Liberating Cuba from Communism

In early 1989, a Cuban general was chosen to be the orchestrator of a plot to blow up a US transmission balloon in the Florida Keys. The next year, despite condemning Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, Cuban military advisors arrived in Iraq to give Saddam Hussein the intelligence it had collected regarding American military activity in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait—both pre-war and post-war. In Uruguay, the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement received explosives and other arms from Cuba, which would be used in several attacks on American interests in the country.

Over the next decade, overt Cuban sponsorship of terrorism increased. However, during the next decade, US intelligence on Cuba was dismantled, and US intelligence as a whole wounded, nearly beyond repair. It is possible we simply lack the intelligence to know what Castro is up to. What we do know is that Cuba gave the ETA Basque terrorist group a headquarters in Havana, maintained high-level contact with Arafat and the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and their air force destroyed two private planes carrying Cuban dissidents, resulting in the deaths of three American citizens (February 24, 1996). It is believed that the PLO still has close relations with Castro, and that intelligence cooperation and joint training of militants is going on to this day, although little is known.

Despite its weakened position, Cuba still provided safe haven to US fugitives including the former leader of the Black Liberation Army, and members of the Republic of New Afrika Movement, Macheteros, Basque ETA, FARC, ELN, and according to the testimony of arrested Cuban spies, move people, arms and explosives into the country. In 1999, Worldnetdaily.com reported that Cuban intelligence officers and military engineers were involved in Thailand, assisting the drug trafficking rebels whom were also allied to Al-Qaeda.

Liberating Cuba from Communism

For a half-century now, Fidel Castro has been in power in Cuba, just 90
miles away from Florida. Unfortunately, not only could this have been
prevented, but the United States today has the resources to finally give the
Cuban people the freedom they deserve, without a shot being fired. The mass
opposition to Castro's dying regime makes it a unique opportunity and an
obligation to free the Cuban people. Elimination of the Castro regime will
also help win the War on Terror.

By Ryan Mauro
Global Politician
Infosearch:
José Cadenas
Research Dept.
La Nueva Cuba
April 7, 2005

Human Rights and the Threat to Freedom

Western democracies' misunderstanding of how Communists "hijack"
revolutions, genuine revolutions, for their own causes may prove to be our
own downfall one day. It certainly has led to the downfall of many countries
to tyranny, and none is a better example than Cuba. Every single Communist
take-over has come about using the "hijacking" technique, where revolutions,
even "democratic" ones, are led by covert Communists, whom steal the freedom
of millions. Remember, the US didn't know Castro was a Communist until years
after his takeover.

Thus, it can be said that Castro's first mass human rights abuses was his
takeover, which instead of bringing freedom, brought tyranny. If Castro did
such an evil thing, we subsequently should not have been surprised at the
mass human rights abuses that would follow. According to the Black Book of
Communism, from the beginning of his reign, Castro has imprisoned at least
100,000 people and killed up to 15-17,000 people.

Regarding the "hijacking of revolutions", resolution adopted by the Second
Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba in 1980 stated: "... the importance
of continuing to promote the consolidation of a common front to back the
indispensable structural transformations required by the region. This
process is backed by the active, large-scale incorporation of Christian
groups and organizations in the struggles for national liberation and social
justice, as has occurred in Nicaragua and El Salvador."

He also declared in an interview with Le Figaro Magazine: "The United States
wanted us to make a strategic and tactical error and proclaim a doctrine as
a communist movement. In fact, I was a communist...I think that a good
Marxist-Leninist would not have proclaimed a socialist revolution in the
conditions that existed in Cuba in 1959. I think I was a good
Marxist-Leninist in not doing that, and when we did not make known our
underlying beliefs. What the United States wanted was to judge, to know what
we thought, and we did not want to allow ourselves to be maneuvered or
manipulated by it. I think it was an excellent thing that we did not
proclaim the Marxist-Leninist or socialist nature of the revolution at the
time." [1]

Castro's first attempt to destroy the freedom of people other than Cubans
was as early as 1948, when he assisted the revolt in Colombia, while
simultaneously trying to overthrow the dictator of the Dominican Republic.
If Castro was a freedom-fighter, this would be a good deed, but we all know
that if these attempts were successful, an old tyranny would be replaced
with a new tyranny with more allies.

Human rights abuses would even extend to foreigners. For example, in
Vietnam, it is believed Cuban forces were deployed to help with the torture
and interrogation of American POWs [2] , which may mean Castro had a role in
the disappearance of POWs in the Korean War and Vietnam War, where American
prisoners were tested on, and sometimes even transported to East Bloc
countries. Many of them are thought to still be alive. [3]

Castro has never ended his dream to make other countries a model of his own
evil rule (a dream he carried out in Grenada, and we all know where that
led). The best example of this is Venezuela, which produces up to a fourth
of the oil the United States imports, and is a key strategic country.
Because Chavez began modeling his country after that of Castro, we should
not be all that surprised of its support for terrorism-both Islamic and
drug-oriented-just like I explain in my previous article, "The Latin
American Bloc: The Ignored Danger to Freedom".

Chavez, an open admirer of Castro, China and Communism, quickly seized power
after his election. To prepare for his totalitarian rule, he created the
Circulos Bolivariano, the Venezuelan version of Cuba's Revolutionary Defense
Committees. The Circulos Boliviariano have seized police stations throughout
the country, and seized factories of the largest oil companies. This oil was
later delivered to Castro for free or at outrageously cheap prices, allowing
the Cuban regime to stay afloat.

Castro's plans to assist Chavez emanate from his original plan he made for
Chile's Salvador Allende, which involved sending in Cuban special forces to
assist the totalitarian shift. Opposition sources in Venezuela claim this
has already occurred, as Cuban advisors and intelligence officers have been
seen populating Venezuelan intelligence services, merchant-marine schools,
ports, Chavez' Presidential Guard, and all aspects of the oil industry. [4]

When the opposition forces rose and nearly forced Hugo Chavez out of power
in Venezuela, Fidel Castro was sure to come to the aid of this enemy of
freedom. Cuban special forces took over security, helped secure his
position, and ultimately, led to the protection of the rule of Chavez. [5]
As I explain in my previous articles, the victory in Venezuela set the stage
for quasi-socialist takeovers in Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, and the rest of
Latin America. It is likely, if not probable, that Castro's dreams of a
successful Latin American revolution, led by and loyal to himself, will
indeed come true in the next 5-6 years.

Violations of Treaties

You may be surprised to learn that Cuba not only violates international
treaty by having chemical and biological weapons, and sponsoring terrorism,
but also was so bold as to break Cold War agreements in the 1960s and 1970s.
Presidential reports to Congress cited violations of treaties by Cuba in
September-October, 1962. The report described the violation as the
"deployment of offensive weapons (MRBM and IRBM missiles; medium bombers) in
Cuba, September-October, 1962). Cuba was also listed as violating arms
agreements from 1970 to 1974 by "deploying and tending Soviet nuclear
missile-carrying submarines in Cuban territorial waters, 1970-1974). [6]

It is clear that Cuba uses treaties and any attempt at a "soft approach" to
Cuba to further its goals. For example, just days after Jimmy Carter told
Americans to stop being so paranoid about the threat from Communism (May 22,
1977), Cuba dispatched a major military force to Ethiopia, to further
international Communism. [7] Anyone who appears to be a threat to Cuba, like
Ronald Reagan for example is considered a target for assassination, a
propaganda attack, or other ways to minimize their ability to threaten Cuba.
While governor, Ronald Reagan received a package with an undertaker's
needle, only days after speaking out against Fidel Castro, along with a
death threat. It was signed by "friends of Cuba". Whether this was on the
orders of Cuban intelligence or not, it shows that Cuba can and probably
will utilize friendly assets here in the United States. [8]

Cuba's Intelligence War Against the United States

September 1998: Ten people are arrested in Miami as Cuban spies trying to
infiltrate military sites and groups of Cuban exiles. The action led to the
subsequent arrest of six more of Castro's spies.

