The "war hero" candidate buried information about POWs left behind in Vietnam

[Ghost in the Machine]

McCain and the POW Cover-up

The "war hero" candidate buried information about POWs left behind in Vietnam

Research support provided by the Investigative Fund of The Nation Institute. This is an expanded version, with primary documents attached, of a story that appears in the October 6, 2008 issue of The Nation.

By Sydney H. Schanberg
September 18, 2008

John McCain, who has risen to political prominence on his image as a Vietnam POW war hero, has, inexplicably, worked very hard to hide from the public stunning information about American prisoners in Vietnam who, unlike him, didn't return home. Throughout his Senate career, McCain has quietly sponsored and pushed into federal law a set of prohibitions that keep the most revealing information about these men buried as classified documents. Thus the war hero who people would logically imagine as a determined crusader for the interests of POWs and their families became instead the strange champion of hiding the evidence and closing the books.

Almost as striking is the manner in which the mainstream press has shied from reporting the POW story and McCain's role in it, even as the Republican Party has made McCain's military service the focus of his presidential campaign. Reporters who had covered the Vietnam War turned their heads and walked in other directions. McCain doesn't talk about the missing men, and the press never asks him about them.

The sum of the secrets McCain has sought to hide is not small. There exists a telling mass of official documents, radio intercepts, witness depositions, satellite photos of rescue symbols that pilots were trained to use, electronic messages from the ground containing the individual code numbers given to airmen, a rescue mission by a special forces unit that was aborted twice by Washington—and even sworn testimony by two Defense secretaries that "men were left behind." This imposing body of evidence suggests that a large number—the documents indicate probably hundreds—of the US prisoners held by Vietnam were not returned when the peace treaty was signed in January 1973 and Hanoi released 591 men, among them Navy combat pilot John S. McCain.

Mass of Evidence

The Pentagon had been withholding significant information from POW families for years. What's more, the Pentagon's POW/MIA operation had been publicly shamed by internal whistleblowers and POW families for holding back documents as part of a policy of "debunking" POW intelligence even when the information was obviously credible.

http://www.nationinstitute.org/p/schanberg09182008pt1

[karynnj]

1. This has already been posted tens of times - and it is a very extreme article

The POW/MIA committee was headed by Kerry and the ranking member was Smith, a very conservative NH Senator, who came in believing these stories. The committee included most of the Vietnam vets in the Senate. It was viewed as a no win situation by most of the committee members (That's why McCain was not the ranking member, he declined to be.)

They set up the most thorough investigation of its kind and they and the investigators who did the detailed searches in Vietnam could not find any proof that American POWs were kept after the war. That was the conclusion of their report and it was agreed to by all the Senators, including Smith. They did investigate all the "sightings" and gave special attention to the areas where there were many of them. Kerry negotiated the ability to go anywhere without prior approval. Kerry also pushed them to undertake a more concerted effort to repatriate remains. (Like when Dean's family had his brother's remains returned in late 2003) At this point, there are more MIA from Korea than Vietnam.

The committee proved that a photo that purported to show American POWs still in captivity that was on the cover of Newsweek was shown to be not Americans and not in Vietnam. They also showed that many people were using the situation to scam money that was mostly not used for any Vietnam investigation.

[Howardx]

2. do you have a link?

for this?

" committee proved that a photo that purported to show American POWs still in captivity that was on the cover of Newsweek was shown to be not Americans and not in Vietnam."

[Ghost in the Machine]

4. Do they *ever*? n/t

[sandnsea]

5. 13 years of repatriating remains

http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/vietnamwar/vietnam_collection_study1.pdf

Where are these captive POWs? Not one since normalization?

[karynnj]

7. Here is a link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senate_Select_Committee_on_POW/MIA_Affairs

[barbtries]

3. have you read the article in its entirety?

i found it to be very credible.

[karynnj]

6. Yes I did and I also read the similar article that he wrote in 2004

He is a reporter who did an excellent job when he worked for the NYT and reported on Cambodia. Here these things have been debunked years ago - which is why he has has difficulty, even as a Pulitzer Prize winner, getting articles on it published.

The big problem with his story is that it is completely unlikely
1) There is a significantly lower number of MIA from Vietnam than elsewhere - and it continues to decrease as more remains are repatriated
2) The cost to Vietnam of secretly keeping these men for generation would be high - with food, shelter, guards etc. They could not be put to work or their presence would be known. They also were never used as bargaining chips. What would the reason be?
3) CSPAN had a multihour show that showed what the Senators did traveling to areas where these sightings were alleged to have occurred and they had permission to go everywhere.
4) For many of the Senators there, going back to Vietnam was difficult - In the CSPAN show he spoke of his own feelings and then alluded to Kerry having had worse experiences in the area they were then working in. These trips were obviously physically and emotionally difficult for the Senators. They were doing it because of the possibility it was true and to help heal the wounds at home and in Vietnam.

[Ghost in the Machine]

8. kick

[OakCliffDem]

9. Kick