| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"pedro martori" |
| Date: |
17 Oct 2004 08:05:10 PM |
| Object: |
Cuban War Crimes Against American POWs During The Vietnam War |
from http://www.ipsystems.com/powmia/news96/pmAug96.html
Cuban War Crimes Against American POWs During The Vietnam War
[Michael D. Benge, Board Member, NAFL, Ex-POW, 1968-1973]
Pentagon officials confirmed that POWs released during "Operation
Homecoming" in 1973, were told not to talk about "third-country
interrogations".
"This thing is very sensitive with all kinds of diplomatic
ramifications," according to one Pentagon official. (Washington Star,
4/3/73)
Not only was it not discussed, the torture and murder of over 20
Americans by Cubans, was swept under the rug by the U.S. government.=20
The Cubans were attached to Hanoi's Enemy Proselytizing Bureau with
jurisdiction over American POWs.
Air Force Colonel Donald "Digger" Odell gave his Defense Department
debriefers an eyewitness account of two American POWs, who the Hanoi
communists hadn/t released because
"The Vietnamese didn't want the world to see what they had done to
them."
In spite of the Colonel's eyewitness account, and those of other
returnees, DOD (Department of Defense) continues to this date to
vehemently deny that any American POWs had been left behind.
For days in June 1968, Air Force Ace Major James Kasler was tortured
by Fidel. Fidel beat Kasler across the buttocks with a large truck fan
belt until "he tore my rear end to shreds".
For one three-day period, Kasler was beaten with the fan belt every
hour from 6:am to 10:pm, and kept awake at night.
"My mouth was so bruised that I could not open my teeth for five
days."
After one beating, Kasler's buttocks, lower back and legs hung in
shreds. The skin had been entirely whipped away and the area was a
bluish, purplish, greenish mass of bloody raw meat.
According to Kasler, "at least 15 men were either killed during
torture or were not accounted for." (Time, 4/9/71)
Three POWs were beaten senseless, and of the three, two disappeared
and the other was reported to have died.
Fidel called one of the American POWs the "Faker". He was one of the
three who had been beaten senseless.
The first time Jack Bomar saw him, the man could barely walk; he
shuffled slowly, painfully. His clothes torn to shreds. He was
bleeding everywhere, terribly swollen, and a dirty, yellowish black
and purple from head to toe.
The man's head was down; he made to attempt to look at anyone. He had
been through much more than the day's beatings.
His body was ripped and torn everywhere; hell cuffs appeared almost to
have severed his wrists, strap marks still wound around the arms all
the way to the shoulders, slivers of bamboo were embedded in the
bloodied shins and there were what appeared to be tread marks from the
hose across the chest, back and legs.
Fidel smashed a fist into the man's face, driving him against the
wall. Then he was brought to the center of the room and made to get
down onto his knees.
Screaming in rage, Fidel took a length of black rubber hose from a
guard and lashed it as hard as he could into the man'a face.
The prisoner did not react; he did not cry out or even blink an
eye.Again and again, a dozen times, Fidel smashed the man's face with
the hose.
He was never released. (Hubble, P.O.W.
The Cuban torturers were given the names "Fidel" "Chico" and "Pancho"
..
They were part of a Cuban diplomatic contingent assigned to Hanoi's
Enemy Proselytizing Bureau, and were directly responsible for the
murder and torture of a considerable number of American POWs.=20
According to one CIA dispatch, the Cuban Program" was conducted at the
Cuu Loc PW camp from August 1967 through July 1968.
According to a DIA report, "the objective of the interrogators was to
obtain the total submission of the prisoners...."
However, this report may not have been entirely accurate.
One intelligence source, who reportedly interviewed "Fidel" and other
Cuban interrogators in Hanoi, claims they said that their real job was
to act as gate-keepers for the Soviets, and helped select
highly-skilled pilots and electronic warfare backseaters, who became
"Moscow Bound".
The Cuban involvement in the interrogation of POWs did not end in
1968, for in 1969, I was interrogated by Fidel, and it wasn't in the
Cuu Loc prison.