December 1998: Three Cuban diplomats at the United Nations headquarters are
expelled for intelligence-related activities.

May 2000: A senior immigration official in Miami is arrested for providing
classified information to Cuba.

June 2001: Five Cuban spies are arrested in Miami. One of which is found to
be involved in the Cuban attack on two planes in 1996 that killed 4
dissidents.

September 2001: Ana B. Montes, a top Pentagon intelligence analyst, is
arrested for being a Cuban agent.

Fall 2001: Press reports that FBI believes that Cuba's DGI has a network of
at least 300 agents in the United States and Canada, trying to infiltrate
Cuban exile groups, and military sites. Most focus was on military and
civilian aviation.

August 2002: Cuba's former ambassador to the United Nations testifies that
most Cubans attached to their UN mission are intelligence officers.

October 16, 2002: A senior DIA intelligence analyst is arrested for spying
for Cuba for sixteen years as one of the most senior experts on the Cuban
military. Some of what was passed along was so secret it couldn't even be
mentioned in court, but it is known she helped Cuba identify four undercover
American agents, learn details about US surveillance of the armed forces,
and information on the December 1996 war games in the Atlantic Ocean. [9]

November 2002: America expels four more Cuban diplomats for spy-related
activity.

May 13, 2003: Fourteen Cuban diplomats are expelled from the UN mission for
spying. [10]

State Sponsor of Terrorism

Cuba's reputation as a state sponsor of international terrorism began in
1959, when the intelligence services made contact with the various "armies
of national liberation" (the Communist attempt to thwart being labeled
terrorists) in Africa. Raul Castro also made a visit to the Gaza Strip to
show his solidarity with the Palestinian movements. Cuba quickly became a
training base for anti-government guerilla fighters and militants from
Chile, Guatemala (EGP), the Dominican Republic and Venezuela (MIR and FALN).
The EGP in Guatemala would go on to ally with the FMLN in El Salvador in the
1980s.

At the end of the 1950s, and into the early 1960s, Cuba also directed its
allied Communist Parties to join with Castro's regime in sponsoring
terrorism, drug trafficking and organized crime. As explained in Joseph
Douglass' Red Cocaine, these crime syndicates were infiltrated and
"hijacked" by Cuban intelligence. Throughout the book, Cuba is identified as
one of the primary reasons for the War on Drugs, and Douglass describes in
chilling detail, what a massive role Cuban intelligence played in the drug
plague. Do to these operations, crack cocaine and heroin was introduced,
modified drugs came into the country, and Cuba used these opportunities to
corrupt a startling number of politicians, law enforcement officials, banks,
top businesses and corporation, and overall, to corrupt a major part of
American society. If there is one book I would ask my readers to buy about
Cuba or drugs or even Soviet "active measures", it would be Joseph Douglass'
Red Cocaine. There is simply too much information in it to be posted here.

By 1961, Cuba began selling arms to the FLN group of Algeria, and trained
future rebellion leaders from Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, South
Africa, Spanish Guinea, Tanganyika and Zanzibar. This was the beginning of
Cuba's major involvement in the Communist campaign in Africa. Communism's
first victory in this arena occurred in Zanzibar in 1964, where a
Cuban-trained Communist (John Okello) led the overthrow of the pro-American
leader. The new regime became a friend of the Soviet Union and Cuba, and
ally in the struggle for Africa. The continued hotspot of this struggle for
the time would center in Congo in 1965, where Cuba actively supported the
guerillas they had previously trained.

The early 1960s also saw Cuban sponsorship of anti-American guerilla forces
in Venezuela, and coordination between most of the Latin American Communist
Parties (under Cuba's direction) in sponsoring similar forces in Haiti,
Paraguay, Guatemala, Colombia and Honduras. The focus was primarily on Latin
America, but the Palestinian movement did not go without notice. Cooperation
with Fatah elements began in 1965 in Syria and Algeria. As intense as the
sponsorship of terrorism was, 1966 would become the year it would become
clear the threat from Castro in this area.

The year 1966 saw the creation of the Organization for the Solidarity with
the Peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America to find a common standards
among the wide range of "liberation movements" Castro and his allied
Communist Parties would assist; The National Liberation Directorate to
coordinate Castro's efforts to sponsor the different groups; and The Latin
American Solidarity Organization which would oversee the North American
terrorist activity. The next two years would also see new attention being
given to "liberation movements" in the Middle East besides that of the
Palestinians. Special support was given to the NLF forces in South Yemen.

The Communists also saw it fit to ally with the Middle East terror sponsors.
Cuba made an alliance with Syria to jointly support the Eritrean Liberation
Front and Fatah. Syria would soon reduce its support for Fatah, forcing Cuba
to take over as the main sponsor of Fatah and the majority of Palestinian
movements. Cuba even went so far as to sent military advisors to terrorist
training camps in Jordan in 1968 to help oversee the training of the
Palestinian Fedayeen, and to manage high-level contact with Fatah.

At the end of the 1960s, Cuba was sponsoring the M19 of Colombia, the Siad
Barre of Somalia, and the terrorist groups previously mentioned. Seeing the
success in Africa in particular, Castro accelerated his cooperation with
terrorists in 1974 by forming an alliance with Libya. This was also the year
that the National Liberation Directorate was re-organized as the America
Department of the Central Committee, which still carried out the same
objectives as it always has. The America Department began sponsoring the
Sandinistas of Nicaragua and the Tupamaros of Uruguay, and began
consolidating remnants of anti-Western forces into common fronts throughout
North and South America.

Cuba's training of special forces in biological terrorism, and passing of
this information to terrorist groups, emanates from a declaration in 1966.
The Soviet Military Encyclopedia explains this declaration as the "use of
'biological weapons, narcotics, terrorist activities, poisons and other
methods. This definition accords with a decision made at the Tri-Continental
Conference of world revolutionary groups held in Havana in January 1966. The
decision called for the planned destabilization of the United States and
explicitly detailed such activities as the exploitation and undermining of
American society through the trafficking of drugs and promotion of other
corrupting criminal activities." [11]

The creation of today's modern terrorism began in the East Bloc and Cuba.
Among those trained by Castro was Illich Ramirez Sanchez, or, "Carlos the
Jackal", who is suspected of having had some involvement in founding
Al-Qaeda (his terrorist graduates comprised the core of the group), and he
has even "appointed" Bin Laden as his successor in the struggle against
imperialism in the mid-1990s. He also has praised Fidel Castro and Hugo
Chavez, who have tried to get him out of jail for his terrorist acts.

In Africa, Cuba's assistance to Communism's war on the free world was
bringing results. By supplying arms and money to MPLA, led by Angostino
Neto, began winning the multi-way civil war in Angola once Portugal
withdrew. In return for the dispatching of East Bloc military forces to help
MPLA, Nemo agreed that his offensives would spread to Zambia, Zaire, and the
Congo. By the end of the Communist takeover, Cuba would deploy 36,000 troops
and 300 tanks to the war. [12]

Contact was established with Yasser Arafat, resulting in close cooperation
in regards to helping Palestinian militants and the movement of the nucleus
of training camps for worldwide militants to Lebanon. In 1974, Latin
American militants first received training in Lebanon. Cooperation with
Syria increased again, as Castro contributed military personnel to assist
them in the Yom Kippur War against Israel until it ended in 1975, when up to
3,000 Cuban personnel were in Syria. Meanwhile, Cuba also deployed tens of
thousands of soldier to Ethiopia to help secure the Pro-Communist regime led
by Mengistu Haile Mariam.

