July 1997

Summary of news for the entire month.
For recent and daily news, please go to: InterNetwork

00 JUL 97: The 'official' unaccounted for figures are as follows - Southeast Asia, 2,118; North Korea 8, 139.

01 JUL 97: As expected, the US-Russia Joint Commission, currently in Russia until the 3rd, has announced there is no credible evidence to confirm 'suspicions' that American POWs were transferred to the former USSR. Malcolm Toon, co-chairman of the commission made the announcement just as talks regarding a Peace Accord between the US, Korea and Communist North Korea were taking place. Dr. Paul M. Cole and Peter Tsouras were able to produce reports of POW transfers based on evidence in a few months. The Commission has invested 5 years into 'studying' transfered POWs, yet comes up empty handed. Our tax dollars at work.

01 JUL 97: Communist North Korea has agreed to 3 joint exhumations on its landmass. The original agreement of May saw its fine points hammered out during a working meeting the last week of June. The three searches will take place July, September and October in Unsan county, where heavy losses were experienced during fierce fighting. The US is paying $105,500 for each of the three searches.

02 JUL 97: The remains of an unknown Civil War soldier were reinterred at the Gettysburg National Cemetery, on this, the anniversary of one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. It is estimated that 50,000 lost their lives at Gettysburg. The remains were discovered in a shallow grave last year, presumably undisturbed since he was buried after dying the first day of the battle. Nothing is known about the young man, North or South, Blue or Grey, only that he was about 20 years old. He was buried with full honors and a 21 gun salute. Another mother's son lost to war with a headstone that reads Unknown Civil War Remains.

03 JUL 97: The bitter animosity between the two Cambodian factions of government have derailed the negotiation process that would deliver war criminal Pol Pot out of his jungle fortress. One of the main discrepancies between the royalist faction, led by Norodom Rinarridh - son of King Sihanouk - and the military faction, led by General Hun Sen, is what to do with Khieu Samphan. Royalists wish to grant amnesty to Samphan, while Hun Sen's group wants to see Samphan stand alongside Pol Pot when he is tried for war crimes. The glitch? It is Samphan who is holding Pol Pot in the dense jungle fortress of Anlong Veng. Samphan, who was the architect of the social cleansing policy of the vicious Khmers Rouges, is using Pol Pot as a bargaining chip to insure his own personal safety, and refuses to deliver himunless he is assured he will be absolved of his crimes against the Cambodian people during The Killing Fields years.

Independence Day 1997: Two-hundred and twenty three years ago, our forefathers wrote the following:

"We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness -"

When looking at the unending issue of Prisoners of War and Missing in Action we can only ask our present day leaders why they do not believe that the unalienable RIGHTS or LIFE, LIBERTY and the PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS is something our POWS and MIAS are entitled to.

05 JUL 97: When investigating POWs and MIAs we consistently find the fingerprints of the former Soviet Union and its satellites. So many men went missing into the gulags, sharashkas and psychiatric facilities there. So many of the people who fell into disfavor with the brutal ruling elite met their deaths in the uranium mines and work camps... some were simply executed and dumped into mass graves. Today a 2 1/2 acre area outside of St. Petersburg, where a former prison colony was established, was identified and the remains of over 9,000 people discovered in 3 mass graves. A stinging reminder of Stalin's intolerant legacy. Who they were and what their offenses - be it simply existing - we may never know. But another group of 'Disappeareds' is no longer missing. May they rest in peace.

05 JUL 97: The Mena Mafia rides again. President Clinton has announced he will appoint Arkansas buddy, Hershel Gober, as the new head of Veterans Affairs. Many will remember Gober's extremely negative presence in the POW-MIA issue over the years.

06 JUL 97: Legislative Update. H.R. 409 languishes with 73 co-sponsors. S. 755 has 8 co-sponsors. Some names are STILL glaringly absent.

