REPORTS, DOCUMENTS, FILES

Sent: Saturday, April 04, 2009 6:09 PM

Subject: Military Personnel Subcommittee / POW/MIA

Thursday, April 2, 2009 2:00pm 2212 Rayburn – Open

The Military Personnel Subcommittee will meet to receive testimony on improving recovery and full accounting of POW/MIA personnel from all past conflicts.

· Subcommittee Chairwoman Davis’ Opening Statement

· Video Webcast Part 2 Part 3

Witnesses:

Panel 1:

Mr. Michael H. Wysong (pdf)
Director of National Security and Foreign Affairs

Veterans of Foreign Wars

Mr. Philip D. Riley (pdf)
Director

National Security and Foreign Relations
The American Legion

Ms. Ann Mills Griffiths (pdf)

Executive Director

National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia

Ms. Lisa Phillips (pdf)
President
WWII Families for the Return of the Missing

Ms. Lynn O’Shea (pdf)

Director of Research
National Alliance of Families

Mr. Frank Metersky (pdf)
Washington Liaison
Korea Cold War Families of the Missing

Ms. Robin Piacine (pdf)

President
Coalition of Families of Korean and Cold War POW/MIAs

Mr. Ron Broward (pdf)

POW/MIA Advocate

Panel 2:

The Honorable Charles A. Ray (pdf)

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/Missing Personnel Affairs

U.S. Department of Defense

Rear Admiral Donna L. Crisp, USN (pdf)

Commander, Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command

U.S. Department of Defense

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

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. .....

"There is evidence; moreover, that indicates the possibility of survival, at least for a small number, after Operation Homecoming."

This one sentence has always struck us as rather abstract, giving the impression that the Committee's conclusion was based on the overwhelming body of evidence but without specific information on individual servicemen. This has left us wondering and asking over the years, what is a small number? We recently learned the answer to our question. The small number is…

BOOK REVIEW - A must read
Vietnam POW/MIAs: An Enormous Conundrum
The Conservative Voice - Kernersville , NC , USA
An Enormous Crime: The Definitive Account of American POWs

Abandoned in Southeast Asia, by Bill Hendon and Elizabeth A. Stewart

(Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin’s Press)

In the Twentieth Century the United States fought three wars in Asia: World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. In all three, thousands of Americans were captured and became prisoners.

The fate of live American POWs in World War II was comparatively easy to establish, because the Japanese were vanquished, they surrendered unconditionally, and virtually all the territory they had occupied came under American or allied control. After the surrender, there were few, if any, places the Japanese could hide live American prisoners of war, nor any reason they would want to........

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE REVIEW - Vietnam POW/MIAs: An Enormous Conundrum

Verbatim Transcript
July 10, 2008
House of Representatives
Committee on Armed Services, Subcommittee on Military Personnel
Committee Hearing