There were two other prison camps located near Cuban facilities in
North Vietnam where American POWs were held. One, located at "Work
Site 5" (Cong Truong 5), just north of the DMZ, was adjacent to a
Cuban field hospital that Fidel Castro visited in 1972.
No returned POW was ever held at that camp, where a mixture of
legitimate POWs and some stay-behinds, were incarcerated.
The other, according to a recently returned Vietnamese 34-A commando,
was the Thanh Tri Prison, where he saw 60 American POWs in 1969. Also
in the prison were approximately 100 French and Moroccan POWs captured
in the early 1950s.
His report corroborates several other similar sightings.
Later they were transferred to Ba Vi Prison near another Cuban
facility.
No American POW has ever returned from either of these prisons,
thought to be part of Hanoi's second-tier prison system.
In 1972, two French POWs escaped and made it to the French Embassy in
Peking.
After the French government paid a ransom, the French and Moroccan
POWs were quietly repatriated.
There is no evidence that the CIA, DoD or DIA have ever interviewed
these people.
On one occasion, a former aide to Fidel Castro approached the American
Consulate in Nassau with an offer to ransom American POWs captured in
North Vietnam, through the Castro Government.
According to the Department of State cable, "We have listened without
comment or commitment. Presume Washington has files on these types.
Propose doing nothing further unless advised."
Evidently there was no follow up.
According to the Baltimore Sun (8/15/77), CIA analysts identified two
Cuban military attaches, Eduardo Morjon Esteves and Luis Perez Jaen,
who had backgrounds which seemed to correspond with information on
Fidel and Chico, supplied by returning POWs.
A Spanish Cuban psychiatrist, Barral Fernando, interrogated Senator
John McCain for an extensive period of time, part of which was
published in the Havana newspaper "Granma".
Recently declassified documents show that the CIA has photographs as
well as composite drawings of the Cuban torturers.
After my return in 1973, I identified one of the Cubans in a
photograph shown to me by a Congressional Committee.
I was told that one of the man's jobs was coordinating the American
contingent of the Venceremos Brigade (cane cutters), and he was also
responsible for funneling Soviet money to the Americans to support
anti-war activities.
According to one news report, President Clinton's transition
coordinator appointee, Johnnetta Cole, in 1976, "was active in the
communist-front Venceremos Brigade".
Another report stated that U.S. prisoners-of-war captured in Vietnam
were reported transferred to communist prisons in Cuba during later
1965 and throughout 1966
One Cuban prisoner, who later escaped and fled to the U.S., was held
in "Las Maristas, a secret Cuban prison run by Castro's
G-2 Intelligence service, with American POWs captured in Vietnam".=20
The POWs referred to each other by rank, such as Lieutenant and
Captain, and a guard told them that these Americans were war
prisoners, mostly pilots, brought from North Vietnam.
Although he was interviewed by FBI agents upon his arrival in the
U.S., they did not seem very interested in the story of American POWs
from Vietnam. Nor was he ever debriefed by U.S. military intelligence
or by the CIA.
Other Cuban witnesses have corroborated the fact that a substantial
number of American prisoners were held in several Cuban prisons.
However, only one Cuban claimed knowledge that the Americans were POWs
from Vietnam.
There is no evidence that the FBI, DoD, DIA or the CIA canvassed the
Cuban exile community in Miami to find out if they had knowledge of
American POWs taken from Vietnam to Cuba.
The behavior of "Fidel", "Chico" and "Pancho" is beyond the pale and
is clearly in violation of the standards set at Nuremberg after World
War II.
Therefore, these Cuban war criminals should be tried before an
international tribunal similar to that supported by the U.S.
governemnt for the prosecution of perpetrators of war crimes in
Bosnia.
The communist regime in Hanoi can easily identify these Cubans.=20
Therefore, a moratorium should be placed on the appointment of an
American Ambassador to Vietnam until the time that regime is "fully
cooperating" in resolving the POW/MIA issue.
