Free Republic

memory hole reminder The first documentary evidence that Vietnamese communists were directly steering John Kerry’s group Vietnam Veterans Against the War has been discovered in a U.S. archive, according to a researcher who spoke with WorldNetDaily. Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2004/10/27207/#615wufvA5oZXKuWK.99

Gadhafi Loyalists Still Battling New Western-backed Rulers in Libya Written by Alex Newman A year after the execution of former Libyan despot Moammar Gadhafi at the hands of Western-backed rebels, forces opposed to the new Tripoli-based regime ruling parts of Libya are still fighting on. According to news reports, assorted Libyan militias supposedly aligned with the embattled new government have been shelling the Gadhafi-loyalist stronghold of Bani Walid all weekend in a bid to quash the late dictator’s remaining die-hard supporters. Officials with the new government said the fighting reflected the fact that not all of Libya had been “liberated”...

Detainees or POWs? Ancient distinctions. By Mackubin Thomas Owens is professor of strategy and force planning at the Naval War College in Newport. His views do no necessarily reflect those of any agency of the U.S. government. January 24, 2002 8:55 a.m. as President Bush's decision launch a "war against terrorism" in response to September 11 now hoisted the United States on its own petard? That would seem to be the case as international organizations and even officials of allied countries such as Great Britain have intensified criticism of the United States concerning its treatment of captured al Qaeda and ...

The Rules of War Can't Protect Al Qaeda By RUTH WEDGWOOD NEW HAVEN — It makes no sense to win a trial but lose the war. With this in mind, a majority of the American public favors giving President Bush the option to use military tribunals against the Qaeda terror network. The tribunals are designed to permit a "full and fair trial" of war crimes without compromising our ability to track the network's future plans. Al Qaeda's skill at countersurveillance has made plain the need to protect sensitive intelligence sources at trial. But some international-law scholars suggest that President Bush's ...

The phone rang and it was Ross Perot, who hasn't given an interview in years. Perot, who won 19 percent of the vote in the 1992 presidential election, making him one of the strongest third-party candidates in American history, got straight to the point. "Remember what you wrote about John McCain in the March 13, 2000, NEWSWEEK?" "Sure," I lied. "When McCain called Perot 'nuttier than a fruitcake'?" The Texas billionaire, now 77, still has some scores to settle from the Vietnam era, and his timing is exquisite. Just days before the South Carolina GOP primary, he wants me to...

John McCain, who has risen to political prominence on his image as a Vietnam POW war hero, has, inexplicably, worked very hard to hide from the public stunning information about American prisoners in Vietnam who, unlike him, didn’t return home. Throughout his Senate career, McCain has quietly sponsored and pushed into federal law a set of prohibitions that keep the most revealing information about these men buried as classified documents. Thus the war hero who people would logically imagine as a determined crusader for the interests of POWs and their families became instead the strange champion of hiding the evidence...

An enraged Japanese guard, the flaps of his hat flying into the air, charges with his bayonet toward an exhausted American soldier on the ground. In other works by Ben Steele, a Japanese soldier strikes a captured American across the face with the butt of his rifle, several guards stand over a withered American digging his own grave, and GIs drink from a mud hole. Copies of these works are currently on display at the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art. "I just kind of want to give people an idea of what went on over there," said the 92-year-old Steele...

Check this out - who knew about the utilization of monopoly? I wonder what one of these versions would bring at auction today! This is a very interesting little tidbit I've never heard about before concerning WWII. Read and enjoy just one more example of American/British ingenuity. Starting in 1941, an increasing number of British Airmen found themselves as the involuntary guests of the Third Reich, and the Crown was casting about for ways and means to facilitate their escape... Now obviously, one of the most helpful aids to that end is a useful and accurate map, one showing not...

The "war hero" candidate buried information about POWs left behind in Vietnam. Research support provided by the Investigative Fund of The Nation Institute. This is an expanded version, with primary documents attached, of a story that appears in the October 6, 2008 issue of The Nation. (Watch Schanberg's appearance on Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman.) BY SYDNEY H. SCHANBERG John McCain, who has risen to political prominence on his image as a Vietnam POW war hero, has, inexplicably, worked very hard to hide from the public stunning information about American prisoners in Vietnam who, unlike him, didn't return home. Throughout...

WASHINGTON – Shoshana Johnson survived gunshot wounds to both legs and 22 days as a prisoner of war in Iraq. Life wasn't so easy when she came home, either. In a new book out this week, the 37-year-old single mother describes mental health problems related to her captivity and tells how it felt to play second fiddle in the media to fellow POW Jessica Lynch, who was captured in the same ambush. "It was kind of hurtful," the former Army cook said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "If I'd been a petite, cutesy thing, it would've been...

