McCain Suppressed Info on Fellow Vietnam POWs Left Behind

[RepublicanElephant]

"We speak to Pulitzer-winning journalist Sydney Schanberg about how the “war hero” candidate Sen. John McCain buried information about POWs left behind in Vietnam. Writing for The Nation magazine, Schanberg reveals that McCain “worked very hard to hide from the public stunning information about American prisoners in Vietnam who, unlike him, didn’t return home."
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/23/report_mccain_suppressed_info_on_fellow

another story of how john mccain "supports" the troops.

[liberal N proud]

1. What pisses me off about this is that he uses the POW for gain

and then hides the truth.
All while claiming hs supports the troops.

HYPOCRITE!

[sandnsea]

2. We have recovery teams in Vietnam

Where are all these POW's - if they existed.

Why do people get paid so much money to be so stunningly wrong.

[skooooo]

3. You should look at this book....

An Enormous Crime: The Definitive Account of American POWs Abandoned in Southeast Asia

I think it's just out in paperback. The authors were on Imus a few days ago. It was shocking what they had to say.

http://www.amazon.com/Enormous-Crime-Definitive-Abandoned-Southeast/dp/0312371268/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224777258&sr=1-7

[beachmom]

5. Yeah. Shocking and mostly untrue. nt

[skooooo]

6. Well of course, if you say so.

:eyes:

[grantcart]

8. you are 100% correct

there were over 20,000 interviews with refugees - including all refugees who were imprisoned after the fall, PRV gave full access to the country and to its files. Even the most ardent anti-communists where involved in this have concluded that the Vietnamese did not hold or execute POWs although a few died during escape attempts. The dozen or so American soldiers in Vietnam until the 90s were all deserters.

Ross Perot and others created a small cottage industry of fakers and scammers by offering rewards. Living in Thailand you could see the Thai officials arrest somebody almost every month for trying to scam the rewards with bones and paraphernalia.

It was confirmed that a small group of about 20 POWs vanished in Laos one night after a particularly heavy bombing that resulted in thousands of civilian deaths. Ironically Communist Lao and the US never broke diplomatic relations during the entire war and the US always maintained a consulate in Vientiane. After the disappearance of the POWs American bombing in civilian areas ceased.


It should also be understood that the people attacking McCain on this issue also include Kerry and Clinton in the treason.

[beachmom]

4. "When John Kerry's Courage Went M.I.A." by Sydney Schanberg, 2/17/04

I am sorry, but this guy is not only going after McCain but everyone on the POW/MIA committee as well as Pres. Clinton. No surprise that this is on Democracy Now, as they don't care for Democrats or Republicans and are giving this guy a platform to misinform people.

http://www.villagevoice.com/2004-02-17/news/when-john-kerry-s-courage-went-m-i-a/1

[RepublicanElephant]

7. over 4 years later, he's not nearly as critical of kerry as mccain.

i know democracy now! criticizes dems almost as much as repubs, but the focus here is on mccain's hypocrisy, and more importantly for this election, his true character:

"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.

Almost as striking is the manner in which the mainstream press has shied from reporting the POW story and McCain's role in it, even as the Republican Party has made McCain's military service the focus of his presidential campaign. Reporters who had covered the Vietnam War turned their heads and walked in other directions. McCain doesn't talk about the missing men, and the press never asks him about them.

The sum of the secrets McCain has sought to hide is not small. There exists a telling mass of official documents, radio intercepts, witness depositions, satellite photos of rescue symbols that pilots were trained to use, electronic messages from the ground containing the individual code numbers given to airmen, a rescue mission by a special forces unit that was aborted twice by Washington—and even sworn testimony by two Defense secretaries that "men were left behind." This imposing body of evidence suggests that a large number—the documents indicate probably hundreds—of the US prisoners held by Vietnam were not returned when the peace treaty was signed in January 1973 and Hanoi released 591 men, among them Navy combat pilot John S. McCain."

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

[EFerrari]

10. Schanberg is a Pulitzer prize winner. And, he was very careful

to distinguish between what he knew to be true, what he believed and what he thought was rumor.

Amy is probably among the very best journalists working today in the United States. I've yet to see her report something dishonestly. Did you watch the segment before you decided to trash DemocracyNow?

The main argument about McCain is that he used his position on that committee to weaken the laws concerning MIAs to cover his rear, something neither Kerry nor Clinton would need to do. That when pressed, he repeatedly distracted by making it about his "patriotism" -- something he still does to this day.

[palintology]

9. I hope Oliver Stone's next movie will be about this cover-up.

[palintology]

11. I asked Oliver Stone to make a film about it ...

I hope he will read his myspace website and consider it ...

http://www.myspace.com/oliverstone