Legislature(1995 - 1996)
04/10/1995 01:18 PM House JUD
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
HJR 9 - SUIT RE POWS & MIAS AGAINST U.S & OTHERS SAM GRISWOLD, Legislative Secretary to Representative Jeannette James, Co-sponsor of HJR 9, gave a brief overview of what the Resolution proposes. It requests the state of Alaska to file a suit in the United States Supreme Court, joining other states that have already done so. Basically we would request that all documentation pertaining to those people missing in action (MIAs) and prisoners of war (POWs) would be released in order to answer the questions in controversy revolving around that issue. Number 100 NANCY GOURLEY testified via teleconference from Kenai. She spoke representing her brother who has been missing in action from Laos since February 18, 1971, and also for her uncle who has been a prisoner of war in Korea since July 5, 1950. Her family has exhausted all other efforts to obtain a proper accounting of her brother. The Department of Defense has proposed their theory on the incidents and the recovery of his remains which consisted of a single tooth. Her family has exhausted all of their efforts to find out what really happened. They have never claimed it to be probable that he survived this incident, only that it is possible. The information that has been given to them is very questionable. Documents have been fabricated. The Department of Defense will confirm that her family has been lied to. She can prove that. All in all they have been treated quite poorly as family members, in that they did not hear anything at all from the Department of Defense for over 20 years in regard to this incident. The treatment they received and the information they were provided is less than adequate for her family to feel assured within their own hearts and minds that he has passed on. They honestly felt that their family was the exception when it first came up. She did not really dispel what the government was claiming to be true at first. When they met with a number of other families for the first time, they found they were just a part of the rule, that they were no exception, that it was not just them, but it was family after family after family that had been provided this contrary information. REPRESENTATIVE JOE GREEN asked Ms. Gourley if she had been lied to by the federal government, or by other countries. MS. GOURLEY answered that she had been lied to by the federal government. LEONARD EFTA, an ex-Government Issue (GI), testified via teleconference from Kenai. The question that there may be MIAs still living is a little bit more than he can stomach. He is very glad to see this bill being introduced and hopes it will be pursued. He would like to see this issue finished once and for all. REPRESENTATIVE CYNTHIA TOOHEY asked if there was an investigation conducted about three years ago by the Bush Administration. MR. EFTA was not sure. MS. GOURLEY answered that there were the Murkowski hearings in 1986, in addition to the one that was held three years ago. REPRESENTATIVE TOOHEY asked if Ms. Gourley knew the results of those. MS. GOURLEY said that the Murkowski hearings went up in the air with the Challenger disaster. It was dropped in a pool of water. The one point they could all agree on is that the United States did leave live prisoners of war behind and that their fate is unknown. That was the only undisputed point, however, no action has been taken to pursue that issue. SUSAN ROSS testified via teleconference. Her father served in World War II, and her brother served in the Vietnam War. Neither of them became an MIA or a POW, but she has two sons that would be draft age right now, should the draft be reinstated. Her concern as a patriot is the cynicism on the part of our citizens regarding the treatment of veterans. This is relative to the cutback of deficits, the experimentation conducted on military personnel which has come to light in the media, and the apparent abandonment of servicemen in various campaigns. She felt that getting behind a bill like this would certainly put back a lot of confidence in the minds and hearts of the people, not only those who have served, but people such as her sons who might be called upon. Those people would certainly think twice about whether or not to serve their country when the payoff they will receive is to be abandoned to a hostile country by the people who were chosen to protect them as they were protecting our rights. She fully supports this bill. GARY TYNDALL testified via teleconference from Fairbanks. He is in favor of HJR 9. Similar Resolutions have been passed in 37 states so far. This one is appropriate for Alaska because of our very large veteran population, because we have a number of POW and MIA family members in Alaska, and because of the high value that we as Alaskans place on freedom. In 1973, near the close of the war, there were peace talks in which our United States government asked for the return of over 3700 POWs/MIAs by name. These were not deserters, nor people who just vanished, but they were known or suspected to be in the enemy hands. We only got back 591. Three weeks later, the rest of these (over 3100), who we had reason to believe were alive, were declared officially dead. They were written off and abandoned. There was no explanation for this conclusion or as to why their status had changed. Now, even more than 22 years later, a report was filed that had never even been opened. These people were just simply abandoned. In the last couple of years, some elements of the government have admitted that some Americans were left behind alive. We have proven electronic and photo intelligence to that effect. They had defector debriefings in both the Asian and Eastern European countries. There have been live sightings by refugees, by Europeans working in Southeast Asia. MR. TYNDALL explained there are also those Vietnamese that know a lot more than they admit. For instance, they selectively segregated prisoners, and kept detailed records of captures, losses, and shoot-downs. They even went so far as to early excavate grave sites immediately after the event in order to store American remains. It is an old practice to use prisoners and remains as bargaining chips, as they did a long time ago with the French. The records show pretty clearly that prisoners can survive for many years in captivity. For example, just a couple of years ago, the Soviets released a bunch of Japanese World War II prisoners. Just last year we had the testimony of our own long term POWs that were returned in 1973. I think all the evidence should be examined before declaring a missing prisoner dead. This should be established for our own country's future. The families have a right to examine this evidence. It is still locked up after 20 or more years. Some of it has even been shredded when asked for by investigators or Senate committees. This Resolution has the effect of Alaska's willingness to join with other states in petitioning to reaffirm these basic American rights. He encouraged the Judiciary Committee's unanimous endorsement. REPRESENTATIVE TOOHEY made a motion to adopt the committee substitute version of the Resolution, which clarifies a section on page 3, lines 10 - 14, but does not alter the substance. Seeing no objection, CSHJR 9, Version K, was adopted. Number 350 REPRESENTATIVE TOOHEY made a motion to move CSHJR 9(JUD), Version K, out of committee with individual recommendations and zero fiscal notes. Seeing no objection, it was so ordered.
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