The National Alliance of Families extends our deepest sympathy to the families of our servicemen and women lost aboard the U.S.S. Cole, in a senseless act of terrorism.

From The Washington Times, October 19^th, by Tom Carter - "The State Department yesterday repudiated a low-ranking official's effort to quash a Voice of America editorial on the grounds that the deaths of 17 U.S. sailors in Yemen "does not compare" with the deaths of some 100 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza."

"An unidentified State Department official, concerned about reaction in the Arab world, instructed the government-funded radio service on Monday to kill or amend the editorial condemning the terrorist attack that killed the American sailors aboard the USS Cole."

"That decision "was wrong" and the VOA later was allowed to broadcast the original editorial, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said yesterday from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, after the memo came to light..."

"...The editorial on the Oct. 12 bombing, titled "Terrorism Will Fail," had been submitted to the State Department for approval according to standing policy. But a department official declined to clear it, writing in a memo Monday that the broadcast would reach an already inflamed Palestinian audience and the "17 or so dead sailors does not compare to the 100 plus Palestinians who have died in recent weeks...."

It Is A Sad Commentary - that this memo would have stood, if it had not been reported. Sadder still is the fact that State Department employees are more concerned with offending foreign nations, whomever they are, than they are with the loss of American Servicemen and women and condemning the terrorist act which took their lives. According to some articles the author of this memo is named Swadia Sarkis. To our reading, the name looks like Saadia Sarkis. Regardless of the spelling, we have to ask:

Why does Swadia/Saadia Sarkis still have a job?

Thank You - Thanks to your efforts we were successful in our battle to remove Section 1045 from the 2001 Defense Authorization Act. This section would have exempted Defense Intelligence Agency "operational files" from disclosure, under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA.) Your letters, and phone calls were the deciding factor. According to one congressional staffer, "the public outcry was just too much."

Sadly, unknown to us, the 2001 Defense Authorization Act contained two other Sections which impacted adversely, on the FOIA process.

Section 1075 places new limitations on Pentagon spending for all declassification activities. Last years spending limit of $51 million, has been reduced to $30 million. As the FAS Project on Government Secrecy noted: "Needless to say, no limitation is imposed on classification-related spending, which reached a total of $5 billion in FY 1999, according to the latest report of the Information Security Oversight Office."

Section 1073 exempts certain unclassified foreign government information from disclosure.

Section 1074 expands the exemption for certain unclassified maps and imagery.

We wonder, had Section 1073 been law when Steven Morris discovered the "1205 Document" would that have been classified under this law?

Correction - The last Bits N Pieces, dated October 7^th, contained two errors. In our correlation of names to the CIA document titled "Confirmed U.S. PW's in SVN," we incorrectly typed the remains recovery date for Lt. David Devers and Sgt John O'Neil. The date should read December 27, 1969 not December 27, 1968. With regard to T/Sgt. James Jackson, his correct loss location was South Vietnam, not Cambodia. He was released in Cambodia.

Isolated Personnel vs. POWs - According to DPMO, they say we are wrong on our interpretation of the phrase "Isolated Personnel" and its intended use. They also said we were wrong about mt-DNA and the Strategic Plan, but that's another story. In the months since we first reported on the phrase "Isolated Personnel" the DPMO definition has evolved into something different from our first reporting.

On October 5^th, 2000, the National Alliance of Families received a letter from DPMO General Counsel James F. Gravelle. The letter states: "Let me assure you prisoner of war is not being replaced by isolated personnel. There is no initiative to do so and, basically, prisoner of war and isolated personnel are not interchangeable. Prisoner of war is a legal status of military personnel captured during an international armed conflict between two countries, and entitles those captured to humanitarian treatment under the Geneva Conventions. You may recall this status was claimed for our three soldiers who were captured in the Kosovo conflict in 1999. Claiming isolated personnel status for our captured personnel would be meaningless."

The letter continued; "On the other hand, isolated personnel is a broad term the search and rescue community use to describe the factual condition of those separated from their unit who are required to survive, evade, or escape while awaiting rescue or recovery. It describes the conditions under which an individual is operating and is not a recognized legal status. Describing a person as isolated personnel refers to a condition of the individual; prisoner of war connotes legal status..."