In 1974, Cuba directly sponsored an attack on an American politician.
According to KGB files, the kidnapping and murder of the American ambassador
to Nicaragua in December of 1974 was supported and approved of by Fidel
Castro and DGI, the Cuban intelligence service. This obviously marks a bold
new phase that would continue to escalate as long as no consequences were in
store for the Castro regime. Seeing this escalation, we cannot be surprised
at allegations of covert sponsorship of terrorism today. [13]

The Communist sponsors of terrorism, seeing no consequences for their
actions, decided to take it all a step further in 1975. Cuban intelligence
officers infiltrated Canada, and began training black American citizens so
that they could later join the Black Panthers terrorist group. The most
favored recruits were sent for training in Havana, Cuba, and would become
the hierarchy of the group. The country became one of the most popular spots
for receiving training in guerilla warfare and terrorist operations. By the
next year, the CIA believed that at least 300 Palestinians alone were being
trained in Cuba.

I personally find Cuba's assistance to homegrown American terrorists the
most intriguing. I quote the following page from the book, Reagan's War by
Peter Schweizer, page 53: "The Weathermen were not students philosophizing
about a revolution after reading Karl Marx in Poli Sci 101. They began an
armed struggle and maintained extensive contact with foreign intelligence
agents in countries such as Cuba, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and North
Vietnam.

Miniskirted Bernardine Dohrn and the group's other leader, Mark Rudd, would
travel to New York and meet with spies from the Cuban Mission to the United
Nations. There they arranged for Weathermen to be trained in the use of
weapons by Cuban military officers during visits to Cuba. They received
money and advice on organizing their movement. North Vietnamese intelligence
officers gave them advice on how to find recruits who were physically
capable of doing battle with police. And when the Weathermen had to flee the
FBI, Cuban spies developed a system of codes that permitted secret
communication with the radical group.

'SDS was the group we concentrated on in those days', an ex-Cuban
intelligence agent told the FBI. 'Oh, we didn't start it. But we radicalized
it, we gave it form. Every leader came and left [Cuba] with new ideas.'

One of those who traveled to Cuba was Gregg Daniel Adornetto. After his
visit he joined an underground terrorist group in the San Francisco area
known as the Emiliano Zapata Unit. The group bombed literally dozens of
targets in the Bay Area, and maintained contact with a Cuban intelligence
officer named Andres Gomez. The FBI broke up the group with a series of
raids, arresting seven of its members. Adornetto was among them, and he
began talking to agents. Gomez, he said, had been working with the group on
a special project he said. The plan was to kill Ronald Reagan. 'If Gomez
dies, his body must be burned and his fingers cut off so he cannot be
identified,' Adornetto said he was instructed."

As a result, friendships with other state sponsors continued to grow. South
Yemen would ally with Cuba, and both would send forces to help Ethiopia
fight their war against Somalia, a pro-American nation that had invaded
Ethiopia. They would also find partnership in assisting the Dhofaris forces
fighting in Oman. Saddam Hussein's regime saw what was going on, and wanted
in on the action. By forming good relations with Castro, Cuban military
advisors would arrive in Iraq. As state sponsors took the offensive, so did
the groups sponsored by them. The Congolese National Liberation Front
(trained by Cuba) invaded Zaire; The Liberation Movement of Southern Sudan
launched an offensive in Sudan with help from Cuba and Ethiopia; FMLN
launched an offensive in El Salvador, armed with Cuban weapons; The EGP of
Guatemala began kidnappings; and Islamic radicals in Iran, with political
support from Castro, took power in Iran. All while this was going on, Libya
and Cuba jointly made the World MATHABA to coordinate the terrorist and
"liberation" activities around the world.

In 1983, the Cuban-financed Macheteros (Puerto Rican terrorist group) became
violently active in the United States, and still Castro went free. Chilean
MIR, Macheteros, Mexican terrorist groups (financed by bank robberies in
Mexico by Cuban intelligence), Palestinian Intifada, Yasser Arafat's
militants, Palestinian National Authority, and other groups would all
receive new, increased assistance from the Castro regime. Again, going free,
Castro increased his support for terrorism.

In early 1989, a Cuban general was chosen to be the orchestrator of a plot
to blow up a US transmission balloon in the Florida Keys. The next year,
despite condemning Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, Cuban military advisors
arrived in Iraq to give Saddam Hussein the intelligence it had collected
regarding American military activity in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait-both pre-war
and post-war. In Uruguay, the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement received
explosives and other arms from Cuba, which would be used in several attacks
on American interests in the country.

Over the next decade, direct, overt Cuban sponsorship of terrorism
increased, probably due to the collapse of the Soviet Union, an economic
collapse, and US pressure. However, during the next decade, US intelligence
on Cuba would be dismantled, and US intelligence as a whole wounded, nearly
beyond repair. It is possible we simply lack the intelligence to know what
Castro is up to. What we do know is that Cuba gave the ETA Basque terrorist
group a headquarters in Havana, maintained high-level contact with Arafat
and the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and their air force destroyed
two private planes carrying Cuban dissidents, resulting in the deaths of
three American citizens (February 24, 1996). It is believed that the PLO
still has close relations with Castro, and that intelligence cooperation and
joint training of militants is going on to this day, although little is
known.

Despite its weakened position, Cuba still provided safe haven to US
fugitives including the former leader of the Black Liberation Army, and
members of the Republic of New Afrika Movement, Macheteros, Basque ETA,
FARC, ELN, and according to the testimony of arrested Cuban spies, move
people, arms and explosives into the country. [14] In 1999,
Worldnetdaily.com reported that Cuban intelligence officers and military
engineers were involved in Thailand, assisting the drug trafficking rebels
whom were also allied to Al-Qaeda. [15]

September 11, 2001 brought new urgency to the Cuban threat. Although I
consider it unlikely that Cuba had a role in the terrorist events of that
horrible day, Fidel Castro's sponsorship of terrorism must be dealt with. I
have heard some say that Cuba should be taken off the list of state sponsors
of terrorism, but I challenge those allegations. After all, Air Force One
was hacked into on 9-11 (reported and later denied), something that only an
extremely advanced intelligence service with cyber warfare capabilities
could do-either China, Russia or Cuba. The Cuban-Russian base at Lourdez
which specializes in that type of activity is the most likely candidate.

It appears that do to the demise of Communism around the world, Fidel Castro
has decided to rise up the Marxist-Leninist version of Islam, more commonly
known as radical Islam, which sponsors terrorism (just like the old
Communist regimes did). To be precise, radical Islam is just Communism using
Islam to make strict rule (an idea that came about do to East Bloc
infiltration, propaganda, and active measures). But I will save that
discussion for another time. For those reasons, Cuba is promoting the spread
of Islamic revolution. Fidel Castro is quoted as saying: "A world order
based on the Koranic model, which was proposed by Imam Khomeini as a
substitute for Western models of state administration, must figure in the
agenda of every future forum for alternative world orders. We also have a
common enemy that always threatens us-an enemy that has invaded all the
countries of the world."

