POW prison called the Zoo, site of tortures of American POWs by Castro agent. During this period of August 1967 to August 1968, 19 of our courageous servicemen were physically and psychologically tortured by Cuban agents working under orders from Hanoi and Havana.
Assessed to be a psychological experiment to test interrogation methods, the Cuba Program, as the torture project was labeled by our Defense Department and intelligence agencies, was aimed at obtaining absolute compliance and submission to captor demands. It was aimed at converting or turning the POWs and to be used as propaganda by the international Communist effort. It was inhumane. It was incessant. It was barbaric.
Air Force Major James Kasler, who is pictured here in one of the posters, 19 of the U.S. POWs in the Cuban program, Major Kasler said that during one period in June 1968 he was tortured incessantly by a man known as Fernando Vecino Alegret who had been identified as Fidel, the Cuban agent in charge of this exercise in brutality. In a Time magazine report entitled `At Last the Story Can Be Told,' after one beating, Kasler's buttocks, lower back and legs hung in shreds. The skin had been entirely whipped away and the area was a bluish, purplish, greenish mass of bloody raw meat. The person he has identified as the possible torturer is this man who is the current Minister of Education in Cuba . He could be one of the agents identified by our POWs as Fidel.
Colonel Jack Bomar, another victim of the Cuba Program, pictured here, has described the beating of a fellow prisoner and Readers Digest printed this eyewitness account for an article they wrote on POWs. It says, The sight of the prisoner stunned Bomar. He stood transfixed trying to make himself believe that human beings could batter one another. The man could barely walk. He was bleeding everywhere. His body was ripped and torn. Fidel, Fernando Vecino Alegret perhaps, smashed a fist into the man's face, driving him against the wall. Then he was brought to the center of the room and made to go down on his knees. Screaming in rage, Fidel took a length of rubber hose from a guard and lashed it as hard as he could into the man's face. The prisoner did not react. He did not cry out or even blink an eye. Again and again a dozen times Fidel smashed the man's face with the hose. He was never released.
This man who stood firm in the face of such brutality, who would not surrender himself to the wishes of his torturer was Air Force pilot Earl Cobeil. Earl Cobeil died in captivity, and he is pictured here. As a result of being tortured by a Castro agent, Earl passed away.
These accounts are but a microcosm of the terrible acts committed against American POWs in Vietnam by Castro agents, acts which are in direct violation of the Geneva Convention on prisoners of war. To violate the provisions enshrined in this document run against the grain of civilized society and undermine the integrity of the international community as a whole. Humanity is one. When one suffers, we all suffer. Thus, violations of this protocol are not just crimes against one individual but against all of humanity.
The Cuba Program was part of a difficult period in our Nation's history, one which many would like to forget. However, we cannot allow the suffering of those brave soldiers to have been in vain. Thus, the unconscionable acts which they were subjected to cannot and must not go unnoticed and they must not go unpunished.
Substantiated by declassified DOD and CIA documents, survivors have been eager to identify and trace the Cuban agents who systematically interrogated them and tortured their fellow Americans. Yet despite their best efforts, a successful resolution of this matter has still not been achieved.
For them and to ensure that the facts about the program are fully uncovered, the Committee on International Relations will be holding a hearing on this issue next week. We thank the gentleman from New York (Mr. Gilman) for his leadership in order to get leads that could get us closer to identification of the Cuban torturers and have the Department of Defense continue their investigation into this new evidence. We hope that this hearing will serve to honor all of those POWs who sacrificed themselves for us.
THE CUBA PROGRAM: TORTURING OF AMERICAN POW'S BY CASTRO AGENTS
(House of Representatives - November 03, 1999)
[Page: H11450]
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the gentleman from New York (Chairman Gilman) for convening tomorrow's hearing on the Committee on International Relations on `The Cuba Program: The Torturing of American POWs by Castro Agents,' and for his ongoing leadership and commitment to veterans' issues.
