-Caveat Lector-
"If every person has the right to defend - even by force - his person, his
liberty, and his property, then it follows that a group of men have the
right to organize and support a common force to protect these rights
constantly."
--- THE LAW, by Frederic Bastiat
***** Big Lie *****
Reed Irvine's Letter to the Chairman of CNN
From: Accuracy In Media
June 16, 1998
Mr. Thomas Johnson
Chairman
CNN
P.O. Box 105366
Atlanta, GA 30348-5366
Dear Thomas:
The establishment media are questioning Matt Drudge's right to claim to be a
journalist because he "published" a story about Sidney Blumenthal that
turned out to be false. Drudge admitted his error and apologized the day
after he put the Blumenthal story in his report. I hope that after you
examine the evidence laid out in this letter you will follow Matt Drudge's
example and retract the false charges about Operation Tailwind made in the
segment titled "Valley of Death" on NewsStand CNN/TIME on Sunday, June 7 and
essentially repeated on June 14 and issue an apology. I would go further and
suggest that those responsible for this journalistic atrocity should be
given their walking papers.
CNN took the story of an incredibly dangerous operation in which the Special
Forces exhibited the courage, stamina and skill for which they are famous
and converted it into a defamatory attack on the Army, the Special Forces
and the United States. You made three charges:
1. The purpose of the operation was to find and kill American defectors
working with the enemy in Laos.
Comment: We have talked to seven of the men who were on the Tailwind team.
All deny that the mission had anything to do with finding and killing
American defectors. All agree that the purpose of the mission was to blow up
a bridge and disrupt traffic on the Ho Chi Minh trail. The idea was to
create a diversion that would relieve pressure being put on CIA-backed Hmong
tribesmen by the North Vietnamese army. They also say that the base camp
they destroyed on the fourth day was stumbled upon by accident when they
were trying to get to the landing zone where helicopters were to evacuate
them.
To justify the charge that the mission was to kill Americans, you rely on a
statement by James Cathey, who claims to have been an Air Force enlisted man
in charge of coordinating resupply of the Tailwind team. His claim to have
done this from on the ground in Laos is considered ludicrous by Special
Forces veterans, but that aside, he was in no position to know the purpose
of the mission, and he admitted that what he told you was only speculation.
You have not named a single person who is in a position to know the purpose
of the mission who has confirmed Cathey's speculation. Inexcusably, you
failed to report that those who were in a position to know all reject it.
2. Deadly sarin nerve gas was used against a village, killing women and
children.
Comment: You do not cite a single source for either the claim that sarin was
dropped on this "village" or that women and children lived there. No one who
was there that I have talked to saw any women or children. I am told that
the word for this camp in Vietnamese is binh tram. That translates as
logistical sub-headquarters and they were located all along the Ho Chi Minh
trail. It was not a village. No one that I have interviewed believed that
the camp had been bombed, strafed and gassed the night before they
discovered it. The Tailwind team camped overnight very close to the camp.
One said as close as 200 yards. They discovered it because they heard dogs
barking. They moved in, shot up the camp and killed everyone who did not
escape by fleeing. Had there been any bombing, strafing or gassing the night
before, not only would they have known it, but they would have been in grave
danger of being killed by it. That alone is evidence that it didn't happen.
3. Sarin was dropped on North Vietnamese troops who were trying to prevent
the evacuation of our commandos, many of whom lacked usable gas masks and
inhaled the lethal gas that drifted in their direction.
Comment: This charge is supported by only one member of the Tailwind team
that I have spoken to, Michael Hagen. He insists that the gas was sarin
because in recent years he has experienced serious health problems that his
doctor says are the result of exposure to organo-phosphates, which is what
sarin is. Hagen is bitter because the government refuses to accept this
diagnosis. He says some of the other team members have experienced health
problems which his doctor also attributes to organo-phosphate exposure. He
mentioned Jim Brevelle, who had already told me that he was sure the gas was
CS. Sarin is regarded as an effective weapon because it is supposed to kill
quickly, not 30 years after exposure. Gen. Walt Busbee, the Pentagon's
expert in chemical weapons, says that tracking of those who have survived
exposure to sarin shows that they do not experience any long-lasting
effects. Your program did not explain why Hagen is so certain that he was
exposed to sarin. Why? Did the producers fear that this would hurt the
credibility of the one member of the team they were relying on to make their
case?
Robert Van Buskirk appeared to support the claim that nerve gas was used,
but he pointed out to me that he did not say that on your program. The
transcript supports his denial. There is only an implication that he
believes it was nerve gas. He is shown making a statement that implies that
he was warned that lethal gas would be used, but in my taped interview, he
says he was told that the gas would be CBU-17, tear gas. You showed him
saying that after the gas was dropped, he looked down into the valley and
could see only bodies that "they were not fighting anymore." He points out
that he never said they were dead. He acknowledged that the symptoms he
experienced were similar to those caused by CS.
Jay Graves appeared to lend credence to the charge that nerve gas was used,
but Graves, who was not part of the SOG team, told me he had no knowledge of
the use of nerve gas in Operation Tailwind. He said the CNN interviewer
insisted that the use of nerve gas was taught at the Special Forces school
where he was an instructor, but he said that was false. Graves appears to
have been tricked into making it appear that he confirmed the use of sarin
in Tailwind. Here is how it was done.
ARNETT: Tell me. What was the call sign for the sleeping gas used on
Tailwind?
GRAVES: GB. We started calling it knockout gas, then it was GB, then they
changed it to something else, which I can understand why they was doing it
now.
ARNETT: Why were they doing it?