Full cooperation by the communist government in Vietnam includes the
full disclosure of the true identities and roles of these Cuban
"diplomats", who were "advisors" to the Hanoi prison systems, and were
directly responsible for the murder, torture and severe disablement of
over 20 American POWs.
Michael D. Benge spent 11 years in Vietnam, over five years as a
prisoner-of-war (1968-1973), and was held in numerous camps in South
Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and North Vietnam (27 months in solitary
confinement, one year in a "black box"
--
bruce
The dignified don't even enter in the game.
"Amigo Cabal" <alexseredin@adelfia.net> wrote in message =
news:sLidnYFTUc4oHe_cRVn-vg@adelphia.com...
=20
"pedro martori" <pedro1940@progression.net> wrote in message=20
news:M_2dnTFXwPWu4O_cRVn-hg@look.ca...
CASTRO & COMMUNIST PARTY SUPPORTS KERRY
POW'S IN VIETNAM TORTURED UNDER ''CUBAN PROGRAM''
=20
=20
NOW TELL ME HOW U.S. TORTURES NOBODY, EVER!=20
=20
=20
---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.719 / Virus Database: 475 - Release Date: 7/12/2004
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| User: "pedro martori" |
|
| Title: Re: Cuban War Crimes Against American POWs During The Vietnam War |
17 Oct 2004 08:13:48 PM |
|
|
John Kerry was not my first choice for president.. I will support him =
to
beat George W.Bush.. John Kerry is one who has been betrayed, just like =
the
rest of us.. He is also one who has fought for our country and shed =
blood..
Then he came home and fought for his brothers in arms who were still =
there..
John Kerry is a commie slime-ball who came home from Viet Nam and =
betrayed
his fellow vets.
o In his April 1971 speech to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations,
John Kerry claimed that war crimes committed by the American military
against Vietnamese civilians were "not isolated incidents, but crimes
committed on a day-to-day basis..." War crimes in Vietnam were actually
quite rare.
o Kerry claimed that war crimes were being committed "with the full
awareness of officers at all levels of command." In fact, military
personnel were warned that "if you disobey the rules of engagement, you =
can
be tried and punished." War crimes were never a matter of policy, and =
were
prosecuted when discovered.
o Kerry charged that the war in Vietnam was a racist war, that "blacks
provided the highest percentage of casualties." Research published in =
B.G.
Burkett's book "Stolen Valor" and other sources shows that casualty =
rates
for black and white soldiers during Vietnam closely matched the =
proportion
of America's overall population represented by each race.
o Kerry claimed that Vietnam was "ravaged equally by American bombs and
search-and-destroy missions as well as by Viet Cong terrorism..." Later =
in
his remarks, Kerry responded to a question about what might happen to =
the
South Vietnamese after our withdrawal with "So what I am saying is that
yes, there will be some recrimination but far, far less than the 200,000 =
a
year who are murdered by the United States of America..." Yet according =
to
historian Guenter Lewy in "America in Vietnam," "...the number of =
civilians
killed deliberately by the VC is appallingly high. No counterpart to =
this
death toll caused by communist terror tactics exists on the allied =
side."
o Asked for a recommendation about possible courses of action for =
Congress
to pursue, Kerry stated that he had talked with representatives from =
Hanoi
and from the PRG (Viet Cong) at the Paris peace talks, and mentioned his
support for "Madam Binh's points." Madam Nguyen Thi Binh was at that =
time
the Foreign Minister for the PRG. These meetings took place in the =
spring
of 1970, before Kerry ever joined the VVAW.
o Kerry was a leader, fund-raiser, and spokesman for Vietnam Veterans
Against the War (VVAW), an organization that staged mock mass murders of
civilians to dramatize American atrocities, and handed out flyers that =
read
"if you had been Vietnamese" American infantrymen might have "burned =
your
house" or "raped your wife and daughter" and "American soldiers do these
things every day to the Vietnamese simply because they are 'Gooks.'"
