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THAI PRESS REPORTS
July 17, 2006

Vietnam: PNTR legislation receives further support

Section: Regional News - A number of former US Secretaries of State and former US Trade Representatives sent a letter to the US Congress, voicing their support for an early approval of permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) for Vietnam.

They were Colin Powell, Madeline Albright, James Baker, Henry Kissinger, Charlene Barshefsky, Carla A. Hills, Clayton K. Yeutter, Michael Kantor, Anthony Lake, Robert E. Rubin, George P. Shultz, and Robert Strauss.

The letter says We strongly support the President's proposal to grant PNTR status to Vietnam. America's long-term security and economic interests will be advanced by Vietnam's full integration into the rules-based global trading system. Vietnam can become a catalyst for growth and development in Southeast Asia, and will offer significant opportunities for US companies, workers and consumers.

More than 30 years after the war in Vietnam, they said, the US has worked steadfastly to normalise relations with Vietnam.

This effort proceeded, step by step, as we sought the fullest possible accounting of American prisoners of war and personnel missing in action. The Roadmap to normalise helped to achieve significant progress in this regard.

They noted that the 2001 US-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement was an important milestone, and it has contributed to the development of a more open, market-oriented economy with important potential benefits for the Vietnamese and American peoples.

PNTR and WTO accession for Vietnam will strengthen America's linkages with the commercially and strategically important region of Southeast Asia, which, with a GDP of nearly US$3 trillion, represents our fourth largest export market. The comprehensive WTO accession agreement reached by Vietnam and US negotiators will provide even broader market access across a range of US goods and services. Equally important, it will enhance transparency, accountability and the rule of law.

The granting of PNTR for Vietnam represents the logical next step in the normalisation of relations between our two countries, a process that has been made more effective by broad bipartisan support in Congress, and that has spanned successive presidential administrations during the past three decades. We support the granting of PNTR in advance of Vietnam hosting the Annual APEC Leaders Meeting in November, in which President Bush will participate. This will further encourage Vietnam's emergence as a responsible regional partner, as we together address a myriad of complex international economic and security issues. - VOV

Los Angeles Times
July 14, 2006

Obituaries
Correction Data

Retired Army Maj. Gen. George S. Prugh, 86, who was credited with helping to save the lives of American prisoners of war in Vietnam, died July 6 in Moraga, Calif., of complications from Parkinson's disease.

In his role as an Army lawyer, Prugh persuaded the South Vietnamese to grant POW status to Viet Cong and North Vietnamese soldiers during the war. The U.S.-backed designation gave the enemy combatants international protections and set humane standards for their treatment under the Geneva Conventions.

"Prugh realized that if the South Vietnamese continued to treat the Viet Cong as criminals and dealt with them in their own way, there was no way captured Americans would survive," retired Col. Fred Borch, a U.S. Army historian, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

As the Army's top lawyer in the early 1970s, Prugh stood up to President Nixon. The case involved the 1968 My Lai massacre in which U.S. soldiers, under the command of Lt. William Calley, killed many South Vietnamese civilians.

In a military trial, Calley was found guilty; Nixon wanted to decide Calley's appeal but Prugh held firm that the president did not have the authority to make that decision.

Prugh was born in Norwalk, Va., in 1920. He studied law at UC Berkeley and the Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, but his studies were interrupted by the outbreak of World War II.

THAI PRESS REPORTS
July 14, 2006

Vietnam: Ambassador hails progress in Vietnam-US ties

Section: Regional News - Vietnam and the US have been making great strides toward conciliation and multi-sectoral cooperation, said Vietnamese Ambassador to the US Nguyen Tam Chien on July 12.

At a reception on the occasion of the 11th anniversary of the normalisation of Vietnam-US diplomatic ties (July 12, 1995 - 2006), Ambassador Chien said bilateral relations have seen great progress over the past few decades, starting with cooperation in searching for Missing in Action (MIA) soldiers and efforts to boost modest trade ties to the establishment of diplomatic ties 11 years ago, to the exchange of high-level delegations, most notably the Vietnam visit in 2000 by US President Bill Clinton and Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai's visit to the US in 2005, and the up-coming visit to Vietnam by President George W Bush to attend the APEC Summit.

The ambassador said with the signing of the bilateral agreement on Vietnam's entry into the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the on-going debate in the US Congress to approve the Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) for Vietnam, the two countries are carrying out the last steps to fully normalise Vietnam-US relations in general and the trade and economic relations in particular.

