[NAP0317A.TXT 03/22/92]

THE NAPA SENTINEL TUESDAY MARCH 17, 1992

SENATE REPORT REVEALS POWs FROM WWII STILL HELD By Harry V.
Martin First in a Series Copyright, Napa Sentinel, 1991(sic)

The chief of the Special Office for POWs and MIAs resigned
last year, stating that the highest officials in the United
States government were committing a travesty and even a
cover-up.  Colonel Mike Peck resigned as head of the special
unit of the Defense Intelligence Agency because he believed
that evidence was sufficient to show American POWs were
still alive in Southeast Asia.

A special Congressional Select Committee, in a report dated
May 23, 1991, revealed not only were American POWs still
alive from the Vietnam War, but that 25,000 American POWs
from World War II were transferred from German POW camps to
Siberia.  In 1975, an escapee from a Soviet labor camp in
Siberia reported that he was held with 900 American POWs -
POWs from World War II, Korean and Southeast Asia.  In fact,
there report indicated the Soviet were holding American POWs
from World War I.

Yet for political reasons, none have been returned to the
United States. For many years they have been reported
sightings of American POWs in Southeast Asia, but in every
case the United States government has denied that any
American POWs are alive in Vietnam of Laos today.  In all,
there were over 70,000 missing Americans in World War II,
10,000 from the Korean War, and 2,200 in Vietnam.  The KGB
reports interrogating American POWs long after the Vietnam
War concluded.

There is a split in government - many military insiders know
there are still POWs in Vietnam and support any effort -
government-financed or privately-financed - to repatriate
these long-held prisoners.  Yet, the higher echelons in
government does not support the military contention. Former
Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency Eugene Tighe,
Jr., has always insisted that POWs remain in Vietnam.  Tighe
has never abandoned this belief.  (Note: Tighe was the
chairman of the board of Defense System Review - the
international military magazine owned by this writer form
1983-1985.)  Colonel Peck surrendered a promising career
over the same issue.

One of the key figures in the U. S. government's POW
negotiation efforts was Richard Armitage - who worked for
the Defense Intelligence Agency. his mission was to find and
repatriate POWs Yet Armitage has been accused by the Golden
Triangle's biggest drug lord of being the top drug dealer
for the United States in Southeast Asia.  The drug lord
indicated that some U.S. POWs were used as virtual slave
labor in the drug trafficking.  Approximately 90 percent of
the heroin trade between the Golden Triangle and the United
States was sanctioned by the Central Intelligence Agency.
The drugs were used - in part  - to finance covert military
operations in Central American.  A direct violation of
Congressional edicts that no military aid be sent to Central
America. They were creating a secret military slush fund
from the drug sales.

When George Bush was vice president he issued a report that
a least five POWs were alive in Vietnam and indicated there
were at least 70 others.

French television reports at least 72 American POWs in three
camps in southern Vietnam.  There have been unconfirmed
reports that American POWs are being held on Guam, Hawaii
and a few location within the United States.  There are also
unconfirmed reports that many were shipped to North Korea.

There have been too many sightings, too many reports from
military, Russian, Laotian and Vietnamese officials to write
off all American POWs as dead.  But that has been the
official policy of the United States government from
Presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George Bush.
Even Presidents Harry Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower had to
grapple with the Soviet imprisonment of thousands of
American POWs once held by the Germans.

A privately financed expedition has claimed that it has
retrieved 10 American POWs in Southeast Asia.  Once word was
received of their mission, the United States has sent in a
large contingent to find the private team.  In return, more
privately financed personnel have been sent to Southeast
Asia to bolster the size of the original team in case of
conflict with the official U.S. forces.  One unconfirmed
report claims that the families of the 10 POWs have been
notified.  According to the leader of the group,
arrangements have been made to bring family members over to
Southeast Asia to be reunited with their loved ones held
captive for so many years.  A television satellite uplink
might be attempted to broadcast to the world the freeing of
the 10 POWs along with the reuniting of them with their
families.

Though the mission was covert, the leaders of the privately
financed team did not object to the recent publicity it
received.  When a Frenchman associated with the expedition
broke the secrecy of the operation on French television -
later to be interviewed by the Boston Glove and the Senate
Select Committee, as well as the Defense Intelligence Agency
- the team leaders felt that shedding public light on the
expedition might be the best insurance to assure its
success.  The operation began in August with a special Hanoi
mission on January 15.

The team reports it has successfully withdrawn the POWs from
Vietnam. The team does not specify where they are now
located.  French Intelligence has notified the team that at
least four U.S. operatives are in the area in search of the
team.  "We are going to win this thing," the leader of the
expedition stated, "despite the competition." He indicated
that when the POWs arrive safely, it will "blow the lid off
of Washington".  He also indicated, "We have become more
visible than we wanted."  He indicates that about 300
American POWs are still alive in the Vietnam Laos area.  he
said that this was the first time - to his knowledge - that
an American team has actually seen, heard, touched and
spoken with American POWs.

The Vietnamese government is in a Catch 22 position.  In
1973 President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger promised
the Vietnamese $3.25 billion over a five year period.  With
the agreement, Hanoi released 591 POWs. But the United
States reneged on its financial promise.  The Vietnamese
held the POWs.  They did a similar thing at the end of the
French-Indo China War.  Some French POWs were not returned
until 10, 15, and 20 years later.  Some prisoners from that
war were not released until 35 years later.  But right now
Mobil Oil Company is seeking off-shore oil rights and the
U.S. government wants to move its military and naval units
form the Philippines to Vietnam.  The U. S. government could
pressure Hanoi to hold or release POWs - which ever fits its
policy. "Our team is trying to bring the POWs home," the
expedition leader stated, "but the Executive Branch of our
government is trying to bury them."

A ham radio broadcast last week indicated the 10 American
POWs being freed by the privately financed group, have left
Vietnam.  The organizers indicated Monday that the POWs were
out of Vietnam.  One Congressman's office indicated that the
POWs may now be in Burma.  All this information is
unconfirmed.

But if the U.S. government is involved in a major cover-up
on the POW issue, as claimed by several military officials,
what would be the government's reason for not wanting POWs
released?

                (To be continued Friday)

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