MJL NATIONAL FORGET-ME-NOTS ASSOCIATION For POW-MIAs Inc. New Jersey Chapter... 528 Westfield Avenue Elizabeth, N.J. 07208 (908) 355-2793 FAX: (908) 289-6755 Computer BBS (908) 787-8383 August 1992 ISSUE TWENTY-TWO A nonprofit volunteer organization dedicated to resolving the POW issue --- Dear Members, In the last week, there has been a tremendous amount of progress achieved in the POW issue due to a Senate Resolution (that passed unanimously) requesting President to declassify all documents pertaining to our POWs. The President agreed, and over 1.3 million documents will be released. One of the first was the "Brooks Documents". (Refer to article in Newsletter.) As we receive these documents, we will make them available to our membership. My next remarks are about the demonstration by the family members while President George Bush addressed the annual meeting. Declassified documents are now proving that our government has callously lied to and emotionally abused these families for years by conducting an unorganized, underfunded half-rate effort to gain the release of our POWs. Over 50 family members stood up and yelled "No more lies", and the President was forced to stop his speech for five minutes on what a good job he was doing for the POWs. As the demonstration continued, he was forced to turn to Board Member Jeff Donahue who told the President that the families had had enough lies. No one felt good about embarrassing the President, but it was long overdue for the people in this Country to find out the frustrations that the families have and are enduring. The President's response was, as I am sure you all know by now, "SHUT UP AND SIT DOWN!" How sad that our President could be so insensitive! He should apologize to the families for that remark and over 25 years of lies! Remember....Bush was in charge of the CIA in 1976! Sincerely, Daniel Wood State Chairman REPORT ON THE ANNUAL ALLIANCE OF FAMILIES MEETING.... I would like to discuss a recent trip that Jim Bauer and I made to Washington, DC for the Annual Meeting that was hosted by the National Alliance of Families.... The meeting was open to all activists and family members. There were over 500 in Attendance. Guest speakers included Senator Bob Smith (R/NH) and Senator John Kerry (D/MA). The forum lasted three days and covered those missing from World War II, Korea, the Cold War and Vietnam. The first speakers were Senators Kerry and Smith: Smith received a standing ovation; Kerry did not. Although we believe that the Senate Select Committee is doing a good job, it could be much better. Senator Smith is definitely the driving force behind the Committee's work. The Committee has been promised full disclosure of documents from all government agencies, according to an Executive Order signed by the President on July 22nd. Over 1.3 million documents are being released. The meeting was organized by Dolores Alfond, Ted Sampley, Homecoming II, and John Le Boutillier. Homecoming II and the National Forget-Me-Nots of New Jersey financed the costs of the meetings. At the end of the first meeting, the family members felt that it was important to our POWs to stage a demonstration when the President addressed the families on July 24th. We salute the courage of everyone who participated in this show of support for our POWs. It was a hard decision for people to make because they are good American citizens who are God-fearing and respectful of our Country and its institutions, including the Presidency. This was the 23rd. National meeting of POW families, and they are sick and tired of hearing the President say that the issue is of the highest National Priority. CONGRATULATIONS and our thanks to the following Guest Speakers: -- Cort Kirkwood, Pulitzer Prize nominee and co-author (Soldiers of Misfortune). -- John Le Boutillier, former Congressman (NY) -- Dave Hendricks, investigative reporter, Riverside, CA Press-Enterprise -- Tom Ashworth, independent researcher of National Archives documents on World II, Korea and Vietnam POWs. -- Nigel Cawthorne, documentary producer, author (Bamboo Cage). -- Al Santoli, author, contributing editor, Parade Magazine. -- Mark Sauter, investigative reporter, co-auther (Soldiers of Misfortune). -- Susan Mesinai, Director, A.R.K. Project -- Mikhail (Misha) Kazachkov, co-founder of A.R.K. Project. GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS: -- Edward W. Ross, Director, OSD/ISA -- Office of POW/MIAs. -- Alan Ptak, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/MIA Affairs, Ambassador Malcolm Toon, Chairman, US/Russian Joint Commission on POW/MIA, Presidential Emissary to Russia. ---------------------------------------------------------- U.S. NEWS and World Report July 20, 1992 NEW POW EVIDENCE: THE `CLUSTERS' THEORY.... Senate investigators have cataloged hundreds of alleged sightings of American