This letter pretty much sums up our major concern. A POW has legal status, Isolated Personnel do not. We'd like to believe that the term Isolated Personnel refers only to a soldier or airman in an escape, evade and survival situation. Unfortunately, DPMO hasn't never given us much reason to believe them. They said we were wrong about mt-DNA. We weren't! They said were wrong about the Strategic Plan. We weren't. We'd like to be wrong about the original use of the phrase Isolated Personnel. We're not sure we are.

We are also concerned by the lack of historical memory exhibited by DPMO General Counsel Gravelle. His reference to the handling of the status of the three soldiers captured during the Kosovo "conflict" implies the status of POW was applied immediately, once the U.S. knew the men were in Serb hands.

Let us look back to approximately 7 AM, Wednesday March 31, 1999, when Ramirez, Gonzales and Stone went missing. The time line of events was prepared by Dino Carluccio, Chief of Staff to Senator Bob Smith (R-NH). The full text of the time line is on our web site in the Yugoslavia section.

The U.S. media first broke the story late Wednesday night. President Clinton was informed of the capture at approximately 2 A.M. Thursday morning and advised that the three were shown on Serb TV. (At that point, they should have been declared POW.)

More than 24 hours (approximately noon Thursday) after they went missing and hours after they were shown on Serb television, Secretary of Defense William Cohen was asked, by a reporter, "do you consider them (the 3 US Army personnel) prisoners of war?" Cohen responds: "At this point, their status is that of being illegally detained, and so they are illegal detainees at this point, and whether that status changes will depend upon the legal interpretation of what their -- where they were, what circumstances under which they came into Serb hands, and that will take some time to resolve."

Two hours later, the State Department was dodging questions on the status of the three, referring to them as "abducted."

As pointed out by Dino Carluccio, Chief of Staff to Senator Bob Smith (R-NH), neither the terms "illegal detainees" or "abducted" personnel are "found in U.S. or international laws relative to military personnel."

Finally, at 5 PM Thursday evening, 34 hours after capture and some 15 hours after their appearance on Serb TV, the Pentagon announces " "We consider them to be POWs."

POWs, not illegal detainees, abducted or in today's terms Isolated Personnel. In the words of Dino Carluccio "Their picture has been splashed over Yugoslav TV monitored in the West, yet 15 additional hours go by before the U.S. is willing to acknowledge them as Prisoners of War protected under the Geneva Conventions...."

Carluccio continued "...You don't need Pentagon "legal interpretations that will take some time" as referenced by Secretary Cohen at 12 noon Thursday to figure out for yourself that these men were immediately POWs protected by the Geneva Conventions. The U.S. should have been already prepared to deal with this situation clearly and concisely the second the Serb video of the men appeared, especially given all the alleged attention the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/Missing Personnel Affairs has been giving to "future conflicts" these last few years..."

Isolated Personnel - We guess we will continue to worry about the term. Just as we continue to worry about the next form the "dead" Strategic Plan will take. Just as we continue to worry about those POW/MIAs, last known alive, declared fate determined based on "corroborating hearsay" testimony. Just as we continue to worry about identifications made using mt-DNA as the primary or sole means of identification, when we've been assured it will not be used as primary or sole means. Just as we continue to worry about identifications without remains. Just as we continue to worry about the total disregard of intelligence reports which show, beyond doubt, that men declared dead at the incident site could not have died at the incident site and we will continue worry about Secretaries of Defense who declare men dead after three hours, without benefit of a search effort or who declare men obviously POW, "illegal detainees."

Like A Kid, You Have To Worry About Her When She Is Quiet - We've heard from Pat Plumadore and she has another project. For those who don't know Pat was the catalysis on the mt-DNA investigation. She said it was bad science, and boy was she right. Now, Pat is working on another project. Here is her message:

"Mr. Bob Jones, head of DPMO, is serving his handlers well. His use of creative math and double speak is an attempt to diminish our belief in Vietnam's ability to account for our POW/MIAs. He is paving the way to shut down our countries efforts to achieve a full accounting." Pat promises more to come... and we all know Pat keeps her promises.

Putin Creates Commission In POWs, Internees - Moscow, October 7 (Itar-Tass) - "President Vladimir Putin on Saturday signed a decree endorsing the composition of the presidential commission on prisoners of war, internees and missing people."

