The Next DASD – As you are all aware, Deputy Secretary of Defense for POW/MIA Affairs Jerry D. Jennings resigned last month. We can only hope that President Bush takes this opportunity to break with tradition and appoint an individual qualified for the position. Previous Clinton and Bush appointees clearly show that the DASD position was used as a political patronage position, a reward to friends and political cronies.

According to information received ten individuals have submitted resumes for the position. Two of those applying for the position are well known to the Alliance and either would make an excellent choice for Deputy Secretary of Defense for POW/MIA Affairs. They are retired Navy Cmdr. Chip Beck, formerly with the Defense POW/MIA Office, and Mr. Norman Kass, currently Executive Secretary of the Joint Commission Support Directorate (JCSD.)

It is critical that the DASD be an individual who has demonstrated their integrity and dedication to the POW/MIA issue and has earned the trust and respect of POW/MIA family members, the veterans and concerned citizens who support them. Both Mr. Beck and Mr. Kass fit this description.

Our best chance to secure the type of leadership sorely needed at the Defense POW/MIA Office (DPMO) is to unite as many POW/MIA groups as possible behind one candidate. In an unprecedented move, both the National Alliance of Families and the Korea/Cold War Families of the Missing, have united to endorse one candidate for the position of Deputy Secretary of Defense for POW/MIA Affairs.

On December 22nd a letter was submitted to President Bush, signed by both Dolores Alfond, chairperson of the National Alliance of Families, and Irene Mandra, chairperson of the Korea/Cold War Families of the Missing. In their joint letter they stated:

“As National Chairpersons, for two of the largest POW/MIA Family organizations, we contact you on a matter of grave concern to both our organizations. That is the appointment of an individual to fill the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (DASD) for POW/MIA Affairs.”

“It is imperative that the individual appointed to this position is someone with a strong background in the POW/MIA issue. This individual must also have the respect and trust of POW/MIA family members. So, that they may bring an air of credibility to the Defense POW/MIA Office (DPMO). That is why our two organizations have taken the historic step of uniting to recommend the candidate who would best serve the interest of American service members Prisoners and Missing, from all wars and their families.”

“Mr. President, we most strongly and unitedly recommend Mr. Norman Kass for the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (DASD) for POW/MIA Affairs. With more than 14 years of experience starting with Task Force Russia and then as head of the Joint Commission Support Directorate (JCSD), the investigative arm of the U.S./Russian Joint Commission, Mr. Kass would bring a wealth of experience and understanding to the position. Additionally, Mr. Kass has earned the abiding trust and respect of POW/MIA family members.”

A word about Norman Kass – It is under his direction that so much progress has been made in the area of Korean and Cold War POWs and their transfer to the former Soviet Union. In February of 2005, under his direction the 5th Edition of the Gulag Study was released. That study concluded: “Americans, including American servicemen, were imprisoned in the former Soviet Union . . . "

In a subsequent interview with CNN when asked about the number of Americans held in the former Soviet Union Mr. Kass responded “I personally would be comfortable saying that the number is in the hundreds."

Is it any wonder that previous DPMO leadership tried to remove Mr. Kass from his position at the Joint Commission Support Directorate, not once but twice!

Mr. Kass, in addition to winning the respect and trust of POW/MIA families, has continued to demonstrate one quality sorely lacking within DPMO . . . an open mind. This open minded attitude allowed for the careful and complete examination of all evidence which led to the publication of the original Gulag Study and its four revisions leading to the conclusion that: “Americans, including American servicemen, were imprisoned in the former Soviet Union . . . "

We ask all organizations to unite with the Korean/Cold War Families of the Missing and the National Alliance of Families in support of Mr. Norman Kass as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/MIA Affairs.

We urge those charged with making this decision to heed the voices of POW/MIA families and the veterans and concerned citizens who support them to appoint Mr. Norman Kass as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/MIA Affairs.

January 16, 2006 – Marks the 15th year in Iraq for Navy Captain Scott Speicher -- This past week we found a story mentioning the Speicher case on a web site called “The Raw Story.” The site describes itself as a “liberal alternative to the Drudge Report.” In an article titled “Secretive military unit sought to solve political WMD concerns prior to securing Iraq, intelligence sources say” by Larisa Alexandrovna. The reporting in this article, with regard to the Speicher case, ignored intelligence gathered before any thoughts of war with Iraq.

According to “Raw Story” “Lieutenant Commander Michael “Scott” Speicher was shot down over Iraq in 1991 during the first day of Operation Desert Storm. He was classified as Killed in Action (KIA) within a few months thereafter. Sources say that in order to convince the administration to invade Iraq, Ahmed Chalabi, the discredited leader of the Iraqi National Congress (INC) and poster boy for neoconservative hawks, claimed that Speicher was alive and being held as a prisoner of war.”

The story went on to say; “Sources say that along with promises of Speicher and WMD, Chalabi also promised to deliver Iraqi tribal chieftains to support coalition forces on the ground. So called “swoop” teams of special Ops forces deployed in the region prior to the invasion were assured that support on the ground from tribal leaders would be ready upon the arrival of US and British forces. But like the claims of Speicher and WMD, no such support materialized.”

