Republicans Allege McCain Covered Up His Collaboration with the North Vietnamese While a POW

[babylonsister]

Republicans Allege McCain Covered Up His Collaboration with the North Vietnamese While a POW

By Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet. Posted September 21, 2008.

Allegations resurface that McCain made propaganda statements and tried to keep Viet Cong records about him classified.


A 1992 video featuring a Republican senator, Republican congressman and top Capitol Hill staffers who worked on Vietnam prisoner of war and missing in action issues say John McCain collaborated with North Vietnamese while a POW, and then covered up that involvement to the detriment of POW/MIA families seeking access to classified Pentagon records about their own family members.

Watch the Video at link~

The video raises probing questions about the 2008 Republican presidential nominee's war record, especially after McCain made his captivity a major part of his qualifications for the presidency at the Republican National Convention. In 2004, the GOP focused on Democratic nominee John Kerry's war record to criticize his candidacy.

To date, the video has been posted on a handful of blogs but has been ignored by the mainstream media. While it features Republican stalwarts on POW/MIA issues, it also suggests that McCain's war records at the Pentagon and in North Vietnam would reveal potentially very controversial details about the GOP's presidential candidate.

The nearly eight-minute video is posted on YouTube under "Vietnam Veterans Against McCain." It begins with the title, "1992 Senate Select Committee on POW/MIAs," and features ex-Sen. Bob Smith (R-NH), Rep. Robert Dornan (R-CA), senate staffers Tracy Usry, James Lucier, and military family members Lynn O'Shea, of the National Alliance of Families and retired Army Cpl. Bob Dumas, whose brother was a POW lost in the Korean War, and Joseph Douglass, Jr., author of Betrayed, about America's missing POWs. The video has no author credits.

more...

http://www.alternet.org/election08/99663/republicans_allege_mccain_covered_up_his_collaboration_with_the_north_vietnamese_while_a_pow/

[jeff30997]

1. Thanks for the link babylonsister.

Another reason to love McCrap.

[vaberella]

2. This is truly an area that I don't think would be safe for Dems to tread into.

I know there are some doubts, some questions. But it's such a dangerous topic and he made his career on this...These scandals are outrageous and might be true just the same. Meh...I can't focus on it considering I find it a distraction on what really is the issue and what can have McCain lose the elections, like his major quality "gaffe" on healthcare.

[babylonsister]

6. "he made his career on this" But what if it's all a lie? Don't we deserve

to know that? As usual, the question is, what's he hiding?

There's not enough time to get to the bottom of this, but I don't see how it could hurt to bring up some questions, especially those he's so unwilling to answer.

What's He Hiding?

[vaberella]

10. Agreed, agreed. I'm really on the fence on this. n/t

[roguevalley]

15. thanks, babylonsister.someone on here the last time this came up

poo-pooed it even though it is highly likely, given his cowardice in other areas, that he covered this up. I don't hold someone responsible for having a breaking point, I think the military code of honor on this issue is crap. People are frail and bend and snap. That is not the problem. Not owning up to it and making yourself The Veteran, that is. Its like bush.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

16. IMO, this is something to keep researching but not push unless needed in the last 10 days

or so of the campaign.

IMO the Rs are so desperate now about McCain's filp-flopping on financial matters that they'll let ANYTHING push McCain's incompetence off the front page, even this. We must stay on message. Remember the sign on the front wall of Carville and Greenberg's "War Room" in 1992?

[ProgressiveEconomist]

17. Some great links on McP.O.Dubya's undisclosed Navy records file and McCain's

long Senate fight against MIA families are at http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=7024219&mesg_id=7024790 .

[formercia]

14. If McCain is a TRAITOR, he should be outed as such.

The people deserve to know.

If it is true, he could be blackmailed. It would also disqualify him for a security clearance.

This is a legitimate National Security issue.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

3. This IMHO is fair game!!!!

[Coexist]

4. We can win without going here, this can only help McCain.

[pnwmom]

11. They went after Kerry with lies. Why can't we seek the truth about McCain? n/t

[Coexist]

12. because the standard for us is different if you haven't noticed, they have a coordinated

noise machine. We can take McCain down with the economy and his flubs.

This could just be a distration that makes people feel sorry for McCain and increase Obama's negatives.

[pleah]

5. K&R He is definitely hiding something,

there is no other reason to hide those records. IMO.

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. The Republicans swiftboated McCain in 1992?

[babylonsister]

9. It's not considered swiftboating if it's the truth. nt

[doc03]

18. I think that was one of the things

Bush used against him in NC in 1992. Another one was the telephone calls they made asking people if they knew he fathered his black daughter. The Republicants can get away with that stuff but I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole.

[pnwmom]

8. K & R. n/t

[Jennicut]

13. This is the same territory of swiftboating as Kerry, these guys never liked McCain either

They are not on our side, they are mad that Kerry and McCain helped Clinton lift the trade embargo with Vietnam in the 1990's. Please don't go there. McLiar can be shown as a liar and unstable without this. We would be helping the same guys who hurt John Kerry and that does not sit right with me at all.

[kath]

19. K & R The truth about McCain needs to finally come tto the surface.

It's not the deed, it's the coverup.
Rare indeed is the person who won't give in to torture - most people under torture will eventually say or do whatever is needed to make the torture stop.
But for McCain to cause pain to other POW/MIA families in order to cover up his OWN behavior is just plain wrong.