Col. Schlatter has written to the newsgroups his musings
on Russian documents. Funny how Col. Schlatter posts his
lengthy thesis' almost every time a document surfaces.
Let's examine some of those documents and then get into
the style that Col. Schlatter uses to infuse these
documents with historical fact together with an amazing
capacity to quote no documentation.
Col. Schlatter claims that the POW/MIA activists, who he
freely debases by calling us "MIA enthusiasts" or
"MIA cult," treats the Internet (via a newsgroup) with a
deluge of documents found in the former Soviet Union
Archives. He goes on to cite such documentation:
QUOTE "Evidence" cited to support these claims includes one or
more of the following items:
-A quote from a memorandum written by the late General
Dmitri Volkogonov, who was until his death the joint-chair
of the US-Russia Join Commission.
-Citations to the claims made by the late Czech General
Jan Senja.
-References to the 'research' done by one Pete Tsouras.
-Citation of the recent Russian 'discovery' of several
thousand pages of documents. This 'discovery' is used as
'proof' that they must be hiding something.
-Long quotes from the Washington Times writer Bill Gertz
END QUOTE
Well, folks, not any of the above is documentation that
was unearthed in the archives of the former Soviet Union.
* General Dmitri Volkogonov donated his musings
to the National Archives of the United States.
A document is talked about in his musings and
that particular document, a 1960s KGB plan to
transfer captured US personnel to the [then]
Soviet Union for intelligence gathering purposes
has created a furor. The Russians have admitted
to the US that such a plan existed but they deny
its implementation and refused to turn it over
to US authorities for us to study. More on that
later.
* Citations made by the late Czech General Jan
Senja are just that, citations made by a General
to US officials. A general who once upon a time
was an adversary of the US and was in a position
to know something. What Soviet archive information
is Colonel Schlatter referring to?
* References to the 'research' done by one Pete
Tsouras. But Colonel Schlatter does not detail
exceptions he's making to the research by Pete
Tsouras nor is he citing documentation found in
the FSU's archives.
* Citation of the recent Russian 'discovery' of
several thousand pages of documents. This
'discovery' is used as 'proof' that they must
be hiding something. But Colonel Schlatter isn't
documenting what the recent 'discovery' was
because Senator Smith has just brought the
documentation back from Russia and no one has
studied it yet. So, retired Colonel Joseph
Schlatter, who is no longer the Deputy Director
of DIAs POW/MIA office should not have any access
to this documentation yet, unless of course he is
not really fully retired. And then perhaps he is
already conducting 'damage control.'
(More on that later)
* Finally, Colonel Schlatter cites as a source of
the deluge of an alleged blockbuster documentation
found in the archives in the former Soviet
Union [sic] is long quotes from Washington Times
writer Bill Gertz. But Bill Gertz wrote articles
about the document found in the United States
National Archives written by a general who had
seen the KGB plan.
Now to back up the above findings, Colonel Schlatter wrote
a lengthy piece complete with bylines, if you will. The
first, "TASK FORCE RUSSIA," he gives the reader the history
of DPMO. He details how the different Alpha agencies/units
were all rolled into one brand spanking new DPMO. (TFR, DIA
Special Office of POW/MIA Affairs, Central Documentation
Office, ASD/ISA POW/MIA "policy cell" was all rolled into
DPMO, where Colonel Joe finished his career as assist to
the DASD for POW/MIA Affairs, General Jim Wold.) This is the
way that Joe Schlatter works in his 'credentials' to the
unwary reader. He must know, because after all he survived to
be a deputy of the above agencies/units. I loved the "policy
cell" as it reminds me of compartmentization. I bet words like
"NEED TO KNOW" were frequented there.
He berates Pete Tsouras as an inferior analyst. "As a result
of my review, certain of the 'analysts' were allowed to
return to their parent units because it was clear that they
could not analyze their way across an empty parking lot with
a map and a guide."
It strikes me that DPMO, and the preceding agencies and units,
as well as the NSA has hired many inferior analysts. Terry
Minarcin, Jerry Mooney, Chip Beck, Pete Tsouras and Dr.
Timothy Castle, just the names that come to the top of my head.
When these analysts are given the classified, top secret type
clearances, aren't any psychological profiles done on them or
is it the habit of our government to employ nothing but
disgruntles, unhappies and kooks. (Remember General Lacey the
kook? He was in charge of one of our nuclear arsenals.)
Absent from this list of inferior analysts are Bob Destatte
and Col. Jeannie Schiff, to name a few. Perhaps you might
want to take a look at Dr. Timothy Castle's memorandum to
General Wold over the abuse at DPMO by these two.
http://www.ojc.org/powforum/castle01.htm
It also occurs to me that every analyst that the good
Colonel Schlatter refers to as inferior all have one thing
in common. They believe that there is evidence that suggests
that men were left behind alive and more than some believe
that some of those men have survived.
