Compiled Nonsense
Summary. Task Force Omega of Kentucky is an MIA cult organization that consists of a half-dozen members with Internet access. On their website one finds the following compilation of nonsense.
Task Force Omega of Kentucky: ". . . made my blood boil."
The following is snipped from the TF Omega of Kentucky website. I have reproduced this compilation of nonsense without comment and have followed it with a version in which I inserted facts.
Quote from the TF Omega of Kentucky website.
The Task Force Omega of Kentucky, Inc.
Live POW/MIA Report
Note to the reader: When I read this report, it made my blood boil. The evidence is so clear that it is inconceivable to think our own government could do this to its own patriotic servicemen. How could they leave them to rot in Vietnamese prisons?
April 3, 1973: Pathet Lao (Laotian Communist) forces declare they are holding more than 100 American POWs and are prepared to give a full accounting of them The U.S. government responds 9 days later declaring they are all dead -- without ever talking to the Laotians about the POWs they admit holding.
1970-1976: After the French pay an unspecified sum of money to the Vietnamese, the communists release POWs captured in 1954! The North Vietnamese had claimed all of then had died.
June 25, 1981: Defense Intelligence Agency Director Eugene Tighe testifies before the House Subcommittee on Asian/Pacific Affairs that live American POWs remain in Southeast Asia.
December 7, 1984: The Washington Times reports that Bobby Garwood, released by Vietnam 1979, saw up to 70 live captive Americans long after the war ended.
June 28, 1985: The Washington Times reports DIA Director Lieutenant General Eugene Tighe testified Hanoi is still holding at least 50-60 live American POWs.
October 15, 1985: The Wall Street Journal reports that National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane says live American POWs remain in Southeast Asia.
August 19, 1986: The Wall Street Journal reports the White House knew in 1981 Vietnam wanted to sell an unspecified number of live POWs for $4 billion. The White House decided the offer was genuine -- and ignored it!
September 30, 1986: The New York Times reports a Pentagon panel estimates up to 100 live American POWs are held in Vietnam alone.
October 7, 1986: CIA Director William Casey says: "Look, the nation knows they (the POWs) are there, everybody knows they are there, but there's no grounds well of support for getting them out. Certainly, you are not suggesting we pay for them, surely not saying we could do anything like that with no public support."
January 1988: A cable from the Joint Casualty Resolution Center states that during General Vessey's visit to Hanoi, "The Vietnamese people were prepared to turn over 7 or 8 live American POWs if Vessey told then what they wanted to hear. All the prospective returnees were allegedly held in a location on the Lao side of the border."
June 10 1989: The Washington Post reports a Japanese monk released after 13 years in a Vietnamese prison had American POW cellmates who nursed him to health.
September 1990: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Interim Report on POW/MIAs in Southeast Asia concluded that despite public assurances in 1973 that no POWs remained in the region, the Defense Department " . . . in April 1974 concluded beyond a doubt that several hundred American POWs remained in captivity in Southeast
Asia."
October 1990: Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach admits Vietnam still holds American POWs but is willing to release "as many as 10 live American POWs." His offer, like others before it, is ignored by Secretary of State James Baker III.
February 1991: Colonel Millard Peck, Chief of the Pentagon's Special Office for Prisoners of War and Missing in Action, resigns in protest of being ordered by policy makers in the POW/MIA Inter-Agency Group not to investigate live-sighting reports of American POWs.
April 25, 1991: Senator Bob Smith addresses the Senate and reveals that, of more than 1,400 eyewitness sightings of live POWs, NONE has ever received an on-site investigation!
May 23, 1991: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Examination of U.S. Policy Toward POW/MIAs concludes that the U.S. has ignored thousands of American POWs, and left them to rot in Soviet slave labor camps and North Korean and Vietnamese prisons. "Any evidence that suggested an MIA might be alive was uniformly and arbitrarily rejected."
Summer 1991: A flood of new evidence of live POWs pours from Southeast Asia: pictures, handwriting samples, hair samples, blood samples, fingerprints, foot-prints, maps and other physical proof. The Bush administration disregards the evidence and attempts to discredit
it by rumor and innuendo. Some of the photos are scientifically validated and have never been scientifically disproved!
All these facts are a matter of public record and clearly indicate that we have some serious problems in the POW/MIA arena that our elected officials refuse to acknowledge.
This information was compiled by Task Force Omega of Kentucky, Inc.
End quote from TF Omega of Kentucky website.
The Facts Are Considerably Different
The following is the same item quoted above with facts inserted. Facts are inserted in this typeface and color.
The Task Force Omega of Kentucky, Inc.
Live POW/MIA Report
Note to the reader: When I read this report, it made my blood boil. The evidence is so clear that it is inconceivable to think our own government could do this to its own patriotic servicemen. How could they leave them to rot in Vietnamese prisons?
April 3, 1973: Pathet Lao (Laotian Communist) forces declare they are holding more than 100 American POWs and are prepared to give a full accounting of them The U.S. government responds 9 days later declaring they are all dead -- without ever talking to the Laotians about the POWs they admit holding.
Read the article at https://miafacts.org/laos.htm for the facts about Pathet Lao declarations on US POWs. The preceding statement is misleading and omits many facts.
1970-1976: After the French pay an unspecified sum of money to the Vietnamese, the communists release POWs captured in 1954! The North Vietnamese had claimed all of then had died.
Not true. In 1972, 40-something French soldiers returned to France from Vietnam. They were all deserters, all were known to the French government, none were prisoners. In the late 1980s, the French and Vietnamese concluded negotiations and agreed that the French would exhume the remains of over 25,000 French troops buried in military cemeteries in Vietnam. TFOmega has, once again, produced misleading information by mixing fact and fiction.
