Interesting thing about John McCain's POW experience

[Old and In the Way]

He wants to make it an issue as to why he should be elected and he uses it as a shield to deflect any gaffe or question that relates to his position on any issue....but does he really want the American people to look into his time at the Hanoi Hilton? I came across this link today and I am amazed that there hasn't been more discussion on this-

EXCERPT: from 1992 Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA’s:

SANTOLI: But on the Senate side, we had one person standing in the way of getting in positions that would have been very tough on government bureaucrats who didn’t tell the truth. And that one person was Sen. John McCain.

Cpl. BOB DUMAS, U.S. Army (Ret.): He didn’t want nobody to check his background because a lot of the POWs that was in the camps said he was a collaborator of the enemy. He gave the enemy the information they wanted.

Dr. JAMES LUCIER, former U.S. Senate Chief of Staff: But We do know that when he was there , he cooperated with the communist news services in giving interviews there, ah, not flattering to the United States.

USRY: Information shows that he made over 32 tapes of propaganda for the Vietnamese government. Certainly, you do what you need to do to stay alive. Nobody would fault anybody for that. But there comes a point in time when enough is enough.

REP: DORNAN: They made those transcriptions, and in the transcriptions, I heard a POW who heard them comin’ into his cell and said, “Oh, my God, is that Admiral McCain’s son? Is that the admiral’s son? Is that Johnny — telling us that our principal targets are schools, orphanages, hospitals, temples, churches?” That was Jane Fonda’s line. Where are those transcriptions? Believe me — they’re in the archives of the museum, the bragging military phony museum in Hanoi. McCain could not have wanted those turn up in the middle of a presidential race. He knows that. I know that, and a few other people know that, and that’s why he went against Bob Dole’s legislation.

DUMAS: And he didn’t want nobody looking into his background in that camp, what went on in that camp. That stuff is still classified so nobody can see it. And he just had it classified forever, so nobody’ll ever look at it.

LUCIER: That he was given special treatment and was put in a room with two other defectors who were later given special treatment. Although I will say to his credit he refused to be repatriated as a result.

REP: DORNAN: This sounds so good at first. McCain was offered the chance to come home. They called him the “Prince.” And he could have. But nobody ever takes that one step beyond that. If John … Admiral John McCain II … “Junior” … if his son, a lieutenant senior grade, had accepted this princely status and come home in 1967 while the others would sit there for five years, what would the Navy have done, with the son of an admiral who opted to get special treatment and come home? No Navy career. No House seat. No Senate seat. It would have been the end of his career. And they were offering him this chance to go home in one of three groups that came home in ‘68.

[BOSSHOG]

1. He uses his POW status

as limbaugh and his ilk use the first amendment. They lie and distort for political purposes and then hide behind the first amendment. How thoroughly patriotic.

[Old and In the Way]

2. I think instead of refering to McCain as "McSame", I think I'll call him Prince.

Or maybe the Princely Songbird.

[BonnieJW]

3. You can't expect the Obama campaign to air this

laundry. It has to come out on the Internet (YouTube?)and circulated.

[Old and In the Way]

4. I agree. It's up to all of us to make sure every voter knows the real McCain story.

I don't expect the Republican corporate media, Obama, or Biden to bring it up...

[orleans]

14. okay--you make the video and i'll title it: MCCAIN THE TRAITOR n/t

[lumpy]

5. Bob Dornan, wow! If he claims McCain has reason to cover up

the report on McCain's stint in the prison camp than it must be true McCain has a lot to hide.

[Old and In the Way]

6. My thought exactly. B-1 Bob doesn't sound too impressed with the POW Hero.

And this stuff is in the Congressional record. It damn well ought to be part of the campaign.

[grannie4peace]

7. you are right

and there are pows who have all the information trying to get it out in the open & revisited

[noonwitch]

8. I don't think that our side needs to go there to win

It's ugly and wrong. There are plenty of other issues to attack McCain on-I don't have a problem with attacking his wife's addiction and theft of drugs from her charity (only because they started the attacks on Michelle, first), his fooling around on his first wife with Cindy (I guess Reagan really is his role model), business ties/S&L scandal, or even the fact that he throws his former POW status into every conversation. I don't like the idea of implying that he gave in under torture and betrayed his fellow soldiers. There's really no way to prove it-can you trust Charlie's propaganda? Dornan is a reliable source? The man is so insane, he looks like he is ready to explode on a good day.


I think that Jack Lessenbury's column in yesterday's Metro Times (metrotimes.com)had some good ideas-find footage of McCain endorsing Mark Foley or airport bathroom guy. Use that in ads they way they are using Obama's introduction of Kwame Kilpatrick at an NAACP dinner.

[Old and In the Way]

9. I counldn't disagree more

We best tell the truth or we may lose again.

[The Magistrate]

10. Regrettably, Ma'am, This Sort Of Stuff Must Be Used

The essence of success remains the destruction of the foe's character, the conversion of him not into something people ought to disagree with, but something they ought to despise.

It should not be done by Sen. Obama's campaign, of course: this is what 'issues groups' and other 'unaffiliated' auxiliaries are for.

There is no question that if a Democrat was running for President who had been a prisoner of war in Viet Nam, and who had made any sort of 'confession' to the Communists, the Republican line would run approximately "Traitor X_____ betrayed his country and collaborated with the enemy." There is no good reason whatever why there should not be viral videos and even television spots on the same line against McCain. It is true that he confessed: everybody confesses. That does not change that he did in fact do something that amounts to betraying the country. The words 'broke under torture' are not bad ones to have appended to the man in popular perception; 'broke' would be the take-away, and the broken are not Presidential material. It is a direction from which no attack would be expected by McCain, and so one that would meet an unprepared enemy, and an unprepared enemy under put great emotional stress to boot. People in that state of mind make mistakes, bad mistakes....

[orleans]

15. are you kidding? look what those pricks did to kerry!

think they won't do the same this time around? they will.

[CitizenPatriot]

11. Prince George III needs to be held to the standards of truth

and there is also the issue of whether or not he can or is being bribed by the a foreign government/interest to hide his records.

Yes, this is a pertinent issue to our national security, like it or not. It's squeamish, but we need answers.

And then there's always the old standard of truth. Lies from any candidate should not be expected or tolerated -- that is part of the office -- transparency and accountability. If you have something in your past which cannot hold up to that kind of scrutiny, this is not the job for you.

Sorry, but it's part of the job description and we've held Clinton to it for his sex life, so we sure as hell ought to do so for far more pressing and impactful issues, like national security.

vietnam vets against mccain can say more.

[CitizenPatriot]

12. the question he needs to be asked is

Is there anything in yoru records or the records in vietnam that we need to know about? if not, why won't you show them? are you putting america at risk by hiding something that can or has been used against you by a foreign interest?

[orleans]

13. where are these interviews? i'd like to see/read/hear them. wouldn't we all? n/t

"he was a collaborator of the enemy. He gave the enemy the information they wanted.

"Dr. JAMES LUCIER, former U.S. Senate Chief of Staff: But We do know that when he was there , he cooperated with the communist news services in giving interviews there