GRAVES: 'Cause they was using nerve gas in that shit and not telling anybody
about it. (The word "shit" was omitted from the transcript posted on your
web page.)
That sounds like confirmation, but Graves claims he was talking about a
period long after Tailwind. I believe that in replying, he focused on the
question about the call sign for "sleeping gas," not on the words "used on
Tailwind." I am sure it never occurred to him that CNN would treat his
answer as confirmation of something about which he had denied any knowledge.
The transcript shows that this same tactic was used to get Adm. Moorer's
"confirmation" of the use of nerve gas.
OLIVER: So isn't it fair to say that Tailwind proves that CBU-15 GB (a
cluster bomb filled with sarin) was an effective weapon?
MOORER: Yes, but I think that was already known. Otherwise it never would
have been manufactured.
This was the only basis I can find for Arnett's claim that "Moorer confirmed
that nerve gas was used in Tailwind." Adm. Moorer says he made it clear that
he was not involved with Tailwind. He told me, "That was all handled by the
CIA. I have never seen an operation order, never seen a battle plan, had no
authority to release the use of gas. Later, I heard rumors to the effect,
and I told these reporters that they ought to go talk to the people that
were there." Oliver must have asked him if he knew if sarin was used in
Tailwind. His answer to that question was not used on the program because it
did not provide the confirmation Oliver wanted. The question about the sarin
cluster bomb being effective was obviously a trick question just like the
one used on Jay Graves.
Your charge that sarin was used in Operation Tailwind brought this comment
from Prof. E.W. Pfeiffer, author of the book Chemical Warfare in Vietnam:
"My impression of that piece is that it is a total hoax....I can't
understand why a well-respected reporter like Peter Arnett would have
anything to do with that." Pfeiffer, an opponent of the Vietnam War who
visited North Vietnam as a guest of the government in 1970, points out that
if there had been any credible evidence that we used sarin, North Vietnam
would have made the world aware of it. He also is very impressed by the fact
that the same gas that your program suggests caused the Vietnamese to drop
like flies, was inhaled by those Americans whose gas masks had been damaged
or lost and by the Montagnards, most of whom were not equipped with gas
masks. Not a single one of them died from poison gas. The initial symptoms
of CS and sarin are very similar. Inhale CS and you think you are going to
die, but you don't. Inhale sarin and you die, unless you get prompt
treatment. That is the proof that the gas that caused some of our men to
vomit and choke was CS, not sarin.
Sincerely yours,
Reed Irvine
Chairman
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Monday, June 15, 1998
CNN military adviser resigns over 'Tailwind'
Retired general demanded retraction of Arnett's Vietnam 'nerve gas' story
By Joseph Farah
Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Perry Smith quit his long-time job as a military
adviser to CNN, over the weekend, in protest of what he regards as major
inaccuracies in Peter Arnett's "Operation Tailwind" report on the use of
nerve gas by U.S. troops in Laos during the Vietnam War, WorldNetDaily has
learned.
Initially, Smith was disturbed that the Arnett report, which received
enormous publicity a week ago, was aired without his consultation. He
addressed his concerns with top executives of CNN and demanded that the
network run a retraction about the use of nerve gas. When he did not get
satisfaction, he resigned in protest.
"I had tried very hard for a week to convince (top executives) to do a major
retraction, but to no avail," said Smith. "Lots of people at CNN were
solidly with me on this, but not the top bosses and the team that put that
terrible special together. There is an outside chance that my resigning in
protest may finally get attention -- only time will tell."
CNN's "Operation Tailwind" report of Sunday, June 7, alleged the U.S.
government used lethal nerve gas during a mission to kill American defectors
in Laos in 1970. Arnett claimed to have based his report on eight months of
work and 200 interviews. Yet, the sensational charges hung primarily on the
claims of one man -- Lt. Robert Van Buskirk, a platoon leader in "Operation
Tailwind." Van Buskirk recalled throwing a white phosphorous grenade down a
hole to kill two suspected U.S. defectors during the 1970 mission. He also
claimed to have witnessed the use of the nerve agent Sarin gas on a base
camp used by a group of defectors.
Doubts were cast upon the claims when another Vietnam Special Forces vet,
Tom Marzullo, pointed out that Van Buskirk had authored a book in 1983
called "Operation Tailwind," in which he made no mention of the defectors or
the Sarin gas. Van Buskirk's superiors also discounted his story.
CNN also failed to mention that shortly after his tour of duty in Vietnam,
Van Buskirk was arrested by U.S. Army Criminal Investigative Division
officials in Germany for arms trafficking and forced to leave the military.
Other troops and officers involved in the mission have come forward to
criticize Van Buskirk, Arnett's CNN special and the notion that nerve gas
was used. Even the historical records of the North Vietnamese army make no
claims that the U.S. ever deployed lethal chemical weapons in its conduct of
the war or in the Laotian incursion.
Gen. Smith had been on retainer as a military adviser to CNN since the
Persian Gulf War.
"As the CNN military analyst, I would have expected that someone would have
checked with me before going on air, but that was not the case," he said. "I
have told the CEO of CNN that I have committed myself to seeking and finding
the truth. I have already told him that now that I have talked to the
pilots, have the ordnance and logistics records -- that he must run a
retraction on the use of nerve gas. I have also told him that I think it is
extremely unlikely that we tried to kill American defectors, but my research
is not as conclusive on that issue."
Arnett served as CNN's "Man in Baghdad" during the Persian Gulf War. He was
granted unusual access to Saddam Hussein's Iraq. In a report last September,
Arnett also suggested U.S. Special Forces had used chemical weapons on the
battlefield in Vietnam. Some media critics and commentators have
characterized his reports from Baghdad and Southeast Asia as "anti-American"
in tone.