Sen Ford - 05/15/97 • Sen Craig - 05/22/97 • Sen Gregg - 05/23/97 • Sen Lieberman - 06/03/97 • Sen Hollings - 06/16/97 • Sen McConnell - 06/23/97 • Sen Ashcroft - 06/23/97 • Sen Allard - 06/25/97

06 JUL 97: Former Lippo/DNC/Commerce operator, John Huang, has had some unsavory info made public in the past several days. Paula Green, secretary at the Stevens Company, is slated to testify before the Senate Hearings. Ms. Green is reported to have info that Huang used the Steven Company offices to pass faxes and phone calls. The catch is that the Stevens Company is based out of Little Rock with an office in Washington, DC, AND is tied to one LIPPO Group. This is of interest because of the allegations that Huang passed national security information along to third-parties.

In addition, it has been reported that Huang ran a holding company, Hip Hing Holdings Ltd., which may have been a conduit for pay for play. Hip Hing Holdings was owned by Lippo, and, the holding company DID NOT earn enough money to account for the sizable donations they doled out between 1991 and 1993.

07 JUL 97: On the eve of the Senate Campaign Finance Hearings we learn the following; Chairman Fred Thompson has alluded that a substantial number of subpoenaes may be issued. In the event certain subpoenaed parties refuse to show, contempt of Congress will be considered and may be pursued. The Hearings may take the entire summer. House Hearings are scheduled to begin in September.

07 JUL 97: U.S. News and World Reports has produced the following - more than 200 Ex-POW debriefings have been discovered at the National Archives. The men were Air Force personnel captured during the Korean War. Originally thought to be lost and then once found, the documents were deemed to be too convoluted to catalog and study. Researchers finally took on the job and found a wealth of information as a result. The debriefs may hold the key to the fate of some of the more than 8,100 men who did not return from the 'Forgotten War.'

08 JUL 97: And so it begins. 'Our objective it to take this virtual blizzard of information, take facts, take depth and content and present it.'

"The committee believes high-level Chinese government officials crafted a plan to increase China's influence over the U.S. political process..." "The committee has identified specific steps taken in furtherance of the plan. Activities in furtherance of the plan have occurred both inside and outside the United States."

And with those words, Chairman Fred Thompson opened the Senate Hearings into campaign financial abuse and allegations of foreign influence over the US.

Senator Glenn offered in his opening statement that discussions - as late as this morning - with John Huang's attorney indicate (at the moment) that Huang will testify, will not invoke the Fifth and is requesting limited immunity.

The Justice Department notified the Committee that they DO NOT endorse immunity for Huang. It seems Justice wants to leave open the possibility of prosecution. However, it seems more apparent that by insuring Huang has no protection he will not offer what secrets of the Whitewash House he knows.

The Hearings will NOT enjoy gavel-to-gavel media coverage. Stating a lack of interest on behalf of the public and the decision not to disrupt programming, children's programming specifically, most networks have decided to offer a Cliff Note version of Hearings highlights each weekend. Currently, only C-SPAN and MSNBC have indicated a willingness to broadcast SOME of the Hearings.

08 JUL 97: DOD announced at a Press Briefing that the USMC is enroute to Cambodia. Three ships and 2,000 Marines, part of an 'exercise' in the Pacific will be on standby in the event that they are needed to evacuate the US Embassy in Phnom Penh. Additionally, there is discussion that US Forces 'could' be used to track down and capture war criminals.

08 JUL 97: Human Rights Watch Asia issued a strong condemnation of the violent outbreak in Cambodia, that has left many dead, many wounded, and once again, people fleeing Phnom Penh by the thousands.

09 JUL 97: DPMO issued its 1996 Annual Report. The report summarizes their glowing achievements in this, the 'highest national priority' of the USG. Broken down into sections, one of which discusses PR, some pertinent excerpts are -

- Southeast Asia Accounting Efforts -
"Indeed, to help in our accounting efforts, the processing of Vietnam War-era documents alone was staggering: we acquired from Cornell University and Primary Source Media more than 430,000 pages of documents, transferred more than 60,000 photographs and documents to the Library of Congress, added almost 13,000 pages to existing case files, and created 395 new source files."

- North Korean Accounting Efforts -
"This year marked a watershed in our Korean War accounting efforts as DPMO broke a decades-long impasse and began direct talks with North Korea. We first addressed the issue of alleged live sightings of U.S. POWs, although DPMO does not have any credible firsthand accounts of U.S. POWs in North Korea. "

- Russian Accounting Efforts -
" DPMO, as the Executive Secretariat to the U.S.-Russia Joint Commission (USRJC), accelerated efforts to determine whether U.S. POWs were transferred to the Former Soviet Union. Utilizing our access to Russian archives and officials, we made significant advances toward resolving several of the 131 cases involving our missing from Cold War shootdowns."

