U.S. COMMANDOS AT THE READY TO SAVE POWS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100150076-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 29, 2012
• Sequence Number: 76
• Publication Date: July 8, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/29: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100150076-5
ART I 01:2
ON PL._2_.-=
WASHINGTON POST
8 JULY 1982
U.S. Commandos
At the Ready
To Save POWs
Commandos are waiting to rescue
their long-lost American comrades
being held prisoner in Southeast
Asia. All they need is solid evidence
of the missing men's whereabouts,
and a go-ahead from the govern-
ment.
President Reagan has promised to
take whatever .action is necessary to
recover soldiers and airmen who are
known to have survived years of cap-
tivity in Vietnam, Laos or Cambo-
dia. CIA-trained commandos have
carried out one raid into Laos in
search of American prisoners of war.
The CIA raiders made the foray
after the Pentagon studied refugee
reports and aerial photographs show-
ing human shadows that looked too
large to be cast by Asians, and an
arrangement of logs that appeared to
.spell the number 52 on the ground.
At first the commandos were driv-
en back by gunfire. But, a month
later, two of them managed to reach
the camp and take pictures of the
occupants. Unfortunately, not one
was American, and there was no ev-
idence to show that Americans had
ever been held there.
Though that daring raid didn't
pan out, the administration is pre-
pared to follow up future leads. One
source close to the situation told my
associate Donald Goldberg: "It is a
current capability. There are people
capable of performing that function."
By presidential proclamation, to-
morrow is National POW-MIA Rec-
ognition Day. The purpose is to re-
mind the nation that there are still
more than 2,000 American service-
men who have not been accounted
for, more than seven years after the
end of the Vietnam war.
There are some Americans who
need no such reminder. They are the
families of the missing men, holding
their annual meeting in Washington
this week. It is the 13th annual
meeting the POW-MIA families
have held.
What nourishei their hope after
all these years is the spate of eyewit-
ness accounts of POW sightings in
recent years, mostly from refugees
who fled Southeast Asia. Just since
1979, the Pentagon has received 372
such accounts. Already this year 31
witnesses have been interviewed,
three of them claiming to have seen
American prisoners alive within the
last several months.
The State Department takes a
skeptical view of these reports, on
grounds that desperate refugees will
say anything they think will get
them into the United States. Yet
most of the refugees who provided
information were already living here,
and had nothing to gain by concoct-
ing a story. _
The Defense Intelligence Agency -?
is convinced that Americans.are still'
being held prisoner in Southeagt:
Asia. French prisoners were held .in"
Indochina for as long' as 25' yeari
before being released.
The Pentagon is reluctare.to,
make public the information, it has
on the missing Americans..
E. A. Burkhalter, acting DIA- chrec-;., '
tor, said that if the Vietnamese.iiii-,,
covered that we knew of an Anietr-
ican's whereabouts they mig14:410.-
steps to get rid of the evidence.:'-
, Above the Law: Many Amer
cans who have had their diiabilitf".
cut off by the Social Secur.itsj-AdA
ministration's review progra6'are.;
appealing their cases to SSA adnfirai
istrative law judges. But they'ire.hp"
against a stacked deck. , 1),f
Simply put, the agency conaiderer.,
itself above the law. An internal:7,
agency document puts it baldk....
"Federal courts do not rwaJESVa,,,,
programs.. .. Administrative Aftw,
judges are responsible for aliRlming,4
the [Health and Human SeirviceQ,1!
secretary's policies and guide! no,.
regardless of, cOurt decisions. hek0131
the level of the Supreme Couit.n.
Executive Memo: Labor '.?ecF.e;,..,:.
tary Raymond J. Donovan has Att..;
his suburban Washington
house up for sale for $235,000. 11,9..
paid $215,000 cash for the hotise last
year, and has never lived in
real estate agent is Antoinette
Bai-
field, wife of Sen. Mark 0. Hatfield:**
(R-Ore.).
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/29: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100150076-5