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To: "Lynn O'Shea" <lynn@nationalalliance.org>

Subject: U.S. fails on Russia POW search - Our opportunity to do something

about it

Quoted by Bill Gertz, in his “Inside the Ring” column titled “U.S. fails on Russia POW Search, noted researcher and author Mark Sauter asks,

“I’d like to ask President Obama one question: Ex-Soviet officials admitted they took our Air Force pilots to Russia, and experts on the president’s own POW-MIA commission agreed it happened. So why – more than a decade later – don’t we have those men or their remains home?”

We should all be asking that question. We urge everyone to call the White House at 202-456-1111 or email the President from the White House comment page at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments (Remember to click the box requesting a reply.)

Let them know, we want a strong and revitalized U.S. Russian Joint POW/MIA Commission and we want our men back.

Full text from the December 11, 2012 Washington Times “Inside the Ring” column by Bill Gertz follows.

U.S. fails on Russia POW search

A joint U.S.-Russia presidential commission set up in 1992 to resolve cases of missing U.S. troops is largely defunct, another casualty of the administration’s questionable reset policy with Moscow, according to prisoner of war activist and author Mark Sauter.

Mr. Sauter says there is evidence that U.S. Air Force pilots were taken to Russia during the Korean War and never returned. “The U.S.-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIAs (USRJC), a presidential commission supported by the Pentagon, produced important information in the 1990s, but is now essentially defunct due to Russian foot-dragging and an absence of U.S. resolve,” he wrote in a blog post Tuesday.

Norm Kass, who once was a key official on the American side of the joint commission, said the Pentagon’s Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office failed to follow through on a Russia offer to restart POW cooperation in 2010.

“Why does the [2010] work plan that was developed – by the way, at the Russians’ suggestion and with their full concurrence – continue to lie fallow even though it offers the only serious, agreed-upon way of moving forward?” Mr. Kass, former head of the U.S. Joint Commission Support Directorate told Mr. Sauter.

According to a Pentagon fact sheet, Russia disbanded its participation in the commission in 2006 and blocked access by U.S. analysts to Russian archives. Then in January 2010, the Russians restored U.S. access to the archives. Six month later, then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev issued a decree setting up the Russian side of the commission again.

“I’d like to ask President Obama one question: Ex-Soviet officials admitted they took our Air Force pilots to Russia, and experts on the president’s own POW-MIA commission agreed it happened. So why – more than a decade later – don’t we have those men or their remains home?” Mr. Sauter told Inside the Ring.

Pentagon spokeswoman Maj. Carie Parker declined to address critics who say the Pentagon has not pursued work in the joint commission. “The U.S. government remains committed to the U.S.-Russia Joint Commission,” she said in a statement, adding that the Pentagon POW office “supports the Commission and Russia has granted access to some of its archival records. Both sides have active Commissioners.”

  
  
-- 
Lynn
 
Lynn O’Shea
Director of Research
National Alliance of Families
For the Return of America’s Missing Servicemen
World War II + Korea + Cold War + Vietnam + Gulf Wars + Afghanistan

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Read a Biography

The copper-stained skeleton 
by  Henry Mark Holzer
a Nov 2007 MUST READ

John McDonnell	Robert White	Kenneth Plumadore
Michael Speicher	Gary Labohn	Mark Judge
James Michael Ray	Henry Serex	Charles Shelton