©1998, Western Journalism Center
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CNN's TAILWIND PROGRAM DISINFORMATION DISAPPROVED
by Tom Marzullo
Purpose of the Raid
CNN/TIME alleges that the purpose of the raid was to kill American
defectors. Van Buskirk makes no mention of this purpose in his 1983 book
titled "Operation Tailwind." However in a telephone interview with the
Special Forces S-2 (Intelligence) Officer who planned that raid for some
months prior to its start, that officer stated that the raid was designed to
interdict the flow of supplies on the Ho Chi Minh Trail at Chavan and to
draw North Vietnamese Army units away from a beleaguered Laotian unit in the
area.
Robert Van Buskirk (former Lt.)
Arrested by US Army (CID) Criminal Investigation Division in Germany in
early 1970s for arms trafficking and other questionable activities. Was
subsequently forced to leave military service.
In the Special Forces community, Van Buskirk developed a reputation for
deceit and unreliability. There are witnesses who can testify to his
behavior while assigned to SF and MACV-SOG.
In the early 1980's, he wrote the fiscally unsuccessful book "Operation
Tailwind" where there was no mention of the alleged American deserters or a
plan to kill them. This story was revived by April Oliver and Peter Arnett
of CNN with the expressed purpose of branding the United States as a user of
lethal chemical weapons. This is from their own e-mails to me and others and
the previous MACV-SOG related CNN Impact program broadcast of September 1997
where April Oliver had a hired "chemical weapons expert" to declare MACV-SOG
veterans "War Criminals" for the use of non-lethal weapons.
Deceptive Editing
With the exception of Van Buskirk, there were no direct answers to questions
that were directed towards the use of a lethal chemical agent during
tailwind. Admiral Moorer's statements were general in nature and in answer
to general questions by April Oliver.
Speculation and suppositions by some member's of the mission ground
personnel were inserted as to make these appear that this was direct
admission of the use of lethal chemical agent. Again, there was no preceding
question shown on screen that tied the answer shown on screen to Tailwind.
One of the MACV-SOG veterans (J. Graves) interviewed on camera by CNN has
been contacted and has strenuously protested the out of context and
inappropriate use of some scant seconds of his comments taken from over 7
hours of interview time.
Air Support
The lead pilot for the A-1E Skyraider aircraft that supported the extraction
denies the use of a chemical agent such as alleged by CNN. This pilot is
available to confirm this statement.
Air crews of helicopters used in the extraction were not provided with any
respiratory protection of any kind. If any lethal or incapacitating chemical
agents (such as those alleged) had been used, the effects on the pilots
would have been such that is highly probable that none of these aircraft
entering the LZ (landing zone) would have made it back to base. There were
no plans for decontamination of these aircraft after return from the mission
as is an absolutely basic requirement in handling chemical agents.
Discrepancies
There was a mention of the use of both BDU-15 and BDU-19 type ordnance
during the program as the type of chemical munitions delivered. Which is the
one that is alleged to have been used?
The M-17 mask shown was incorrect. The mask shown was a early prototype used
in the 1950's and early 1960's. The M-17 mask specified in the CNN show was
a black, full face mask without external filter cartridges and was the
standard mask issued to virtually all US forces during the mid-1960s and
onward (with a few modifications). Looking at any riot control situation in
archival footage during the late 1960's and early 1970's where the National
Guard was employed will give an excellent view of this type mask. All
conventional forces in SVN were issued the standard M-17 mask.
Standing Orders for MACV-SOG Missions and the Capture of Prisoners
Enemy prisoners were always a mission priority. Many missions were launched
with the express purpose of capturing enemy personnel and teams undertook
extraordinary risks to attempt to capture of any enemy personnel. As a
result, several US-led MACV-SOG teams were lost to enemy action. Amongst
MACV-SOG personnel, prisoner snatches were well understood to be some of the
riskiest missions to be assigned because the team had to come in to the
closest possible proximity of enemy troop concentrations in order to have
any chance of success.
Foreign prisoners were a assigned a higher priority than North Vietnamese.
The recovery of any Americans had the highest priority of all mission
objectives. This policy was disseminated at all operational levels of
MACV-SOG and was one of the points stressed in the Reconnaissance Team
Leaders School (1-0 course) conducted at Camp Long Thanh.
Van Buskirk's On-The-Air Confession of Killing Two Unarmed Americans
Are former Lt. Van Buskirks statements, made on camera and broadcast during
the program, outright lies or the truth? Many members of the MACV-SOG
veteran community would like to get to the truth of this matter and demand
that Van Buskirk immediately be arrested and brought to trail for the murder
of two unarmed alleged American citizens. We very strongly feel that only
when investigated in this public manner will the entire truth come out.
According to Van Buskirk, no effort was made to determine if the alleged
"American defectors" were in fact, Eastern Bloc Caucasians. This most
rudimentary of intelligence requirements is alleged to have been ignored by
the MACV-SOG team. No other ground personnel confirm his allegations.
Physical Injuries Reported
The CNN report included at statement by Van Buskirk that a building had a
stack of bodies that "looked like hamburger." Despite this, Van Buskirk
described this momentary glance as his personal confirmation the presence of
dead Americans and the prior use of chemical weapons. However, chemical
weapons simply do not cause these kind of injuries, but conventional weapons
do.
The personnel on the ground were virtually all wounded in some way by
conventional weapons. Despite these open wounds and lacking any respiratory
protection, there were absolutely no fatalities from chemical agents among
them or the also completely unprotected air crew who landed in the center of
this "nerve gas contaminated" LZ. Why? Please refer to the technical section
on the various chemical agents listed below for more complete information.