- Global Efforts -
In addition to our efforts in Southeast Asia, Korea, and Russia, DPMO initiated efforts to work with other countries to recover missing U.S. servicemen or to help them establish their national accounting programs. - Missing Persons Legislation -
"Indeed, for the first time since the signing of the Goldwater-Nichols Act, the Secretary of Defense now has a single office responsible for policy, control, and oversight of the entire process--from the time of loss through search and rescue, to recovery of the individual, their remains, or a conclusive determination of fate."

- Intelligence Collection -
"DPMO enhanced our national intelligence priorities to ensure all appropriate resources are devoted to resolving the fate of our unaccounted for."

- Making a Good Story Known -
"During 1996, DPMO successfully launched its most pro-active outreach program to provide families, veterans, members of Congress, and concerned citizens critical updated information on operational and policy changes that affected the accounting process."

- Internal Developments -
"To ensure we capitalize on future changes, DPMO devoted considerable effort to honing our organizational Vision, Mission, Values, and Goals."

Although the report is more PR than substance, the discussion on Blood Chit and rewards - under the Intelligence section - is enlightening, as is the use of the word 'alleged' in many instances. It should also be noted that the PR segment - Making A Good Story Known - is a must read. The entire report is available at: http://www.aiipowmia.com/dpmo96report.html

10 JUL 97: And the Band Plays On Department. The Governmental Affairs Hearings continued with some (expected) testimony from the hot seat:

"Let me tell you if I had had any inclination that John Huang would have raised foreign money, I would have personally walked him to the elevator and out of the building," said Richard Sullivan.

By the third day of Hearings, less than half of the 16 Senators on the Committee were present for testimony and gallery seats were empty. Lippo officials are slated to testify next week and are prepared to say they haven't a clue why Huang maintained contact with Lippo after he went to work for the DNC and Commerce. Our tax dollars at work.

11 JUL 97: As a result of the brutal upheaval in Cambodia, the US has suspended all aid to the tortured nation. Angkor Wat, the 12th century temple complex, experienced shelling; deaths and injuries were reported in Phnom Penh; and continued fighting in the north was reported. An ASEAN peace delegation is scheduled to arrive in Cambodia next week, while most foreign nations have recalled their people.

12 JUL 97: Legislateive Update: To contact your Senators and Representatives call them toll free at - 1-800-972-3524.

HR 409 passed the House as part of the FY '98 legislation. The next step - an imperitive one - is to insure the companion bill in Senate - S. 755, introduced by Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado - receives the co-sponsors needed. S. 755 currently sits with 8 co-sponsors. A minimum of 50 is needed.

S. 528 - The POW-MIA Recognition Act - also sponsored by Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, has 23 co-sponsors, and has been attached as an amendment (S.727) to the FY '98 Defense Authorization. This measure will insure that the POW-MIA flag is flown over predesignated sites (the White House, The Wall, US Post Office, etc...) on predetermined observances - Veterans Day, Memorial Day, and others. It is an important bill as it expands the visibility of the issue to show the POW-MIA flag in places it has never been seen before and insures that our Prisoners and Missing, who are most certainly veterans, are included during all veteran observances.

HR 1161 - The House companion bill to S. 528, currently has 47 co-sponsors.

H RES 16 - To convene a House POW-MIA Select Committee - is in it's third incarnation in the House. There are 5 co-sponors. Sponsor Congressman Peter King of NY, has just authored a 'Dear Colleague' letter.

13 JUL 97: Out of the blue, AP has written a piece about how 'difficult' it is to account for 'MIA' remains in Laos. The piece goes on to say that Live Sightings are a moot point, and that the only two live Americans seen by a witness, died. Nice and neat, it's another for-public-consumption finishing touch to shut down the issue. Laos, it should be noted, is slated to join ASEAN later this month.