o Kerry's used "testimony" from the VVAW's "Winter Soldier =
Investigation"
as the basis for his war crimes charges, although none of the witnesses
there were willing to sign depositions affirming their claims. Later
investigators were unable to confirm any of the reported atrocities, and =
in
fact discovered that a number of the witnesses had never been in =
Vietnam,
had never been in combat, or were imposters who had assumed the identity =
of
real veterans.
o The deception extended to the VVAW leadership. Executive secretary Al
Hubbard claimed to have been an Air Force captain wounded piloting a
transport over Da Nang in 1966. Hubbard was actually a staff sergeant =
who
was never assigned to Vietnam.
o The Winter Soldier Investigation was financed by pro-Hanoi radicals =
such
as Jane Fonda and Mark Lane, who hoped to undermine American support for
the war by framing American soldiers as mass murderers. At the same =
time,
the North Vietnamese military was torturing American prisoners of war to
make them confess to identical crimes. At least one former POW has =
stated
that Kerry's testimony was used by North Vietnam to demoralize American
prisoners during interrogations.
o John Kerry has denied any association with Jane Fonda, but he attended
the 1970 VVAW leadership meeting that chose Fonda and Executive =
Secretary
Al Hubbard to do a national speaking tour to raise money for the VVAW =
and
launch new chapters. Fonda was also the primary source of funds for the
Winter Soldier Investigation, where Kerry was a moderator.
o The VVAW signed the People's Peace Treaty during Kerry's tenure -- the
VVAW even sent a delegation to Hanoi. The document was a laundry list of
North Vietnamese bargaining points, including the key concession that =
the
United States must agree to withdraw all troops before any negotiations
could take place for the return of American prisoners.
o The VVAW was at the heart of the propaganda effort that so effectively
smeared American servicemen in Vietnam as murderous, drug-addled =
psychotics
that returning veterans were cursed and spat upon in the streets. In =
fact,
as shown in B.G. Burkett's book "Stolen Valor," Vietnam veterans are =
more
psychologically stable and successful than their civilian counterparts.
o The VVAW was a radical and potentially violent organization that =
formally
considered assassinating prominent supporters of the war. As reported in
the New York Sun by Thomas Lipscomb, during a November 1971 meeting in
Kansas City the VVAW leadership and chapter coordinators voted down a =
plan
to murder several U.S. Senators, including John Tower, John Stennis, and
Strom Thurmond. Two VVAW members who were present, Randy Barnes and =
Terry
Du-Bose, place John Kerry at that meeting, as do the meeting minutes and
FBI records. Kerry claims to have resigned from the VVAW at the meeting =
or
shortly thereafter, but there is no evidence that he ever informed
authorities about the conspiracy. Kerry continued to publicly represent =
the
VVAW until at least April of 1972.=20
--
Sharky
John Kerry was recently asked to throw the opening pitch at a Red
Sox-Yankees game, where an Iraq war veteran was asked to be the catcher.
Kerry threw the pitch into the dirt several feet in front of the honored
veteran, which I would think was probably a bit disappointing to him. =
John
Kerry, when asked to comment about his wimpy pitch, commented "I held
back... He was very nervous. I tried to lob it gently". I suppose =
that's
typical of a John Kerry response - always blame everyone else for your
failures.
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
Cuban War Crimes Against American POWs During The Vietnam War
[Michael D. Benge, Board Member, NAFL, Ex-POW, 1968-1973]
Pentagon officials confirmed that POWs released during "Operation
Homecoming" in 1973, were told not to talk about "third-country
interrogations".
"This thing is very sensitive with all kinds of diplomatic
ramifications," according to one Pentagon official. (Washington Star,
4/3/73)
Not only was it not discussed, the torture and murder of over 20
Americans by Cubans, was swept under the rug by the U.S. government.=20
The Cubans were attached to Hanoi's Enemy Proselytizing Bureau with
jurisdiction over American POWs.
Air Force Colonel Donald "Digger" Odell gave his Defense Department
debriefers an eyewitness account of two American POWs, who the Hanoi
communists hadn/t released because
"The Vietnamese didn't want the world to see what they had done to
them."
