Longer Than Some, Not As Long As Others - October 19, 2002 marks

Status Change for Capt. Speicher - the first POW of the 1991 Gulf War, once classified Killed in Action, Body Not Recovered, has once again been reclassified this time from Missing In Action to Missing/Captured. According to an Associated Press article, dated October 11^th - "The U.S. Navy on Friday declared Gulf War pilot Michael Scott Speicher was captured by Iraq, saying there's no evidence the officer is dead. Two senators suggested there is new, classified evidence indicating Speicher is alive inside Iraq."

"... Speicher originally was declared dead after his F/A-18 was shot down the opening night of the Gulf War in 1991. But the military changed his status to missing in action a decade later, given the absence of evidence he was killed in the crash. Iraq claims Speicher was killed, but has not turned over any remains."

"Navy Secretary Gordon England on Friday changed Speicher's official status to missing/captured. "I have no evidence to conclude that Captain Speicher is dead," England wrote. "While the information available to me now does not prove definitively that Captain Speicher is alive and in Iraqi custody, I am personally convinced the Iraqis seized him sometime after his plane went down. Further, it is my firm belief that the government of Iraq knows what happened to Captain Speicher."

"A spokeswoman for Joanne Harris, Speicher's wife, said the officer's family was pleased with the change. "We think it is about time. We asked for this change more than a year ago," said Cindy Laquidara, a Jacksonville attorney who speaks for Harris. "When you leave somebody behind, the passage of time does not make a difference," she said. "It should not be up to the serviceman to prove he is alive."

"Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said in a statement Friday he believes Speicher is indeed alive. Roberts came to that conclusion last month after getting a series of classified briefings on the case, said spokeswoman Sarah Ross. "A lot of that is based on intelligence information and a general hunch," Ross said."

"Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said an Iraqi defector told officials that 11 years ago he drove a wounded American pilot to a hospital. "He was a credible witness," said Nelson, who said the man had given information on other topics that was correct. He had also passed a polygraph exam, Nelson said."

"Roberts, Nelson and other members of Congress had pressed the Pentagon to declare Speicher a prisoner of war. England wrote that the captured designation means that "if alive, he's a prisoner of war."

"This change in status adds credibility and urgency to efforts to secure Capt. Scott Speicher's release," Roberts said. "It sends a symbolic message to the Iraqis, to other adversaries and most important to the men and women of the armed forces that we will accept nothing less than full disclosure of circumstances surrounding the missing and captured."

"England deliberately waited to approve the change until after Congress had given Bush the authority he sought to take military action in Iraq, according to a defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Though not mentioning Speicher by name, Bush has referred in several recent speeches to a U.S. pilot still missing in Iraq....."

We Take Exception - Secretary England's statement "if alive, he's a prisoner of war," is not totally correct. If Speicher died in Iraqi custody, he is still a Prisoner of War, a POW who died in captivity. Dying in enemy hand does not and should not change a POWs status.

Optimism vs Pessimism - A Press Release issued by Senator Pat Roberts (R-KAN), on October 11^th stated "Roberts said he now believes Captain Speicher may be alive and held captive by Iraq." The Associated Press reported "Roberts came to that conclusion last month after getting a series of classified briefings on the case, said spokeswoman Sarah Ross. "A lot of that is based on intelligence information and a general hunch," Ross said."

Of the Iraqi defector who identified Capt. Speicher as the American pilot he drove to a hospital Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL), is quoted by the AP as saying ""He was a credible witness..." AP also reported Nelson as saying "the man had given information on other topics that was correct. He had also passed a polygraph exam."

Secretary of Navy Gordon England stated: "I have no evidence to conclude that Captain Speicher is dead." He went on to say: "While the information available to me now does not prove definitively that Captain Speicher is alive and in Iraqi custody, I am personally convinced the Iraqis seized him sometime after his plane went down. Further, it is my firm belief that the government of Iraq knows what happened to Captain Speicher."

Secretary England's statement "I am personally convinced the Iraqis seized him sometime after his plane went down," is extremely important. We assume that Secretary England based this statement on his review of the intelligence reports. Using that assumption, it now puts Scott Speicher was ALIVE in Iraqi hands.

What we don't know is if he is alive today. However, two United States Senators, after reviewing the intelligence reports believe Speicher may very well be alive, today.

The prevailing attitude of DPMO is to dismissal intelligence reports and witness statements, indicating Speicher is alive. This includes the very source Senator Nelson stated: "was a credible witness..."