"The years of 2005 and 2006 are important landmarks of a new period in the Vietnam-US relations which will see the development of bilateral partnership, friendship and long-term stable and mutually-benefiting cooperation," Chien said.

He stressed that in implementing a foreign policy of independence, peace, cooperation and development, and multilateralisation and diversification of international relations, Vietnam attaches great importance to and will continue its efforts for full normalisation of the Vietnam-US relations, which is in the interest of the two peoples and in line with the current development trend. - VNA

AP Alert - Indiana
July 10, 2006

Remains of Indiana man missing in Vietnam buried

MADISON, Ind._The remains of southern Indiana man who had been missing in action in Vietnam since 1972 were buried last week with full military honors.

Air Force Tech. Sgt. Donald Hoskins was nearing the end of his 20-year Air Force career in 1972 when a cargo plane he was on board was shot down over Vietnam. His wife and relatives had long assumed he was dead but were relieved when they found out that the military had identified his remains in April.

Those remains were buried at Indiana Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Madison, 40 miles northeast of Louisville, Ky. Jeanette Hoskins, who lives in Delaware, said it's nice to have her husband's remains finally returned to his hometown.

"He was born here. And he went to school here. He knew people here," she said. "Now that I know he's dead, I'll die and go be with him someday."

After the 1972 crash, enemy activity prevented recovery attempts until three years later, the military has said.
The search for remains took many years and interviews with several people who witnessed the crash. In 1993, the crash site was excavated, and additional remains and personal items were discovered.

DNA tests positively identified Hoskins, the military said. DNA from Hoskins' bone fragments was matched to a DNA sample supplied years earlier by Polly Wehner, a sister who lives in Madison.

"We're so thankful that they didn't quit looking," Wehner said.
Hoskins' burial began with four Air Force jets flying over the Indiana Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Madison in the "missing man" formation. There was a 21-gun salute, and the sounding of taps. A folded flag was presented to Jeanette Hoskins.

Hundreds of people attended the ceremony, including about 150 flag-bearing motorcyclists of the Patriot Guard Riders and Indiana Rolling Thunder.

"Just paying respect for someone who's given their life for the country," said ride captain Bob Mann.

St Petersburg Times
July 9, 2006

Writer's four-letter words struck a softer tone
BETH N. GRAY

BROOKSVILLE Joseph Bernard Kelly, a military man of some 30 years, most as an officer, carved a career of four-letter words. But not the words you'd expect.

His weren't the harsh, demeaning indictments that leap to mind in the strict discipline of boot camp tales. Nor were they commands barked at slackers. Not even egregious stereotypical two-worders that would paint enemies with a broad brush.

Not that the now 75-year-old retiree living in Brooksville didn't observe such treatment while serving in the Army and Air Force in Vietnam in the 1970s.

But Kelly had an uncomfortable feeling that such tactics didn't produce the desired results as he oversaw snatch-and-detain operations and interrogation of enemy combatants and political bigwigs, listened to complaints of Vietnamese villagers and counseled the country's national police in their dealings with prisoners.

Kelly knew of threats to throw the Viet Cong out of helicopters if they didn't divulge information. The enemy's mind-set was, " 'If you start torturing me, I'll tell you what you want to hear,' " Kelly explained. "We were getting incorrect information."

Although Kelly had worked deep cover on and off with the Central Intelligence Agency in his regular military service, it wasn't until he was demobilized that he signed on as a contract operative with the CIA under the auspices of the Army. There he employed tactics in dealing with the enemy that he had considered for more than a year before he put them into play.

Kelly's credo of four-letter words: care, kind, firm, sometimes pity. He launched the first such case study program to deal with prisoners built on compassion, benevolence, tenderness, humaneness and charity.

It worked, he says.
In fact, his modus operandi was so successful that his superior at the time, field ambassador William Colby, later director of the CIA, had Kelly tout and teach his techniques to international forces and the national police throughout Vietnam.

Kelly's initiative and its results are detailed in a book, Confessions of a CIA Interrogator, written with Kelly by author Ben R. Games of Ellenton. Under publication consideration by Air Leaf Publishers of Martinsville, Ind., the work also has attracted the attention of at least two California film studios, Air Leaf president Carl Lau said.

Air Leaf has published several of Games' softcover books under the imprint Little Big Books. But Confessions is a big book running to 500 pages, likely a hardcover, Lau said.

