Welcome to the Northeast POW/MIA Network. It has come to my attention that many family members, veterans and others who support us have questions about the POW/MIA issue. Little to none of it ever reachs the main stream media. I can assure you that the facts we present are real.

Stop by and read the articles that will be posted. Then decide for yourself ~ did our country and those who promised to bring our family and friends home do the honorable thing or did they do what THEY needed to do to sweep the dirt under the carpet? We demand answers to these and other questions.

Don Amorosi, President
Northeast POW/MIA Network

New Video of POW Bowe Bergdahl - On April 7th the Taliban released a new video of a thinner, bearded Bowe Bergdahl pleading to go home. The following is excerpted from an ABC News Report by Matthew Cole and Jim Vojtech:

"….In the new video, Bergdahl is bearded and dressed in military issue clothing. He holds up a newspaper, but the date of the paper's publication is not visible. Bergdahl also performs push-ups to demonstrate his physical condition and says he is being treated well, despite being a prisoner.

But Bergdahl begins to lose his composure as he talks to the camera. "Release me please, I'm begging you," he says. "I love my family. I haven't shown it very well because I've been pretty lost in my life and I don't think I've given my family the love that they've given me."

"Let me go," pleads Bergdahl.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Bowe Bergdahl and his family and Ahmed Altiae POW in Iraq and his family.

Remains of Korean War POWs and MIAs Pawn in U.S./North Korean Negotiations - Reuters reported the following on April 5, 2010:

The U.S. Needs to Find a Way to Separate the Recovery of POW and MIA Remains From Political Differences With North Korea -- Has it not always been the position of the U.S. government that the issue of POWs and MIAs and their recovery is humanitarian rather than political? It is a disgrace that the remains of our Korean War POWs and MIAs are now a political pawn, to be sacrificed for a political end. Haven't our Korean War POWs, MIAs and their families sacrificed enough?

Perhaps if the two governments began dealing with this humanitarian issue, doors would open for discussions on the political issues.

South Korean POWs Still Held in North Korea -- The following is excerpted from a Reuters article by Jon Herskovits and Christine Kim published April 5th in the Washington Post:

Running Out of Hope -- These South Korean POWs are not the only ones running out of hope. Once again we ask; If North Korea held South Korean POWs, why wouldn't they hold American and U.N. Command POWs? If South Korean POWs survive today, why not American and U.N. Command POWs?

Why Does Johnie Webb still have a job?

H.Res 111 Update - Thanks to your hard work, we now have 249 co-sponsors for H.Res 111 calling for the formation in the House of Representatives of a Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs. We urge you to continue your efforts. Check to see if your congressional representative is a co-sponsor by visiting our website at www.nationalalliance.org/legis/index.htm If they are not a cosponsor, call, write, and fax or email them now! Ask that they co-sponsor H. Res 111.

This is an important piece of legislation. It is important to the POW and MIA families and it is important to our POWs and MIAs from World War II, Korea, Cold War, Vietnam, Gulf Wars and Afghanistan. It's about the truth. That's what the families of our POWs and MIAs want and deserve.

The oath of office is taken by many who enter the US military, law enforcement agencies and also taken by our elected officials including the president of the United States.  It not only involves just "defending our US constitution against all enemies foreign or domestic" but it also involves representing our country with moral respect to all human beings.  We all run to help out during world disasters.  The United States has always helped worldwide in times of human suffering except our very own "prisoners of war".   Our government has been supplied with an abundance of evidence that in a court of law would prove without any doubt that there are American prisoners of war suffereing in foreign captivity.  Several of these countries were at one time willing to negotiate their release however for some unexplainable reason the US government refused to negotiate.  There are international laws that prohibit this.  Ariticle 19 of the Geneva convention prohibits the confinement of prisoners after a war.  Now are we a country that says to the world "Do not do as I so but do what I say"?  The following are the oaths of the US military and the President of the United States;

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

"I, (name), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."