prisoners of war in Indochina and highlighted a dozen "clusters" or locales where there is the greatest possibility that POWs were held over long periods, according to sources close to the committee (related Item, Page 20). Some panel members argue that the amount of concentrated evidence from so many unrelated sources helps prove that some POWs were not brought home after the Vietnam War ended in 1973. But Defense Intelligence Agency analysts still in- sist there is no evidence to support claims that Americans were left behind. Here are the areas deemed most credible by investigators for the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs: 1. Route 19-Mong Khoa. Twelve reports from 1973 to the mid-80s alleged that five POWs were housed in camps. One Laotian who told of seeing Americans passed two polygraph tests but was branded a fabricator by the DIS when he had trouble with U.S. police after immigrating here. 2. Son La. Six sightings between 1976 and 1981 from unrelated sources gave very similar details about a prison holding between 40 and 70 Americans. 3. Son Tay. This region held several notorious prison camps during the war, one of which was the target of a failed U.S. rescue mission in 1971. There have been several dozen POW reports since the war. 4. Hanoi-Ha Dong. Richly detailed sightings have focused on POWs being held in a prison near Ho Chi Minh's tomb on Ly Nam De Street in downtown Hanoi over a period of several years. 5. Dong Dang-Route 83. One satellite picture in 1975 showed a "K" -- and Air Force sympbol for "pilot in distress" --- in Morse Code made out of roof tiles on top of a reputed prison. Seventeen reports from people in the region put the prison total at about 40. 6. Thanh Hoa. Twenty-six sighting reports allegedly put a handful of Americans here. 7. Sam Nua. A Jan.22, 1988, satellite photo of a rice paddy showed the letters "USA" plus a "K" symbol. Ninety-one reports referred to POWs, ranging from small groups to groups of more than 100. 8. Plain of Jars. Hmong tribesman claimed that they saw small groups of Americans near Route 7. 9. Nhommarath. The site of a failed search mission in early 1981, this region had 11 reports of American POWs, satellite photos of a "K" sign, and "52" and a radio intercept allegedly referring to "American" prisoners being transferred to the area. 10. Tchepone-Route 9. About 40 sightings in early 1980s were made here. 11. Attapu. In the late 1980s, a U.S.-sponsored intelligence "control source" was sent into this region to check out several dozen reports of POWs, but his reputed confirmation of POW camps was rejected as not credible. 12. Pleiku. Sighting reports suggested that Americans were moved here from northern Vietnam after the Chinese invaded in 1979. The DIA's analysts have dismissed every sighting as either a fabrication, an unsubstantiated tale or an otherwise explianable event. By Harrison Rainie ----------------------------- THE STAR-LEDGER, Tuesday, July 28, 1992 By Sydney Schanberg THE `WATCHDOG' THAT WON'T BARK... The Press is complicit in Washington's coverup of Live POWs.... One of the reasons why the truth has never been pried loose about Vietnam MIAs---many of whom were knowingly left behind by Washington and some of whom are likely still alive today---has to do with the failure of the nation's key media organizations to make the missing men a major issue. Instead, the prestige press-both the powerhouse newspapers and the television networks---have largely bought the government's line. It is a line that, for nearly 20 years, through five presidencies, has wiggled and curved and snaked every time new evidence has emerged from independent sources. The magnitude of this Washington coverup borders on national infamy. How does one explain why, with the surfacing of each fresh clue about living POWs, the government network of intelligence agencies rises up to smite the clue dead with an arsenal of those weapons known as smear and disinformation? Example: In the mid-1980s, when Lt. Gen. Eugene Tighe defied the coverup and said out loud that he believed from the evidence at his disposal that American servicemen were still alive in Indochina, his testimony and reports were censored and sanitized before being made public. The evidence in Tighe's hands was neither casual nor flimsy; he was the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency during the key period toward the end of the Vietnam War and for some years thereafter. Tighe was not only censored, he was trashed. When the coverup net- work grew worried that the views of this widely respected intelligence expert might reach the press and gain prominence, the smear team was dispatched. Col. Richard Childress of the National Security Council, for one, called Monika Jensen-Stevenson, a "60 Minutes" producer who had talked to Tighe, to warn her off the story. He