[Update: More than a few commenters have called Schanbergs credibility into question, as well as the entire tenor of this diary. I've added a poll. Should I leave the diary up or delete it?]
From Editor And Publisher:
Sydney H. Schanberg, the longtime New York Times reporter and editor and Newsday columnist -- and author of "The Killing Fields" -- has written a 9000-word investigative piece on John McCain and his longstanding efforts to, as Schanberg asserts in his lede, "hide from the public stunning information about the live Vietnam prisoners who, unlike him, didn't return home."
Editor And Publisher directs to The Nation which has a condensed version of the article. The expanded version with documents attached can be found here.
More below:
Here is the introductory paragraph of Schanberg's article:
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 people would logically imagine to be a determined crusader for the interests of POWs and their families became instead the strange champion of hiding the evidence and closing the books.
Strange indeed. One hopes that Schanberg documents these claims because this is quite an accusation against McCain.
In the first part of the article Schanberg lays out the case that Americans were left behind. His proof includes the sworn testimony of two Secretaries of Defense, eye witness testimony which the CIA determined to be credible, intercepted ground signals which could only have been initiated by Americans, and many other such examples. As far as I'm concerned the most intriguing proof is an attempt by the Vietnamese government to ransom the POW's in the early days of the Reagan administration:
There is also evidence that in the first months of Reagan's presidency, the White House received a ransom proposal for a number of POWs being held by Hanoi. The offer, which was passed to Washington from an official of a third country, was apparently discussed at a meeting in the Roosevelt Room attended by Reagan, Vice President George H.W. Bush, CIA director William Casey and National Security Adviser Richard Allen. Allen confirmed the offer in sworn testimony to the Senate POW committee on June 23, 1992.
A secret service member also witnessed the discussion but was not invited to testify even though he was willing to do so. Richard Allen's testimony was given in secret, but a San Diego Tribune reporter was given the details of Allen's testimony. When the story broke Allen wrote a letter to the committee recanting his testimony, claiming that his memory played tricks on him.
This is one of many many examples of shady and questionable tactics used by the Senate POW committee in order to hide and obfuscate evidence that POWs had been left behind. While Senator John Kerry chaired the commission, it's gold star member was Senator John McCain, for obvious reasons.
Now I'm no expert on POW issues. In fact most of this article was complete news to me. But one thing I am familiar with is McCain's famous hot headed temper. Schanberg writes of one such example of McCain going postal which I know about from watching the enclosed video of the incident.
On November 11, 1992, Dolores Alfond, sister of missing airman Capt. Victor Apodaca and chair of the National Alliance of Families, an organization of relatives of POW/MIAs, testified at one of the Senate committee's public hearings.
<snip>
McCain, whose POW status made him the committee's most powerful member, attended that hearing specifically to confront Alfond because of her criticism of the panel's work. He bellowed and berated her for quite a while. His face turning anger-pink, he accused her of "denigrating" his "patriotism." The bullying had its effect--she began to cry.
After a pause Alfond recovered and tried to respond to his scorching tirade, but McCain simply turned and stormed out of the room.
Just remember, Ms. Alfond's brother is missing in Vietnam, and this is the treatment she received at the hands of John McCain. Schanberg writes "The only explanation McCain has ever offered for his leadership on legislation that seals POW information is that he believes the release of such information would only stir up fresh grief for the families of those who were never accounted for in Vietnam." There is Ms. Alfond, in tears on the witness stand as McCain berates her and McCain is supposed to be worried about causing grief for the POW families?
The committee released its final report in 1993. The 40 page executive summary was the only part of the report which received any attention. The summary concluded that "only a small number" of POW's could have been left behind. But if reporters had troubled themselves to read the entire report they would have seen many examples which actually contradicted the summary. The reason for the difference between the summary and the actual report is that committee staffers rebelled at the coverup and inserted the evidence into the full report.
McCain's POW committee membership is hardly the only example of his helping to sweep POW evidence under the rug. When the "Truth Bill" (which would have mandated complete transparency in regards to missing POW's) was introduced in the House, Senator McCain introduced legislation which insured that records would have to negotiate layer after layer of bureaucracy so that most of the documents would stay hidden and no POW secrets revealed.
Later McCain would see to it that criminal penalties were stripped out of the Missing Service Personnel Act. Those penalties would have applied to "any government official who knowingly and willfully withholds from the file of a missing person any information relating to the disappearance or whereabouts and status of a missing person."
I've already gone well over fair use guidelines, so let me wrap this up by inviting the reader to read Schanberg's expose. I don't think the Obama campaign will touch this with a ten foot pole so it is up to surrogates to get this out there. In doing so I would be careful not to turn McCain into a victim in the eyes of the general public over this. I'm no concern troll, but this could well backfire if it's put out there carelessly.
Update [2008-9-19 8:7:48 by bhfrik]: Here's the digg, thanks to Fantanel