In spite of the Colonel's eyewitness account, and those of other
returnees, DOD (Department of Defense) continues to this date to
vehemently deny that any American POWs had been left behind.
For days in June 1968, Air Force Ace Major James Kasler was tortured
by Fidel. Fidel beat Kasler across the buttocks with a large truck fan
belt until "he tore my rear end to shreds".
For one three-day period, Kasler was beaten with the fan belt every
hour from 6:am to 10:pm, and kept awake at night.
"My mouth was so bruised that I could not open my teeth for five
days."
After one beating, Kasler's buttocks, lower back and legs hung in
shreds. The skin had been entirely whipped away and the area was a
bluish, purplish, greenish mass of bloody raw meat.
According to Kasler, "at least 15 men were either killed during
torture or were not accounted for." (Time, 4/9/71)
Three POWs were beaten senseless, and of the three, two disappeared
and the other was reported to have died.
Fidel called one of the American POWs the "Faker". He was one of the
three who had been beaten senseless.
The first time Jack Bomar saw him, the man could barely walk; he
shuffled slowly, painfully. His clothes torn to shreds. He was
bleeding everywhere, terribly swollen, and a dirty, yellowish black
and purple from head to toe.
The man's head was down; he made to attempt to look at anyone. He had
been through much more than the day's beatings.
His body was ripped and torn everywhere; hell cuffs appeared almost to
have severed his wrists, strap marks still wound around the arms all
the way to the shoulders, slivers of bamboo were embedded in the
bloodied shins and there were what appeared to be tread marks from the
hose across the chest, back and legs.
Fidel smashed a fist into the man's face, driving him against the
wall. Then he was brought to the center of the room and made to get
down onto his knees.
Screaming in rage, Fidel took a length of black rubber hose from a
guard and lashed it as hard as he could into the man'a face.
The prisoner did not react; he did not cry out or even blink an
eye.Again and again, a dozen times, Fidel smashed the man's face with
the hose.
He was never released. (Hubble, P.O.W.
The Cuban torturers were given the names "Fidel" "Chico" and "Pancho"
..
They were part of a Cuban diplomatic contingent assigned to Hanoi's
Enemy Proselytizing Bureau, and were directly responsible for the
murder and torture of a considerable number of American POWs.=20
According to one CIA dispatch, the Cuban Program" was conducted at the
Cuu Loc PW camp from August 1967 through July 1968.
According to a DIA report, "the objective of the interrogators was to
obtain the total submission of the prisoners...."
However, this report may not have been entirely accurate.
One intelligence source, who reportedly interviewed "Fidel" and other
Cuban interrogators in Hanoi, claims they said that their real job was
to act as gate-keepers for the Soviets, and helped select
highly-skilled pilots and electronic warfare backseaters, who became
"Moscow Bound".
The Cuban involvement in the interrogation of POWs did not end in
1968, for in 1969, I was interrogated by Fidel, and it wasn't in the
Cuu Loc prison.
There were two other prison camps located near Cuban facilities in
North Vietnam where American POWs were held. One, located at "Work
Site 5" (Cong Truong 5), just north of the DMZ, was adjacent to a
Cuban field hospital that Fidel Castro visited in 1972.
No returned POW was ever held at that camp, where a mixture of
legitimate POWs and some stay-behinds, were incarcerated.
The other, according to a recently returned Vietnamese 34-A commando,
was the Thanh Tri Prison, where he saw 60 American POWs in 1969. Also
in the prison were approximately 100 French and Moroccan POWs captured
in the early 1950s.
His report corroborates several other similar sightings.
Later they were transferred to Ba Vi Prison near another Cuban
facility.
No American POW has ever returned from either of these prisons,
thought to be part of Hanoi's second-tier prison system.
In 1972, two French POWs escaped and made it to the French Embassy in
Peking.
After the French government paid a ransom, the French and Moroccan
POWs were quietly repatriated.
There is no evidence that the CIA, DoD or DIA have ever interviewed
these people.