My question is why do we abandon those who faithfully take an oath and defend our country and sacrifice their lives if necessary?  The following is a chronological order of evidence presented to our US government officials;

October 7, 1986: CIA Director William Casey says: "Look, the nation knows they (the POWs)are there, everybody knows they are there, but there's no grounds well of support for getting them out. Certainly, you are not suggesting we pay for them, surely not saying we could do anything like that with no public support."

October 1990: Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach admits Vietnam still holds American POWs but is willing to release "as many as 10 live American POWs." His offer, like others before it, is ignored by Secretary of State James Baker III.

February 1991: Colonel Millard Peck, Chief of the Pentagon's Special Office for Prisoners of War and Missing in Action, resigns in protest of being ordered by policy makers in the POW/MIA Inter-Agency Group not to investigate live-sighting reports of American POWs!

April 25, 1991: Senator Bob Smith addresses the Senate and reveals that, of more than 1,400 eyewitness sightings of live POWs, NONE has ever received an on-site investigation!

May 23, 1991: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Examination of U.S. Policy Toward POW/MIAs concludes that the U.S. has ignored thousands of American POWs, and left them to rot in Soviet slave labor camps and North Korean and Vietnamese prisons. "Any evidence that suggested an MIA might be alive was uniformly and arbitrarily rejected."

Summer 1991: A flood of new evidence of live POWs pours from Southeast Asia: pictures, handwriting samples, hair samples, blood samples, fingerprints, foot-prints, maps and other physical proof. The Bush administration disregards the evidence and attempts to discredit it by rumor and innuendo. Some of the photos are scientifically validated -- and have never been scientifically disproven!

Summer 1992: The group "Nightwatch" sent individuals to Pyongyang, North Korea to speak to government officials there concerning report of Americans seen in Pyongyang near the Kangsan railroad station. North Korean official admitted many American POWs are there and being forced to teach English and American Cuture to North Korean intelligence.

Summer 2007: An Iraqi/American Businessman speaks with several American POWs currently being held at Camp No.4, northeast of Pyongyang. Recording of this information furnished to Senator Jack Reed and the Pentagon.

All these facts are a matter of public record and clearly indicate that we have some serious problems in the POW/MIA arena that our elected officials refuse to acknowledge.

Therefore one may ask "are our elected government officials still abiding by the oath of office they have taken or is the oath that they took was only to acquire their position then forgotten?

“If a man vow a vow unto the LORD, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth.”

The Holy Bible

Spokane Veterans policy Examiner
Ray Effner

"The enemy of the truth is very often not the lie - deliberate, contrived, and dishonest - but the myth-persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic."

President John F. Kennedy

The Chinese new year of 2010 starts on February 14.  It is the year of the Tiger.  In  Korean folklore the Tiger is depicted as a guardian and protector that chases away evil spirits.  If you have celebrated a Chinese new year you know that just about everything shuts down for a week.  There are many  fireworks displays and many different kinds of food.  There is also talk of the year bringing good fortunes and peace with one another.  There are many celebrations with family and friends.  They all speak of a new year that brings hope and truth.  2010 may just live up to these aspirations, we shall see.

Here in America we are taking down Christmas and New Years decorations.  Most of us enjoyed several lavish meals with family and friends.  We also have spoken of the new year bringing hope, joy and prosperity.  We all slept soundly in our comfortable beds during the holiday season, dreaming of presents and meals we were about to enjoy.  We as Americans should not forget some of us who did not have a great holiday season.  Many of our soldiers stood their post here in America and in foreign lands keeping our enemies at bay so we could enjoy our holidays.  Some of our veterans who did return are serving with law enforcement agencies and fire departments.  They also stood their posts to keep us safe.  Some of these individuals gave their lives so we could be safe and the nation secure.  Then there are those soldiers who never came back from previous wars.  They are the POWs/MIAs.  There are missing places at their families tables since they went off to fight in previous wars.   Some of these individuals are deceased and yes some of them are still alive, being held captive in foreign lands.