Chemical Agents
CS and CN gases are commonly used for riot control in the US and are not
considered lethal. They are visible under most conditions and can be
detected by their peppery odor. CS irritates mucous membranes and CN can
cause vomiting. Both can form toxic chemicals when burned and both can be
lethal in very high concentrations in an enclosed space to a person not
wearing respiratory protection. Both were commonly used by US forces in SVN.
BZ is an odorless, colorless, tasteless incapacitating agent that has a
range of effects and is not very predictable. It can be lethal in high
concentrations in an enclosed space to a person not wearing respiratory
protection.
GB or "Sarin" (the pre-WWII German name for the chemical) is a
non-persistent nerve agent that is colorless, odorless and tasteless. An
extremely small exposure is quite sufficient to cause significant muscular
spasms and renders the affected persons helpless in much less than an hour.
Inhalation and exposure to mucous membranes or wounds is the most common
route by which it enters the body.
Van Buskirk reported on the program that he knew that there was a chemical
agent employed at the LZ because he "could see" the wisps of vapor coming
into the area. This is highly unusual because the type of chemical agent
alleged by CNN and Van Buskirk is known to be odorless, colorless and
tasteless. This makes it impossible to detect by a person using their five
senses, until they begin to notice symptoms of exposure. The wisps of vapor
noted by Van Buskirk therefore cannot possibly be from the chemical agents
alleged. Smoke from fires set by tracer bullets fired by supporting aircraft
would be the most likely cause (standard ammunition for these weapons uses a
tracer every fifth shot). It also could have come from the standard White
Phosphorus (WP) smoke rockets typically used to mark targets by US aircraft
that were heavily supporting this MACV-SOG mission.
Van Buskirk and other ground personnel also reported the targeted "village"
as being quiet and deserted. Van Buskirk asserts that this is positive proof
of the employment of chemical agents, yet he and the others also state that
it took their company three days of fighting to reach the targeted village.
This correlation does not make sense as it ignores the three days the North
Vietnamese had at their disposal to evacuate the village in an orderly
manner. Generous amounts of loud gunfire will frighten away or silence
almost all jungle creatures, so that is a more reasonable alternative
explanation than the use of lethal chemical agents given the total lack of
obviously undamaged, but dead bodies and the stated facts that they were
under enemy fire while in the enemy camp.
North Vietnamese Army Chemical Corps and Wartime Press Releases
Consider the absurdity of the notion that Hanoi would have remained silent
about the use of lethal gas -- if we had ever used it.
Peoples Army of Vietnam (PAVN) official history of its operations on the HCM
trail (it bears their classification of Secret), PAVN's official history of
its Chemical Command, and PAVN's official history of the 968th Volunteer
Infantry Division (which was responsible for defense of the region in
question) contain not the slightest hint that the US ever used lethal gas
against PAVN forces. PAVN's concerns about our use of chemical agents was
limited to our use of CS gas - - an agent each US soldier was exposed to
during basic training and that many saw used in combat operations in SVN
The history of PAVN's Chemical Command notes the importance of capturing
American chemical munitions (e.g., CS grenades) and equipment (e.g., gas
masks) to support Hanoi's "political and diplomatic struggle" (i.e., for
propaganda purposes). It is absurd to think that Hanoi would have remained
silent if we had used lethal chemicals.
Synopsis of the Story's Factual Basis
The lack of credible evidence as shown on the program and the obvious cut
and paste approach used in an attempt to show correlating statements by
Admiral Moorer is a clear indication that CNN has failed to meet a
reasonable burden of proof in airing it's internationally inflammatory
allegations.
CNN/TIME and the Money Trail
The CNN/TIME connection with Iraq. Why does Peter Arnett of CNN make the
direct connection between the known Iraqi use of chemical agents against
it's own civilian populace to a 28 year old story from Vietnam. Arnett goes
on to directly make the point that if their story's allegations are true,
how can the United States have any moral imperative to prevent the use of
such agents by Iraq.
Remember, Peter Arnett was CNN's "Man in Baghdad" during that war and as
such was available to the Iraqi's for consultation with their agencies into
follow-up actions after the war.
When our young military personnel of DESERT SHIELD/ DESERT STORM ended that
conflict early, CNN had to return $1.34 Billion, yes billion, worth of
already collected advertising revenues, for the next 90 days. Remember that,
according to the press, this was expected to be a long war, and every
advertiser wanted to be on the "THIS IS CNN" broadcast.
While the person who reported this to me was at FORSCOM, Ft. McPherson,
Atlanta, GA, he met some of their people and they told him that the CNN
higher ups were pissed, and would get even. One of the most poignant
comments they made was "dead soldiers sell", when I asked what it meant,
they said that the desert was the ideal environment for their cameramen, no
messy foliage to cover the bodies and the blood, it would be right there for
their cameramen to send back live. Dead bad guys don't count, they need dead
US troops to make their editorial comments about, to start the American
people to get mad and then they could obtain additional ratings and revenues
covering the demonstrations. These CNN representatives said that the more
American dead the higher the ratings. When the person making this report
disclosed to them that he was in the military, they became highly distressed
and immediately silent.
In consideration of the above facts, it is reasonable to implement a public
investigation into the financial and political ties between the CNN/TIME
media conglomerate and the government of Iraq. This is a money trail that
clamors to be followed. At the very least this broadcast is an attempt by a
US-based, multinational media conglomerate to adversely affect US foreign
policy.