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Read A Book:
Abandoned in Place Paperback – April 18, 2014 by Lynn M O'Shea "Abandoned in Place” provides a snapshot of the Vietnam POW/MIA issue. From the signing of the Paris Peace Accords, in January 1973, ending American involvement in the war in Southeast Asia to the "dysfunctional" POW/MIA accounting effort of 2014. With the period 1980 -1981 a clear line in the sand. As the U.S. government refocused its efforts from the rescue of surviving POWs to the recovery of remains. “Abandoned in Place” painstakingly details the intelligence available in 1980 that led to the conclusion American POWs survived in Laos, six years after the end of the Vietnam War. Using never before seen documents, the author reconstructs events leading up to a CIA reconnaissance mission, doomed from the start, to confirm the presence of POWs held deep in the Laotian jungle. As the CIA team headed toward the camp, members of the Joint Special Operation Command trained for a strike of surgical precision. Its mission rescue the POWs held at the camp known as Nhom Marrott. A lack of political will, bureaucratic failures, and leaks forced a stand-down order, condemning any surviving POWs. The author highlights the post Nhom Marrott government accounting effort, focusing on several specific POW/MIA cases. Crippled by a “mindset to debunk” officials ignored evidence of capture and survival in captivity. They edited witness statements to support pre-conceived conclusion of death and dismissed Vietnamese admissions of capture. This despite overwhelming evidence POWs not only survived but also continued to lay down signals in hopes of eventual rescue. Early Reviews - Col. Don Gordon (USA-Ret) Special Operations Command, J2 Director of Intelligence 1980-1983 – “O'Shea leads readers to form their own reasoned conclusions. She writes the most comprehensive and thoroughly researched compendium, private or government, classified or unclassified, about this complicated and emotional subject. It is an event long needed to be told accurately and with respect for the missing in action and their families. O'Shea is fidelis to that cause. She carefully distinguishes fact from speculation. Abandoned in Place is a meticulously detailed, thoroughly verified, and reliable story, well told. It describes plans to rescue about 35 United States Military servicemen strongly believed held in a prison camp in Laos in 1980. Step-by-step, O'Shea builds a strong case that some US military likely remained under North Vietnamese and Lao control after the war.” Former Senator and Vice-Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs Bob Smith - “Lynn O'Shea has provided the best in depth analysis ever written and brilliantly combined over 25 years of personal research, evidence and a chronological portrayal of the facts to prove, without any doubt, that America left men behind in Southeast Asia at the end of the Viet Nam War. When we were told that the North Vietnamese, Lao and Viet Cong had complied with the Paris Peace Accords in 1973 and returned all of our men, the evidence shows that was an outright lie and many of our government leaders and the intelligence community knew it.” Dr. Jeffrey Donahue, Brother of Major Morgan Donahue – “Lynn masterfully connects a mind-boggling array of dots to not only affirm the truth of the Indochina POW-MIA issue but also to rigorously convey how and why the U.S. government knowingly left men behind and then covered it up. Lynn has woven together tens of thousands of documents and countless hours of interviews to produce a cogent and unassailable profile of one of the most tragic episodes of modern American history. The how and why have never been so brilliantly researched, documented and conveyed.”
America's Abandoned Sons by Robert S Miller Review: By John Zimmerlee on August 19, 2012 Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase If you are passionate about the POW/MIA Issue, this book is a must read! The author exposes cover ups, lies, misinformation, deception, and abuse by our government. You will begin to see patterns that started in World War II and continued to present day. While the Department of Defense is claiming that other countries are withholding key information on what happened to our servicemen, the real truth is in still classified documents on the sixth floor of our own National Archives. Bob Miller exposes key documents that have slipped through the "Classified" barriers and he shares details that clearly defy the cover ups and misinformation spread by our government. You will be shocked by the numbers and impressed with his methodology. He documents sources and chronologically leads you through each event. This is not a fast read. In fact, I find myself rereading paragraphs in dismay ... and disgust! In my opinion, the most noble career anyone could choose . . . is defending our country. These men turn over their lives and follow orders in complete trust that they not only are defending our country, but also helping the world become a better place for all humanity. Can you imagine going to war, being captured, spending years in a prison camp, and then remaining in a POW camp after the war has ended until you die . . . just because your country felt it politically incorrect to save you? Bob Miller uncovers thousands of these cases! Even more intriguing is the exposure of millions of dollars being wasted by departments claiming