WOULD-BE POW RESCUER HELD IN LAOS?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403290002-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 11, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: January 13, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/11: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403290002-5
ARTICLE APP R 13 January I98b
ON PAGE
)Woulci-be POW rescuer held
alition. "It's the hottest thing going,"
B Susan Katz Laps he said.
TM NMSHINOTON TIMES M "I won't confirm or deny or say
The State Department is investi- "I am totally satisfied that this oc- anything about the mission," said
l
gating reports that an American citi-
zen was captured in Laos last month
and is being held prisoner in its capi-
tal, Vientiane.
The unidentified man was seized
Dec. 17 while on a private financed
mission to either rescue Americans
believed held as vrisoners of war or
ether intelli ence, according to
US. and foreign sources. secon
killed or
man was reported either
captured on the same date.
The men were among four Cauca-
sians - at least two of whom were
Americans - who allegedly entered
Laos around Dec. 10. Their foray
was cut short by a gunfight with Pa-
thet Lao troops along the northwest
Laotian border. Two of the men are
thought to have escaped.
The captured American was in-
terrogated by Soviet, East German
and Bulgarian agents in Vientiane,
sources say.
"We're concerned," said State De-
partment spokesman Steve Johnson.
"We've heard the same story from
our sources in Thailand. Our people
out there are on alert to find out if
it's true. If these people were ar-
rested, they had broken Lao law. But
if people are being held, we're con-
cerned. We would certainly try to
visit them."
"They were captured," said a
spokesman from the Vietnam mis-
sion to the United Nations. He then
said the Vietnamese knew nothing
about the episode, and that the Lao-
tian Embassy would have informa-
tion.
"I have no comment on this mat-
ter," said Chanthara Sayamoung-
khoun, third secretary at the Laotian
Embassy in Washington. "Get more
details from the State Department. I
don't have much on that. I have no
authorization."
"The Pentagon is aware of all this,
and is extremely nervous about it,"
said a source close to the U.S. gov-
ernment. "I was read an internal
Pentagon report detailing the epi-
sode. They were vets who knew
some people. They were trying to
swipe POWs, or take a look at them.
They went in with armed Laotians.
They screwed up real bad."
"I have seen nothing on the mat-
ter," said Defense Department
spokesman Lt. Col. Keith Schneider.
eader of RWX Force
curred;' said Tbm Burch, president opper,
of the National Vietnam Veter is Omega, a privately run POW sup-
non. "I have tri le checked on gip based in Arizona.
my best sources These are very "I don't feel at this time that I can
c
names you wo recognize. I assure
you the Defense intelligence
gency knows all about it'"
'Calls to Charles 'Powbridge Jr.,
deputy chief of the POW/MIA divi-
sion at DIA, were referred to Lt. Col.
Schneider.
Pentagon officials are searching
for the persons who organized the
mission, according to a North Caro-
lina attorney. Mark Waple, who re-
presents Vietnam veterans Mark
Smith and Melvin C. McIntyre"m a
POW-related suit against the US.
government, said he had been con-
tacted twice regarding the botched
mission.
"Around the first or second week
in December, I received a call from
a source that I have, telling me that
people were over there and their
presence had been detected. It was
a warning, telling me if I knew who
was there, to tell them to get out.
Then I got a call from [Defense De-
partment] officials in Washington,
asking if my clients were involved.
We had nothing to do with the at-
tempt. None of my clients were in-
volved?
The U.S. government learned of
the mission in mid-December,
sources say. "We picked up radio in-
telligence on an open-line communi-
cation" said the source who knew
details of the Pentagon report.
"There was a radio intercept;'
said another source. The Pathet
Lao told the Vietnamese, 'We're
chasing Caucasians. The trans-
mission was picked up in Thailand"
Although no news of the incident
had appeared yet in the U.S. press,
Mike Lavin, chief of information
policy for the National Security
Agency, said: "I saw that item in the
paper. I know nothing about it, and
wouldn't be able to comment on it if
_I did."
"He obviously read an internal re-
port about it," said one source close
to the U.S. government.
POW/MIA special interest groups
have been trying to learn who was
behind the mission, said lied Samp-
ley, deputy national coordinator for
the National Vietnam Veterans Co-
omment on it. I don't think it woilld
be riate. I have heard the
stoiyhaven't tried any rescue
missions, but it's. not beyond the
realm of our constitution and by-
laws"
"I would never do anything or
have any part in anything like that,"
said Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot,
who was named by another rescue-
mission organizer as financier of the
botched attempt.
"I am absolutely against that type
of operation. There's a good chance
you would kill more than you would
rescue. The way to get people out is
to pay per man. released. Look at
Asia's history What happened in
Asia with war prisoners? The sons
of the wealthy got returned"
Mr. Perot said he has been in-
volved in efforts to buy POWs out of
Laos. "Sometimes we hear about
ransom payments wanted. We re-
spond to ransom requests. The price
has varied, he said, but is "do-able -
about $25,000 per man"
None of the attempts has ever
been successful, said Mr. Perot. "No-
body has ever made it. There's al-
ways a story why they haven't made
it''
"I was asked to join a group going
over Dec. 15, said the leader of Pri-
vate Delta Force, which is training
for a POW rescue mission. "They
wanted to go through China into Cam
Ranh Bay, capture some high-
ranking Soviet officers, and hold
them for ransom in exchange for
POWs."
He did not join the mission, he
said, because "I'm not into suicide'
He said he thought the mission had
been aborted.
Others who denied involvement
were Bob Creasman of the Forget
Me Nots, Tom Burch of the National
Vietnam veterans coalition, and
John Leboutillier of Operation
Skyhook U. A woman who answered
the plume at the Nevada home of
James "Bo" Gritz sod that Mr. Gritz
was out of the country, but she did
not specify where. _ .
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/11: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403290002-5