1. The Gulag Study 5th Edition
issued Feb. 11, 2005 - compiled by the Joint
Commission Support Directorate (JCSD), the
investigative arm of the U.S./Russian Joint
Commission on POW/MIAs, concluded; "Americans,
including American servicemen, were imprisoned in
the former Soviet Union...."
2. Failure to Investigate the "185
Report" - In 1993, the Defense POW/MIA Office (DPMO)
received a report that 185 American POWs had been
held in Southeast Asia after 1973, possibly as late
as 1976. The report was recognized as possibly
credible. During the mid-l990's a Russian geologist
was interviewed and reported that he was told in
1976 by Vietnamese counterparts that the Vietnamese
Government at that time was holding live American
POWs. Neither report has been properly investigated.
3. Failure to Authorize Live
Sighting Investigations and the attempt to limit
Stony Beach activity. Reports of live POWs in
Southeast Asia are not investigated.
4. Failure to Properly Investigate
Reports of POWs in North Korea - A Background Paper
prepared, in 1996, by I.O. Lee, analyst Defense
POW/MIA Office (DPMO) stated: "There are too many
live sighting reports, specifically observations of
several Caucasians in a collective farm by Romanians
and the North Korean defectors' eyewitness of
Americans in DPRK to dismiss that there are no
American POW's in North Korea."
5. Failure to Properly Investigate
the case of Capt. Michael Scott Speicher - A well
place source provided the following information to
the National Alliance of Families in the summer of
2003; "The one source that claimed to have been held
with Speicher and fed him on a daily basis stated
they had been held for 10 years in the underground
prison; that individual was released and left Iraq.
The individual that reported feeding the pilot was
talking to an individual outside Iraq when he made
the claim, and the U.S. side never interviewed
him.... Don't be misled by those who would pooh pooh
the Speicher reporting."
6. Failure to follow-up on the
Conclusions and Recommendations of the Senate Select
Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, January 1993 - " There
is evidence, moreover, that indicates the
possibility of survival, at least for a small
number, after Operation Homecoming...."
“Today, Defense Department files
contain evidence that at least 59 Americans were --
or may have been -- taken prisoner and their precise
fate is still unclear. This includes the 20-30 not
officially acknowledged by Vietnam in 1973. This
represents the minimum number of possible live POWs
today…. U.S. field teams in Vietnam since 1989 have
uncovered evidence that more Americans were in fact
taken captive than officially recorded.” (Memo dated
August 17, 1992, “The Universe of Possible POWs:
1973 versus 1992” by Sedgwick D. Tourison,
investigator, for the Senate Select Committee on
POW/MIA Affairs 1991 - 93.)
Isn't it time we
ask the next question..... What happened to that A
small number”?