Our question - Are Senators Nelson and Roberts along with Secretary England viewing the same intelligence as DPMO? If they are, how can the opinions of Senators Nelson and Roberts, along with Secretary England be at such odds with DPMO. We guess the answer is simple.... It's business as ususal at DPMO.

Missing/Captured vs. POW - the term Prisoner of War or POW is no longer valid. Well....

Right Church Wrong Pew - We're sure many of our readers are familiar with this phrase "Right church wrong pew." For those who aren't, it simply means that your in the right location but just off a bit. During the year 2000, we expressed our concern that the status designation Prisoner of War would disappear. Based on information available to us, we believe the POW status would be replaced by the term Isolated Personnel or Isolated Persons.

On Feb. 12, 2000, the following appeared in Bits N Pieces - "A Look Into The Future - Bulletin... In OOTW, we have 3 IP's... Translation: In "Operations Other Than War" we have three "Isolated Persons." That's the new terminology. Wars are longer wars and captured Americans are no longer POWs. They are Isolated Personnel. This terminology comes from the 1999 Department of Defense Personnel Recovery Conference Report dated October 26 - 28, 1999. A scan of the body of this report reveals the phrase "Prisoner of War" is used only once, as is the acronym POW. The phrase "Isolated Personnel" appears, by our count, 13 times."

We continued to express our concern over the expected discontinuation of the POW status. Our concern elicited a response from DPMO and in our October 21^st edition of Bits we reported; "On October 5^th, 2000, the National Alliance of Families received a letter from DPMO General Counsel James F. Gravelle. The letter states: "Let me assure you prisoner of war is not being replaced by isolated personnel. There is no initiative to do so and, basically, prisoner of war and isolated personnel are not interchangeable. Prisoner of war is a legal status of military personnel captured during an international armed conflict between two countries, and entitles those captured to humanitarian treatment under the Geneva Conventions. You may recall this status was claimed for our three soldiers who were captured in the Kosovo conflict in 1999. Claiming isolated personnel status for our captured personnel would be meaningless."

Mr. Gravelle was correct. Prisoner of War was not replaced by isolated personnel. However, he didn't tell us the plan was to eliminate the Prisoner of War status in favor with a category of Missing titled Missing/Captured. Nor, did he tell us, that at the time the letter was written, the wheels were already in motion to replace the POW status, but not with isolated personnel.

On December 18, 2002, almost two months after Mr. Gravelle's letter, the Dept. of Defense issued Instruction Number 1300.18. Its subject: "Military Personnel Casualty Matters, Policies, and Procedures defines the new Casualty categories, in Section E2.1.1.6. It reads: "Casualty Category. A term used to specifically classify a casualty for reporting purposes based upon the casualty type and the casualty status. Casualty categories include killed in action (KIA), died of wounds received in action (DWRIA), beleaguered, besieged, captured, detained, interned, missing, in action (MIA), and wounded in action (WIA)."

The following sections defines the new categories for those captured or missing.

E2.1.1.24. Missing. A casualty status applicable to a person who is not at his or her duty location due to apparent involuntary reasons and whose location may or may not be known. Chapter 10 of 37 U.S.C. (reference

(f)) provides statutory guidance concerning missing members of the Military Services. Excluded are personnel who are in an AWOL, deserter, or dropped-from-rolls status. A person declared missing is further categorized as follows:

E2.1.1.24.1. Beleaguered. The casualty is a member of an organized element that has been surrounded by a hostile force to prevent escape of its members.

E2.1.1.24.2. Besieged. The casualty is a member of an organized element that has been surrounded by a hostile force compelling it to surrender.

E2.1.1.24.3. Captured. The casualty has been seized as the result of action of an unfriendly military or paramilitary force in a foreign country.

E2.1.1.24.4. Detained. The casualty is prevented from proceeding or is restrained in custody for alleged violation of international law or other reason claimed by the government or group under which the person is being held.

E2.1.1.24.5. Interned. The casualty definitely known to have been taken into custody of a nonbelligerent foreign power as the result of and for reasons arising out of any armed conflict in which the Armed Forces of the United States are engaged.

E2.1.1.24.6. Missing. The casualty is not present at his or her duty location due to apparent involuntary reasons and whose location is unknown.

E2.1.1.24.7. Missing in Action (MIA). The casualty is a hostile casualty, other than the victim of a terrorist activity, who is not present at his or her duty location due to apparent involuntary reasons and whose location is unknown.