The article leaves the impression that the information provided on Chalabi was the only information existing on Speicher’s capture. We can’t make a determination on the validity of Chalabi’s information on Speicher. Sadly, both sides are guilty of using Speicher as one of the justifications for war.

We thought we’d look back on some of the early reporting on Capt. Speicher’s capture. This pre-Gulf War II information is important because it was gathered and evaluated before there was a need to justify a war in Iraq. As our regular readers know, in an attempt to once again write-off Capt. Speicher, the Defense Dept has dismissed the pre-war intelligence coming out of Iraq regarding Capt. Speicher’s capture and detention, as well as the initials MSS carved in a prison wall where Speicher was reportedly held.

In spite of repeated government denials, the New York Times, quoting Pentagon documents, reported in a December 7 1997 article by Tim Weiner that a spy satellite over Speicher’s crash site ''detected a man-made symbol in the area of the ejection seat.''

In a follow-up article published December 12, 1997, Weiner wrote: “But according to Pentagon documents and Pentagon officials interviewed last week, there was a chance that Commander Speicher could have ejected and survived; there was a plan -- never executed -- to launch a covert mission to search the crash site; and there was some kind of ''man-made symbol'' at the crash site, which was detected by a Pentagon spy satellite in 1994.”

In April 2000, CBS aired a report stating: “American investigators say an Iraqi defector who had recently escaped to Jordan told them that in the first days of the war, he had driven an American pilot from the desert to Baghdad and the authorities. The pilot, he says, was alive, alert, and wearing a flight suit. The defector pointed Speicher out in a photo lineup, and passed two lie detector tests.”

Lastly and most important is the March 27, 2001 “Intelligence Community Assessment of the Lieutenant Commander Speicher Case,” in its introduction, the assessment stated;

“We assess that Iraq can account for LCDR Speicher but that Baghdad is concealing information about his fate. LCDR Speicher probably survived the loss of his aircraft, and if he survived, he almost certainly was captured by the Iraqis.”

The Intelligence Community Assessment concluded:

“The way Baghdad has handled the case-falsely suggesting that remains returned in 1991 were those of LCDR Speicher, tampering with the F/A-18 wreckage before the 1995 crash site excavation, planting the flight suit for crash investigators to find, and declining to account accurately for LCDR Speicher¡ raises troubling questions about his fate.”

“The regime made it a high priority to capture enemy personnel or recover remains inside Iraqi-controlled territory, and Baghdad would have thoroughly investigated the matter until the pilot was captured or the remains recovered. Baghdad's efforts to recover Coalition airmen downed over Iraqi-controlled territory were highly successful.”

“We assess LCDR Speicher was either captured alive or his remains were recovered and brought to Baghdad.”

What was this conclusion based on? There is one very important statement in the first paragraph of the Intelligence Community Assessment. That statement reads:

“The requirement to protect classified sources and methods prevented the inclusion of classified material that pertains to the case. The unclassified version is therefore incomplete, and the overall judgments of the assessment may not be fully supported by the unclassified content provided.”

Clearly, classified information existed that indicates Capt. Speicher was captured. We can only guess at what that information is. Was it live sighting reports, or a photo? Or, was it the satellite imagery detecting “a man-made symbol in the area of the ejection seat.''

Whatever the information, it existed prior to the need for any justification of war, and it can not be dismissed.

Remind the White House About Scott Speicher – On Monday, January 16th we ask everyone to contact the White House and ask.... What is being done to bring Scott Speicher Home? Express your dissatisfaction with the handling of the Speicher case, and the Pentagon’s attempt to dismiss early reporting of Speicher’s capture.

As Senator Bill Nelson once stated: “there is somebody in the Pentagon that is trying to kill the effort to find Speicher.” Contact the President at:

Call him at	202-456-1111 or 202-456-1414
Fax him at	202-456-2461
Email him at	president@whitehouse.gov

One Question – Does anyone know what happened to Speicher’s Flight Suit????

China Agrees to Open Its Korean War Archives for U.S. Investigators Hunting for Missing Servicemen – Wrong! This misleading headline or some variation appeared on many news sites. In fact, as reported by the Associated Press on December 27, 2005, the Chinese have agreed only to consider a request to search Chinese military archives.

According to the AP, “Chinese officials have agreed to consider a U.S. request to search military archives that could yield clues to the fate of missing Korean War servicemen possibly held by China, the U.S. Embassy said Tuesday. Beijing was "optimistic that a way could be found to access the documents," the embassy said in a statement.”

“China also will help organize local support for U.S. investigations at sites where the remains of U.S. airmen from World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War might be found, it said. The probes should take place next year, it said.”

“The Chinese military ran prisoner-of-war camps in North Korea after intervening in the war in October 1950 to push U.S.-led United Nations forces back from the Yalu River separating China and North Korea. The Pentagon has said it has information that China took some U.S. POWs into China during the war. Relatives of missing servicemen welcomed the news of China's decision with wary optimism.....”

“The Pentagon has unsuccessfully tried for years to convince the Chinese government that its archives could contain important information about some of the 8,100 U.S. servicemen missing after the Korean War. China repeatedly has denied it has any information about the fate of American GIs.”