
Napa Sentinel April 28, 1992 Copyrighted


What a privately financed POW expedition found
                  Harry Martin
               Twelfth in a series

Members of the U.S. Senate Committee of POW/MIAs returned to
the United States today. They are prepared to make a
statement, according to government sources, which indicates
that there are no American POWs alive in Southeast Asia.
Despite all the evidence it has received and flying  in the
face of the U.s. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
report of POW/MIAs, the Select Committee will end its
investigation. The Select Committee will hold a news
coverage with credentialed press only, excluding family
members of POWs. They have also indicated that over 500
pilots being held in Laos were executed years ago and were
held by renegade groups and not government units. The
SENTINEL reported a few months ago that this would be the
official government line.

The Senate Comdex report is the forerunner of the United
States clearing the way for normalization of relations with
Vietnam. The rush to normalize is to obtain lucrative oil
contracts and military bases in Vietnam. The United States
sought such lucrative oil contracts three decades ago, but
the North Vietnamese government rejected the American
proposal. After that rejection, the United States government
increased pressure on the North Vietnamese which resulted in
the war. The overall purpose of the American effort was to
bring Vietnam down economically and now it has been
successful. Vietnam is bankrupt and can no longer rely on
the Soviets for economic support. Normalization will provide
Vietnam with needed cash and the Americans with oil.

Last week, the NAPA SENTINEL revealed top secret
communications between the American Embassy in Bangkok to
the Intelligence Unit of the Guatemala Embassy to U.S.
Military in the United States. In one of the top secret
cables dated April 15, which confirms the existence of POWs
and MIAs in Southeast Asia and is concerned with
privately-financed groups attempts to extract them, the
cable reads, "Hatchet remains in place. Will continue to
provide ELINT (electronic intelligence)."

The SENTINEL has obtained a sworn affidavit from John
Thompson - code name Hatchet Jack. The affidavit was made in
Olongapo, Republic of the Philippines. Hatchet Jack is the
person identified in the top secret governments as being the
person who remains in place.

Hatchet Jack is also associated with the privately financed
expedition which was seeking to recover 10 live POWs. The
team is reportedly in place in Hanoi. The team, itself, is
confused as to why Hatchet Jack even made a sworn statement.
The statement provides a key insight to the entire mission
which was originally in Vietnam in February.

On February 3, Hatchet Jack was recruited as a volunteer by
Lt. Col. James "Bo" Gritz, (U.S. Army Special Forces,
retired). Gritz is also mentioned in the top secret
government documents as being the source for reliable
electronic intelligence and regular intelligence to the U.S.
government. The government documents would, therefore,
indicate that Gritz is working against his own team, not for
it.

Hatchet Jack indicates that the operation was a special
mission to liberate American prisoners presently being held
captive in Southeast Asia. "My partner was Mr. Robert
Keplinger," Hatchet Jack stated. Keplinger is also noted in
the top secret documents, which states, "Keplinger group
neutralized and penetrated." Keplinger was a former
intelligence officer for the operation and Hatchet Jack was
his assistant and the security man. Keplinger was a former
captain in the Fifth Special Forces in Vietnam. Hatchet Jack
is a retired sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps and served in
Vietnam.

On February 3, Hatchet Jack and Keplinger were dispatched to
Thailand in pursuit of a report of six American POWs that
were said to be accessible in Laos. "We arrived in Bangkok
and made rendezvous with another agent of Vietnamese decent.
We were instructed to wait in Bangkok until arrangements
could be made for a meeting with the responsible persons
said to have access to the reported six American POWs,"
Hatchet Jack stated. "After a period of about four days, Bob
and I were then dispatched by our Vietnamese source to Udorn
Thany, East Thailand. We moved during the time of the
Chinese New Year to cover ourselves and avoid detection. We
arrived safely in Udorn and without detection. We checked
into a local  hotel and made arrangements for a meeting room
in another hotel -- the Charden Hotel."

The next morning at 10 o'clock, the two man team
rendezvoused with their Vietnamese contact in the lobby of
the Charden Hotel. Several other Asian men were in
attendance at the meeting. (The second page of the six page
affidavit was not transmitted to the SENTINEL and it is
necessary to jump forward from the meeting.) "We also
provided the name of four of six American POWs who were said
to be held on Savoy Island in Vinh Bay, North Vietnam. The
four American names were:

~Major Albro Lundy, Jr., USAF, captured October 12, 1969.
(His name appears on the top secret government cables.)