"TASK FORCE RUSSIA" serves to cement Col. Joe's bonafides
as well as to dismiss Pete Tsouras as an inept disgruntle.
Colonel Schlatter's next heading is, "GENERAL VOLKOGONOV'S
MEMO" and Joe states that in the memo Volkogonov "found
evidence" of a KGB plan for "delivering informed Americans
to the USSR for intelligence gathering purposes."
Well, Volkogonov's memo did not say he found evidence, it
said he had seen the plan. Col. Schlatter takes exception
to the correlation of informed Americans being "transferred"
to the then Soviet Union being American prisoners, because
in Colonel Joe's mind captured Americans could not possibly
be the informed Americans targeted for transfer. Of course,
the American vacationing in Da Nang in the 60's was more apt
to be transferred than a captured American, right? View the
document yourself and make up your own mind, or have your own
translation done: http://www.ojc.org/powforum/primakov
He goes on to the heading GENERAL SEJNA, but refers you to his
web page because even he is sick of regurgitating the same
mistruths he has repeatedly misreported about General Sejna.
General Sejna was given sanctuary in the United States, so why
would he anger the very government that gave him that sanctuary
unless he really had firsthand information?
Both Generals Volkogonov and Sejna are dead. They gave information
long before their deaths but also on their death beds.
What did they have to gain by lying?
His next heading, "5,000 PAGES OF DOCUMENTS," he quotes that
someone on a newsgroup had questioned the timing of the
decision by the Russians to release the 5,000 documents, in
the face of the Washington Times report on Volkogonov's memo
two days prior. Retired Colonel Joe Schlatter, retiring from
DPMO in 1996, then invites his readers to the DPMO website
in order for them to read what some of the DPMO archive
researchers had to say.
"There," Colonel Joe says, "you will find a report from the
Defense POW-Missing Persons Office detailing archival
research by our own people in our own archives for several
months in 1998."
Very telling. "...detailing archival research by our own people
in our own archives." A slip of the tongue? Or is Colonel Joe
still on DPMO’s payroll as their Internet bulldog or as a
family-member-activists debunker?
It strikes me that he is already busy at work debunking these
5,000 pages of documentation that to my knowledge no one in the
POW/MIA community has seen. Is he trying to forewarn the fence
sitters that more documentation is on the way but let's not wait
for the Christmas rush and debunk it now? How many other analysts
are going to join the ranks of the disgruntles and inferiors?
It also strikes me that Colonel Joe Schlatter neglected to
detail his beef with the Washington Times articles by Bill
Gertz and that the only documentation that Colonel Schlatter
has referred to are quotes by "our people from our own
archives" and quoted only a small passage of the Volkogonov
memorandum.
Conspicuously missing from his hypothesis of the Volkogonov
memo is the fact that the Russians admit that Volkogonov did
see such a plan and that both Secretary of State Albright and
Vice President Gore has pressured the Russians to allow US
authorities a chance at studying the very document that Joe
Schlatter insists is much ado about nothing.
It surprises me that the US Government has taken it to the
level that they have, since they do not usually take such
a course in this issue. Colonel Joe Schlatter, who retired
from DPMO in 1996, could have saved Madeline and Al the
trouble of pressuring the Russians.
The facts here are simple. Yeltsin admitted in 1992 that the
former Soviet Union did transfer American POWs to the FSU
which the Bush administration went into damage control
overdrive over. DPMO and its predecessor agencies/units has
a history at conducting damage control. See Commodore Brooks
memo at http://www.ojc.org/powforum/brokmemo.htm
Do not be fooled by Colonel Joe's intelligence. He is a smart
man and very logical. His job was (is?) to debunk anything
that points toward men having been abandoned. That's how he
drew his paycheck. You and I work our regular jobs and then
we work the issue with far, far less resources than Retired
Colonel Joe Schlatter had (has?) courtesy of the taxpayers.
He spent his career building a case against the fact that men
were left behind so there are none that could have survived
to this day.
That makes sense, doesn't it? Just ask the 4 South Korean's
who have escaped North Korean POW camps in the last 3 years,
all of whom were held in excess of 40 years. But Americans
aren't nearly as strong willed (or strong physically) as
South Koreans, right? Just ask Colonel Schlatter.
Regards,
This newsgroup is being treated to a deluge of articles
concerning an alleged blockbuster document discovered in
the Soviet archives that -- depending on who is
writing -- either proves, hints at, indicates, or strongly
suggests that US POWs from Vietnam were taken to the USSR
for interrogation, exploitation, or worse.
Steve Golding,
Executive Director
PoW/MIA Forum
DISCLAIMER: The content of this message is the sole responsibility of the originator. Posting of this message to the POW/MIA E-MAIL NETWORK (c) list does not show AIIPOWMIAI endorsement. It is provided so you may make an informed decision. AIIPOWMIAI is not associated in any capacity with any United States Government agency or entity, nor with any non-governmental organization.