14 JUL 97: Deja vu. While Madeleine Albright hugged and kissed her way through the Czech and Polish Republics... while Bill Clinton embraced them into NATO... Bob Smith and Malcolm Toon skittered off to Czechoslovakia, Poland and Russia for discussions on POW-MIAs and the 14th Plenary Session. Interesting timing. Here we have two of the most senior people in government doing the warm, fuzzy thing, and then, almost as an afterthought, the US-Russia Joint Commission turns up on the doorstep.

We hear that during the Czech leg of the trip, the US side was presented with 3 photos of of Korean War American POWs, and given a 'promise' of cooperation. The US SHOULD have made accountability a prerequisite for membership in NATO. Now with their new status guaranteed, there is no inducement for the Czech Republic or Poland to account for anything. The same thing was done two weeks ago with the North Korea talks and the Commission's announcement that there was 'no creidble evidence' of US POWs being transferred to the USSR from Korea. This is so reminiscent of the US scripting for Communist North Vietnam and Russia a couple of years back.

15 JUL 97: With the Governmental Affairs Hearings reconvening today, John Huang is expected to be the center of attention. As reported earlier, Huang used the offices of an Arkansas based-Lippo associated firm to make calls, and send and receive packages and faxes. Paula Green, secretary at the office is reported to have told investigators during a sowrn deposition that - "her superiors at Jackson Stephens told her that when calling Huang she should not reveal: her last name, the location of her office, her relationship to Jackson Stephens or the name of her boss at the time, Vernon Weaver, now U.S. ambassador to the European Union."

15 JUL 97: DPMO announced they have set up a base camp in Unsan Province in North Korea. This is the first leg of three planned Korean War excavations in the Communist country. In addition to three test excavations, the team is in the process of interviewing local people to ascertain mass graves and burial sites. Two additional excavations are planned for August and September.

16 JUL 97: Senator Bob Smith stated that Huang visited the Whitewash House 52 times in the employ of Lippo. In addition, Sandy Berger, former National Security Advisor, is alleged to have met with Huang after a hefty donation was made tot he DNC. It should be remembered that Berger played fireman during the Smith hold-out over the Lippo-Vietnam-Peterson Confirmation situation by providing the Senate with a neat little response to Smith's concerns.

17 JUL 97: DPMO announced they met with their Vietnamese counterparts, the Vietnamese Office Seeking Missing Persons, in Washington, De Ceit last week. VNOSMP is briefing DPMO on the Communist Vietnamese policy to document and recover US remains after the war.

19 JUL 97: Continued fighting in Cambodia have rendered the embattled country a war zone once again. People are fleeing while others are dying. Researchers had hoped to get into the Cambodian archives to try and determine what happened to 76 men known to have been taken POW or gone missing there. Unfortunately politics once again rears its ugly head and shoves this humanitarian issue onto the back burner.

20 JUL 97: Boasting 100 percent turnout in some regions, Communist Vietnam held its National Assembly elections. It is intriguing that a Communist country, with only ONE party allowed by law, is making such a big deal out of this. Even with the outcome guaranteed, Vietnamese residents were awakened and told to do their duty and go vote.

All 663 candidates were approved. So much for a growing 'democracy' in Communist Vietnam.

21 JUL 97: From DPMO - "DPMO OFFICIALS TO ATTEND KOREAN EX-POWS REUNION"
Two DPMO analysts will attend the 21st annual reunion of the Korean War ex-POW Association in Knoxville, Tenn. next week. The analysts will conduct oral history interviews with the former POWs and answer questions of interest to the Association members.

These fora provide an opportunity to interview former POWs and document details concerning POW movement after capture, prison camp structure and routines, information about prison camp deaths and information on POWs who are still unaccounted-for. To date, DPMO has conducted 186 interviews of former POWs. The details provided fill the gaps in U. S. knowledge of prison camp locations and other information which contributes to the accounting effort."

23 JUL 97: The Fox in charge of the Henhouse. Just two weeks into Hearings, Chairman Fred Thompson has let it be known he's lost confidence in the Just-Us Department and its 'investigation' into Campaign Finance abuses and 'adjusted' foreign policy.

Said Thompson, "I do not have confidence any more in the Justice Department's ability to carry out a credible investigation."

