To Orwell Today,
re: Reader has first-hand information on American POWs in North Korea

I previously sent you information regarding "live" American POWs still being held in North Korea. Some are from the Korean War and I am told many are from the Vietnam War.

Recently I posted a recording of a Iraqi/American business man who spoke to some of these POWs at a forced labor camp north of Pyongyang during the summer of 2007. The recording can be heard at DPRK CAPTIVES - THE FORGOTTEN ONES.

I also write articles concerning this topic for the Spokane Examiner on Politics/Veterans' policies. Most of the articles that I write are posted on the front page for about a week after I write them. Many politicians, including past and present Presidents as well as others, will absolutely not discuss this and have "stonewalled" any efforts to publish anything regarding this topic.

The following are links to stories I just published on the Spokane Examiner:

2010: The Year of the Tiger, Examiner, Jan 4, 2010 (...Then there are those soldiers who never came back from previous wars. They are the POWs/MIAs. There are missing places at their families tables since they went off to fight in previous wars. Some of these individuals are deceased and yes some of them are still alive, being held captive in foreign lands. Hopefully during 2010 there will be a Tiger or two to be a guardian to pressure the governments involved to negotiate the release and return of the soldiers still being held in captivity in foreign lands. It seems so far all we have seen are "mice" that scurry around this problem and deny even the existence of these men. If confronted the polticians, celebrities and the news organizations all refuse to discuss this topic or just respond with silence. What we have is a government that is in the denial of reality. They know very well where these individuals are and some of their identities. Face to face they will tell you "they all chose to stay" or "we are looking for remains"....

New Years from yesterday into tomorrow, Examiner, Dec 27, 2009 (...Some of our military men are still being held captive in other countries.... The ones that went and were captured were forgotten and have been to this day labeled either "chose to stay" or "missing in action and presumed dead". "Tomorrow" there is hope someday soon to negotiate the release of these men and bring them home. It will more than likely not be the result of the United States government to win their release. Many hearings in Washington DC have occurred without any positive results or even the recognition that these military men even exist. Even though overwhelming evidence has been presented to them. There have been refusals and denials of their existence by the very government that sent them off to war years ago. It will take a private effort to win the release and return of these men. Some of these men may even be British soldiers as well. So we will see what happens "tomorrow" in 2010, it may indeed be a year of exposing deception and untruths. If it really does happen it is bound to create a year that will be remembered by the American people and "touch" all of the then "former" polticians who have chosen to ignore these men. There of course will be those that will emerge as "heroes" and those that will be "scapegoats"....

I have lived in Northern China across the border from North Korea and many people who visit North Korea told me they have seen American men working in fields or near labor camps. I do believe this is a American disgrace to all of us who are serving and have served in the US military. Because of the attitude of our government regarding these POWs the day will come when these men finally come home which I believe will cause a great "upheaval" in our government. When the American people know the truth then there will be trouble. I am not a "conspiracy" advocate. I only deal with facts derived from interviews from reliable sources and the collection of other pertinent "intelligence". I formerly worked for US Intelligence service and I am also a former state police investigator. I would appreciate it if you would continue to post updated information regarding this topic at "Orwell Today". The more attention to this topic the better.

Thank You,
Chen Ping

Greetings Chen,

Yes, I recall our previous email exchange and read your webpage describing your first-hand observations while teaching in Northern China. See LIVE AMERICAN CAPTIVES IN NORTH KOREA!

Thanks for sending the links to your recent stories, excerpts of which I italacised above.

I consider it a treasonous travesty and inhuman cruelty that the governments of the Western World are in bed with the Communists and have abandoned our POWs and MIAs to the Chinese and Russians to do with them as they please (pick their brains and use their skills, torture, brainwash, use as slaves etc).

A few years ago - when an American escaped from North Korea to Japan - he was accused of being a liar when he said he'd been a POW all these years. Instead of welcoming him with open arms - and seeking his assistance locating others like himself - Uncle Samuel (friend of Uncle Joe Stalin during WWII and helped Mao come to power in 1949) accused him of WILLINGLY living in hell-hole North Korea all those 40 years of his disappearance. See UNCLE SAM SAYS POW DESERTED

I notice you point out in your articles that when confronted with the reality that POWs do exist, the government says "they chose to stay".

It does seem to be the governments' new diabolical spin - these past few years - to portray any Americans/Canadians or Brits spotted over there as deserters who CHOSE to stay. There was a recent documentary here in Canada along that very theme. I linked it in my KOREA-VIETNAM-IRAQ-AFGHAN WARS section, but it's worthy of being repeated:

CANADA SAYS KOREA POWs "CHOSE" TO LIVE IN CHINA: I caught the following documentary on CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation aka Communist or Chinese BC) on TV last night - Monday, Apr 8, 2008 - and was sickened by the nauseating pro-Red China spin about it - making it sound as though the American POWs (Prisoners of War) were "dissidents" from America, disillusioned with waging war on Chinese and had thereby "chosen" to stay in North Korea or, better yet, "chosen" to be taken to China to live. The film admits the USA soldiers were brainwashed but portrays it as a pleasant experience playing Olympic-like sports competitions in a prisoner-of-war camp and falling in love with the Communist Chinese way of life - even having a black soldier marry a Chinese woman while portraying America as a place prejudiced against blacks (except to go fight wars). The next day I looked up the program on the CBC website and found their write-up. I noticed that - surprise, surprise - the film was directed by a person of the Chinese race, ie Shui-Bo Wang. I've italicized the passages betraying its pro-China spin from their write-up.