Technical Section on Chemical Weapons
For an accurate, user friendly technical resource on Chemical Weapons,
please refer to URL: http://nbc-med.org/search.html and search using the
name of the chemical you wish to obtain information on. I recommend using US
Army Field Manual FM 8-10-7.
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Special ops vets: Sarin never used
One Of The Three Retired Generals Calls The Claims ``An Insult;'' Another
Says Such An Operation Wouldn't Make Sense.
by BRUCE ROLFSEN Daily News Staff Writer
Allegations that Air Force special operations pilots dropped nerve gas bombs
during the Vietnam War are lies and are illogical, according to three
retired Air Force generals who oversaw special ops forces during the war.
"I think it is completely false," said retired Lt. Gen. Leroy Manor of
Shalimar.
Manor was in charge of the American effort to free prisoners of war from the
North Vietnamese camp at Son Tay and commanded Air Force special forces in
1970, the year of the alleged nerve gas attack.
Harry "Heine" Aderholt, a retired Air Force brigadier general who was a wing
commander in Thailand and later military liaison with the Thai government,
used stronger words to describe the CNN-Time magazine story that was
released Sunday.
"It's an insult to everyone in Air Force special operations. It's an insult
to everyone who flew a rescue mission," said Aderholt, who lives in Fort
Walton Beach.
The scenario presented by Time and CNN doesn't make sense because it would
have endangered pilots as well as Americans on the ground, said retired Maj.
Gen. Richard Secord of Fort Walton Beach, who worked on Southeast Asia
military and CIA operations during the conflict.
The joint CNN and Time report claimed that a military version of sarin nerve
gas called "G8" was used on more than 20 missions. The news organizations
didn't name their source for information.
The former Air Force commanders said they had never heard of nerve gas being
used during the war and nerve gas wasn't an option presented when missions
were mapped out. If nerve gas bombs were dropped, the officers would have
been in positions to have approved their use or been notified.
The generals said that CNN and Time writers had talked with them as long as
a year ago, and that the writers wouldn't accept their explanation for why a
nerve gas attack didn't happen.
The people quoted by Time and CNN may have mistaken a commonly used military
form of tear gas called "CS gas" for sarin nerve gas, the generals said. CS
gas was often dropped by special operations pilots to temporarily
incapacitate enemy forces when the Americans were trying to rescue downed
air crews. Special forces infantry troops also carried shells filled with CS
gas.
Sarin was developed by the Nazis. In 1995, Japanese terrorists used sarin to
attack commuters on a Tokyo subway, killing a dozen people.
Secord gave this typical scenario for the Air Force using CS gas.
When an airman was shot down, the North Vietnamese would often not
immediately try to capture the American in order to let him call for
rescuers. As a recovery task force of helicopters and A-1 "Sandy" Skyraiders
attack planes neared a downed pilot, the North Vietnamese would open fire.
To protect the slow-moving helicopters, the A-1s would blast North
Vietnamese positions with bombs and bullets. If assaulting the North
Vietnamese with regular bombs could endanger the downed airman, then Sandy
pilots would release bombs filled with canisters of CS gas.
Breathing in the gas would immediately make the North Vietnamese sick to
their stomachs, convulsive and unable to fight.
Although the gas also made the downed airman sick, the airman could be
carried on to a rescue helicopter. By the time the gas wore off, the
American aircraft were out of range.
During the war, A-1 pilots were trained at Hurlburt Field to drop CS gas,
Aderholt said. Because the propeller-driven planes flew so close to the
ground, their pilots had to wear gas masks to keep from breathing in gas
they released.
"To think a Sandy pilot would release sarin nerve gas doesn't make sense,"
Secord and Aderholt said. "Sarin can be lethal simply from touching a
person's skin. It could kill the A-1 pilot just as well as troops on the
ground."
Aderholt said he would have known if sarin nerve gas had been stored at any
Air Force base in Thailand where A-1 crews were located. The introduction of
nerve gas would have required more base security to protect the nerve gas
and the approval of the Thai government.
The CNN and Time report said the nerve gas attack happened in September 1970
while U.S. Army troops and their Montagnard mercenaries had been ordered to
attack a Laotian village where a dozen suspected American defectors were
living.
"I heard of two defectors but never a dozen," said Manor about reports of
Americans freely living in Laos and North Vietnam.
Aderholt recalled that in 1966, he helped plan a mission to find and bring
him back an American in the Mekong River Delta who had reportedly defected.
"There were no orders to kill the guy," Aderholt said.
The alleged defector disappeared before American troops could find him.
"If a raid into Laos had turned up Americans living in a village, the troops
would have tried to bring the Americans out alive," Secord said. "And if the
alleged defectors died in a battle, then the Army soldiers would have
scoured the area to determine the men's identities, and he would have seen
those reports."
As for the Army special forces soldiers quoted as witnessing a nerve gas
attack, the Air Force generals believe the Army soldiers mistook CS gas for
sarin nerve gas.
Secord pointed out that had sarin be used, then the Army troops would have
died because they had only gas masks, not the necessary full-body protection
clothes.
Aderholt and Secord believe their explanation of CS gas being mistaken for
sarin gas was ignored by CNN/TIME because jointly owned news operations were
out to discredit the American military.
On a wall of Aderholt's office is a picture of Jane Fonda during a war-time
propaganda visit to North Vietnam.
"You know who she is married to now?" Aderholt asked.
Fonda is married to CNN founder Ted Turner.
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Northwest Florida Daily News.
© 1997 NORTHWEST FLORIDA DAILY NEWS
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The Big Lie
On Sunday morning, 14 June, I decided to resign my position as military
analyst for CNN. Just before I left for church, I telephoned the CEO of the
CNN News Group, Mr. Tom Johnson, to give him the news. I had been CNN's
military analyst since 16 January 1991, the day the Gulf War had started.