It is known that Fidel Castro's regime operates in a similar way as to
Saddam Hussein-it is unlikely citizens can do much in the way of sponsoring
terrorism without some kind of knowledge by the regime. Castro's regime
takes strenuous note-taking on the activities of its people, and has one of
the best intelligence services on the planet, which has successfully
penetrated the United States many times. For this reason, the fact that a
young Afghan terrorist who was trained in northeast Afghanistan claimed to
have seen Cubans being trained at the camps of Osama Bin Laden and the
Taliban is suspicious. This testimony was found out by the press in the
first quarter of 2000, well-before the media took a hard look at what was
going on in central Asia. [16]

I was unable to confirm (or find proof to the contrary) of the allegation by
Newsmax.com's Dr. Nemets and Dr. Tarda, two researchers I hold in very, very
high esteem, that linked Mohammed Atta to Castro. On December 2nd, they
wrote in Newsmax.com that US special services have received information that
Mohammed Atta, the ringleader of the 9-11 hijackers, had links to Cuban
intelligence which included a meeting with a high-ranking representative in
spring of 1999. The meeting occurred in Miami, fairly close to the flight
school where the hijackers were being educated in how to carry out the plot.
>From this information, the two writers felt it was likely that Russia's

Lourdez electronic espionage base in Cuba. This base specialized in
gathering classified data on the flight paths of civilian airliners,
flight-codes for all sorts of aircraft including those belonging to the air
force, and even is known for hacking into US Air Traffic Control. Within 2
months of September 11th, Russia closed this base down. It is probable we
will never know the true role on this base in the intelligence war. [17] But
what we do know is that Cuba's armed forces went on high alert after the
9-11 attacks.

These develops made me look back to Cuba earlier in 2001. During the spring,
Castro traveled to Libya, Iran and Iraq, to express support, ...

>>>> From your post, the group of Cubans that questioned the POW in viet Nam, says some may be still alive.

POWs IN LAOS: SOME STILL SURVIVE HELP BRING THEM HOME

There were 480 POW/MIAs lost in Laos. Colonel David Hrdlicka is one of over 60 known American Servicemen captured in Laos during the Vietnam War that were never negotiated for. American Prisoners of War (POWs) have since been reported alive in Laos for over three decades. Through thirty years of covert actions, political miscalculations, self-serving careerism, and cover-ups the US Government has been ineffective in bringing about their release. At the end of the Vietnam War the US government informed America that the Vietnamese would be responsible for all POW/MIAs including those in Laos and Cambodia. That was not true.

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?
Declassified transcripts of the Paris Peace Accords "Secret Negotiation" reveal that the Vietnamese negotiator Le Duc Tho would not take responsibility for POWs other than those held by the Vietnamese. He insisted that Laos was a sovereign country and that the US must negotiate with the Pathet Lao [Laotian communists] for the POWs they held. Henry Kissinger told Le Duc Tho that if the Vietnamese would neither object -- nor accept responsibility for all POWs publicly when he [Kissinger] said they would be responsible for all POWs in Indochina. -- that the US would not hold the Vietnamese to it. Laos was not part of the Paris Peace Accords; we never negotiated for POWs in Laos.

In January 1973 the US agreed to pay the Vietnamese $4.25 billion in reconstruction aid for the list of POWs in Laos. The Department of Defense (DOD) negotiators received the names of only 10 POWs captured in Laos by the Vietnamese. When the 591 POWs released from Vietnam returned and informed the Congress how they were tortured and some killed the Congress refused to authorize payment of reconstruction Aid. This confounded the problem of unreturned POWs from Laos.

In an interview with former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Tom Moorer (1995) he stated there was a rescue planned for 60 POWs known captive in Laos at the end of 1972. The rescue was canceled because of the Paris Peace Agreement. When questioned why the POWs were not rescued after the Vietnamese gave back their last returned POWs on March 28th 1973, Admiral Moorer maintains that there was no current intelligence at that time on which to the launch rescues. They could not be sure the POWs were still at the last known locations and would not risk a rescue. Following are some of these POW/MIAs that have been sighted in recent years, there are others.

SOME STILL SURVIVE POW/MIA Colonel David Louis Hrdlicka (USAF), an F-105 pilot, was born in Minnesota and shot down in Laos. He was photographed in captivity and reported alive in the Russian Newspaper Pravda during the war. There have been numerous reported live sightings of David Hrdlicka throughout the 1980s and 1990s. His wife Carol who now lives in Kansas still seeks his return through the Defense POW Office (DPMO) and would like the Congress to use their legislative powers to require government to get him out before he dies in Laos and the government settles for his bones. She states they have done nothing constructive to locate him.

Colonel Frank Gould a navigator aboard a B-52 from the Bronx NY parachuted over Laos with the rest of his crew after being hit during a bombing run over Hanoi. He was the last man on the ground, the helicopter rescued the other crewmen. Gunfire at the helicopter and nightfall prevented his recovery. The following day rescuers could not locate him. Reports that Frank was alive and wanted to come home have come out throughout the 1990's. His wife Marie resides in California and would like to know why Congress is not exercising their oversight ability to assure the Department of Defense gets him home.

CWO William Milliner, from Kentucky, was flying a Cobra helicopter Gun Ship over Laos in March 1971 when he was last heard from. A businessman in Thailand with contacts inside Laos gave information to US officials (1989) that "Milliner" is alive and can be brought to the Thai border. When the Laotians requested a reward they were turned away. His father Joe a returned WWII POW and his mother Mary travel to Washington annually trying to get the government to bring him home. Their plea's bring no response.

Army Special Forces Sgt. Charles Huston from Ohio was on a reconnaissance mission in Laos in 1968. He was left on the ground along with Sgt. George Brown, and Sgt. Alan Boyer when their extraction helicopter came under fire and had to leave. In 1989, an oriental prisoner captured by the Vietnamese in Laos escaped and made his way to Thailand where he was interviewed by US officials. He stated that he spoke with UY-STON [Charles Huston] who told him if he ever got free to let the world know "that my name is Huston, and there are other American's held with me." His brothers John and Robert strive to have the DOD get him out.

The Defense POW/MIA Office (DPMO) has historically excluded the living unreturned POW/MIAs from constructive consideration. They either refuse to negotiate for those known to have survived, or they are completely ineffectual in doing so. The DPMO was in Southeast Asia on October 23rd and 24th, 2003 to negotiate with the Cambodians, Vietnamese, and Laotians on POW/MIA matters because these countries want improved trade relations. Individual cases, where live POW information exists was not discussed. Hundreds of classified documents on live POWs are still denied the public. The field investigators that implement POW policy don't have negotiating authority, access to senior Communist officials, or knowledge of all classified material.

WHY ACT NOW
The Laotians want improved trade relations. We previously normalized trade relations with Vietnam and a road map for an accounting of POWs known alive in communist hands at the end of the war is still not productive. It is ineffective and individual live sighting cases are ignored at the Defense POW office. The DPMO does negotiate for remains from battle and crash sites, a worthy effort in itself, but DOD always drops the live POW matter and compromises on live POWs. The DOD repeatedly falls for the communist "remains" tactics and has not made any headway on the POWs last known or reported alive. It is easier and less embarrassing to discuss dead bodies, rather that discuss who may still be alive. The DOD is not performing due diligence in accounting for live POW/MIAs; and Congress is not using their oversight authority.

The policy makers are satisfied with the quick fix accounting acceptance for remains. An accounting that does not seek out unreturned survivors distorts the truth. The POW/MIA families want action taken for recovery and POWs returned home. Do not let negotiator's come up with another road map that does not assure the return of our live American servicemen left and still alive in Southeast Asia.

YOU CAN HELP BRING THESE MEN BACK
Contact your Senators; the Senate Intelligence Committee, Armed Services Committee, and Foreign Relations Committee need to initiate legislation to require live POW negotiations. The Congress must then exercise oversight authority assuring qualified negotiators secure release and return of surviving POWs. Let the Laotians return POWs and join in improved trade relations.

