Looking For -- Kay Marker, wife of POW/MIA Michael Marker, or any member of the Marker family. If you have contact with the Marker family, please ask them to contact Lynn O'Shea at 718-846-4350 or email lynn@nationalalliance.org

H. Res. 111 - As of this writing we have 174 cosponsors. We are still working hard to get this resolution, calling for the formation of a House Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, out of the Rules Committee. We also have another option should the Rules Committee fail to act. That option requires 218 co-sponsors.

We need a two prong effort. Call and faxes are needed to the Chairperson of the Rules Committee, Louise McIntosh-Slaughter. Contact her at:

2469 Rayburn Bldg Washington D.C. 20515 1-866-727-4894 Direct to Office 202-225-3615 Fax 202-225-7822

We must also continue to gain co-sponsors. So, if your Congressional Representative has not signed on to H.Res 111, please call or fax them again and keep faxing and calling until they sign on. To check the Congressional list of co-sponsors visit www.nationalalliance.org/legis/110congress.htm If your Congressional Representative name is still black, they need to be called and faxed. Call the toll free number 1-866-727-4894. That's the Capitol switchboard. Ask for your congressional representative. Once connected ask for the staff person who handles military matters. If you've tried speaking with the military aide, ask to speak to the Chief of staff or legislative director. Please call or fax, letters mailed require too much screening time.

The Following Groups Endorse H.Res 111

POW/MIA Family Groups: the Korea-Cold War Families of the Missing, World War II Families for Return of the Missing, Coalition of Families of Korean and Cold War POW/MIAs, and the National Alliance of Families

Veterans Groups: American Legion, Military Order of the Purple Heart, Tri-County Council Vietnam Era Vet, Rolling Thunder National, VietNow National, Vietnam and All Veterans of Florida, Inc., State Coalition, National Vietnam and Gulf War Veterans Coalition

POW/MIA Organizations: Arizona Families & Friends of POW's & MIA's, Colorado POW/MIA Coalition, Help Free Our POW/MIA's Now, POW Network, Northeast POW/MIA Network, Lima Area MIA/POW, Task Force Omega Inc. and Solutions Results, Inc: T/A POW FOIA Litigation Acct's.

Military Lost Valuable Time in Search for Missing Soldiers - When three American soldier, Alex Jimenez, Byron Fouty and Joseph Anzack went missing this past May, military search teams where initially prohibited from using all means available to locate the missing men. Instead they had to await a decision from lawyers in Washington D.C. They waited almost 10 hours, while the lawyers debated and the captured soldiers moved further out of reach.

According to an article published October 15th in the New York Post, Charles Hurt wrote: "U.S. intelligence officials got mired for nearly 10 hours seeking approval to use wiretaps against al Qaeda terrorists suspected of kidnaping Queens soldier Alex Jimenez in Iraq earlier this year, The Post has learned...."

"A search to rescue the men was quickly launched. But it soon ground to a halt as lawyers - obeying strict U.S. laws about surveillance - cobbled together the legal grounds for wiretapping the suspected kidnappers. Starting at 10 a.m. on May 15, according to a time line provided to Congress by the director of national intelligence, lawyers for the National Security Agency met and determined that special approval from the attorney general would be required first."

"For an excruciating nine hours and 38 minutes, searchers in Iraq waited as U.S. lawyers discussed legal issues and hammered out the "probable cause" necessary for the attorney general to grant such "emergency" permission."

"Finally, approval was granted and, at 7:38 that night, surveillance began. "The intelligence community was forced to abandon our soldiers because of the law," a senior congressional staffer with access to the classified case told The Post. "How many lawyers does it take to rescue our soldiers?" he asked. "It should be zero."

"The FISA law applies even to a cell phone conversation between two people in Iraq, because those communications zip along wires through U.S. hubs, which is where the taps are typically applied. U.S. officials had no way of knowing if Jimenez and his fellow soldiers were still alive during the nearly 10-hour delay...."

"This is terrible. If they would have acted sooner, maybe they would have found something out and been able to find my son," said Jimenez's mother, Maria Duran. "Oh my God. I just keep asking myself, where is my son? What could have happened to him?"

"Duran said she was especially frustrated, "because I thought they were doing everything possible to find him." "You know that this is how this country is - everything is by the law. They just did not want to break the law, and I understand that. They should change the law, because God only knows what type of information they could have found during that time period."

9 Hours and 38 Minutes - Could Jimenez, Fouty and Anzack been found in the time it took the lawyers to approve the wiretap thought necessary by intelligence officials. Would those 9 hours and 38 minutes have made a difference. We will never know. What we do know from bitter past experience is that politician and lawyers should never be allowed to make operational military decisions.

Missing Soldiers Weapons Found - On October 12th the Associated Press reported weapons belong to Alex Jimenez, Byron Fouty, and Joseph Anzack were discovered. According to the article; "...the weapons were discovered Tuesday near a house in Fetoah Village. The house was about seven miles north of where the soldiers from Fort Drum were ambushed May 12. U.S. troops found the cache based on intelligence from local Sunni tribesmen. Troops believed it was an ordinary weapons cache until they checked the serial numbers on the American guns they found."

