Kerry's Role in POW/MIA Hearings

Over the weekend, the intrepid JW sent me some links outlining Kerry's role in the POW/MIA hearings in the 1980's. I'd written about this several times quite a while back using most of the same sources, so I thought this might be a good time to pull those older posts forward:

In Winter Soldier, Sunshine Patriot, Mike Benge, a former POW/MIA alleges that Kerry shredded documents pertaining to live sightings of POWs:

Benge was a civilian POW held from 1968 until 1973 by the North Vietnamese Army; he spent 27 months in solitary confinement, one year in a "black box," and one year in a cage in Cambodia. Benge accuses Sen. Kerry of shredding key papers documenting "live sightings of POWs in Vietnam and Laos" during the POW/MIA hearings. According to Benge, Kerry attempted to shred all copies to prevent leaks and future declassification of the materials.

John F. McCreary, a Defense Intelligence Agency analyst assigned to Kerry's committee, reported knowledge of Kerry's document shredding to Vice Chairman Bob Smith. A memorandum by McCreary explains: "Senator John Kerry ... told the Select Committee members that 'all copies' would be destroyed. This statement was made in the presence of the undersigned and of the Staff Chief Counsel who offered no protest." On April 9, 1992, McCreary verified that the original document was destroyed, as well as 14 copies. The memo continues: "On 15 April 1992, the Staff Chief Counsel, J. William Codinha ... ridiculed the Staff members for expressing their concerns; and replied, in response to questions about the potential consequences, 'Who's the injured party,' and 'How are they going to find out because its classified.'"

Live by the Sword, Die by the Sword talks about the Village Voice expose on Kerry's POW/MIA hearings and follows Gary Aldritch's efforts to get the FBI to release records on Kerry's anti-war protest activities with Vietnam Vets Against the War.

POW/MIA Families against Kerry tells about a group of families who haven't forgotten how Kerry failed them.

Kerry No Friend To Military outlines the reasons the Senator from Massachusetts has failed to support his Band of Brothers.

And I could have sworn I wrote about this American Spectator article too, but I can't find it. I remember reading it a while back.

- Cassandra