This issue is particularly important to me for various reasons. But, more importantly, as I read through the accounts of what our men and women in uniform have endured through this century of war, I think of my husband, Dexter Lehtinen, who served in the special forces in Vietnam and was injured in combat. He was relatively fortunate, but so many of his colleagues were not.
The Geneva Convention prohibits `violence to life and person, in particular murders of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture' and `outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment.'
This is exactly what took place in a prison camp in North Vietnam known as `The Zoo,' seen here in a declassified photo, the site where 19 of our U.S. military officers were tortured.
During the period of August 1967 to August 1968, 19 of our courageous servicemen were psychologically tortured, some brutally beaten, by interrogators assessed to be Cuban agents working under orders from Hanoi and Havana.
Described by some to be a psychological experiment, the goals of The Cuba Program, as the torture project has been labeled by our Defense Department and by our intelligence agencies, has been described in different ways as an attempt to test interrogation methods, to obtain absolute compliance and submission to captor demands, or ultimately to be used as a propaganda tool by the international Communist effort, as Mike Benge will elaborate upon during tomorrow's congressional hearing.
Some POWs were tortured and then instructed to write a series of questions and answers given to them by their interrogators. These scripts on most occasions included statements declaring that the United States was waging an illegal, immoral, and unjust war. Prisoners were tortured, again some psychologically and others physically, to ensure cooperation in appearances they were forced to make before visiting dignitaries. Refusal to comply with the captors' commands usually meant that Fidel, Chico, and Poncho, as the torturers were called by the POWs, would be called in for intense beatings of the prisoners.
The ruthless nature of the interrogators and the severity of their actions led prisoners such as Captain Raymond Vohden, Colonel Jack Bomar, and Lieutenant Carpenter to question how human beings could so brutally batter another human being.
Captain Vohden and Colonel Bomar will offer compelling and detailed testimony to us tomorrow, describing the heinous acts committed against them by Cuban agents at The Zoo, acts which are in direct violation of the Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War.
Survivors of The Cuba Program have been eager to identify and trace the Cuban agents who systematically interrogated them and tortured their fellow Americans. Yet, despite their efforts, a successful resolution of this matter has not been achieved. We hope that tomorrow's hearing will be the first of many steps aimed at changing that outcome.
The first is to get leads that could take us closer to an identification of the Cuban torturers.
Our second goal is to provide the basis for an ensuing interagency investigation of the new evidence that has been uncovered, including a search for pertinent data and sources previously unavailable under the Cold War parameters.
We want our State Department, the CIA, the FBI, INS, and the Defense Intelligence Agency to coordinate a comprehensive approach to this case.
Lastly, this hearing will begin to establish the foundation for future action against the torturers. On a broader scale, this investigation will serve to highlight the brutal nature of the Castro regime and the historic and ongoing threat that it poses to the American people.
Ultimately, our hope is that tomorrow's hearing will serve to honor those POWs, and I will show my colleagues a poster that has their picture, 9 of the 19 who were involved in The Cuba Program. We hope that tomorrow's hearing will serve to honor these POWs, who were willing to give life and limb so that we may all be free. We will honor them by finding out the truth about Castro's participation in Vietnam known as The Cuba Program.
Testimony & Transcripts: There were 2 different Hearings, running concurrently. One in the House, one in the Senate.
The Cuban Torture Program Hearing Transcript - Senate
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
The Cuban Torture Program Hearing Transcript - House 5 Meg PDF
COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Other Testimony on The Cuba Program -
Ray Vohden, Cuban Program Survivor
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, US House of Representatives
Robert Jones, DASD DPMO
Robert Destatte, Analyst DPMO
Michael Benge, Ex-POW
CANF Challenges Cuban Official to Answer POW Accusations of Vietnam
Investigative Report :: Cuban torturers hiding in Florida?
Colonel says Cuban official led team that tortured him
Why Not To Let Cuba Off The Hook
Torturers' aim was `total surrender'