No wonder. Justice has been recalcitrant to allow even partial immunity, first to John Huang and now to a group of Buddhist nuns. They have also been quick to exonerate everyone and anyone who is suspected or known to have acted 'questionably' with respect to the issue of Vietnam, Lippo and POW-MIAs. If anyone doubts this, we suggest you review the Just-US response to Bob Smith after he requested 10 people be investigated following their SSC testimony. Another spectacular example is their so-called 'investigation' into the Ron Brown - Vietnam bruhaha.

23 JUL 97: Laos and Burma became full members of ASEAN today.

24 JUL 97: Stephen Solarz, former friend, and later foe of the POW-MIA issue, made his way to Cambodia. His trip was as special emissary in talks with Hun Sen, who took the battered country by storm under brute force. Solarz had previously met with royalist, Prince Ranariddh, who fled his country earlier in the month.

25 JUL 97: Seventeen MOCs from the House have demanded that Japan admit to and apologize for war crimes during WW II. The non-binding resolution requests that Japan apologize for its treatment of POWs, the Nanjing Massacre and Rape of the Nanjing Women and the Comfort Women Program. It also demands that Japan compensate victims of their horrific programs. The Whitehouse is opposed to the measure, stating that it would interfere with US-Japanese diplomatic ties.

26 JUL 97: In an ongoing battle to compensate Vietnamese Commandos who were imprisoned for their activities on behalf of the US, Congress has finally authorized payment. The authorization plan appeared in the Federal Register to solicit public comment. Only 150 of the original 500 Commandos survive. After capture, they remained as POWs for an average of 20 years each.

26 JUL 97: DPMO has published its new Recovery Directive, outlining their responsibilities for the recovery of personnel and remains. It addresses military, diplomatic, intelligence and Public Relations, as a means to achieve recovery and/or resolution.

27 JUL 97: Who owns the rights to the words, 'River Kwai?' Apparently Hollyweird thinks it does. A film based on the nearly 2,300 US POWs who died when the US Navy sunk a Japanese ship,unaware of the Prisoners on board, has been in litigation since 1988. Return From The River Kwai was shown abroad, but has been banned from distribution in North America. The reason? According to the distributioon companies, the people who made the original film, 'Bridge on the River Kwai', had not released the rights to use the words 'River Kwai.' Another reason? To not offend Japanese owned SONY, who now owns the film company. War is offensive. POWs being worked and beaten to death is offensive. And if ANYONE were to own the rights to those wrods... River Kwai... it should be the men who died there and those who survived. Once again the truth falls victim to politics. And it is always big business who has more rights and a right to exercise them, than anyone else.

28 JUL 97: Journalist Nate Thayer has been reported to have seen Pol Pot during the past week, in Anlong Veng, the Khmers Rouges stronghold in northern Cambodia. Pol Pot has not been seen by outsiders in over 18 years. At the same time, the clandestine Khmers Rouges radio has announced that Pol Pot, who it was hoped would be turned over for a War Crimes Tribunal, was sentenced locally to life imprisonment for his crimes against the Cambodian people. According to the broadcast, Pol Pot and several close associates were condemend and sentenced by 'thousands' of locals and that foreign journalists/observers saw the process. The region of Anlong Veng, long a Khmers stronghold, is still a no-man's land.

29 JUL 97: Top officials in Communist Vietnam have called for equality between the SRV and the US. In comments relating to US efforts to account for American POWs and MIAs and Agent Orange exposure, the SRV said, "International relations among countries, major and small alike, in the world must be equal." "They promised to pay more than 3 billion dollars, and have for more than 20 years now not paid a single cent but demand that we pay the debts they provided to the Saigon government to fight against our people."

And the former DRV promised to account for the 514 men who were taken Prisoner or went Missing in Laos, and for more than 20 years have failed to meet that promise.

30 JUL 97: S. 755, the POW-MIA Authority Act of 1997, needs Congressional support. In order to undo the damage created by the McCain/Smith Compromise, the new Bill needs to be passed in order to restore key provisions.

Although the House version, HR 409, passed the House as an attachment to the FY '98 Defense Budget Bill, it will have to be reconciled with the Senate version. Contact your Senators to support S. 755 and contact all House and Senate Committee members to insure that our service personnel are protected and their families have recourse.

30 JUL 97: REMINDER: 08/23/97 - Family Update - St. Paul, MN

POW-MIA Issue Update August 1997