June 25, 1981: Defense Intelligence Agency Director Eugene Tighe testifies before the House Subcommittee on Asian/Pacific Affairs that live American POWs remain in Southeast Asia.
During his entire tenure, General Tighe testified that there was no proof of US POWs remaining in SEAsia.
December 7, 1984: The Washington Times reports that Bobby Garwood, released by Vietnam 1979, saw up to 70 live captive Americans long after the war ended.
Read this article for the facts on Garwood's "live sightings."
June 28, 1985: The Washington Times reports DIA Director Lieutenant General Eugene Tighe testified Hanoi is still holding at least 50-60 live American POWs.
During his entire tenure as Director of DIA, General Tighe testified that there was no proof of US POWs remaining in SEAsia. After he retired, he began to claim that he had seen information that led him to conclude that US POWs remained in SEAsia. He started by stating "2 to 3" and finally climbed to "50 or 60." He never produced any proof of his claims nor did he ever explain why he said one thing on active duty and another after he retired.
October 15, 1985: The Wall Street Journal reports that National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane says live American POWs remain in Southeast Asia.
Not exactly. I do not have the quote but this is not what McFarlane said.
August 19, 1986: The Wall Street Journal reports the White House knew in 1981 Vietnam wanted to sell an unspecified number of live POWs for $4 billion. The White House decided the offer was genuine -- and ignored it!
This is a well known scam.
September 30, 1986: The New York Times reports a Pentagon panel estimates up to 100 live American POWs are held in Vietnam alone.
I was assigned to the DIA Special Office for POW-MIA Affairs in 1986 (1986 - 1990) and I guarantee that no "Pentagon panel" reached such a conclusion.
October 7, 1986: CIA Director William Casey says: "Look, the nation knows they (the POWs) are there, everybody knows they are there, but there's no grounds well of support for getting them out. Certainly, you are not suggesting we pay for them, surely not saying we could do anything like that with no public support."
Not exactly. Former Congressman Billy Hendon met with Bill Casey before Casey died. After Casey's death, Hendon claimed that Casey uttered the above words during their meeting. Other CIA officials who were in the meeting stated that Casey never said any such thing. Casey, of course, was dead and could not clear up the matter which is what Hendon intended.
January 1988: A cable from the Joint Casualty Resolution Center states that during General Vessey's visit to Hanoi, "The Vietnamese people were prepared to turn over 7 or 8 live American POWs if Vessey told then what they wanted to hear. All the prospective returnees were allegedly held in a location on the Lao side of the border."
This is a JCRC report of a phony report. A source reported to the JCRC that such a swap wold be offered -- investigation showed that the source was a fraud and his story was bogus. For an article about bogus reporting, follow this link.
June 10 1989: The Washington Post reports a Japanese monk released after 13 years in a Vietnamese prison had American POW cellmates who nursed him to health.
Read this article on the Japanese monk.
September 1990: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Interim Report on POW/MIAs in Southeast Asia concluded that despite public assurances in 1973 that no POWs remained in the region, the Defense Department " . . . in April 1974 concluded beyond a doubt that several hundred American POWs remained in captivity in Southeast Asia."
This report was actually done by members of the minority staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Read this article and this article for more about this misleading and inaccurate report.
October 1990: Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach admits Vietnam still holds American POWs but is willing to release "as many as 10 live American POWs." His offer, like others before it, is ignored by Secretary of State James Baker III.
No Vietnamese official has ever made such a statement. Every statement ever made by a Vietnamese official has denied that they held US POWs after the war.
February 1991: Colonel Millard Peck, Chief of the Pentagon's Special Office for Prisoners of War and Missing in Action, resigns in protest of being ordered by policy makers in the POW/MIA Inter-Agency Group not to investigate live-sighting reports of American POWs.
Mike Peck was my replacement as Chief of the DIA POW-MIA Office. He was a loon. Mike resigned a few hours before being relieved for incompetence.
April 25, 1991: Senator Bob Smith addresses the Senate and reveals that, of more than 1,400 eyewitness sightings of live POWs, NONE has ever received an on-site investigation!
Read this article for facts on the "live sighting reports."
May 23, 1991: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Examination of U.S. Policy Toward POW/MIAs concludes that the U.S. has ignored thousands of American POWs, and left them to rot in Soviet slave labor camps and North Korean and Vietnamese prisons. "Any evidence that suggested an MIA might be alive was uniformly and arbitrarily rejected."
Again, this is a statement by POW-MIA "activists" on the Committee staff. Read more about this "report" here.
Summer 1991: A flood of new evidence of live POWs pours from Southeast Asia: pictures, handwriting samples, hair samples, blood samples, fingerprints, foot-prints, maps and other physical proof. The Bush administration disregards the evidence and attempts to discredit it by rumor and innuendo. Some of the photos are scientifically validated and have never been scientifically disproved!
In the summer of 1991, three phony photos surfaced. Each of the photos claimed to show US POWs in captivity each of the photos was bogus and was clearly demonstrated to be bogus. Read this article for the facts.
All these facts are a matter of public record and clearly indicate that we have some serious problems in the POW/MIA arena that our elected officials refuse to acknowledge.
This information was compiled by Task Force Omega of Kentucky, Inc.
Well, actually, all this indicates is that Task Force Omega of Kentucky has taken false reports and bogus claims, mixed them with a few facts that are quoted selectively, and published this mythology as "fact." Of course, this is the way the MIA cult operates.
November 16, 2000