said, according to Stevenson, that Tighe "isn't too bright". Senility was suggested. Similar defamation campaigns were waged against others who bucked the government line, such as the highly decorated Maj. Mark Smith and Sgt. 1st. Class Melvin McIntyre, former Green Berets assigned to find missing men in Laos. They said that in 1984 they located three American prisoners and reached an agreement with the Laotian captors for their release. But, said Smith and McIntyre, their information was disowned by their superiors, and no one was sent to the agreed pickup point on the Thai-Lao border. For refusing to stay silent about this, both men were charged with criminal offenses and brought home. They have since been cleared of all the charges and are now suing the government to force it to produce its files and account for all missing men. The disinformation team, Childress included, immediately began spreading the word that Smith was a wife-beater and that both men had been caught smuggling gold into Thailand. Producer Stevenson didn't buy the smear campaign--though most in the press did. With her husband, William, a writer with good intelligence sources, she wrote a book called "Kiss The Boys Goodbye". The book, though by no means a complete history, if for no other reason than the government's stonewalling and deceptions, nonetheless presents a detailed and powerful case. It shows how the prisoners left behind at the time of the 1973 peach treaty in Vietnam, though known about, had been negotiated away in Washington's haste to get out of the war and lift the shadow of Vietnam off America's psyche. The book also demonstrates that the likelihood of some of those men being alive today is very strong. "Kiss The Boys Goodbye" was published in hardcover in 1990 and in paperback last year. How many of you have heard of it? How often have you seen it re- ferred to in newspapers or on any of the major television networks? I cannot offer a precise explanation for the press' general silence except to note that the Pentagon, the State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and other covert operators have all used considerable amounts of their energies to try to discredit this book. And beyond this, the press--regrettably a reactor rather than a leader most of the time---was following the mood in Washington, which was to erase Vietnam from memory. Beyond its implications for the reputations and careers of those who have led America for the past two decades, including such as George Bush, the cover- up campaign at the human level has visited unforgivable cruelty on the families who believe their men may still be held in Indochina. Some have gone frequently to Southeast Asia to search out information as close to the scene as possible. Occasionally, they are led astray by local hoaxers and con men selling fake "evidence". But most of the time the hoaxers are the men of Washington---who bedevil the families and intimidate them and jerk them around and warn them that if they talk to the press, it will impede the government's efforts to get information. What efforts? In response to renewed pressure from these families, the Bush administration --perhaps because of its vulnerability in this election year--released a stack of MIA documents. One of Gen.Tighe's reports, from 1986, was among them; it said: "There is information...which establishes the strong possibility of American prisoners of war being held in Laos and Vietnam." Maybe now the national press will finally stand up and make a committment to dig out this story. --------------------------------------- Daily News, July 9 1992 MARINES ALTER VIET MIA STORY.....By Richard Sisk News Washington Bureau Washington--- For 25 years, Pat Plumadore reluctantly accepted the Pentagon's listing of her brother. Marine Lance Cpl. Kenneth L. Plumadore, as "KIA/BNR"---killed in action, body not recovered in Vietnam. Then "out of the blue" a letter from the Marine Corps came to her Syracuse home last month suggesting that he may have been captured alive. When she tried to find the source of the information, Plumadore said, the Pentagon told her, "That's classified." The stonewalling left her feeling betrayed yesterday. She can't understand why the military would cut her off and neither can her congressman. "THEY'RE PLAYING GOD" "It's not right what they're doing, playing God like this," Plumadore said. "I'm do damn mad and I feel so guilty. All these years I could have been doing something, trying to find out what happened to my brother." Rep. James Walsh (R-N.Y.) whose 27th. Congressional District includes Syracuse, said. "The closer you look at this case, the more difficult it is to understand. Everything needs to be declassified in this case." The Marine Corps referred questions to the Pentagon's POW/MIA section, where a spokesman said a meeting was being arranged with Plumadore later this month to try to answer her questions. MOTHER'S PERMISSION: Kenneth Plumadore had to coax his mother into signing his papers to join the Marines, since he was too young at 17. After training, he was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 4th. Marines, in Quang Tri Province in the Demilitarized Zone. On Sept. 21, 1967, his unit was forced to withdraw "under intense hostile fire," leaving Kenneth Plumadore and 14 other Marines behind. On Oct.10, the Marines returned and recovered the remains of 14 people. The family was told at the time that "regrettably, his (Kenneth's) remains were not among those recovered." But last month, Pat Plumadore received a letter from the Marines that included a report form the Pentagon's Joint Task Force Full Accounting in Hawaii. The report sated that "American forces learned that PAVN (People's Army of Vietnam) forces captured the 15th. individual and took him away, in the direc- tion of Vinh Linh." The report also said that Vietnam returned the remains of an individual "purportedly captured" in the same firefight, but it was later learned that "the remains were not those of Lance Cpl. Plumadore." Pat Plumadore said the letter "just came out of the blue. My mother died not knowing this. With something like this, I think there should have been some personal contact." --------------------------- The Philadelphia Inquirer Saturday, July 25, 1992 FORCE WAS REJECTED TO FREE POWs... By Deborah Mesce Associated Press Washington--- Top Pentagon officials considered using military force to free American POWs being held in Laos in 1973 but later abandoned the plan, accord- ing to newly declassified Defense Department documents. The plan was recommended by Lawrence Eagleburger, then acting assistant secretary of defense and now deputy secretary of state, who said in a memo to Defense Secretary Elliot Richardson that air strikes should be considered "as a last step" to force Laos to free American POWs. In the memo, Eagleburger said that U.S. Intelligence had found that the Lao Patriotic Front was vastly under reporting American POWs it was holding and that a series of diplomatic and military moves should be taken against Laos. If diplomatic pressure did not move the Laotian government and "if we are reasonably strongly convinced tht the Pathet Lao hold POWs," then "as a last step, U.S. air strikes and Lao and Thai irregular offensive operations could be resumed in Laos in order to force the release of our prisoners." Richardson later recommended the diplomatic measures as well as "intensive" air reconnaissance and a show of force by an aircraft carrier. But in his memo to the assistant to the president for national security affairs, Richardson did not recommend air strikes. The memos are among thousands of documents dealing with Vietnam era POWs and MIAs. The documents --- including live-sighting reports and internal assessments of Pentagon efforts to locate POWs an MIAs---were released by the Penta- gon on Thursday. Many thousands more documents --- up to a total of about 1.3 million pages are to be released over the coming months. Though massive in quantity, the documents are of limited use since the files have not been indexed. The Library of Congress is expected to index then by January. Also, some of the documents lack any accompanying explanation. For example, an analysts memo dated July 1, 1992, describes a 1975 sighting of possible Morse Code symbols on the roof of a building at the Dong Vai Prison. The memo does not say where the prison is located. Another memo attached to it but dated Dec. 23, 1988, describes a sighting of the letters "USA" etched in a rice paddy south of Sam Nua, Laos. The letters covered an area 37 feet by 13 feet and were probably constructed between Oct. 1987 and January 1988, according to the memo. Pentagon officials briefing reporters on the release of the information said they were unable to comment on the substance of the documents. In all, the Pentagon plans to release nearly all of the 4,400 live sighting reports it has received. All but 109 of the sighting reports have been re- solved--- meaning that either they are believed to have been fabricated or the sighting was of individuals who have since returned from Southeast Asia or whose remains have been returned. The 109 reports that are still being investigated deal with sightings that occurred over a range of years, from before 1975 to the present. ----------------------------------------- Saturday, July 25, 1992 Daily-News FIGHTIN' MAD POW FAMILIES CRY FOUL... Prez to MIA kin: SHUT UP! Spies, Lies & pols... By Richard Sisk News Washington Bureau & The Associated Press Washington --- The rage that boiled over at President Bush yesterday during a meeting with POW/MIA families was fanned, ironically, by his release two days ago of