For the past couple of years, CNN had paid me a modest retainer so that I
would be on call in case of a military crisis or war. I resigned because I
had fundamental objections to major portions of CNN's Newsstand which aired
at 10 PM eastern time the previous Sunday night (7 June).
In the Newsstand production, CNN made the case that the United States Air
Force used lethal Sarin gas to kill some American defectors in Laos during
the period 11-14 September 1970. While I watched Newsstand, I had serious
reservations in two major areas. Were there US military defectors in a group
in Laos? Did the US use lethal gas to kill them? The fundamentals of the
story just didn't ring true to me. I had flown over Laos for a year from
August, 1968 to August, 1969, amassing 130 combat sorties (as well as 50
over North Vietnam). I was the weapons and tactics officer for the 555th
Fighter Squadron which flew out of Udorn Air Base in Thailand. During that
time and since, I had never heard of the presence of a group of American
defectors in Laos or the use of lethal gas by anyone in the American
military. There had been some reports of the North Vietnamese military using
a lethal gas called "yellow rain" to kill both enemy soldiers and Laotian
civilians but not eve a rumor had ever reached my attention of the use of
lethal gas by the American military.
This story so worried me that I got very little sleep for the next week. In
some ways this was a blessing since it gave me time to surf the Internet at
night and make phone calls during the day. If I could validate the story, I
planned to support CNN's effort to shed light on this heinous act of 28
years ago. If, however, these allegations were in error, I planned to make
an effort to have CNN retract the story. I decided that the most productive
avenue of inquiry and research was not to determine if defectors were in
Laos, but if lethal gas was used. Having written six non-fiction books, I
had some experience in doing research. I quickly learned that gas had been
delivered that day by two aircraft flying out of an air base in Thailand,
Nakhon Phanom. I talked individually to both pilots by telephone and they
each told me that he had carried and dropped CS gas, which is a strong,
non-lethal tear gas. One pilot, Art Bishop, had maintained a diary which had
a 15 September 1970 notation which stated that on the previous day he had
dropped two loads of CBU-30 (CS gas).
I then went to my favorite Air Force historian of the Vietnam era. He has
helped me many times in the past, has access to an extensive data base and
has always given me carefully researched and accurate data. I asked him to
take examine the records for munitions expenditures on 14 September by A-1
aircraft flying out of NKP. By Wednesday he had the answer--CBU-30 (Tear
Gas). I asked him if there was any possibility that lethal gas was used. He
said he had examined that issue with great care and found it impossible.
There were no storage facilities for nerve gas at NKP, nor any nerve gas of
any kind there. We then discussed at length how CNN might have become
confused. He had a thesis. In the years prior to 1969, CS gas had been
delivered by a dispenser which shot the gas canisters out the back. A new
dispenser (the SUU- 13) had been designed which was quite different in that
it pushed the gas canisters straight down. If the SUU-13 was loaded with CS
tear gas, the bomb was called a CBU-15. However, if the same dispenser was
loaded with lethal nerve gas, the bomb was called a CBU-15. It is possible
that the use of the identical dispenser for both bombs may have caused
confusion between the tear gas bomb and the nerve gas bomb. By September
1970, the Air Force had been using CBU-30s in Southeast Asia for over a year
to help rescue Americans and allied troops closely pursued by enemy ground
forces.
Once I was certain that the logistics and munitions records were solid, I
decided to surf the net to try to find someone with evidence that there were
nerve agents (or even hints or rumors of them) anywhere in the combat
theater. I also made many phone calls, concentrating heavily on people who
had been stationed at NKP. I could find no one who could validate the
charge. I became convinced by Thursday morning that the nerve gas portion of
the CNN story was in error. I then attempted to get the senior leadership of
CNN to put together a major retraction of Newsstand. In the meantime, the
Newsstand producers were working on a follow-up story. Sadly, from my point
of view, it clearly was not going to be a retraction.
Having made my best efforts to get CNN to do a full retraction, I decided on
the night of 13 June (six days after the first Newsstand production) that I
could no longer serve CNN. What triggered my decision was an e-mail I had
just received from an active duty Lieutenant Colonel who was stationed at
Fort Benning. I quote one paragraph from his e-mail. (please note, when he
refers to "fast movers" he means jet fighters like the F-4, F-105, F-100
etc. ). "Sir, please assist us in regaining our honor, you "fast movers"
never let us down in SVN, you and your peers got me out of hot water many
times, so I hate to impose and ask you to once more leap into the breach. So
many of the men of SOG that ran those dangerous missions are dying now as a
result of the wounds received, the diseases that ran through them, malaria,
dengue, etc., the physical abuse one's body had to absorb in the performance
of duties, that this is having a terrible effect on them. Please don't let
their last thoughts be that once again their sacrifices were in vain, and
that the press can once again crucify us as they did thirty years ago."
At this point, my strategy was as follows. If I resigned in protest, perhaps
the CNN leadership would have a change of heart and retract the story. So
far, this strategy has failed. In fairness, CNN continues to work hard to
examine all the questions which have been raised from many quarters about
this story but as of the moment, CNN is sticking with the story that the US
Air Force used lethal gas to kill both Laotian civilians and American
soldiers who had defected. I have talked to a number of Americans who had
extensive combat experience in Vietnam and have been cleared for secret,
classified and compartmentalized military programs at the highest levels.