"An Army statement said an M-4 rifle with an M-203 grenade launcher belonged to Sgt. Anthony Schober of Reno, Nev., one of four soldiers killed in the May 12 attack south of Baghdad. Another M-4 belonged to Pfc. Joseph Anzack Jr. of Torrance, Calif. He was reported captured and his body was found in the Euphrates River 11 days later. The cache also included an M-249 squad automatic weapon carried by Spc. Alex Jimenez Jr. of Lawrence, Mass. He and Pvt. Byron Fouty of Waterford, Mich., are classified as missing-captured, the military said."

In the November 18th 2006 edition of Bits N Pieces, we wrote about the case of Charles Scharf and Martin Massucci, case 0158. Both were named in the August 1st 1992 memo written by Sedgwick Tourison during his tenure as an investigator with the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs. In his memo Tourison listed 19 Americans on whom "DoD now has information survived into captivity."

The identification of a small bone as the mortal remains of Charles Scharf divided the family. Based on the recovery of a "dental appliance" and personnel effects, along with mt-DNA testing, U.S. official stated Col. Scharf was in the aircraft at the time of the crash.

The identification divided the family. His sister, Barbara Scharf Lowerson who provided a blood sample for the mt-DNA comparison disputes the mt-DNA identification. The comparison to her sample and the sample taken from the bone were "inconclusive." Eventually, DNA for comparison to the bone sample was extracted from either envelopes or stamps found on letters sent home by Col. Scharf.

Scharf's wife, Patricia, accepts the identification and on November 30, 2006, remains identified as Col. Charles Scharf were laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.

On November 20, 2006, JPAC issued a message reporting on the "translation of Vietnamese report of advance work of Case 0158 during the 83rd JFA." According to the message; "During the 83rd Joint Field Activity (JFA) (13 October 14 November 2005), a Vietnamese Office for Seeking Missing Persons (VNOSMP) team conducted advance work for case 0158 pursuant to U.S. Requirements."

Vietnamese officials interviewed five witnesses described in the report as having "varying degrees of knowledge related to an October 1968 aircraft crash incident involving two pilots, on who died in a stream and was later buried in Tai Um Hamlet, the other who was captured by the militia at Quang Huy Village."

Witness One stated he assisted in pulling a body out of a stream. The body was described as "wearing underwear." The witness saw "one notebook and inside it was a picture of a woman and children." He reported "he heard later that the body had been buried at Tai Um,, near the spillway. Additionally, he heard (in this instance the message is clear to point out that this individual was " not a firsthand witness") there was another pilot captured by the militia in the area of Bon Tot Mountain."

Witness Two, according to the report, stated: "One pilot landed in the Can Hamlet irrigation canal in Quang Huy village. Another parachute landed in the stream. When pulled out he saw the pilot's body: no helmet, Caucasian, no mustache or beard. The next morning the body was buried at Tai Um Hamlet. (Note: this witness did not state, according to the message, that he participated in or witnessed the burial.)

Witness Three, still a child at the time stated: "He went to see the pilot that fell into the irrigation canal in the Na Xa Plain. The pilot was still alive and said the word penicillin repeatedly and made a gesture injecting something into his arm, but at the time the hamlet residents did not understand the word penicillin. Hamlet residents saw he was wearing white clothing so they wiped mud all over him to avoid detection by aircraft. Afterward he heard the pilot died and was buried in the Cuu Hamlet Cemetery, Huy Thoung Village.

Witness Four stated: "he went to see the pilot that died at the spillway, and saw part of a dental prosthesis on his chest." (Note: During a prior operation a "dental appliance" was found at the crash site.)

The fifth witness provided general information on a "journalist who took pictures, possibly from the Northwestern soldiers newspaper in former Nghia Lo Province." According to the report the witness "does not know the journalist's current whereabouts."

The assessment provided to this report states; "the information the witnesses provided had many elements that correlate with the time frame and incident location for case 0158. The site is near a concrete bridge built on the old spillway, along the provincial highway."

Why is the report important? These witnesses put both men out of the aircraft. None of the witnesses reported participating in or witnessing the burial of the pilot. None of the information regarding the burial of the pilot is first hand. While some witnesses referred to the "body," one witness stated the pilot asked for medication.

The information contained in this report was reported by the VNOSMP after the recovery of the dental appliance, personal effects and bone from the crash site. This information casts doubt on the belief that the aircraft was manned when it crashed. Certainly, it raise questions.

Charles Scharf was buried on November 30, 2006, 12 days after JPAC issued this message. We can not say if the information contained in the JPAC message was provided to Col. Scharf's wife prior to her decision to accept remains or the actual burial. We can say for a fact the information provided by witnesses that both men were out of the aircraft was only provided to Col. Scharf's sister well after the November 30th burial.

There are other questions here. Was the Case 0158 crash site salted? Where the Vietnamese witnesses, who saw the pilot described variously as a "body" or asking for medication, lying and what of the dental prosthesis? Were the witnesses coached? It's happened before. Why would the Vietnamese produce contradictory witnesses to a case just about resolved?

Lastly and most puzzling is the question what really happened to Charles Scarf and where is Martin Massucci?