What to do
Send letters to: The Whitehouse, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave Washington, DC; your Senators, the Chairman and members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Armed Services Committee. There is already a reaction from the Department of Defense to the Senate. Be part of the solution in bringing surviving POWs home from the Vietnam War. Make it happen. Contact Roger Hall, 301/587-5055, 301/585-3361, rhall8715@aol.com For additional Senate contact and Donation information: www.powfoia.org

Memorandum for: Vice Chairman, Senate Select Committee on Prisoners of War and Missing in Action

From: John F. McCreary

Subject: Possible Violations of Title 18, U.S.C., Section 2071, by the Select Committee and Possible Ethical Misconduct by Staff Attorneys.

1. Continuing analysis of relevant laws and further review of the events between 8 April and 16 April 1992 connected with the destruction of the Investigators' Intelligence Briefing Text strongly indicate that the order to destroy all copies of that briefing text on 9 April and the actual destruction of copies of the briefing texts plus the purging of computer files might constitute violations of Title 18, U.S.C., Section 2071, which imposes criminal penalties for unlawful document destruction. Even absent a finding of criminal misconduct, statements, actions, and failures to act by the senior Staff attorneys following the 9 April briefing might constitute serious breaches of ethical standards of conduct for attorneys, in addition to violations of Senate and Select Committee rules. The potential consequences of these possible misdeeds are such that they should be brought to the attention of all members of the Select Committee, plus all Designees and Staff members who were present at the 9 April briefing.

2. The relevant section of Title 18, U.S.C., states in pertinent part: Section 2071. Concealment, removal, or mutilation generally (a) Whoever willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, or destroys, or attempts to do so, or, with intent to do so takes and carries away any record, proceeding, map, book, paper, document, or other thing, filed or deposited with any clerk or officer of any court of the United States, or in any public office, or with any judicial or public officer of the United States, shall be fined not more than $2,000 or imprisoned not more than three years, or both. (June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 795)

3. The facts as the undersigned and others present at the briefing recall them are presented in the attached Memorandum for the Record. A summary of those facts - and others that have been established since that Memorandum was written - follows.

a. On 8 April 1992, the Investigators' Intelligence Briefing Text was presented to Senior Staff members and Designees for whom copies were available prior to beginning the briefing. Objections to the text by the Designees prompted the Staff Director to order all persons present to leave their copies of the briefing text in Room SRB078. Subsequent events indicated that two copies had been removed without authorization.

b. On 9 April 1992, at the beginning of the meeting of the Select Committee and prior to the scheduled investigators' briefing, Senator McCain produced a copy of the intelligence briefing text, with whose contents he strongly disagreed. He charged that the briefing text had already been leaked to a POW/MIA activist, but was reassured by the Chairman that such was not the case. He replied that he was certain it would be leaked. Whereupon, the Chairman assured Senator McCain that there would be no leaks because all copies would be gathered and destroyed, and he gave orders to that effect. No senior staff member or attorney present cautioned against a possible violation of Title 18, U.S.C., Section 2071, or of Senate or Select Committee Rules.

c. Following the briefing on 9 April, the Staff Director, Ms. Frances Zwenig, restated to the intelligence investigators the order to destroy the intelligence briefing text and took measures to ensure execution of the destruction order. (See paragraph 3 of the attachment.) During one telephone conversation with the undersigned, she stated that she was "acting under orders."

d. The undersigned also was instructed to delete all computer files, which Mr. Barry Valentine witnessed on 9 April.

e. In a meeting on 15 April 1992, the Staff's Chief Counsel, J. William Codinha, was advised by intelligence investigators of their concerns about the possibility that they had committed a crime by participating in the destruction of the briefing text. Mr. Codinha minimized the significance of the documents and of their destruction. He admonished the investigators for "making a mountain out of a molehill."

f. When investigators repeated their concern that the order to destroy the documents might lead to criminal charges, Mr. Codinha replied "Who's the injured party." He was told, "The 2,494 families of the unaccounted for US Servicemen, among others." Mr. Codinha then said, "Who's gonna tell them. It's classified." At that point the meeting erupted. The undersigned stated that the measure of merit was the law and what's right, not avoidance of getting caught. To which Mr. Codinha made no reply. At no time during the meeting did Mr. Codinha give any indication that any copies of the intelligence briefing text existed.

g. Investigators, thereupon, repeatedly requested actions by the Committee to clear them of any wrongdoing, such as provision of legal counsel. Mr. Codinha admitted that he was not familiar with the law and promised to look into it. He invited a memorandum from the investigators stating what they wanted. Given Mr. Codinha's statements and reactions to the possibility of criminal liability, the investigators concluded they must request appointment of an independent counsel. A memorandum making such a request and signed by all six intelligence investigators was delivered to Mr. Codinha on 16 April.

h. At 2130 on 16 April, the Chairman of the Senate Select Committee, convened a meeting with the intelligence investigators, who told him personally of their concern that they might have committed a crime by participating in the destruction of the briefing texts at the order of the Staff Director. Senator Kerry stated that he gave the order to destroy the documents, not the Staff Director, and that none of the Senators present at the meeting had objected. He also stated that the issue of document destruction was "moot" because the original briefing text had been deposited with the Office of Senate Security "all along." Both the Staff Director and the Chief Counsel supported this assertion by the Chairman.

i. Senator Kerry's remarks prompted follow-up investigations (See paragraphs 4 through 9 of the attachment) and inquiries that established that a copy of the text was not deposited in the Office of Senate Security until the afternoon of 16 April. The Staff Director has admitted that on the afternoon of 16 April, after receiving a copy of a memorandum from Senator Bob Smith to Senator Kerry in which Senator Smith outlined his concerns about the destruction of documents, she obtained a copy of the intelligence briefing text from the office of Senator McCain and took it to the Office of Senate Security. Office of Senate Security personnel confirmed that the Staff Director gave them an envelope, marked "Eyes Only," to be placed in her personal file. The Staff Director has admitted that the envelope contained the copy of the intelligence briefing text that she obtained from the office of Senator McCain.

3. The facts of the destruction of the intelligence briefing text would seem to fall inside the prescriptions of the Statute, Title 18, U.S.C., Section 2071, so as to justify their referral for investigation to a competent law enforcement authority. The applicability of that Statute was debated in United States v. Poindexter, D.D.C. 1989, 725 F. Supp. 13, in connection with the Iran Contra investigation. The District Court ruled, inter alia, that the National Security Council is a public office within the meaning of the Statute and, thus, that its records and documents fell within the protection of the Statute. In light of that ruling, the Statute would seem to apply to this Senate Select Committee and its Staff. The continued existence of a "bootleg" copy of the intelligence briefing text - i.e., a copy that is not one of those made by the investigators for the purpose of briefing the Select Committee - would seem to be irrelevant to the issues of intent to destroy and willfulness; as well as to the issue of responsibility for the order to destroy all copies of the briefing text, for the attempt to carry out that order, and for the destruction that actually was accomplished in execution of that order.

4. As for the issue of misconduct by Staff attorneys, all member of the Bar swear to uphold the law. That oath may be violated by acts of omission and commission. Even without a violation of the Federal criminal statute, the actions and failures to act by senior Staff attorneys in the sequence of events connected with the destruction of the briefing text might constitute violations of ethical standards for members of the Bar and of both Senate and Select Committee rules. The statements, actions and failures to act during and after the meeting on 15 April, when the investigators gave notice of their concern about possible criminal liability for document destruction, would seem to reflect disregard for the law and for the rules of the United States Senate.