A review of the entire directive finds that the phrase Prisoner or War or the acronym POW is never used.

The fact that the terminology Prisoner of War is no longer used was confirmed by Secretary of the Navy Gordon R. England. In his 11 October 2002 memo announcing the change in status of Capt. Michael Scott Speicher from Missing In Action to Missing/Captured, Secretary England stated: "Although the controlling missing persons statute and directives do not use the term "Prisoner of War," the fact supporting a change in Captain Speicher's category from Missing in Action to Missing/Captured would also support the conclusion that, if alive, he is a Prisoner of War."

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, call it a duck. If an American service member is captured by hostile forces he or she is a Prisoner of War. Why not designate them as such?

Here is our theory. Back in 1999 and early 2000, we reported that DPMO was moving toward a reactive recovery effort for past conflicts, by the year 2004. That means they will only investigate when new information is received, taking the recovery effort from active to reactive based on new information. We stated that JTF-FA, as we know it, would cease to exist. That was proven correct with the announcement, this past summer of a merger of CIL-HI and JTF-FA. We also stated that there was a plan to eliminate the status of Prisoner of War. Again, we were proven correct.

DPMO is gearing up for its role in future conflicts. Among their goals is to never again be caught up in a 30, 40 or 50 year recovery operation. In order to achieve that goal you can't leave POWs behind. To insure that does not happen, you simply eliminate POWs.

The phrase Prisoner of War says two thing. First it says Prisoner - living breathing human being. Second it says held by the enemy. Prisoner of War is a phrase that inflames. America does not leave its servicemen, its Prisoners behind. We don't leave POWs behind. At least that is what they'd like us to believe. We know differently.

The phrase Missing/Captured also says two thing. First it says Missing - This dehumanizes the status. Missing can be anything from your car keys to a person. Even in law enforcement when a person disappears they become a Missing Person not Missing/Beleaguered or Missing/Besieged or even Missing/Captured. Second, Missing/Capture gives the implication that your not really sure - maybe missing maybe captured and that is the key. In future conflicts, no one gets left behind because not one is Prisoner. They are just Missing with a slash....

The DPMO Strategic Plan we wrote about in 1999 and 2000, the plan we were assured was dead, is alive and well. We been proven correct on too many occasions to doubt that.

We may not always be in the right pew, but we've always been in the right church.

Nothing has changed at DPMO, and those who think things have need to take a good hard look before it's too late.

Speicher Bill Passes The House - From the Associated Press, Oct. 15^th - "Congress is promising refugee status to any Iraqi who delivers to the United States a living American prisoner of war from the Persian Gulf War or any future conflict with the Iraqi government. The measure, approved by the House Tuesday and sent to the president for his signature, expands a law enacted in 2000 that gives asylum to citizens of Southeast Asian nations, China, Russia or North Korea who bring back Americans held prisoner from the Korean or Vietnam War...."

"The legislation, passed by voice vote, also applies to nationals of other Middle East countries who rescue an American POW, but does not extend to those deemed to be criminals, terrorists or threats to U.S. security.

The Senate approved the bill, sponsored by Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., last July."

Our Thanks - to Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, for introducing this legislation, to his staff for their dedication to it's passage and to our readership who worked so hard gathering co-sponsors, and pushing this legislation through the House committees.

You are all to be congratulated for a job extraordinarily well done.

Japanese Abductees - When we reported, in the Sept. 27^th edition of Bits, on the admission by North Korea that they had kidnaped Japanese citizens during the 1970's we never thought the story would take on an added twist. As it turns out Hitomi Soga, who was kidnaped in August of 1978, along with her mother, is married to American Servicemen Charles Robert Jenkins. Ms. Soga was give the Korean name and was forced to teach Japanese language and customs to North Korean spies. Jenkins who taught English is listed by the military as having deserted in January of 1965.

As we have previously reported an intelligence report from 1962 indicated a North Korean plan to kidnap American Servicemen and take them into North Korea. We have long questioned the status of Jenkins, Parrish, Abshire and Dresnok the other American "defectors." Until each man can be questioned, on neutral ground, we must give the benefit of the doubt to the serviceman.

This week Ms. Soga was allowed to visit her family in Japan. Neither her husband or their two daughters, reported by Japanese media as Mika (born on Jun. 1, 1983) and Belinda (born on Jul. 23, 1985), accompanied her and Ms. Soga must return to North Korea. There are conflicting reports as to whether Mr. Jenkins was offered to opportunity to fly to Japan and refused. However, we do know that none of the children of those kidnaped were allowed to accompany their parents.