THEY CHOSE CHINA: Meet the POWs who Refused to Return Home. CBC, Passionate Eye, Apr 7, 2008
At the end of the Korean War in 1954, captured UN soldiers held in POW camps were free to return home. Those soldiers who refused repatriation to their homeland were transferred to a neutral zone and given 90 days to reconsider their decision. Surprisingly, among them are 21 American soldiers who defiantly decided to stay in China. "They Chose China" recounts these soldiers' stories. When McCarthyism was at its height, [Senator who spoke out in Congress about USA helping Mao's Communists come to power in China during WWII~jj] many Americans believed these young men had been brainwashed by Chinese communists through a new form of thought control. But what really happened? "They Chose China" features never-before-seen footage from the Chinese camps [begs the question, 'where did the footage come from?'~jj] as well as interviews with former POWs and their families, to tell the fascinating stories of these forgotten American dissidents. Directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Shui-Bo Wang, "They Chose China" captures this astonishing story as viewers meet and begin to understand this group of courageous men who fought for, and then cut ties with, the USA. "They Chose China" is produced by Claude Bonin for the National Film board of Canada. See CANADA'S RED TRUDEAU

Not that long ago I posted a new article describing how President Truman (who dropped the nuclear bombs on Japan and sent USA troops to Korean War) fired General MacArthur because he was winning against the North Koreans and cutting off their supplies from China and Russia (the same way the Vietnam war could have been won ten years later, for which they killed JFK so as to send troops there). See JFK LISTENS GENERAL MACARTHUR.

I must admit to losing faith that the USA, Canada, England or any other country in the Western World has any intentions of admitting to, let alone rescuing, the POWs still alive in Communist Korea, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, China or Russia et al. It's been 56 years since we "surrendered" the war in Korea, and 37 years since we "lost" the war in Vietnam. Before long, there will be no POWs or MIAs to remember or rescue. Any who survived the conditions of their lives there will soon die of old age - forgotten and abandoned forever by their treasonous governments conspiring with their enemies.

I hope your belief that one day the POWs will come home, is true.

All the best,
Jackie Jura

...conversation continues at PRESUME POWS ALIVE NOT DEAD

PS - Something that I was amazed to learn - having for some reason never having realized it before - is that Billy Graham's wife went to school in North Korea and his family are friends of the North Korean government. His ministry is welcome there, but it seems they never talk about the POW controversy.

Evangelist Billy Graham’s son visits North Korea to deliver aid
AP, October 13th, 2009
The son of veteran U.S. evangelist Billy Graham arrived in North Korea on Tuesday to deliver aid to the impoverished country more than six months after the isolated regime kicked out all American humanitarian groups. The Rev. Franklin Graham, who leads the Christian ministry his father founded, said he hoped his visit would "play the role of a bridge for better relations" between the U.S. and North Korea, Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said. Ri Gun, director-general in charge of U.S. affairs at North Korea's Foreign Ministry, was at the airport to welcome Graham, footage from broadcaster APTN in Pyongyang showed. Graham and Ri, who also serves as North Korea's deputy nuclear negotiator, held talks later Tuesday, APTN said. Pyongyang has spent much of the year withdrawing from and provoking the international community. In March, it began refusing American food shipments and booted out all U.S. aid groups operating in the country. Then it launched a long-range missile and conducted a nuclear test, drawing a raft of U.N. sanctions. In response to the measures, North Korea pulled out of international disarmament talks. But more recently, the North has indicated it would be willing to restart those negotiations if it were able to hold direct talks with Washington — a long-held goal of the reclusive regime. In an apparent attempt to bolster its negotiating position ahead of any talks, the North fired several missiles off its eastern coast on Monday.

Graham’s visit marks the first by an American aid agency in months. He is the head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the aid agency Samaritan’s Purse, which has provided more than $10 million in aid to the North since 1997. North Korea has suffered chronic food shortages since flooding and mismanagement destroyed its economy in the mid-1990s. Widespread famine is believed to have killed some 2 million North Koreans, with more than 6 million North Koreans needing food handouts, according to the World Food Program. Sanmaritan’s Purse said on its Web site that Graham will oversee the delivery of $190,000 in equipment and supplies for a new dental school in Pyongyang, meet with high-level officials and visit one of three hospitals where the group has installed electricity generators. The group said Graham will visit China later this week. The latest trip is Graham’s third to North Korea. He also visited Pyongyang last year. Billy Graham’s family has had relations with the communist North for years. The senior Graham went to North Korea in 1992 and in 1994 at the invitation of late North Korean President Kim Il Sung, father of current leader Kim Jong Il.

PPS - Below, off the top of my head, and not necessarily complete or in chronological order, are a sampling of some articles on ORWELL TODAY to do with Western World relations with Red China/Russia/Korea/Vietnam/POWs..., along with a good Wikipedia article overview for readers not familiar with the POW situation.

United States Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, Wikipedia

JFK LISTENS GENERAL MACARTHUR

JFK & RFK VIETNAM CASUALTIES

ON JFK'S DEATH, CHINA & UN

INDIA, ORWELL, JFK & CHINA

JFK PULLING OUT OF NAM

POWs FORGOTTEN IN KOREA

TIME MAN-IN-SAIGON SPY

CHINA NUKES THRU PANAMA?

USA DOWNPLAYS CHINA THREAT

USA LETS CHINA SCAN NUKES

CHINA'S TORTURED DISSIDENTS