to address the POW/MIA Issue. You will be introduced to individuals making huge salaries, taking expensive trips, telling lies, and covering up the lack of progress on the issue. You will also learn of a few individuals outside of the government slowly making a difference. Brace yourself. This book will stir up feelings of fear, anger, and frustration . . . like you've never felt before! ==================================================== AN ENORMOUS CRIME; The Definitive Account of US POWs Abandoned in SE Asia was published by St. Martin's Press. The authors, former US Congressman Bill Hendon and MIA daughter/lawyer Elizabeth A. Stewart, have now launched www.enormouscrime.com ============================= http://www.theconservativevoice.com/article/26085.html# by Henry Mark Holzer Vietnam POW/MIAs: An Enormous Conundrum June 20, 2007 02:00 PM EST An Enormous Crime: The Definitive Account of American POWs Abandoned in Southeast Asia, by Bill Hendon and Elizabeth A. Stewart (Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin’s Press) In the Twentieth Century the United States fought three wars in Asia: World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. In all three, thousands of Americans were captured and became prisoners. The fate of live American POWs in World War II was comparatively easy to establish, because the Japanese were vanquished, they surrendered unconditionally, and virtually all the territory they had occupied came under American or allied control. After the surrender, there were few, if any, places the Japanese could hide live American prisoners of war, nor any reason they would want to. Not so in North Korea, China, and the Soviet Union.......
SOLDIER DEAD "This superbly researched, beautifully written book should be read by every person in Washington with authority or responsibilities associated with American military forces and their families. This is a history that begged to be written out of loyalty to and respect for the American military men and women killed during their service in war or peace. No area of interest is left unexplored. This is an extraordinary book, written with compelling empathy, candor, and compassionate sensitivity." —Harold G. Moore, Lt. General, U.S. Army, Ret., coauthor of We Were Soldiers Once and . . . Young: Ia Drang-The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam NEW May 2005
Life on a Short Fuse  by Lt. Col. Jack Drain This dramatic cover-up from the Vietnam War has waited more than forty years to be revealed. Twelve U. S. Air Force fighter planes and twenty highly trained pilots were blown out of the sky near Danang, Vietnam, by US-made bombs with malfunctioning “short” fuses. Everybody knew about it, from the other fighter pilots to the Vietnam generals and higher military echelon, and surely all the way to President Lyndon B. Johnson. Why was it never reported in the media?  Why were these heroic martyrs brushed aside and forgotten? Why was the manufacturer never named or called to account? And why was the entire disaster covered up? Life on a Short Fuse is a 240-page hardcover book plus 16 pages of documented photos
FIRST HEROES, The Men We Left Behind by Rod Colvin Irvinton Press	KISS THE BOYS GOODBYE, How the United States Betrayed its own POWs in Vietnam by Monika Jensen-Stevenson & William Stevenson Dutton Press
THE BAMBOO CAGE, The Full Story of the American Servicemen Still Held Hostage in Southeast Asia by Nigel Cawthorne Leo Cooper Press	SOLDIERS OF MISFORTUNE, Washington's Secret Betrayal of American POWs in the Soviet Union by James Sanders, Mark A. Sauter, and R. Cort Kirkwood National Press Books
THE MEN WE LEFT BEHIND, The Abandonment of American POWs after the War by James D. Sanders and Mark A. Sauter National Press Books	MOSCOW BOUND, Policy, Politics and the POW/MIA Dilemma by John M.G. Brown
LAST SEEN ALIVE, The Search for Missing POWs from the Korean War by Laurence Jolidon	DEAD OR ALIVE, The Betrayal of American POWs after WWII, Korea, Vietnam by Robert Pelton
VETWRITER -- What was it like?? Books for students and the classroom.	STOLEN VALOR, How the Vietnam Generation was Robbed of its Heroes and its History by B.G. Burkett and Glenna Whitley
American War Library - Books for Libraries and Teachers THE VIETNAM WAR, LIFE AS A POW (one of a series - March 2001) by Diana Saenger and Bradley Steffens 1-888-408-3224, NOT available in bookstores	HONOR BOUND - The History of American Prisoners of War in Southeast Asia, 1961-1973 by Stuart Rochester and Frederick Kiley
	Aid & Comfort (hanoi jane)
ONE DAY TOO LONG - details the loss of LIMA SITE 85 in Laos by Dr. Timothy Castle	TRAILS OF DECEIT,  by Larry O'Daniel Author of MISSING IN ACTION; TRAIL OF DECEIT
Why Didn't You Get Me Out? Betrayal in the Viet Cong Death Camps, The Truth about Heroes, Traitors, & Those Left Behind by Frank Anton with Tommy Denton	More Than a Band of Metal  Loveletters from those who care
Voices of the Vietnam POW - Witnesses to their Fight by Craig Howes	or hundreds more found in libraries, bookstores or  on-line. Get ALL sides of the story and then make  up your own mind!!

SEE A MOVIE:
Hanoi Hilton	Tom Hanks Presents "Return With Honor"
Thin Red Line	Private Ryan

TAKE A STAND..............
"If you think you're too small to be effective, then you've never been in bed with a mosquito." Bette Reese	The corners of Hell are filled with those that would NOT TAKE A STAND.

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