Hopefully during 2010 there will be a Tiger or two to be a guardian to pressure the governments involved to negotiate the release and return of the soldiers still being held in captivity in foreign lands.  It seems so far all we have seen are "mice" that scurry around this problem and deny even the existence of these men.  If confronted the polticians, celebrities and the news organizations all refuse to discuss this topic or just respond with silence.  What we have is a government that is in the denial of reality.  They know very well where these individuals are and some of their identities.  Face to face they will tell you "they all chose to stay" or "we are looking for remains".  Eventually the truth will surface some day and maybe sooner than they think.  The people who deny the existance of these indivduals have a choice, either recognize that they are captive and alive or continue to deny these facts.  If they chose to deny these facts  then they have sealed their fate with the American people when the truth surfaces. 

Spokane Veterans policy Examiner
Ray Effner

"The enemy of the truth is very often not the lie - deliberate, contrived, and dishonest - but the myth-persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic."

President John F. Kennedy

Reflecting on past events in 2009 is indeed very interesting.  We had a new president take office who had promised change during his presidential campaign and pledged to bring our soldiers home.  Since then he has pledged to add additional soldiers in Afganistan.  Our soldiers are weary of being away from their homes and families for so long.  Enlistments are down and many soldiers are leaving the service and not reenlisting.  Many soldiers have chosen careers in law enforcement and other public service occupations.  Some have given their very lives in protecting us during the past year as soldiers in far away places and here at home serving us in many law enforcement agencies and in other public service occupations across the country.

Some of our military men are still being held captive in other countries.  One is being held today in Afganistan by the Taliban.  Many others are still being held in North Korea.  Some say there are others in Northern Laos near the Chinese border.  From our prespective here in America it is always "tomorrow" in North Korea or Laos.  From the prespective of our POWs in those countries America is "yesterday" due to the time zone.  Yes it really seems to them that they have been forgotten in "yesterday".  Yesterday for them is many years ago when they were sent to fight in a war in a far away land that they did not start or volunteer for.  Yesterday during the North Korean and Vietnam wars many of them did not enlist as most of our soldiers do today.  They were "drafted" and forced to fight in these wars.  Most of them went without complaining as they thought it was their duty with honor to go.  Some of them chose not to go and fled to Canada and other countries to avoid being sent to war.  Several years later the United States government forgave the ones who fled and awarded them amnesty!  The ones that went and were captured were forgotten and have been to this day labeled either "chose to stay" or "missing in action and presumed dead".

"Tomorrow" there is hope someday soon to negotiate the release of these men and bring them home.  It will more than likely not be the result of the United States government to win their release.  Many hearings in Washington DC have occurred without any positive results or even the recognition that these military men even exist.  Even though overwhelming evidence has been presented to them. There have been refusals and denials of their existence by the very government that sent them off to war years ago.  It will take a private effort to win the release and return of these men.  Some of these men may even be British soldiers as well.  So we will see what happens "tomorrow" in 2010, it may indeed be a year of exposing deception and untruths.  If it really does happen  it is bound to create a year that will be remembered by the American people and "touch" all of the then "former" polticians who have chosen to ignore these men.  There of course will be those that will emerge as "heroes" and those that will be "scapegoats". 

“"The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs, and explosions, and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, ideas, predjudices, to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, predjudices can kill and suspicion can destroy. A thoughtless, freightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all it's own for the children yet unborn."

Author Rod Serling (Twilight Zone)

To all of the soldiers and POWs still serving and  being held in far off lands - stand your post with honor.  Someday your day will come to return home to your families and home once more.  There is always hope for "tomorrow".

May God Bless and Protect  All of You!

Spokane Veterans policy Examiner
Ray Effner

"The enemy of the truth is very often not the lie - deliberate, contrived, and dishonest - but the myth-persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic."

President John F. Kennedy

POW OR PRISONER OF WAR NO LONGER EXISTS AS A CONTROLLING DIRECTIVE IN DoD MATTERS; WHY??

During the Clinton years, we were alerted by credible POW/MIA activist/advocacy organizations, including the National Alliance of Families, that changes were in the offing in regard to POW/MIA nomenclature. There were no specifics available as to the reasons for or the particular changes anticipated. We were encouraged to be on the look out for any future elucidation and, particularly, word about a time frame for change and implementation. Further information was not to be found, and before any possibility to voice concerns, question motives, and/or present formal opposition to any changes, the changes were made and incorporated into DoD directives.