National and local political activist, decorated veteran, POW advocate, businessman and master potter Ted Sampley passed away Tuesday. He was 62. Sampley, who was recovering from heart surgery a week earlier, was experiencing difficulties from the surgery at the Veteran's Hospital in Durham on Tuesday. He died while being rushed to surgery. His sudden passing surprised many in Kinston. "This is a shock to me," said master shipbuilder Alton Stapleford, the architect of the CSS Neuse II, which Sampley helped bring to fruition. "It's really hard to comprehend right now." Sampley served several tours of duty in Vietnam in the...

WATCHING MSNBC IS TORTUREMay 6, 2009 The media wail about "torture," but are noticeably short on facts. Liberals try to disguise the utter wussification of our interrogation techniques by constantly prattling on about "the banality of evil." Um, no. In this case, it's actually the banality of the banal. Start with the fact that the average Gitmo detainee has gained 20 pounds in captivity. There's even a medical term for it now: "the Gitmo gut." Some prisoners have been heard whispering, "If you think Allah is great, you should try these dinner rolls." In terms of "torture," there was "the...

Prisoners of war suffer in ways most veterans don't, enduring humiliating forced marches, torture or other trauma that may haunt them long afterward. In partial recompense, the government extends them special benefits, from free parking and tax breaks to priority in medical treatment. Trouble is, some of the much-admired recipients of these benefits apparently don't deserve them. There are only 21 surviving POWs from the first Gulf War in 1991, the Department of Defense says. Yet the Department of Veterans Affairs is paying disability benefits to 286 service members it says were taken prisoner during that conflict, according to data...

A former CIA officer tells Fox News its ridiculous that the Bush administration didn't execute numerous prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, regardless of whether they have had a trial, when it had the chance.

In a recent article posted at truthout.org, Phillip Butler makes a case for the arrest of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld for crimes against the U.S. Constitution. Butler is a veteran military pilot and was a POW in Vietnam for 2,855 days. Since his repatriation in 1973, he has earned a PhD in Sociology and according to his author bio, "he mentors business and organization leaders and is a community activist." His article is well-written and thorough, using the Third Geneva Convention and its rules regarding the interrogation of POWs as the basis for his assertions. In...

Just a month after President-elect Barack Obama takes office, he must tell the Supreme Court where he stands on one of the most aggressive legal claims made by the Bush administration — that the president may order the military to seize legal residents of the United States and hold them indefinitely without charging them with a crime. The new administration’s brief, which is due Feb. 20, has the potential to hearten or infuriate Mr. Obama’s supporters, many of whom are looking to him for stark disavowals of the Bush administration’s legal positions on the detention and interrogation of so-called enemy...

I am posting this for any Florida readers who might want to attend one of these events. Please spread the word to friends or relatives who might be interested. VETERAN VICTORY 2008 BUS TOUR HITS FLORIDA! The Victory 2008 Bus Tour arrives in Florida on Monday for a three day tour. Events include rallies in Sarasota, Pasco, Ocala, Gainesville, Tallahassee, Panama City, and Pensacola. John McCain’s friend and former cellmate, Lt. Col. Orson Swindle, USMC (Ret), will speak about why John McCain is ready to lead this country. Also speaking will be Col. Tom Moe, USAF (Ret), a former POW...

Death, disease and injury were the fate of thousands held at sea More Americans died in British prison ships in New York Harbor than in all the battles of the Revolutionary War. There were at least 16 of these floating prisons anchored in Wallabout Bay on the East River for most of the war, and they were sinkholes of filth, vermin, infectious disease and despair. The ships were uniformly wretched, but the most notorious was the Jersey. Following the Battle of Long Island in August, 1776, and the fall of New York City soon after, the British found thousands of...

It is my opinion that we need to pray for our leaders this election. Many Conservative are disappointed with the selection of Senator John S. McCain. But in one sense, he is the true conservative in values -- he has fought for campaign finance reform -- getting big money out of politics. This should allow the little guy (or gal) more voice in what this country is doing. In some religions, it is part of the church service to pray for the leaders of a country (Ukrainian Catholic, for example). We must pray for our leaders and pray that the...

3/31/2008 - CANNON AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. (AFPN) -- "Sand, hills and pain," an elderly marcher said, describing the 26.2 mile Bataan Memorial Death March, held March 30 at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. The annual march, in its 19th year, honored the men and women forced to march 60 miles by Japanese soldiers, and in thousands of instances died, in the Bataan Death March during World War II. More than 4,400 Airmen, Soldiers, Marines, Sailors and civilians participated in the march and experienced, in small part, what many thousands of American and Filipino soldiers went through after surrendering to...