In the October 19^th edition of the New York Times, James Brooke's reports: "Tokyo, Oct. 18 - It was the unlikeliest of marriages. Charles Robert Jenkins, a former United States Army sergeant listed by the Pentagon as a defector to North Korea, was teaching English in Pyongyang. "

"Hitomi Soga, a prisoner of the North Koreans, became his student, her family says. And, brought together by such flimsy threads of fate, she and Mr. Jenkins fell in love. Their romance began more than 20 years ago, when Ms. Soga, a Japanese nursing student, was one of several Japanese kidnaped by the North, her sister said at a televised news conference here."

"The simple request to learn English ended in a wedding on Aug. 8, 1980, said the sister. Hitomi Soga, now 43, returned to Japan this week for a reunion with her family and friends. Mr. Jenkins told a Japanese diplomat on Tuesday that, fearing arrest, he had declined an offer to fly to Japan."

"The last confirmed sighting of Sergeant Jenkins, now 62, was on a midwinter night in 1965, according to an Army report released in 1996. Patrolling the Korean demilitarized zone at 2:30 a.m. on Jan. 5 of that year, the 25-year-old North Carolina native signaled his three-man squad to wait."

"He walked ahead, ostensibly to check out something suspicious. Three weeks later, the North Korean state radio announced that this well-regarded Army veteran, a slender small-town man nicknamed Super, had defected to a better life in Communist North Korea."

"But Mr. Jenkins's family in the United States has never accepted the assertion that he defected. "We have never received a letter from him," Pat Harrell, a younger sister, said by telephone from North Carolina. Excited to hear concrete details of her brother, she said, "We have never received a photograph of him."

"Mr. Jenkins is one of about a dozen former American soldiers thought to be living in North Korea, according to Dolores A. Alfond, chairwoman of the National Alliance of Families for the Return of America's Missing Servicemen."

"In 1996 a Pentagon study classified four of them, including Mr. Jenkins, as deserters and the rest as soldiers captured during the Korean War, now half a century ago."

"For North Korea - officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea - the deserters are a sorely needed bargaining chip in negotiations with the Bush administration, particularly after this week's revelations about the country's nuclear weapons program."

"The issue of Americans who defected to our side from U.S. forces units stationed in South Korea after the war may be smoothly settled depending on the termination of the hostile relationship between the D.P.R.K. and the U.S.," a North Korean Army spokesman told the state news agency on Saturday."

"North Korea has never denied the presence of Americans on its soil, but it has always maintained that they were defectors.

"American prisoner of war groups say successive American administrations have placed a low priority on negotiating the return of Americans held by North Korea or even access by their families."

"On Tuesday, Richard A. Boucher, the State Department spokesman, said of Mr. Jenkins, "The United States has sought to talk to this person and other Americans who are known to be in North Korea, but largely about whether they had heard or knew of any others who might have been there."

"Little is known about the American, other than what Ms. Soga's family has said: that he teaches English and has two daughters, aged 17 and 19, who study at the Pyongyang University of Foreign Studies."

"Tuesday morning a Japanese diplomat, Akitaka Saiki, met Mr. Jenkins on the second floor of the terminal of Pyongyang International Airport. He was sitting there quietly with his daughters, each wearing a Kim Jong Il lapel pin. "He seemed surprised to meet me," Mr. Saiki said of his encounter Tuesday with Mr. Jenkins. "He told he had been with the U.S. Army."

"The daughters didn't seem to speak English well," Mr. Saiki said, "so I asked a Korean-speaking colleague if they wanted to come to Japan. The girls said they wanted to visit Japan, where Hitomi was born. But Mr. Jenkins said, `It might be difficult for me to visit Japan, until my situation improves.' "

"The Army has long maintained that Mr. Jenkins deserted his post, citing a farewell letter written to his family and radio broadcasts he had made in the late 1960's. For decades the Jenkins family and their supporters have maintained that the letter is a fake and that he and other American soldiers were kidnaped by North Korean soldiers to win propaganda points in the cold war and to gain native English speakers for their spy schools."

"I don't believe this bit about him being a deserter," Mrs. Harrell said, citing a "happy" home visit by Mr. Jenkins at Christmas of 1964. "I don't believe he walked over there freely." Her husband, Lee, added: "I think they were all abducted like these Japanese women. They were used to teach their men for undercover work."