"The six-member commission will be chaired by V. Zolotaryov, head of the Defense Ministry's Institute of Military History, the presidential press service said. The commission involves members of the government and

representatives of law enforcement agencies. Chechen head Akhmad Kadyrov has also been appointed as a member of the commission."

This was the full text of the article. It is not clear as to the commissions scope or the nationalities involved.

North Korea Threatens U.S. War Remains - from the Associated Press by Robert Burns - Washington (AP) -- "North Korea is threatening to stop cooperating with U.S. efforts to recover remains of American servicemen lost in the Korean War unless the Pentagon provides more humanitarian aid."

"In talks Sept. 15 in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, a North Korean army officer told Robert Jones, the Pentagon official in charge of POW-MIA issues, that a deal reached in June to provide U.S. access to battlefields will not be renewed when it expires in November unless the aid issue is settled first. The United States is paying North Korea $2 million this year for its assistance in the remains recovery...."

"U.S. forensics experts, working in an area about 60 miles north of Pyongyang where hundreds of American servicemen were killed in battles with Chinese troops in October 1950, have recovered 35 sets of remains this year. Among them are nine sets of remains flown out of Pyongyang on Sept. 15 aboard a U.S. Air Force transport plane. Jones accompanied the remains to Hawaii for a repatriation ceremony."

"During a three-hour meeting in Pyongyang, Sr. Col. Pak Rim Su told Jones "there is a threat to this current cooperative environment and to future prospects" for recovering U.S. servicemen's remains, Jones wrote in a memo Monday to Walter Slocombe, the under secretary of defense for policy."

"A return to normal operations could only occur after the United States resolved the problem of 'anti-American sentiment' among the North Korean populace," Jones said Pak told him. Pak said the solution was for the Pentagon to provide the kind of humanitarian assistance North Korea asked for last December."

"In the December talks, the North Koreans demanded that the Pentagon pay for construction of a clothing factory large enough to provide shoes and clothing for all children in North Korea. Without such a goodwill gesture, they insisted, ordinary North Koreans would resist cooperation on remains recovery."

"Jones told Pak that the clothing factory idea was unrealistic and that any requests for humanitarian assistance would have to be presented to the State Department. In addition to the $2 million in compensation for remains recovery efforts, the United States has given North Korean hundreds of millions of dollars in food aid in recent years, as well as fuel assistance as part of a nuclear agreement."

"Pak told Jones that the Pentagon would have to respond on the humanitarian issue by October. Otherwise, talks planned for December to agree on arrangements for remains recovery operations in 2001 will not be successful, Pak said."

"Of the approximately 8,100 U.S. servicemen listed as unaccounted for from the 1950-53 Korean War, the Pentagon believes that remains of as many as 1,500 may be recoverable from the area that U.S. forensics experts have been working this year. Their final scheduled mission of the year is due to end Nov. 11..."

ROK Prime Minister's Office Confirms List of Abductees to DPRK - from the World News Connection

Wednesday, October 18, 2000 - "The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) revealed in a government inspection document submitted to the National Assembly Wednesday that 487 people abducted to North Korea were officially confirmed detained in the communist country as of September this year...."

"... Furthermore, office stated that according to a document of the Ministry of National Defense, 19,000 ROK prisoners of war (POWs) were estimated to have not been repatriated, and that 351 South Korean POWs were confirmed as still being alive through the testimony of 16 POWs who recently returned to the South."

We Have To Ask The Question, Again - If the North Koreans are holding South Korean POWs, why wouldn't they hold American's and other foreign nationals. If they kidnaped South Koreans, why wouldn't they kidnap American's.

Remains of 15 MIAs To Be Repatriated - Oct 17^th - US Department of Defense - Remains believed to be those of 15 Americans missing in action from the Korean War will be repatriated in a formal ceremony at Pyongyang, North Korea, reports the Dept. of Defense. This is the largest number of remains recovered in one operation since this joint recovery work began in North Korea in 1996. A joint U.S.-North Korean investigation team recovered the remains from former battlefields in the North Korean counties of Unsan and Kujang, approximately 60 miles north of Pyongyang."

An editorial comment from the editor of Bits N Pieces - The opinion expressed is not necessarily the opinion of the National Alliance of Families.