Games, whom Kelly first met in Okinawa in 1948 and reconnected with during their military service over the years, persuaded Kelly to write of his experiences.

Kelly, who says he's blessed with total recall, including emotions of each situation, penned a draft of the book over just three weeks, writing daily from 2 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Penned, indeed. He wrote it in longhand. "I wore out a lot of pens," Kelly said with a chuckle. "I never wore out a pen before."

He mailed a chapter at a time to his friend Games, now 82, who transposed it to typescript, checked Kelly's sources to confirm their accuracy, edited the work and mailed it back to Kelly for his okay.

"It is a biography," Games said. "It happens to be nonfiction."
Kelly calls the book true adventures. He has supporting documentation to back it up as well as transcripts of more recent interviews with those who participated with him in operations.

While the book is riveting, like a compelling war novel - "almost like a techno-thriller," publisher Lau added - "it's all very factual." Lau's role includes verifying Kelly's reports.

The military declassified the information about Kelly's exploits just two years ago, which led to the writing now.
Among Kelly's revelations, and in tune with his benevolent nature, the operative counseled the Special Forces, Navy SEALs and Marine reconnaissance forces working for him: "I didn't want anyone killed. I didn't want any actions. I wanted to get this guy (or whomever) in for interrogation."

In three months, Kelly's operations turned more than 300 Viet Cong, meaning he brought them to the other side. "I convinced with kindness," he said. "I showered with sympathy. Kindness and sympathy made a spectacular favorable impression."

He offered such inducements as medical and dental care, vocational training, fabric to make clothing. Most of those he turned were women, ages 14 to 64.

He would dress them in disguises to look like men or boys and ask them to point out Viet Cong.
One such convert was a 15-year-old girl standing outside a Vietnamese aide station, unattended, cradling a compound broken arm. If he would get her American medical aid - local medical care was not advanced and she had a poor chance of full recovery - would she point out the bad guys for him?

Kelly had to sneak her into a makeshift facility set up in a trailer because U.S. medical personnel weren't allowed to treat natives. Doctors and nurses donated their skills. Recalling the incident, Kelly choked and teared up: "When she woke up, I was holding her hand."

The girl helped Kelly's unit capture 13 Viet Cong.
Kelly then set her up in an interrogation room, where a Korean colonel was about to visit and hear of Kelly's techniques. The Korean White Horse Division was known for its harsh tactics: killing Viet Cong and hoisting their heads on pikes, Kelly said. When the colonel saw her - "the most beautiful girl I saw in Vietnam," Kelly declared - he was overcome with her situation. She had been offered anything she wanted, and all she asked for was a mosquito net over her bed. The Korean bent. "We became the best of friends," Kelly said of the former torturer.

In another instance, when Kelly walked into a province (state) police station, he saw a young woman with a hose inserted in her vagina, her abdomen extended. Kelly called for a stop, for a medic. "And I said, 'Chief, we can do better than this.' "

Kelly apologized for what happened to her. He added, "If you cooperate with me, I'll pay you for every Viet Cong you bring in, I'll get you clemency, I'll change your name, I'll send you anywhere."

She acquiesced.
"Money is the most important thing to them. Family is second," Kelly explained. "Country is somewhere down the line."
Subterfuge was sometimes necessary. A People's Republican Army bigwig, a woman, was being held and wouldn't talk. "She wanted to be a martyr," Kelly said.

"I thought, what I've got to do is blow her, get her where the VC wouldn't trust her anymore."
He took her to a POW camp where high-ranking Viet Cong were interred. Kelly pointed out one of the inmates and told the woman, " 'We're going to beat the snot out of him in front of all the other prisoners.' And since she was with us, it looked like she fingered him. She knew she'd be dead on the street in two hours. She turned, and she identified more VC than anyone in Na Trang."

Kelly, big on getting into another country's culture, learned that Vietnamese people take palm reading seriously. He studied the form. Interviewing a young married woman, he asked for her palm and began to "read" it. He already had a dossier on the woman with pertinent facts about her life. Kelly came to a line on her palm and announced that she had a lover. Convinced of his powers and what he might do with them, she turned.

"It was a different technique. You have all the time in the world to try everything," Kelly said.
Sometimes it was as little as a bowl of candy offered to a detainee, who would stuff tidbits in his pockets. Sometimes a soft drink. Sometimes telling about his or her family. "Not, what do you know," Kelly explained. "We'll get to that later." Kindness and finesse.