John F. McCreary

Testimony of Michael D. Benge

My name is Michael D. Benge. While serving as a civilian Economic Development Officer in the Central Highlands of South Viet Nam, I was captured by the North Vietnamese during the Tet Offensive on January 28, 1968. I was held in numerous camps in South Viet Nam, Cambodia, Laos and North Viet Nam. I was a POW for over five years, and spent 27 months in solitary confinement, one year in a "black box," and one year in a cage in Cambodia. I served for almost 11 years in Viet Nam. I was released during Operation Homecoming in 1973. I am a Board Member of the National Alliance of Families for the Return of America's Missing Servicemen. And, I am a POW/MIA activist; that is, I am one who is actively seeking the truth regarding the fate of our Prisoners of War and Missing in Action.

I was not tortured by the Cubans, nor was I part of the "Cuban Program." There were 19 American POWs that I know of who were tortured by the Cubans in Hanoi during the Vietnam War. These brave men include Colonel Jack Bomar and Captain Ray Vohden, who will testify, and also Commander Al Carpenter, who is with us today. They named their torturers "Fidel," "Chico" and "Pancho." The torture took place in a POW camp called the Zoo, and the Vietnamese camp commander was a man they called the "Lump." He was called that because of the presence of a rather large fatty tumor in the middle of his forehead.

No, I was not tortured by Cubans in Vietnam, but I was interrogated by the "Lump," and a person who appeared to be a Latino and who spoke a few words of Spanish to the "Lump" during my interrogation in the early part of 1970. Upon my return to the U.S., I was shown a picture taken in Cuba of the "Lump," who was with an American anti-war group. Yes, it was the same person who had interrogated me in 1970. I was told by a Congressional Investigator that he was the man who was in charge of funneling Soviet KGB money to American anti-war groups and activists, such as Jane Fonda. After researching my paper, this made more sense, for who would be better suited to liaison with the Cubans. This was my first piece of the puzzle.

I decided to research the "Cuban Program" after repeated claims by the Administration, Senators John McCain and John Kerry, Ambassador Pete Peterson, and members of the Department of Defense (DOD) that the Vietnamese Government was "cooperating fully" in resolving the POW/MIA issue. This is far from the truth.

Cuban War Crimes Against American POWs

During the Vietnam War*

Cuban officials, under diplomatic cover in Hanoi during the Vietnam War, brutally tortured and killed American POWs whom they beat senseless in a research program "sanctioned by the North Vietnamese."(1) This was dubbed the "Cuba Program" by the Department of Defense (DOD) and the CIA, and it involved 19 American POWs (some reposts state 20). Recent declassified secret CIA and DOD intelligence documents, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, reveal the extent of Cuba's involvement with American POWs captured in Vietnam. A Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report states that "The objective of the interrogators was to obtain the total submission of the prisoners..."(2)

Other Cuban Involvement

Several reports indicate that Cubans were piloting MIGs in aerial combat with American pilots over North Vietnam. One American advisor flying in an H-34 used a M-79 grenade launcher to shoot down a Cuban flying a biplane in Northern Laos.(28) This was the same kind of plane used in the attack against Lima Site 85--the top-secret base in Laos providing guidance for American planes in the bombing of North Vietnam.

The involvement with American POWs was just a part of Cuba's long history of commitment to assist the Vietnamese communists, and just another chapter in their role as "communist internationales" on behalf of the Soviet Union. The Cubans first showed up in Vietnam not too many years after they consolidated power on their own island in the early 1960s. Soon after, the Cubans soon began operating en masse alongside their Vietnamese brethren. They even accompanied the North Vietnamese through the gates of the South Vietnamese Presidential Palace in Saigon on April 29, 1975.(21) However, the Cuban's assistance to the North Vietnamese continued well beyond 1975.

Cuba's End Game in Vietnam

According to a DIA "asset", after the signing of the cease-fire on January 21, 1973, 4,000 Cuban army engineers arrived in Hanoi. They helped rebuild the Phuc Yen/Da Phuc Airfield North of Hanoi where, according to intelligence reports, American POWs were used as technicians after the war. Later, the Cubans disappeared into the mountains of the north and constructed and eqvuipped secret bases about 100 km from the Chinese border between Monkai and Laokai. Here, the Soviets equipped the bases with mobile launch ramps, medium-range strategic missiles, possibly with tactical nuclear warheads, capable of hitting population centers in the southern part of China.(17) This is the same area where the above mentioned POW camp containing American prisoners "disappeared, guards and all."(25)

And if McCain ever announces he is running for President in 2008, I have my notes ALL ready.

McCain

Reuter's News Service reported in January that the 60 year old McCain says he wants to be President of the United States.

McCain thought EXpresident Clinton, who dodged the draft rather than serve in Vietnam, was the perfect presidential role model. He told the press that Clinton "is the best politician I have ever seen."

McCain, however, does not think so highly of the POW/MIA families and activists who openly challenged the U.S. government's POW/MIA policy, many of whom walked the halls of Congress during the Vietnam War years demanding America's prisoners of war, including POW McCain, not be forgotten.

McCain, as a member of the 1992 Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, took the lead in demanding a U.S. Justice Department investigation of the POW/MIA activists and their organizations. He accused the activists of fraud because in some of their fund-raising literature the activists claimed the U.S. government knowingly left U.S. POWs behind after the Vietnam War and that some remain alive today.

McCain openly attacked the activists telling the press, "The people who have done these things are not zealots in a good cause. They are the most craven, most cynical and most despicable human beings to ever run a scam." The Justice Department did investigate the POW/MIA activists and their organizations and found no reason to charge any POW/MIA activist.

McCain's use of the words craven, despicable and scam are mighty powerful and poisonous words from a man who admittedly traded "military information" to his communist captors in exchange for better medical treatment--or who divorced the wife that stood by him while he was a POW, after she became crippled in an accident.

Those words are hypocritical from a man whose younger and richer wife (she's an heir to Hensley & Co., the second largest Anheuser-Busch beer distributor in the United States) got caught after stealing drugs for two years from a charitable organization of which she was president.

U.S. Navy pilot John McCain was shot down on his 23rd mission over North Vietnam, October 26, 1967. He was released March 1973 after being held captive by the North Vietnamese for 5-1/2 years.

Days after his release, McCain wrote the following account of his captivity, which was published in U.S. News and World Report - May 14, 1973:
"I think it was on the fourth day [after being shot down] that two guards came in, instead of one. One of them pulled back the blanket to show the other guard my injury. I looked at my knee. It was about the size of a football . . . when I saw it, I said to the guard, 'O.K., get the officer' . . . an officer came in after a few minutes. It was the man that we came to know very well as 'The Bug.' He was a psychotic torturer, one of the worst fiends that we had to deal with. I said, 'O.K., I'll give you military information if you will take me to the hospital.'"

McCain said it was only a coincidence that at the same time he was offering "military information" in exchange for special medical treatment, his captors discovered that his father was Adm. John S. McCain Jr., commander of all U.S. forces in Europe and soon-to-be commander of all U.S. forces in the Pacific, including Vietnam.

After learning about McCain's father, the communists rushed McCain to one of their military hospitals where he received treatment not available for other U.S. prisoners of war.

