Update on the Russian Document - On November 30th, the Washington Times, in an article by Bill Gertz, reported - "Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright waited months before asking the Russian government about a KGB document suggesting captured Americans were taken to the Soviet Union for intelligence purposes during the late 1960s, according to Clinton administration officials...."
"...Mrs. Albright, however, did not act until Oct. 29 in writing to the new Russian foreign minister, Igor Ivanov, seeking information about the plan, said officials who spoke on condition of anonymity."
"Delays in the case have upset a number of officials familiar with internal discussions on the issue. State Department officials "have been dragging their feet on this since the start," complained one..."
"...Officials familiar with the U.S. government's deliberations said they were upset with the State Department's failure to pursue information about the POW issue, which the administration has said is a high priority. "They didn't want to upset the Russians," said an official close to the issue."
"...Lonnie Spiegel, a State Department official involved in Russia policy, told Pentagon officials in September the department had more urgent matters to discuss with Moscow. Mrs. Albright's letter to Mr. Primakov was not sent because of the "large number of issues between the U.S. and Russian governments that required immediate attention," according to officials familiar with the meeting..."
"The failure to press the Russians on the issue highlights the Clinton administration's general reticence to press Moscow about contentious issues, said officials critical of the soft-line policy."
"According to the officials, Denis Clift, a member of a joint U.S.-Russian commission on POWs, objected to the delays during a Sept. 16 meeting of U.S. officials, when the Albright letter was discussed. The failure to contact Mr. Primakov "did not make sense," he said."
Mr. Clift, a former DIA official who is president of the Joint Military Intelligence College, said Mr. Primakov was "specifically mentioned" in the Volkogonov book disclosing the KGB program, and thus any letters should be sent to Mr. Primakov and not the foreign minister...."
"Another State Department official said that Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering asked Deputy Foreign Minister Gerogi Mamedov about the KGB program during a meeting in London earlier this year, but the issue never reached any high levels of the U.S. or Russian governments until November."
"Moscow has refused to release the document despite numerous U.S. government appeals, including a recent request by Vice President Al Gore to Mr. Primakov on Nov. 17 in Malaysia, and requests made at a U.S.-Russia POW commission meeting in Moscow three weeks ago."
"In July, Mr. Gore was scheduled to discuss the matter during a dinner meeting with Russian Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko in Moscow. But the topic never came up because Mr. Gore became sidetracked with other topics."
"Mrs. Albright never wrote or asked Mr. Primakov about the POW issue, even though she had developed close ties to the Russian. Mrs. Albright and Mr. Primakov performed a song-and-dance routine together during a banquet July 28 in Manila that was put on as part of a diplomatic forum sponsored by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations."
"Details about the KGB document were first reported by The Washington Times on Nov. 9. In response, the White House initially said President Clinton would not ask Mr. Primakov about the matter during a scheduled meeting in Malaysia. A day later, White House officials insisted the president might bring up the subject, but the meeting never took place due to the crisis over Iraq. Instead, Mr. Gore met Mr. Primakov on Nov. 17 in Kuala Lumpur, and the Russian prime minister agreed to look into the matter, according to U.S. officials."
"Russian officials have provided conflicting statements about the KGB plan identified by Gen. Volkogonov. During the POW commission meeting earlier this month in Moscow, one official from the SVR intelligence service said the document did not exist. A second SVR official said the document was classified and would not be released."
State Department Double Talk - On December 1st, the Washington Times reported on the State Department reaction to the Nov. 30th Gertz article. An article by Martin Sieff, titled "State terms Times report on U.S. POWs `nonsense'" reads "The State Department yesterday described as "nonsense" a Washington Times report that Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright waited for several months before following a KGB document suggesting American prisoners were taken to the Soviet Union in the 1960s. "That report is nonsense," State Department spokesman James P. Rubin told reporters."
"...The Washington Times, quoting officials familiar with the U.S. government's deliberations, reported President Clinton was informed of the contents of the document in March but that Mrs. Albright only took action on it Oct. 29..."
"However, Mr. Rubin said the administration had taken vigorous action to pursue the issue with the Russians at least five months before Mrs. Albright wrote that letter...."
"State Department officials say that in London in May, Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering, the No. 3 man at the State Department and former U.S. ambassador to Russia, raised the issue "on behalf of Secretary Albright" with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Mamedov. He is the chief Russian Foreign Ministry official charged with dealing with the United States."
"In mid-July, Vice President Al Gore pushed the subject again in a letter to then-Russian Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko, Mr. Rubin said. Mr. Kiriyenko responded to the vice president's concern the following month and promised full Russian cooperation... "
"Report: US Discouraged POW Data" From Reuters - "NEW YORK -- Russian officials complained in a classified cable last November that State Dept. officials were discouraging them from releasing documents about American prisoners of war in Vietnam, The New York Times reported Friday."
"The cable, dated November 12, was made available to the Times by Clinton administration officials...."
"According to the cable, the Russians complained that some US officials were pressing them to turn over documents about US soldiers missing in Vietnam, while others told them that the release of the documents would hurt American-Russian relations."
"The newspaper said senior State Dept. officials reached Thursday vigorously denied they had told the Russians not to disclose documents. They said they repeatedly pressed Moscow to produce whatever documents it had."
"The cable was sent by the American head of the Moscow office of Task Force Russia, an official Russian-American group whose role was to seek information from Moscow about Americans missing from the Vietnam and Korean wars. It was sent under the name of Thomas Pickering, the US ambassador to Russia."
"Pickering said he did not understand how the Russians got a mixed message, asserting that Washington had repeatedly asked for all relevant information."
"Last year President Clinton said he wanted the fullest possible accounting of the fate of more than 2200 American soldiers missing in Indochina."
"The newspaper said the administration officials who provided the cable were concerned that it indicated that some State Dept. officials were flouting Clinton's policy in order to avoid embarrassing disclosures from Soviet archives..."
"According to the cable, Russian Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Osipov, a liaison with American Missing in Action investigators in Moscow, said the Russian Foreign Ministry heard that State Dept. officials "were discouraging further releases of such documents."
The More Things Change The More They Stay The Same - The above Reuters story Was put out on the wire service on Feb. 18th, 1994. The New York Times article referenced in the story was published Feb. 13,1994.
It is the belief of the National Alliance of Families
that nothing has changed in almost five years, since the Reuters and N.Y. Times stories appeared. There are those within the government who want to get into the Russian Archives and release all POW related material and there are those that do not want that material released.