On one occasion, a former aide to Fidel Castro approached the American
Consulate in Nassau with an offer to ransom American POWs captured in
North Vietnam, through the Castro Government.
According to the Department of State cable, "We have listened without
comment or commitment. Presume Washington has files on these types.
Propose doing nothing further unless advised."
Evidently there was no follow up.
According to the Baltimore Sun (8/15/77), CIA analysts identified two
Cuban military attaches, Eduardo Morjon Esteves and Luis Perez Jaen,
who had backgrounds which seemed to correspond with information on
Fidel and Chico, supplied by returning POWs.
A Spanish Cuban psychiatrist, Barral Fernando, interrogated Senator
John McCain for an extensive period of time, part of which was
published in the Havana newspaper "Granma".
Recently declassified documents show that the CIA has photographs as
well as composite drawings of the Cuban torturers.
After my return in 1973, I identified one of the Cubans in a
photograph shown to me by a Congressional Committee.
I was told that one of the man's jobs was coordinating the American
contingent of the Venceremos Brigade (cane cutters), and he was also
responsible for funneling Soviet money to the Americans to support
anti-war activities.
According to one news report, President Clinton's transition
coordinator appointee, Johnnetta Cole, in 1976, "was active in the
communist-front Venceremos Brigade".
Another report stated that U.S. prisoners-of-war captured in Vietnam
were reported transferred to communist prisons in Cuba during later
1965 and throughout 1966
One Cuban prisoner, who later escaped and fled to the U.S., was held
in "Las Maristas, a secret Cuban prison run by Castro's
G-2 Intelligence service, with American POWs captured in Vietnam".=20
The POWs referred to each other by rank, such as Lieutenant and
Captain, and a guard told them that these Americans were war
prisoners, mostly pilots, brought from North Vietnam.
Although he was interviewed by FBI agents upon his arrival in the
U.S., they did not seem very interested in the story of American POWs
from Vietnam. Nor was he ever debriefed by U.S. military intelligence
or by the CIA.
Other Cuban witnesses have corroborated the fact that a substantial
number of American prisoners were held in several Cuban prisons.
However, only one Cuban claimed knowledge that the Americans were POWs
from Vietnam.
There is no evidence that the FBI, DoD, DIA or the CIA canvassed the
Cuban exile community in Miami to find out if they had knowledge of
American POWs taken from Vietnam to Cuba.
The behavior of "Fidel", "Chico" and "Pancho" is beyond the pale and
is clearly in violation of the standards set at Nuremberg after World
War II.
Therefore, these Cuban war criminals should be tried before an
international tribunal similar to that supported by the U.S.
governemnt for the prosecution of perpetrators of war crimes in
Bosnia.
The communist regime in Hanoi can easily identify these Cubans.=20
Therefore, a moratorium should be placed on the appointment of an
American Ambassador to Vietnam until the time that regime is "fully
cooperating" in resolving the POW/MIA issue.
Full cooperation by the communist government in Vietnam includes the
full disclosure of the true identities and roles of these Cuban
"diplomats", who were "advisors" to the Hanoi prison systems, and were
directly responsible for the murder, torture and severe disablement of
over 20 American POWs.
Michael D. Benge spent 11 years in Vietnam, over five years as a
prisoner-of-war (1968-1973), and was held in numerous camps in South
Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and North Vietnam (27 months in solitary
confinement, one year in a "black box"
--
bruce
The dignified don't even enter in the game.
"Amigo Cabal" <alexseredin@adelfia.net> wrote in message =
news:sLidnYFTUc4oHe_cRVn-vg@adelphia.com...
=20
"pedro martori" <pedro1940@progression.net> wrote in message=20
news:M_2dnTFXwPWu4O_cRVn-hg@look.ca...
CASTRO & COMMUNIST PARTY SUPPORTS KERRY
POW'S IN VIETNAM TORTURED UNDER ''CUBAN PROGRAM''
=20
=20
NOW TELL ME HOW U.S. TORTURES NOBODY, EVER!=20
=20
=20
---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.719 / Virus Database: 475 - Release Date: 7/12/2004
.
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