"Nhan Dan published answers to questions by one of its correspondents made by a U.S. air pirate detained in North Vietnam. "He is Lt. John Sidney McCain . . ."
Hanoi VNA International Service in French - November 9, 1967

"To a question of the correspondent, McCain answered: 'My assignment to the Oriskany, I told myself, was due to serious losses in pilots which were sustained by this aircraft carrier due to its raids over North Vietnam territory and which necessitated replacements. From 10 to 12 pilots were transferred like me from the Forrestal to the Oriskany . . . upon arrival near the target, our formation, with six bombers, would mount the attack according to the following order: I would be number three, and the chief of the formation, number one. Each pilot would have to approach the target from a different direction, the choice of which would be left to him.'"
November 9, 1967 - Department of Defense

"A meeting which will leave its mark on my life: My meeting with John Sidney McCain was certainly one of those meetings which will affect me most profoundly for the rest of my life. I had asked the North Vietnamese authorities to allow me to personally interrogate an American prisoner. They authorized me to do so. When night fell, they took me--without any precautions or mystery--to a hospital near the Gia Lam Airport reserved for the military. (snip) The officer who receives me begins: I ask you not to ask any questions of political nature. If this man replies in a way unfavorable to us, they will not hesitate to speak of "brainwashing" and conclude that we threatened him. (Passage omitted) "This John Sidney McCain is not an ordinary prisoner. His father is none other than Admiral Edmond John McCain, commander in chief of U.S. Naval forces in Europe."
Francois Chalais - January 1968

"Reds Say PW Songbird Is Pilot Son of Admiral
. . . Hanoi has aired a broadcast in which the pilot son of United States Commander in the Pacific, Adm. John McCain, purportedly admits to having bombed civilian targets in North Vietnam and praises medical treatment he has received since being taken prisoner."
Saigon-UPI, June 4, 1969

"The English-Language broadcast beamed at South Vietnam was one of a series using American prisoners. It was in response to a plea by Defense Secretary Melvin S. Laird, May 19, that North Vietnam treat prisoners according to the humanitarian standards set forth by the Geneva Convention."
Washington Post - June 5, 1969

"Dr. Fernando Barral, a Spanish psychiatrist residing in Cuba, returned from the Democratic Republic of Vietnam . . . he brought back some journalistic news: an interview with a North American pilot captured in the DRV after bombing Hanoi on 26 October 1967. The meeting between him and the pilot took place in an office of the Committee for Foreign Cultural Relations in Hanoi. The pilot interviewed is Lt Cmdr John Sidney McCain, son and grandson of American Navy Admirals . . . "In the course of the interview, on various occasions he showed that knowledge of the language, saying some words, dates, and so forth in Spanish, or [using it] when he thought the interpreter was seeking the corresponding French word. "Naturally, from the beginning this established a more direct communication between us, and more than one question or my response was made directly in Spanish."
Havana Granma - January 24, 1970

"Let me emphasize that there were many, many fine women who supported what they knew their husbands believed in. My wife, Carol, was one of those and I am proud of her."
U.S. New and World Report - May 14, 1973

Editor's note: In 1980, McCain's personal life soured. He divorced Carol, who had been seriously injured and crippled in a motor vehicle accident, and married Cindy Hensley, whose father Jim is an Arizona "beer baron."

"Republican Sen. John McCain reported a net worth of at least $830,705 but possibly as much as $1.2 million or more, excluding personal residences . . . McCain listed his wife, Cindy, as the source of most of his assets. . . the bulk of McCain's assets consisted of stock in three Glendale firms - Hensley & Co., a beer distributorship headed by his father-in-law; Western Leasing Co., which leases trucks and equipment; and Eagle Enterprises, which invests in real estate and stock."
Phoenix Gazette - May 19, 1987

"So why has Sen. McCain, R-Ariz., gone to unprecedented lengths to block reform of the Senate campaign finance system? Why does he oppose letting this important matter even come to a vote? Perhaps it's because he is a prime beneficiary of the special interest funding of congressional elections. "McCain raised over $2.5 million for his 1986 election . . . more than $760,000 of his campaign funds came from political action committee (PACs) . . . especially disturbing are the contributions to McCain's campaign coffers from PACs outside of Arizona."
Phoenix Gazette - December 8, 1987

"While Sen. John McCain's wife and father-in-law were investing with Charles H. Keating, Jr. in a shopping center, McCain was helping Keating battle federal regulators who questioned his operation of Lincoln Savings and Loan . . . [photo caption] Documents show that Sen. John McCain's wife, Cindy, and father-in-law, James W. Hensley (second from right) are the largest investors in Fountain Square Shopping Center. Their partnership is managed by subsidiaries of American Continental Corp., run by Charles H. Keating, Jr. (right). But John McCain contends there was no conflict in his helping Keating battle federal regulators."
Arizona Republic - October 8, 1989

"Sen. John McCain had more than a constituent relationship with Charles H. Keating, Jr. prior to 1987 . . . the McCains - sometimes with their daughter and baby sitter - made at least nine trips at Keating's expense from August 1984 to August 1986 aboard either Keating's American Continental Corporation's jet or chartered planes and helicopters owned by Resorts International. Three of the trips were for vacations at Keating's luxurious retreat in the Bahamas."
Arizona Republic - October 8, 1989

"McCain, in a radio talk-show appearance last week condemned disclosures of his family's ties to Keating as "irresponsible journalism."
Arizona Republic - October 17, 1989

" . . . both in telephone conversations with reporters and on a live radio talk show, the Republican senator was far from calm. He was agitated. Angry. And the way he dealt with unpleasant questions was to bully the questioners . . . 'You're a liar,' McCain snapped Sept. 29 when an Arizona Republic reporter asked him about business ties between his wife, Cindy McCain, and Keating . . . 'That's the spouse's involvement, you idiot,' McCain sneered later in the same conversation. 'You do understand English, don't you?' ". . . Not content with just bullying reporters, McCain tried belittling them: 'It's up to you to find that out, kids.' . . . McCain wasn't talking to liars. He wasn't talking to juveniles. The senator was talking to two reporters."
Arizona Republic - October 17, 1989

"Employees at Hensley & Co., a $100 million Anheuser-Busch distribution firm, also say that during McCain's first campaign for Congress, some workers were pressured into going door-to-door in neighborhoods to hand out McCain election pamphlets . . . Hensley employees say they must take the checks to work, where they are collected by supervisors. I asked one person if employees were assured that all contributions were voluntary . . . 'no way,' I was told. 'And my (spouse) and I aren't even registered (to vote). That's what makes us so mad."
Arizona Republic - November 1, 1989

"As a 100 percent, service-connected, disabled ex-prisoner of war, I sought help from John McCain when he was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and I needed help in regard to a claim for back service-connected disability compensation. I did so because I thought that as an ex-POW himself he could relate to my problem. When I could not reach him via letters to his office, I wrote to his home address. That was a very enlightening experience . . . my letter, addressed to the congressman, was opened by his wife, Cindy. She didn't like what she read, so she wrote me a nasty letter. Apparently John McCain isn't even capable of communicating on a one-to-one basis with someone who was a POW and returned from his experience in far worse physical condition than John McCain returned from his experience . . . M. "Shane" Schoenborn."
Phoenix Gazette - November 4, 1989

"Reporters also 'discovered' that the senator's wife and father-in-law invested $359,100.00 in one of Mr. Keating's projects in 1986 . . ."
Phoenix Gazette - November 13, 1989

"The liquor case is particularly intriguing as it resulted in criminal charges against Marley's subordinates, James and Eugene Hensley. If the last name sounds familiar, it's because James is papa to Cindy McCain, who is wife of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who is infamous lately as a member of the Keating Five . . . Marley also has been a shadow figure in the 1976 slaying of Republic reporter Don Bolles. Bolles wrote extensively about Marley's lucky past. And about how the Hensleys (Marley's managers) bought Ruidso Downs racing track in New Mexico. He wrote about Eugene Hensley spending five years in federal prison for a skimming scam. And about the Hensleys selling their track to a buyer linked with Emprise Corp. And about Marley's liquor ties with Emprise . . . one of Bolles' final dispatches appeared as Marley was about to become a member of the Arizona Racing Commission - the agency that regulates racetracks, including those run at the time by Emprise . . . the story dispatched Marley's appointment. Two months later, a car bomb killed Bolles."
Phoenix Gazette - January 4, 1990