secret documents long demanded by the activists. The Pentagon documents question the sincerity of U.S. intelligence officers evaluating reports that some of 2,266 missing servicemen might have been left behind after the U.S. and Vietnam said all POWs had been freed in 1973. One 1986 report -- written when Bush was vice president -- said Pentagon personnel often had "a mind-set to debunk" evidence that surfaced about Ameri- cans still held in Southeast Asia. A panel headed by former Defense Intelligence Agency director Eugene Tighe said the DIA tended toward disposal rather than analysis "of intelligence that" establishes the strong possibility of American prisoners of war (STILL) being held." The first phase of the document release -- which eventually will reach 1.3 million pages and 4,400 "Live" sighting" reports -- included 1,800 reports of postwar sightings of Americans in Southeast Asia and intelligence reports of POW/MIA cases. One key omission: the names of missing servicemen. The Pentagon said it had to protect their privacy... Senate POW/MIA Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.), who had pressed Bush to open the files, called the documents release "an unprecedented, even historic process." He will hold hearings Aug. 4 and Aug.5. Former presidentail hopeful Ross Perot, long active in POW/MIA affairs, will testify Aug.11. Meanwhile, former Eisenhower White House intelligence officer Philip Corso said the U.S. covered up Soviet abductions of 800 POWs from the Korean War, the Tacoma (Wash.) Morning News Tribune reported. -------------------------- Prez to MIA Kin: Crystal City, Va. -- President Bush yesterday blew his cool, telling irate relatives of missing American servicemen to "shut up and sit down" after they accused him of concealing the fate of 2,266 MIAs from the Vietnam War. Gloria Bristow, whose cousin "Marine Capt. Robert Kent was shot down over Vietnam in 1968, was among the first protesters to stand. "He was disrespectful to me, telling me to shut up and sit down," the Arlington, Tex. woman told the Daily News. "The government's been telling us that for years. Now we've got it straight from the horse's mouth." Bush later told reporters: "I didn't blow my cool. I just made an emphatic point." "Tell the truth!" and "Read my lips --- no more lies!" about a dozen activists chanted as Bush tried to speak to 300 members of the National League of Families of American MIAs-POWs in Southeast Asia. Another dozen or so joined in from an adjoining hallway. BUSH LEFT DAIS: The heckling grew so intense and prolonged -- despite calls from league officials and other MIA relatives to let the President speak -- that Bush at one point left the microphone for five minutes. During the uncomfortable interlude, as nervous Secret Service bodyguards placed themselves between the podium and the crows, Bush spoke off to the side with Jeff Donahue, whose brother is an MIA. "Are you calling me a liar?" an Associated Press reporter said Bush snapped at Donahue. Bush returned to the mike but the heckling resumed when he spoke of his "patriotism" and his own service as a World War II Navy flier shot down by the Japanese but rescued before he could be taken prisoner. "TOTALLY UNFAIR": "To suggest that the commander-in-chief that led this country into its most successful recent effort (the Gulf War) would condone for one single day the personal knowledge of a person being held against his will is simply totally unfair." Bush said. Bush finally regained control of the session when he admonished the hecklers. "Would you please be quiet and let me finish?" Would you please SHUT UP and SIT DOWN?" The protesters, reflecting deep divisions in the MIA/POW family community over government sincerity, charged that the Bush administration was covering up information that would prove that POWs were alive and still being held in Southeast Asia. WHO'S IN CHARGE? The angry confrontation added to Bush's woes as he seeks reelection and fueled the notion that his campaign strategists are out to lunch. Bush trails Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton by nearly 2 to 1 in some polls; many Republicans want him to dump Vice President Quayle -- and yet his aides let him walk into a guaranteed uproar by having him address the often emotional MIA families two days after he ordered the release of secret documents questioning government POW MIA efforts. Even before Bush entered the room, there were signs of unrest. As the audience ended the singing of The Star Spangled Banner, some shouted after the closing words "home of the brave" "Why aren' they home?" PUZZLED PREZ: Although the protesters represented only a fraction of the audience. Bush seemed puzzled that anyone doubted his word that all was being done to learn the MIA's fate and that the government had no firm evidence any POWs were left