North and South Korea Conclude Talks – After four day's of meetings Pyongyang, North and South Korea reached agreement on a number of topics. Of interest to those concerned with the POW/MIA, the Associated Press reports that North and South Korea will "Hold Red Cross talks April 10-12 to discuss the issue of South Korean abductees and POWs."

When is someone going to talk about the American POWs in North Korea?

Remember the words of I.O. Lee, an analyst with DPMO, who wrote: "There are too many reports, specifically observations of several Caucasians in a collective farm by Romanian and North Korean defectors' eyewitness of Americans in DPRK to dismiss that there are no Americans in North Korea."

Video of Captured Soldier – On February 14th a video surfaced showing Spc4 Ahmed Altaie. According to an Associated Press article by Sinan Salaheddin: "A Shiite militant group has released a video of a kidnapped Iraqi-American soldier, the first time he has been seen alive since he was abducted four months ago in Baghdad, his uncle said Wednesday."

"Army translator Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie, a 41-year-old Reserve soldier who was born in Iraq and lives in Ann Arbor, Mich., was seized by gunmen on Oct. 23 while visiting his Iraqi wife's family in the Karadah neighborhood of central Baghdad."

"A previously unknown Shiite militant group called Ahl al-Bayt Brigades posted a 10-second video on the Internet on Tuesday showing al-Taayie in front of a greenish flat surface with short dark cropped hair, unshaven and wearing a wide dark-green collared shirt, said SITE, a U.S. group that monitors extremist messages."

"Al-Taayie's eyes were downcast and his lips were moving as if he was reading aloud, SITE said Wednesday. Although the video carried no sound, SITE said that the militants also issued a document, saying: "We warn the American people of the result of sending their soldiers to Iraq so they don't face the same fate. The video was also broadcast earlier Wednesday by CNN."

"It was unclear when the video was made but Entifadh Qanbar, al-Taayie's uncle, said he had identified his nephew in it. The Associated Press could not immediately find the video in a search of militant Web sites."

"....Al-Taayie, whose name is also spelled Ahmed Kousay Altaie, was born in Iraq and moved to the U.S. as a teenager. He joined the Army Reserves in December 2004 and was deployed to Iraq in November 2005."

Question for Our Readers – Do active duty U.S. service members still carry Geneva Conventions identification cards? If you have the answer, email us at lynn@nationalalliance.org

Disgrace at Walter Reed – No doubt you have read the articles detailing the horrible condition, wounded soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have endured at the Army's Walter Reed Hospital in Washington D.C. Thursday, as a result of the media attention, the top General at Walter Reed, Maj. Gen. George Weightman was fired. On Friday, Francis J. Harvey, Secretary of the Army, was forced to resign his position as part of the fallout over the deplorable conditions found at Walter Reed.

Their commands were found deficient. As a result both Weightman and Harvey lost their jobs.

So we ask you this..... If a command is investigated, not once but twice, and that command is found deficient why didn't the commander loose his job.....

Mellor and O'Grady – In the spirit of everything old is new again, we went back to a February 11th 1995 letter signed by then Secretary of Defense William Perry. In this letter Perry stated:

"I am submitting this report in response to the requirements of the Fiscal Year 1995 National Defense Authorization Act, Public Law 103-33337, Section 1034. In accordance with the legislation, the Department of Defense is required to submit to Congress "a complete listing by name of all such personnel about whom it is possible that officials of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam can produce additional information or remains that could lead to the maximum possible accounting for these personnel, as determined on the basis of all informatio available to the United States Government."

The listing was broken down into three categories. They are Special Remains Cases, Photo Cases, Priority Discrepancy Cases and Viet-Lao Border Cases. It is no surprise that the 19 New POW Cases are listed among the Priority Discrepancy Cases. What we did find surprising was that two of the 19 New POW case are listed among the Photo Cases.

The two POWs listed as a Photo Case are Air Force Capt. Fredric Mellor and Air Force Major John F. O'Grady. We do not know if the photos referred to are from identification cards. Or if the photos were taken by the Vietnamese. They could be photos taken after death, or while in captivity.

However, the existence of photos or Vietnamese possession of identification cards, clearly shows that the Vietnamese had access to these men, and alive or dead, know exactly what happened to them.

National Alliance of Families 18th Annual Forum is scheduled for June 21th - 23th, 2007. Our forum is conducted to coincide with the Government's annual Vietnam POW/MIA Family Briefings. We urge all family members to attend this years government briefings. The government will provide free airfare to two family members to attend the government briefings. There is no charge or registration fee to attend these briefings and you DO NOT have to belong to an organization to attend the government briefings.

We are in the process of arranging meeting space and special room rate, which will be announced when finalized.

The Alliance is an all volunteer organization. Our meetings are open to all, without charge. At this time of year, we actively seek contributions to finance our forum. If you wish to contribute, donations may be mailed to: