EXCERPTS FROM VOA 1996 NEWSLETTER:

HEARINGS RECENTLY HELD BY CONGRESSMAN BOB DORNAN, ONCE AGAIN FOCUSED ATTENTION ON THE FACT THAT AMERICAN PRISONERS OF WAR, FROM THE KOREAN WAR AND MOST PROBABLY FROM THE VIETNAM WAR, WERE MOVED TO THE FORMER SOVIET UNION.

TESTIMONY BY COL. PHILIP CORSO, FORMER MILITARY ADVISER TO PRESIDENT DWIGHT EISENHOWER AND CZECH DEFECTOR AND CURRENT DEPT. OF DEFENSE EMPLOYEE JAN SENJA, LEAVES NO DOUBT THAT HUNDREDS AND POSSIBLY THOUSANDS OF AMERICAN POW'S WERE ABANDONED AT THE END OF THE KOREAN WAR.

IN HIS TESTIMONY COL. CORSO STATED: "IN THE PAST I HAVE TRIED TO TELL CONGRESS THE FACT THAT IN 1953, 500 SICK AND WOUNDED AMERICAN PRISONERS WERE WITHIN 10 MILES OF THE PRISONER EXCHANGE POINT AT PANMUNJON AND WERE NEVER EXCHANGED."

COL. CORSO'S TESTIMONY WAS BACKED UP BY NEWLY DECLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS SHOWING THAT THE PENTAGON KNEW, IN 1953, MORE THAN 900 POWS WERE HELD BUT NOT RELEASED BY NORTH KOREA.

ACCORDING TO COL. CORSO, "SUBSEQUENT INFORMATION INDICATED THAT THEY ALL DIED AFTERWARDS." A DEC. 22, 1953 MEMO STATES THAT THE ARMY WAS INQUIRING ABOUT THE DISAPPEARANCE, FROM A CAMP OF 610 ARMY AND 300 AIR FORCE POWS, BEFORE THE POW EXCHANGE. THIS INFORMATION SEEMS TO BACK UP COL. CORSO'S TESTIMONY.

IN 1968 CZECH GENERAL JAN SENJA DEFECTED TO THE UNITED STATES. HE BROUGHT WITH HIM STARTLING INFORMATION ON AMERICAN POWS FROM BOTH THE KOREAN AND VIETNAM WARS. ACCORDING TO GENERAL SENJA, POW WERE HELD BACK AT THE END OF THE WAR IN KOREA. SOME WERE MOVED TO THE FORMER SOVIET UNION AND SOME WERE USED IN GHASTLY MEDICAL EXPERIMENTATION, RIVALING HITLERS' NAZI GERMANY.

GENERAL SENJA ALSO CONFIRMED A LONG HELD SUSPICION THAT SOME POWS FROM THE VIETNAM WAR WERE MOVED TO COMMUNIST EASTERN BLOC COUNTRIES.

OVER THE YEARS, GENERAL SENJA'S INFORMATION HAS BEEN IGNORED, TWISTED AND DISCREDITED. THE REASON --- HIS INFORMATION CONFLICTS WITH OFFICIAL UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT POLICY. IT IS INTERESTING TO NOTE THAT THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT FOUND OTHER INFORMATION PRESENTED BY GENERAL SENJA HIGHLY CREDIBLE. CREDIBLE TO THE POINT THAT GENERAL SENJA WAS EMPLOYED BY THE DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY, WITHIN THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE. YET, THE DPMO MAINTAINS GENERAL SENJA'S POW INFORMATION IS WRONG. EVERYTHING ELSE IS CORRECT, JUST THE POW INFORMATION IS WRONG. RIGHT!

IN PREPARED TESTIMONY GENERAL SENJA STATED:

"AT THE BEGINNING OF THE KOREAN WAR, WE (THE CZECHS) RECEIVED DIRECTIONS FROM MOSCOW TO BUILD A MILITARY HOSPITAL IN NORTH KOREA. THE ADVERTISED PURPOSE OF THE HOSPITAL WAS TO TREAT MILITARY CASUALTIES. BUT THIS WAS ONLY A COVER, A DECEPTION. THE TOP SECRET PURPOSE OF THE HOSPITAL WAS TO EXPERIMENT ON AMERICAN AND SOUTH KOREAN POWS."

"THE POWS WERE USED AS BODIES FOR TRAINING MILITARY DOCTORS IN FIELD MEDICINE -- FOR EXAMPLE TREATING SERIOUS WOUNDS AND CONDUCTING AMPUTATIONS."

THE POWS WERE USED TO TEST THE EFFECTS OF CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL WARFARE AGENTS AND TO TEST THE EFFECTS OF ATOMIC RADIATION."

"THE SOVIETS ALSO USED THE AMERICAN PRISONERS TO TEST THE PHYSIOLOGICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL ENDURANCE OF AMERICAN SOLDIERS. THEY WERE ALSO USED TO TEST VARIOUS MIND CONTROLS."

"AT THE END OF THE KOREAN WAR, THERE WERE ABOUT 100 POWS WHO WERE STILL CONSIDERED USEFUL FOR FURTHER EXPERIMENTS. I BELIEVE ALL OTHERS HAD BEEN KILLED IN THE PROCESS OF THE EXPERIMENTS BECAUSE I DO NOT RECALL EVER READING ANY REPORTS THAT INDICATED THAT ANY OF THE POW PATIENTS AT THE HOSPITAL LEFT THE HOSPITAL ALIVE -- EXCEPT THE 100 THAT WERE STILL ALIVE AT THE END OF THE WAR. THESE 100 WERE FLOWN IN FOUR GROUPS FIRST TO CZECHOSLOVAKIA, WHERE THEY WERE GIVEN PHYSICAL EXAMS, AND THEN ONTO THE SOVIET UNION....."

"WHILE WHAT I HAVE JUST SAID DESCRIBES WHAT HAPPENED IN KOREA, I WANT TO POINT OUT THAT THE SAME THING HAPPENED IN VIETNAM AND LAOS DURING THE VIETNAM WAR. THE ONLY DIFFERENCE IS THE OPERATION IN VIETNAM WAS BETTER PLANNED AND MORE POWS WERE USED, BOTH IN VIETNAM AND LAOS AND IN THE SOVIET UNION...."

"... I PERSONALLY WAS PRESENT WHEN AMERICAN POWS WERE UNLOADED FROM PLANES, PUT ON BUSES WHOSE WINDOWS HAD BEEN PAINTED BLACK, AND THEN DRIVEN TO PRAGUE WHERE THEY WERE PLACED IN VARIOUS MILITARY INTELLIGENCE BARRACKS AND OTHER SECURE BUILDINGS UNTIL THEY WERE SHIPPED TO THE SOVIET UNION."

BETWEEN 1961 AND 1968 WHEN I LEFT CZECHOSLOVAKIA, I WOULD ESTIMATE AT LEAST 200 AMERICAN POWS WERE SHIPPED TO THE SOVIET UNION THROUGH CZECHOSLOVAKIA."

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DEBUNKING - AN UNNAMED PENTAGON SOURCE, SAID OF POW'S STILL ALIVE IN NORTH KOREA, AFTER THE WAR, "NOT ONE REPORT THAT THE DEFENSE DEPARTMENT HAS SEEN IS NOTHING MORE THAN HEARSAY...." THE UNNAMED SOURCE SAID "THERE ARE NO FIRST-HAND ACCOUNTS."

TO THAT WE OFFER TWO NAMES --- OPRICA AND TOMESCU.

WE CAN ONLY CONCLUDE THE UNNAMED SOURCE WAS DELIBERATELY LYING TO THE MEDIA WHEN HE SAID "THERE ARE NO FIRST-HAND ACCOUNTS" OR HE IS TOTALLY INCOMPETENT TO SERVE IN HIS CURRENT POSITION.

"ON OCTOBER 1979, MR. OPRICA, A FORMER ROMANIAN, NOW A NATURALIZED U.S. CITIZEN, ALONG WITH ROMANIANS EMPLOYED AT A NORTH KOREAN FACTORY IN PYANGYANG WAS ON A NORTH KOREAN GOVERNMENT SPONSORED SIGHT SEEING TRIP. DURING THIS BUS TRIP, THE BUS DRIVER APPEARED TO BE DISORIENTED AND DROVE THE BUS THROUGH A COLLECTIVE FARM. DURING THE TRIP, HE OBSERVED 7 - 10 CAUCASIANS, INCLUDING ONE INDIVIDUAL WITH BLUE EYES, WORKING IN THE FIELDS. THE WORKERS APPEARED TO BE IN THEIR 50'S. MR. OPRICA WAS TOLD BY A FEMALE PASSENGER THAT THE CAUCASIAN FARMERS WERE AMERICAN PRISONERS OF WAR....."

MR. OPRICA "OBSERVED....." SOUNDS LIKE A FIRST HAND SIGHTING TO US.

THE SAME REPORT STATES "ON 24 NOV. 95, ANOTHER PASSENGER ON THE BUS, MR. FLORIN TOMESCU, WAS FINALLY LOCATED IN ROMAINA AND INTERVIEWED. HE CONFIRMED SEEING CAUCASIANS WORKING ON A FARM AND THE LOCATION OF THE COLLECTIVE FARM TO BE SOMEWHERE BETWEEN PYONGYANG AND THE CITY OF NAMPO."

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RUSSIA REWRITES HISTORY -- IN 1992, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT BORIS YELTSIN ADMITTED AMERICAN SERVICEMEN, PRISONER OF WAR, WERE MOVED TO THE SOVIET UNION. EVIDENCE UNCOVERED BY THE U.S./ RUSSIAN JOINT COMMISSION LED TO THE COMPILATION OF A SMALL LIST OF KOREAN WAR POWS MOVED TO THE SOVIET UNION.

ACCORDING TO AN ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORT, DATED SEPT. 1996, RUSSIAN MILITARY SPOKESMAN MIKHAIL DEMURIN DENIED USING KOREAN AND VIETNAM WAR POWS AS HUMAN GUINEA PIGS MR. DEMURIN ALSO STATED THAT NO POW'S WERE EVER TAKEN TO THE FORMER SOVIET UNION. THE FOLLOWING IS EXCERPTED FROM THE AP ARTICLE.

" Ministry spokesman Mikhail Demurin denied assertions by Jan Sejna, a former Czech general who defected to the United States in 1968, that he was involved in transferring American POWs from Vietnam to the Soviet Union, according to the Interfax news agency...".

"Demurin said a joint U.S./Russian commission has examined hundreds of Korean War-era POW cases and found no evidence that prisoners were ever in the Soviet Union. He also said Vietnam War documents "do not suggest that American POWs were taken out of Vietnam."

THIS IS ANOTHER BLATANT ATTEMPT TO REWRITE POW/MIA HISTORY.