The most prominent of these are Colin Powell, Norman Schwarzkopf and Andrew
Goodpaster. They all have express to me their certainty that nerve gas was
not used. Also, each one is very skeptical that there were defectors grouped
together in Laos, and that the United States would ever target Americans,
even if they were defectors, for assassination.
My permanent cessation of work for CNN has caused me some sadness. CNN has
many serious journalists of very high integrity. In the past seven years,
many have become my friends. I will miss them. But this was a major issue of
integrity for me. How could I be associated with a news organization that
would not retract a story that was so fundamentally flawed.
With this Newsstand report, CNN has damaged the United States of America
quite seriously. Saddam Hussein can now accuse America of hypocrisy on the
issue of the use of lethal gas. He can use CNN as the source of his
information. In addition, CNN has badly hurt itself. CNN has sullied its
reputation with the US military as a reliable source for accurate and
up-to-date information. The next time there is a military conflict, many
people in the military will not trust CNN reporters and military analysts.
They will withhold information from CNN for fear that it will be misused. In
fact, this has already happened with one of the military services in the
aftermath of Newsstand. I predict that CNN sources will dry up, at least to
some degree. Hence CNN will, in the future, be less accurate in its
reporting of military activities. A downward spiral will probably occur. As
CNN becomes less accurate, it will become less credible and fewer and fewer
knowledgeable people will talk to CNN reporters and correspondents.
What lessons can be drawn from this episode. 1. Networks who have military
analysts on their staff should use them when a major military story is being
developed (this may seem like a "no brainer" but I was not contacted even
one time during the eight months that this story was being developed). 2.
Reporters and producers should not assume high quantity equals high quality
as far as research is concerned. 3. On military stories involving combat
action, the most reliable source for weapons use is the shooter not the
"shootee". The pilots had much better knowledge of what was shot and dropped
that day than did the grunts on the ground. (As a boy, I witnessed the
attack on Pearl Harbor. We on the ground saw lots of explosions but it was
the Japanese pilots who knew what bombs and torpedoes had been used). 5.
Media companies should be very skeptical of conspiracy theories and
assumptions that most people in the military or in government are lying or
covering up. In fact, it has been my experience after sixty-three years of
close association with military people of all ranks and all services, that,
despite some notable exceptions, the integrity of military professionals is
of the highest order.
-- Major General Perry M Smith, US Air Force (Ret.)
Perry Smith retired from the military in 1986. He lives in Augusta Georgia
with his wife of 39 years. He is the president of Visionary Leadership and
teaches leadership, strategic planning and ethics to corporations,
non-profits and military and government organizations. He has just completed
the manuscript of a biography of his father-in-law, Lt. Colonel Jimmie
Dyess, USMCR, the only person to have earned America's two highest awards
for heroism, the Medal of Honor and the Carnegie Medal. Some of Smith's
other books include "Taking Charge", "Assignment Pentagon", "Rules and Tools
for Leaders" and "How CNN Fought the War."
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THE REAL QUESTION TRAITORS OR POWs
The damage done by the joint Time and CNN investigation into the use of
sarin gas in support of Operation Tailwind in Laos in September 1970 is
perhaps irreconcilable and irreparable. The credibility of the US government
is often suspect and, despite whatever the facts may actually be, many
people will always have a nagging suspicion that our government allowed
nerve gas to be used.
The facts of the operation seem plain enough. Starting with the MACSOG
Command History, six paragraphs tell of an operation in which the
company-sized SOG unit was inserted (after the placement of a pathfinder
team) as a diversion, presumably to blow up an ammunition dump in support of
larger force actions elsewhere. Taking fire, they attempted to have their
wounded evacuated but were engaged by a company-sized force which maintained
contact throughout the night. The next day, contact continued, however the
enemy engaged in defensive fires of a battalion-sized base camp, which
seemed to be used as a supply depot. This camp was the apparent site of the
purported "round-eyes", according to some (but not contained in the command
history) they were US defectors or deserters. "Thirty-six sets of TACT AIR"
(tactical aircraft) were then used in extracting the force still under fire.
The CNN/Time investigation differs significantly from the official history.
Their reporting has the SOG company deliberately entering the area in search
of defectors/deserters with the mission of killing everyone they found. They
then called in A-1/Skyraiders (TAC AIR) and instructed them to use sarin gas
(also known as GB) to aid in their own extraction by helos.
At once we have a dilemma. Or do we? No Skyraider pilots have come forward
authenticating the story (at least one has said the opposite). The use of
tear gas by Skyraiders (especially in recovering downed US pilots) was well
known and employing it required them to also don a gas mask when delivering
the gas. Great attention has been paid to the issuing of gas masks to the
ground force in this operation when having a gas mask was a normal
requirement of all US Army personnel in Vietnam.
The major story then should have been US defectors or deserters but again
the story gets muddled. No mention of these people had occurred prior to the
CNN/Time investigation. One person involved in TAILWIND has said that the
"round-eyes" were not restrained, therefore they must have been defectors.
The Viet Cong/North Vietnamese Army were known to have operated POW camps in
the jungle. While places like the Hanoi Hilton are infamous places of
captivity, the jungle camps were hundreds of times worse hellholes. A degree
of freedom inside these camps was apparently common, precisely because they
were located deep inside the bush and most of the prisoners suffered greatly
from various jungle fevers and malnutrition -- they couldn't and wouldn't be
able to go far.
If the battalion-sized camp inside Laos had "round-eyes," it is just as
likely that they could have been captured Americans. EGRESS/RECAP
(BRIGHTLIGHT) reports were the titled means for any sighting or other
information concerning potential US military personnel being held or seen
anywhere in the area. This was an absolute -- in reporting and in the
requirement to be transmitted within a very short period of time.
