Vietnam POW Activists Called McCain ‘Songbird’ and ‘Manchurian Candidate’

[babsbunny]

http://www.pensitoreview.com/2008/02/17/in-1992-pows-accused-mccain-of-collaborating-with-vietnamese/

Among groups who oppose John McCain, the most serious charges come from a small but fervent cadre of Vietnam POW/MIA activists who accuse him of being a collaborator during his time in the Vietnamese POW camps.
Activists accused McCain of stonewalling the release of POW records because they contained evidence he had collaborated with the North Vietnamese.
They call McCain “Songbird,” and say he received special treatment. Some in the POW community even believe he was brainwashed like Raymond Shaw, the character played by Laurence Harvey in “The Manchurian candidate,” who was used as a tool by the communists to destroy America from within.

The issue boiled over in 1992 after POW families and activists felt they had been mistreated by McCain during hearings before the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs. In the video above (posted at Vietnam Veterans against McCain) which was apparently shot soon after the hearings, POW advocates and experts, as well as Republican politicians, including then-Rep. Bob Dornan of California, assert that McCain was stonewalling the release of POW documents because his own records included transcripts of interviews he gave to communist and other media outlets in which he said the U.S. military had deliberately bombed civilian targets in North Vietnam.

[BOHICA06]

1. Please .....

the NVA used torture on John McCain that left permanent disability. His cellmates pretty much thought he was going to die, and he did a few years in isolation. This a real dead horse and one that doesn't resonant well with the independents that will decide this election.

[mitchum]

2. K & R for the truth

[beachmom]

6. The truth? You have got to be kidding me.

[PoliticalAmazon]

3. U.S. left McCain et al. rotting in a POW camp for YEARS....

...I am not about to criticize any of the POWs for what they did while being tortured.

I mean, I am one rock-n-rollin' Amazon, who politically fights balls to the wall, but this is just unseemly.

[karynnj]

4. The people behind the efforts to claim that there were still POWs were shown to be cons

Senator Kerry referred to some of things they said about McCain as "beyond cruel". There is a CSPAN documentary of how they sought to determine if there were any people left behind - knowing that you can not ever completely state that that there was no chance that someone somewhere was held. Kerry himself made 14 trips to Vietnam (not easy for him) and the others on the committee did as well.

The fact is that one of the "activists" was charged with shoving a McCain staffer and another was thrown out of the hearing by Kerry.

You are entering the land of teh swiftboats.

Do you think that Bob Dornan is someone you can believe?

[beachmom]

5. Those people are crackpots who prey on families who want hope

that their loved ones are still alive in Vietnam. Shame on them.

[RamboLiberal]

7. The AHoles you are citing are no better than the lying Swiftboaters

who went after Kerry! This and the lie that McCain started the tragic fire on the Forrestal have been debunked here several times.

[Adelante]

8. No, this is not a useful direction to move in

You should stay off this tack.

[catnhatnh]

9. On Politicians and Military Records...

Unlike most right wingers he has one and it includes at very least combat time and grievous wounds.Only a stone asshole or Republican (yeah-I know-redundant) would disparage anything in a military record after the first two occur. In my personal book, the biggest heroes have scars without medals and sorrows past our ken.The best have walked where few sane men have and kept their humanity, the worst tell tales and attack the records of others.
John McCain is a charlatan and a fraud, and a hypocrite, and a political whore. That record is both public and fair game. There is no need for low blows when your opponent is so clearly doomed to defeat.

[redqueen]

10. No.