behind in 1973. -------------------------------- The Star Ledger, Tuesday, July 28, 1992 POW FAMILIES ANGRILY ACCUSE BUSH OF INACTION-KIN TURN HIS WORDS INTO A TAUNT, DEMAND THAT FILES BE DECLASSIFIED. Crystal City, VA. (AP) Members of POW-MIA families wore "Shut Up and Sit Down" buttons yesterday to protest what they said is President Bush's refusal to heed their concerns about missing relatives they believe may still be alive. The buttons appeared at a news conference at which the National Alliance of Families repeated its demand that Bush immediately declassify information about missing servicemen and prisoners of war. The group says that files are being kept under wraps. Members of the alliance heckled the President during a speech here Friday to the National League of Families of American MIAs-POWs in Southeast Asia. The alliance, many of whose members also belong to the league, is concerned about the missing from other wars besides Southeast Asia. Bush ended the heckling by asking sternly, "Would you please SHUT UP and SIT DOWN?" Sue Scott, chairman of the board of the league, also pleaded for quiet and said the majority of those present wanted to hear the President. The buttons worn at yesterday's press conference read, "Shut up! & sit down!" Bush POW policy 1992." Kathryn Famming of Oklahoma City, whose husband, Marine Maj. Hugh Famming, was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967, asked, "Why is it that the United States government is using our dead and dying men as political footballs? I call for immediate declassification and release of ALL information on the prisoner of war issue. "So far we are having more `Read My Lips' lip service from George Bush...and if you think he was heckled needlessly, you have no idea what has been done to the families and, worse, to the men they love." Catherine Dunn of Virginia Beach, Va., whose brother, Navy navigator Michael Dunn, was also shot down over North Vietnam, said, "I came searching for answers to a festering wound. Instead, the President's response to family members was `Please shut up and sit down.'" Last week, Bush signed legislation ordering agencies to release files that did not invade the privacy of the POW-MIA servicemen's families. The documents made available to the public will have the names blacked out. --------------------------------------- SPECIAL NOTE: Also in attendance at the National Alliance Meeting were representatives of those families of missing pilots of the "Cold War." Please Contact: John O. Berg at (612) 421-2452 --------------------------------- CONGRATULATIONS AND THANK YOU:... To Dolore Alfond for her hard work in setting up the meeting of the National Alliance of Families and for her dedication to resolving the POW issue! --------------------------------- THANKS TO MARSHA, FOR TYPING NEWSLETTER FOR DOWNLOADING... JOHN MENDES [PROVIDED BY THE POW/MIA BBS, NJ FORGET ME NOTS 908-787-8383] Application: National Forget-Me-Not Assoc. for POW-MIA's Inc. Daniel Wood,State Chairman 970 Edgewood Road, Elizabeth, N.J. 07208 DATE:______________________________________________ NAME:_________________________________________________________please print. STREET:_____________________________________________________________________ CITY:________________________STATE:_________________________ZIP:____________ PHONE: AC ( )_______________________________________________ If applying for membership, please indicate the following: Dues: $10.00 a year... VETERAN ____ WHICH WAR ________________________________________ DO YOU HAVE A FAMILY MEMBER MISSING? ___________________________________ NAME: ____________________________________________________________________ RELATION:________________________________________________________________ VOLUNTEER TO HELP? _______ HOW_____________________________________________ APPLICATION: ORIGINAL?____________ RENEWAL?_____________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ ITEMS AVAILABLE QTY. PRICE MIA Bracelet...........$5.00 ______________ _________________ CAPS...................$6.00 ______________ _________________ Logo Pins..............$2.50 ______________ _________________ Bumper Stickers........$1.00 ______________ _________________ Postcards (100)........$5.00 ______________ _________________ Brochures (100)........$5.00 ______________ _________________ Desk Flag Set..........$4.00 ______________ _________________ POW Flag (3 x 5)......$32.00 ______________ _________________ Postors................$5.00 ______________ _________________ T-Shirts...............$8.00 ______________ _________________ Sweatshirts...........$18.00 ______________ _________________ Total Sales:__________ $1.50 min. or 5% Post.& Hand.__________ Dues $10.00 per Year __________ Additional Donation. __________ TOTAL: __________ [PROVIDED BY THE POW/MIA BBS, NJ FORGET ME NOTS 908-787-8383]