The behind the scenes approach is no stranger to the POW/MIA arena. Withholding and/or misrepresenting information has long been a classic characteristic of the abortive manifestation of the trite reiteration of administration after administration’s hollow promise that the POW/MIA problem would be one the highest National priorities. In my decades long work on this issue, and long before my involvement, I am unaware of any administration that has made any believable overtures in this regard.

We have been told that usage of the term POW is redundant as it is a part of the vernacular of the Geneva Convention. It is my understanding that the Geneva Convention does not apply to terrorist situations, and we have become keenly aware that this is and will remain the adversarial form for which we must be prepared in every aspect. Whether or not it exists in any verbiage outside the regulations, laws, or directives of our government is immaterial. The welfare of our men and women in uniform must never be allowed to become the responsibility of any foreign government, institution, or alliance. Americans must be protected in every sense by Americans!

The removal of POW and Prisoner of War serves no honorable service of which I am aware. These terms are universally known and understood, and substitution of anything else effectively precipitates confusion, reduced concern as to the gravity of a situation, and a precipitous depreciation of the emotional component that POW has so long possessed. In my opinion, that is precisely the reason for its removal. If the gravity of a circumstance is obscured, so will be the public’s response. A problem doesn’t exist if its imperatives are removed. Confusing terminology married with the age old restricted dissemination of information sharply reduces the public’s awareness, understanding, and potential to react in ways the government would prefer to avoid. We have a responsibility to compel a return to the accepted and understood. Imagine a government responding to those it is sworn to serve and providing maximum protection to those in its service. How novel!  

The text provided in my offering entitled “CURRENT TERMINOLOGY REPLACING POW” was extracted verbatim from DOD Directive 1300.18. The only material not that of the directive is in italics, and those are my responses and concerns.

It is interesting that the Directive infers that the terrorist nature of today’s warfare negates the use of the term POW and its application, and then it goes on to describe the victim of terrorist activity to be a hostile casualty. Apparently DoD doesn’t know where it really stands in this arena. It’s time we make it crystal clear that we do understand, and that we aren’t willing to accept anything less than the restoration of POW as a controlling directive.

I believe that removing POW has significant deleterious effects, including:

   -replacing a known quantity with obfuscation as the prime intent

   -sharply reducing the emotional response and coincident alarm

   -provision of an effective shield allowing continuing governmental inactivity

   -maintenance of poorly informed citizenry unlikely to be outraged

   -relegation of resolution of past failures and present and future losses to foreign

    governments and/or organizations

   -maintenance of our government’s ability not to effectively react with impunity

   -diminution of the protection afforded those serving our Country.

None of these are acceptable to me or the American public.

Restoration of POW and Prisoner of War is appropriate, necessary, and imperative.

Donald C. Amorosi
President, Northeast POW/MIA Network    

The Chinese government acknowledged, in 2003, that Korean War POW Richard Desautels was taken into China. Desautels was transported inland over 150 miles to the town of Mudken (now Shenyang) where the Chinese say he died and was buried. This information was provided to the Desautels family in 2003. The stunning admission of the Chinese government that a POW was transported to China came after 50 years of denial that any Korean War POWs were taken into China. According to a summary provided to the Desautels family "The People's Liberation Army representative stated that he had found a complete record of 9-10 pages on this case in the Chinese archives, which are still classified. The Chinese People's Liberation Volunteer Army captured Sergeant Desautels and he was known to be a POW.

According to the Chinese, Sergeant Desautels became mentally ill on April 22, 1953 and died on April 29, 1953. He was buried in a cemetery near Shenyang. The graves were moved when construction activity was conducted in the area and there is no record of where Desautels' remains were reinterred. Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) requested a copy of the documents relating to this case. The Chinese have not yet passed those documents to DPMO." Sadly this information was withheld from Korean War POW/MIA families. A Pentagon spokesperson stated that the information was meant only for the Desautles family. Technically, that is true. By law case specific information can only go to a family member. It is the family member's choice to disseminate or not.

