
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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