Not everything turned out roses. Kelly interviewed and turned a 14-year-old girl whose immediate family had been killed. Kelly and his wife were preparing to adopt her. She was looking forward to an education in the United States. But before she left, she wanted to visit her one remaining aunt in North Vietnam. She trekked off. "They cut off her head," Kelly said sadly of the Viet Cong, who made her for an informer.

Most of the time, however, his techniques worked, Kelly said, and he believes his writing about them can be instructive even today.

He sees what is happening in Iraq, where there have been allegations of torture in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and says there is a better way to go about the business of interrogation. But he says he can understand how those incidents happen.

"Interrogations are like a bargaining sessions," he said, and not everyone is equipped to do the work.
"You do have to have a background on their culture, getting into their heads," he said. "Young people don't have the moxie. Young interrogators don't want to go the extra mile."

Publisher Lau says the book is generating a lot of interest. This is "well, well beyond" Games' other sort of down-home books. "It's a different style of writing when writing about the CIA, the military, senators, lots of people," Lau said. "His style (in Confessions) is more the Tom Clancy type."

Getting into print is not foremost for Kelly. He yearns for two Purple Hearts for injuries he suffered in Vietnam: one a broken back in a truck rollover when he tried to avoid hitting a herd of cows the Viet Cong drove across the road to stop him, the other when the house in which he was staying took mortar fire and his hearing was impaired.

Although official documents detail his injuries and their circumstances, and civilian employees of the government are eligible for the honor, U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite's office says it has not been able to confirm his CIA contract service.

Kelly has numerous medals awarded by the South Vietnamese government, but the U.S. military won't admit to his wartime service.

He is hoping his book will prove it.
Beth N. Gray may be contacted at graybethn@earthlink.net.

World News Connection
July 14, 2006

ROK Daily: Our Neglected Abductees, POWs
Yi Hye-Won: " Our Neglected Abductees, POWs"

Kim Young-Nam, who disappeared from a beach in Gunsan in 1978 when he was 16, was reunited after 28 years with his mother and elder sister at a Mount Keumgang resort during a reunion of separated families in the two Koreas.

The event not only provided moving scenes for the media, it also drew attention in both South Korea and Japan to the kidnapping of their citizens as one of the controversial issues to remember in dealings with North Korea.

Concerning the kidnapping issue, there was much difference in the way that the Korean government and the Japanese government have dealt with the issue. Yokota Megumi, who has come to symbolize the fate of Japanese abductees, was kidnapped to North Korea in 1977 while on her way home when she was 13 years old. Through the efforts of Japanese officials to locate her whereabouts for years, North Korea finally admitted in 2002 during the summit meeting between Japan and North Korea that it had abducted 13 Japanese civilians, including Ms. Yokota. Later, the Japanese government also found out that Yokota Megumi and Kim Young-Nam were married by matching the DNA data of Kim Hye-Kyong, the daughter of Ms. Yokota, with data from the family of Kim Young-Nam. All this information was obtained by Tokyo; had it not been for Tokyo' s dedicated efforts, Mr. Kim's family reunion could not have been possible. The Japanese government now plans to bring up the kidnapping issue in the main agenda of the G8 summit in Russia this month. In contrast, the Korean government tends to take a lukewarm attitude about this issue in order not to provoke North Korea. Officials have not even used the term "abductees," effectively denying the fact that North Korea had kidnapped innocent civilians. Some have insisted that they defected to North Korea voluntarily.

According to the records, there are 485 South Korean civilians who were kidnapped, mostly fishermen, and about 540 prisoners of war in North Korea. In order to solve this fundamental problem, the Korean government should continue to press North Korea by urging it to return the innocent civilians and prisoners of war. Because the abductees and prisoners of war as well as their families are getting older through many years of separation, the Korean government should try its best by negotiating with North Korea to repatriate them to South Korea, and providing them material aid if needed. Even if it is impossible to return all of them, it is the duty of the government to let their families know at least their whereabouts.


by Yi Hye-Won

Sincerely,

Jay Veith

Phone: 302-832-7535
Cell: 302-312-6886
Fax: 866-490-2752
jay.veith@thomson.com

[DMZ ENGINEER]

Lets Not Forget That Nixon Made A Deal With North Vietnam To Pay Them War Reparations So The North Vietnamese Would Return The REST Of The POWs And Ford/Kissinger Said "Screw Em"