There were deserters and defectors in Vietnam. In 1966, one defector was
believed to be in the Mekong Delta. At least as late as 1972, a "Salt and
Pepper" team of US defectors operated west of Chu Lai with a Viet Cong
propaganda platoon.
With the POW/MIA question lingering in the American conscience perhaps the
CNN/Time investigation should have centered on this question instead.
-- Bob Baker
Having spent the past 27 years in intelligence and threat analysis (in the
US Army and in industry), I was also the intelligence analyst for the 1st
Battalion/525th Military Intelligence Group (headquartered in Da Nang) in
1971-72.
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**
Dear Veterans:
You are being contacted in an effort to counteract a malicious campaign of
disinformation against American veterans in general, and Special Forces
soldiers during the Vietnam war in particular. The campaign was initiated by
CNN and Time Magazine on 7 June and continued on 14 June.
Very briefly, the program, NewsStand, carried an article about Operation
Tailwind, an operation that took place in Laos. The main thrust of which was
that the operation had as, at least one of its missions, (if not the MAIN
mission) the assassination of American defectors in Laos, and that in
carrying this mission out, the MACVSOG aircraft utilized nerve gas.
The editors of the program specifically refused to accept testimony from the
vast majority of troops and airmen actually involved in the operation, and
relied primarily on the testimony of one former 1st Lieutenant Van Buskirk,
who did time for arms trafficking and who was known by his associates to
fabricate and fantasize for the sole purpose of self-aggrandizement. This
individual alleges that, acting on orders from above (which no participants
in the operation can corroborate), he personally killed at least two
Americans who he believed were defectors. Moreover, this individual alleges
that nerve gas (Sarin) was utilized by the Air Force and/or Army helicopters
and that he personally was able to see vapors given off by this gas despite
the fact that one of the scientific properties of this gas is that it is
colorless, and that unlike the enemy and the montagnards involved in the
operation, some of whom were killed, all of the Americans involved survived
due to their utilization of their gas masks. Van Buskirk does not bother to
mention that the masks issued at the time to the troops in the operation
protected only against tear gas and that it would be impossible for any gas
mask to protect against the effects of Sarin which is lethal upon skin
contact alone. The editors also did cut-and-paste distortions of Admiral
Moorer, giving the impression that he confirmed the use of nerve gas
(Admiral Moorer later said, in rebuttal of the distortion of the program,
that he could not possibly have either confirmed or denied the use of nerve
gas since no mention of its existence or utilization was ever made either
officially or unofficially to him at any time.
Sergeant Graves was more vociferous in his outrage over being misquoted and
taken totally out of context in order to create an impression that was
totally contrary to the testimony that he actually delivered.
CNN's military advisor since Operation Desert Storm, Gen. Perry Smith, was
bewildered by the first program (7 June) and did extensive research on his
own. Satisfied that virtually every major point being put forth was totally
false, he confronted CNN's management with his findings and insisted upon a
retraction. When CNN refused to do so, he resigned. A copy of his statement
of his reasons for doing so is on file and can be obtained through
GreenBeret.net.
This site, operated by CPT Robert(Bob) Golden is where the moral outrage and
factual disproof of the entire military community is being channeled,
focused, and coordinated into a campaign against CNN's campaign of
disinformation deliberately and maliciously designed to defame and dishonor
the memory of our brave and valiant soldiers and airmen involved in the
operation. It is important to note that while this particular program
specifically targets only Special Forces and MACVSOG airmen, it is, in a
much larger sense, an affront and an attack on ALL military personnel. It
seeks to portray them as engaging in acts which we tend to think of as
typical of Hitler, Stalin, and Saddam Hussein. If we do not immediately
react, there is no way of telling which unit/service might be next.
We are mobilizing the entire veteran community and all sympathetic to
preserving the reputation of honor that our military men have so dearly
earned to join in our campaign to refute the lies that CNN seeks to
perpetrate against the military. It is not for nothing that Ted Turner, the
owner of CNN is frequently referred to as "Red Fred" and we all know who his
wife, "Hanoi Jane" is and how her treasonous acts displayed where her
sympathies lay. In any other period of U.S. history such acts of brazen
disloyalty would have resulted in prison time.
Accordingly, we are requesting of you the following information on either
yourself, your organization, and/or any members who you feel would like to
be kept informed of the status of this project and would be willing to
become active in this project:
Last Name:
First Name:
Rank (optional):
Handle/Nickname (if any):
Email address:
Website address:
Telephone number (bus.):
Telephone number (res.):
Fax Number:
Beeper Number (if any):
Snail mail address
Snail mail City, State, Zip
Point of contact (in case above info is not sufficient)
Computer System O/S (Win95/NT/Mac/Unix..)
Your E-Mail Program (Netscape, Eudora, Outlook, etc):
Your Computer Hardware (CPU, RAM, Hddr, Printer, Scanner, Fax, etc):
Specialized Computer or Communications Gear:
Your Strongest Skills:
How Can You Help Us To Spread The Word About The Truth Of Operation Tailwind
and CNN's Lies:
Anything Else That Would Better Help Us Utilize Your Talents and Efforts:
Thanks for your help!
George M. Forsythe
1LT, USA (dates of service: 6/71-9/74)
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarm only those who are neither
inclined nor determined to commit crimes...Such laws make things worse for
the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage
than prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater
confidence then an armed man."
--- Thomas Jefferson
Bard
Visit me at:
The Center for Exposing Corruption in the Federal Government
http://www.xld.com/public/center/center.htm
Federal Government defined:
....a benefit/subsidy protection racket!
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