However, non-case specific information such as the stunning admission, after 50 years of denial that an American POW was moved to China impacts all Korean War POW/MIA families. That information should have been shared with the families and the public without the case specific details naming Richard Desautles. The overwhelming evidence of Chinese involvement with American POWs from the Korean War makes it impossible to believe that Richard Desautles was the only POW taken to China.

The following is excerpted from an Associated Press article, published June 19th, Robert Burns. Full text of the Burns article may be found on our website at http://www.nationalalliance.org/korea/ap.htm "…. China had long insisted that all POW questions were answered at the conclusion of the war in 1953 and that no Americans were moved to Chinese territory from North Korea. The little-known case of Army Sgt. Richard G. Desautels, of Shoreham, Vt., opens another chapter in this story and raises the possibility that new details concerning the fate of other POWs may eventually surface." "Chinese authorities gave Pentagon officials intriguing new details about Desautels in a March 2003 meeting in Beijing, saying they had found "a complete record of 9-10 pages" in classified archives." "Until now, this information had been kept quiet; a Pentagon spokesman said it was intended only for Desautels' family members.

The details were provided to Desautels' brother, Rolland, who passed them to a POW-MIA advocacy group, the National Alliance of Families, which gave them to AP this week."

"According to the Chinese, Sgt. Desautels became mentally ill on April 22, 1953, and died on April 29, 1953," the summary said. It added that he had been buried in a Chinese cemetery but the grave was moved during a construction project "and there is no record of where Desautels' remains were reinterred." The reported circumstance of Desautels' death - sudden mental illness - may sound improbable. But the key revelation - that he was taken from North Korea to a city in northeastern China and then buried - matches long-held U.S. suspicions about China's handling, or mishandling, of American POWs during and after the war."

"It raises the possibility that wartime Chinese records could shed light on the fate of other U.S. captives who were known to be held in Chinese-run POW camps but did not return when the fighting ended in 1953. And it appears to undercut the Pentagon's public stance that China returned all POWs it held inside China…."

"Desautels' reported burial site - the city of Shenyang, formerly known as Mukden - is interesting because it is far from the North Korean border and was often cited in declassified U.S. intelligence reports as the site of one or more prisons holding hundreds of American POWs from Korea. Some U.S. reports referred to Mukden as a possible transshipment point for POWs headed to Russia…." "The Pentagon has taken an interest in the Desautels case for many years. A June 1998 Pentagon cable to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing said the case was one of several on which China should be pushed to provide answers, that "we believe the Chinese should be able to account for these individuals." "Now it turns out that China did provide an accounting, although it is incomplete and was kept under wraps for five years.

Larry Greer, a spokesman for the POW-MIA office at the Pentagon, said Thursday that although U.S. officials asked to see the 9-10 page file on Desautels, China has yet to provide it or additional information." "Mark Sauter, an author and researcher on the subject of POWs from the Korean War, said in an interview that Beijing authorities are to be commended for finally providing useful information. "The case of Sgt. Desautels has been a focal point of a six-decade cover-up by the Chinese government," Sauter said.

"This is the first crack in the dike. From what we can tell, the Pentagon has not aggressively followed up, either on the Desautels case or those of hundreds of other Americans for whom the Chinese should be able to account." "American officials believed from the earliest days of the armistice that concluded the Korean War without a formal peace treaty in July 1953 that the Chinese and North Koreans withheld a number of U.S. POWs, possibly in retaliation for U.S. refusal to repatriate those Chinese and North Korean POWs who chose not to be returned to their home country out of fear of retribution." "Gen. Mark W. Clark, the American commander of U.S.-led forces during the final stages of the Korean War, wrote in a 1954 account that "we had solid evidence" that hundreds of captive Americans were held back by the Chinese and North Koreans, possibly as leverage to gain a China seat on the U.N. Security Council."

"Over time, however, U.S. officials muted their concerns, while periodically pressing the Chinese in private. Publicly, the Pentagon's stance today is that China returned all the U.S. POWs it held. "Some U.S. POWs spent time across the (Yalu) river in Manchuria, but to the best of our knowledge, all have returned," the Pentagon's POW/MIA office says in a summary of wartime POW camps."Read the full article here

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