"Bradley J. Funk, an antique dealer linked to the 13-year-old Don Bolles murder case through his family's former ownership of dog-racing tracks, has died of a heart attack, authorities said Jan. 2 . . . Bolles, 47, a former investigative reporter with the Arizona Republic, died June 13, 1976, about 11 days after a dynamite-based bomb blew up beneath his car . . . in his last statement before lapsing into unconsciousness, he mentioned the Mafia, John Adamson and Emprise Corp., a Buffalo, N.Y. company with a far-flung sports empire which once included ownership of the Boston Bruins hockey team and the former Cincinnati Royals basketball franchise . . . now known as Delaware North Cos., Emprise was convicted in 1972 of a federal charge of conspiring to hide Mafia interest in a Las Vegas, Nev., casino . . . Emprise and the Funk family were partners in six dog-racing tracks in the state and the Prescott Downs horse track, and Bolles had ripped their operations in print."
Arizona Business Gazette - January 5, 1990

"McCain's involvement with Keating . . . when reporters called him with questions last year about previously unknown ties to Keating, an investment by wife Cindy McCain in a Keating shopping center and trips to Keating's Bahamas home, McCain went into a rage."
Arizona Republic - April 29, 1990

"Cars, homes and bank accounts of 18 people, including eight state legislators, were confiscated in a civil racketeering lawsuit that paints a portrait of lawmakers eager to sell their influence for as little as $660 and as much as $750,000 . . . Richard Scheffel, another lobbyist indicted but not targeted in the civil racketeering suit, is reputed to have been paid $20,000 to identify and approach lawmakers interested in trading votes for money . . . in a bid to establish his professional credentials with Stedino, Scheffel is reported to have boasted that '(U.S.) Sen. John McCain's father-in-law gives money to politicians through him' . . . Bauer, in his report, said Scheffel claimed that 'each January he receives $30,000 from the local Anheuser-Busch distributor, Jim Hensley,' adding that Hensley also supplied him with names of people to list as contributors."
Phoenix Gazette - February 6, 1991

". . . Bob Delgado, executive vice president for Hensley. He also pointed out that Scheffel was a lobbyist for Anheuser-Busch Inc. and not Hensley & Co . . . Hensley & Co. has a pattern, according to state campaign filings, of registering key executives as lobbyists."
Phoenix Gazette - February 9, 1991

"Hensley & Co., a Phoenix-based beer distributor, rewards its drivers and sales people with parties at Phoenix Greyhound Park . . . 'It's been an excellent motivator for us to use for incentive contests,' said Dave Daulton, assistant vice president at Hensley."
Arizona Republic - February 15, 1991

"Don't overlook that multifaceted beer distributor Jim Hensley, father-in-law to Republican Sen. John McCain of modest Keating fame. According to current AzScam records, Hensley is a financial godfather to hosts of lobbyists."
Phoenix Gazette - March 16, 1991

"McCain, meanwhile, reported assets of more than $5.4 million, much of it held jointly with his wife, Cindy. The couple reported holding at least $2 million in stock in Hensley & Co., a beer distributorship owned by Cindy McCain's father, Jim Hensley . . . John McCain, R-Ariz., also reported at least $500,000 in Anheuser-Busch debentures, with most of the rest of the assets primarily in land holdings that his wife has invested in with her family . . . last year, McCain's wealth was estimated by Roll Call at closer to $2.9 million."
Arizona Republic - May 16, 1991

"At the time, Devereux stumbled upon Bolles' notes concerning Charles C. Morgan, a Tucson escrow agent who took a bullet to the head in 1977 while wearing a bulletproof vest. According to Devereux, Morgan worked for organized crime figures . . . Devereux says, Danny Casolaro called 'out of the blue' to ask about laundering operations, a Tucson bank, the Bonanno family and Reagan administration officials . . . a few weeks after that conversation, Casolaro was found in a West Virginia motel room with his wrists slashed. The case, initially ruled a suicide . . .
Phoenix Gazette - March 28, 1992

"Miller blamed the car-bomb slaying on former greyhound owner John Harvey Adamson, who has confessed to murdering Bolles; Phoenix lawyer Neal Roberts; and the late Bradley Funk, whose family used to race greyhounds in Arizona . . . 'this is a case of two contracts, a contract to kill and a contract to cover up who ordered the killing,' he said . . . Granville contended that Dunlap plotted with Adamson to have Bolles killed in behalf of Kemper Marley Sr., a Phoenix land and liquor baron."
Arizona Republic - February 10, 1993

"An Oregon racing regulator who has been offered the top post in the Arizona Racing Department thwarted in 1990 a Portland newspaper's investigation of a possible link between an Oregon track and an alleged organized-crime figure . . . on Friday, Gov. Fife Symington offered Barham the position of director of the Arizona Racing Department. Barham also would become director of the State Gaming Agency, which regulates Indian gaming . . . the Oregonian was looking into a possible connection between Oregon Racing, Inc. and the Emprise Corp., which had been forced out of Oregon because of allegations involving organized crime . . . the Oregonian became curious about Oregon Racing after learning that one of its early investors shared an office in Kenner, La., with John G. Masoni, a longtime Emprise partner . . . the Oregonian said Florida officials consider Masoni an 'associate' of the Detroit Mafia . . . Emprise, now called Delaware North Cos., long has had an interest in Arizona racing. At one time, the company had a virtual monopoly on dog and horse racing in the state in partnership with the Funk family of Phoenix . . . in the mid- '70s, the state moved to break the monopoly in light of a 1972 felony conviction of the company. Emprise was convicted in U.S. District Court in California of conspiring with racketeers to hide an ownership interest in the Frontier Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas."
Arizona Republic - June 23, 1993

Photo caption: "Below, Charles Keating III and McCain, then a member of the U.S. House, celebrate their August birthdays at the Keating's beachside estate at Cat Cay in the Bahamas."
Phoenix Gazette - September 12, 1993

"Cindy McCain, the wife of U.S. Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, admitted in a series of media interviews Monday that she became addicted to the painkillers Percocet and Vicodin. She said that she used the drugs from 1989 to 1992 and acknowledged that she had stolen some pills from the American Voluntary Medical Team, a charitable organization of which she is president . . . at one point, McCain, 40, was ingesting 15 to 20 pills a day . . . the normal dosage for seriously ill patients is 6 to 10 a day for a short period."
Arizona Republic - August 24, 1994

"Cindy McCain, who admitted to drug addiction this week, faces more problems, this time involving the adoption of a Bangladeshi baby two years ago.
"Sources confirmed Wednesday that a former employee of McCain's volunteer medical team has accused her of demanding that he commit perjury in adoption proceedings for her daughter, Bridget."
Phoenix Gazette - August 25, 1994

"Her husband is Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz."
"Cindy McCain was investigated recently by the Drug Enforcement Administration for stealing and using Percocet and Vicodin, both narcotic painkillers from her aid organization . . . the county attorney's report provides a window to drug dealings within Cindy McCain's nonprofit corporation . . . Gosinski also alleged that Cindy McCain abused her husband's office and diplomatic privileges by transporting illegal substances overseas. He also claimed, according to her lawyers, that Cindy McCain tried to prevent him from providing accurate information to the DEA."
Phoenix Gazette - August 25, 1994

"About 300 guests turned out Saturday night to celebrate the 90th birthday of Joseph 'Joe Bananas' Bonanno, retired boss of New York's Bonanno crime family. He retired to Tucson in 1968 . . . John McCain, R-Ariz., and Gov. Fife Symington sent their regards by telegram."
Arizona Republic - January 17, 1995

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