"In North Carolina, Mrs. Harrell attributed her brother's nearly four decades of total silence to North Korea's government. Five years ago she met with North Korean diplomats at the United Nations and asked permission to see her brother. "They were cordial, but they never gave me any indication that would ever happen," she said. "I gave them letters for my brother. But I am sure they got destroyed as soon as they were handed over."

"In her letter, Mrs. Harrell, a devout Christian who had not seen her brother since she was 15, wrote: "There's not a day that goes by that we don't think about you and pray for you. We'll never stop praying for you."

Defector or Abductee - many questions need to be answered before a determination can be made regarding the status of Charles Jenkins. Did Jenkins walk across the DMZ to North Korea or was he kidnaped, like his future wife and the other Japanese citizens. Was Jenkins and the other American's needed for the North Korean spy school, as Ms. Soga and the Japanese nationals were?

Why is DPMO and the Pentagon so dismissive of the possibility that Jenkins and perhaps the others are victims of a kidnap and not deserters?

North Korea obviously has a "Charm School" in operation for many years, snatching foreign Nationals to be used to school North Korean spies, in the language and mannerisms of their enemies.

Recommended Reading - "The Charm School" by Nelson DeMille, listed as fiction, perhaps this book is close to fact then anyone would like us to believe.

North Korea Threatens Remains Recovery Operations - from the Associated Press, Oct. 13^th, by Paul Shin

"SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea warned Sunday the United States' "hostile policy" toward the communist country was hampering efforts to recover the remains of U.S. soldiers missing from the 1950-53 Korean War...."

"...The U.S. Administration's hostile policy toward (North Korea) has touched off bitter anti-U.S. sentiment among the Korean people, which seriously impedes the exhumation of remains of the war dead, including the investigation and confirmation of the burial places," the North's military said in a statement, which was carried by the official Korean Central News Agency."

"The statement, by an unidentified military spokesman, followed the communist country's harsh criticism of a recent visit by a U.S. special envoy. In Pyongyang, the North's capital, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James

Kelly conveyed Washington's "serious concerns" about the North's weapons program. The visit marked Washington's first security talks with North Korea since U.S. President George W. Bush took office in early 2001."

"North Korea accused Kelly of making "arrogant and threatening" remarks in discussing security issues in Pyongyang and vowed not to bow to any U.S. pressure..."

"During talks with North Korea in Bangkok, Thailand earlier this month, the United States asked Pyongyang to help investigate reports of U.S. servicemen missing from the Korean War who may be living or held captive within its borders. The U.S. government has never conclusively found that there are any Americans

from the Korean War alive in North Korea, although a Pentagon analyst wrote in a 1996 internal report that there were possibly 10 to 15 prisoners of war."

"Washington also pressed for access to four U.S. servicemen who defected to North Korea from South Korea in the 1960s. The North Korean statement said the issue of the four defectors "may be smoothly settled depending on the termination of the hostile relationship" between the two countries."

Another take on the situation comes from BBC Monitoring of KCNA News Agnecy in Pyongyang, on Oct.13th, - "....At the recent talks on remains of US war dead in Thailand we, therefore, presented reasonable and realistic proposals including the question of establishing and operating a national organization for investigation to the US side. The US administration's hostile policy towards the DPRK has touched off bitter anti-US sentiment among the Korean people, which seriously impedes the exhumation of remains of the war dead, including the investigation and confirmation of the burial places."

"There are no American "war survivors", the issue raised by the US side since all the US POWs [prisoners of war] were already repatriated in accordance with the agreement between the two sides right after the Korean War. And the issue of Americans who defected to our side from US forces units stationed in South Korea after the war may be smoothly settled depending on the termination of the hostile relationship between the DPRK and the US as it is not contrary to the international law on political exiles and the right to protect them. If the US side is really interested in the exhumation of remains of the war dead, it should sincerely do what it has to do.

The Lies - For years, the North Koreans denied they had kidnaped Japanese citizens. For years they denied they were involved in developing an Nuclear Weapons Program. Does anyone really think they are not capable of lying about holding American Prisoners of War or the status of men listed as deserters? Or do we believe that the North Koreans would lie about everything but POWs and deserters?

Fool me once, shame on you.... fool me twice, shame on me.... or in this case shame on DPMO, the Pentagon, and the State Department experts who continually negotiate away the store, while either getting nothing in return or being lied to.

Just To Let You Know We Haven't Forgotten....

Why Does Johnie Webb Still Have A Job!