~ Commander Larry Stevens, USN, captured February 11, 1969.
(His name appears on the top secret government cables.)

~ E-4 Auskel C. Lawrence, USA, captured November 12, 1968.

~ Colonel John Robertson, USAF, captured September 16, 1966.
(His name appears on the top secret government cables.)"

Hatchet Jack named the Asians who were meeting with the
two-member team. They included a Laotian investor, a boat
captain, and two Thai attorneys who were making the bank
account exchange agreements. "The plan was that the entire
six POWs were to be brought to Savoy Island by the camp
commander and his wife, and children - 30 defecting
Vietnamese. They were to be transported by boat  to the
mainland and transported across Vietnam via Highway 8 and 13
into Laos. They would be exchanged at Pak Sane, Laos. The
convoy is one used weekly to carry marijuana which is
exported  to Hong Kong and Singapore.

The financial negotiations, as originally reported in the
SENTINEL in February, was for $250,000 for each American
POW. "All six POWs were to be brought out. The price was
agreed upon by both sides. The two Thai attorneys were to
set up foreign bank accounts for exchange of money,"
Hatchet Jack stated. "More physical evidence was also to be
provided on all six American POWs by the Vietnamese and
Laotian officials."

Hatchet Jack indicates that the Asian officials were to
provide the team within one month, photographs of all six
POWs, voice recording and a series of provided questions
that only the POWs could possibly answer themselves." A fee
of $3000 was provided the Asian officials in order to
provide the information. "We were told that this could be
accomplished in 30 days with no problem," he said. Keplinger
returned to the United States and provided testimony to the
U.S. Senate Select Committee on POW/MIAs. "I was to wait in
the Philippines, three hours away from Thailand by air and
to await further would Bo or Bob to return in 30 days to
intercept the physical evidence that was to be provided by
the Vietnamese and Laotians."

Hatchet Jack stated, "The call never came for me to return
to Thailand, rather on a subsequent mission I learned that
the Laotian representative who claimed to be a Free Laotian
Resistance fighter turned out to be an agent for General
Vang Pao, who  is in alliance with the American CIA. My
partner, Bob, also informed me that when he returned to the
United States he was visited at the office by CIA agents who
offered to recruit him into the agency. Bob refused."

What proof does Jack have? "This information can be
confirmed not only by the photograph of Colonel John
Robertson, Major Albro Lundy, and Commander Larry Stevens,
released to the press by retired Navy CAptain Eugene "Red"
McDaniel of the American Defense Institute on 20 July 1991,
but also by :

~Video tapes of both meetings Bob and I had with the men
mentioned in this sworn affidavit. Also fingerprints and
letters written by POWs, which can be confirmed through
handwriting analysis.

~ A personal source of mine, which I cannot and will not
provided, which verified to me the fact that USAF
intelligence had intercepted message traffic over the
airways that the Vietnamese had custody of and mentioned by
name the same POWs of which my source made positive
identification of by comparing the names I gave him to the
lists of names that had been intercepted by USAF
intelligence the USAF was told by U.S. government officials
to take no action."

Hatchet Jack also points to a special North Vietnamese
newspaper (Police Issue) published during the week of March
20-26, 1991, which features an article entitle THE TRUTH
ABOUT AMERICAN POWS IN VIETNAM. The newspaper features a
photograph and a handwritten letter of American POW Walter
T. Robinson. the letter was dated 25 April 1990. Robinson
was captured April 1, 1969. The newspaper printed
information on other POWs -- James C. Johnson, Andrew C.
Dieterman, and Russell P. Bott. These are not actually POWs,
but resistance fighters.

Hatchet Jack reports that he provided this information to
the Defense Intelligence Agency and they did nothing about
it. "I am able to testify before the committee at any time
and I am willing to be subject to a polygraph test," he
said.

Hatchet Jack explained in private correspondence to a family
of a POW, that, "The purpose of that affidavit was to pass
it with other supporting information through a Swiss contact
to the International Red Cross in Geneva, Switzerland, in an
attempt to get them to take action on the matter, which they
had promised to do previously. The results were, negative. I
am now in another identical project/attempt with Amnesty
International, which also has an office in Geneva,
Switzerland."

                           (to be continued)

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