inquiry

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

John McCain was one of the KEATING FIVE--KEEP THIS INFO HANDY

...also, House Banking Scandal posts....

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1406822/posts?page=11#11

[Calpernia]

THE KEATING FIVE

Bill Muller

The Arizona Republic

Oct. 3, 1999 12:12 PM

As a war hero and U.S. senator, John McCain's life has been chronicled in pictures.There are grainy mug shots of a young McCain, printed in U.S. newspapers after his jet was shot down over North Vietnam. There are black-and-white images of his return, grinning and waving, his hair turned prematurely gray by 5 1/2 years of malnutrition and torture in a Hanoi prison camp.In happier times, there is McCain holding his newborn daughter while his wife, Cindy, smiles from her hospital bed

.But it is an innocent vacation picture that symbolizes McCain's Achilles heel and carries the reminder of the scandal that threatened his political career.

In the picture, which was taken in the Bahamas, McCain is seated on a bandstand while wearing an outrageous, straw party hat. Next to him on the dais, a bottle tipped to his lips, sits Charles Keating III, son of developer Charles H Keating Jr.McCain calls the Keating scandal ''my asterisk.'' Over the years, his opponents have failed to turn it into a period.

It all started in March 1987. Charles H Keating Jr., the flamboyant developer and anti-porn crusader, needed help. The government was poised to seize Lincoln Savings and Loan, a freewheeling subsidiary of Keating's American Continental Corp.As federal auditors crawled all over Lincoln, Keating was not content to wait and hope for the best. He'd spread a lot of money around Washington, and it was time to call in his chits.One of his first stops was Sen. Dennis DeConcini.

The Arizona lawmaker was one of Keating's most loyal friends in Congress, and for good reason. Keating had given thousands of dollars to DeConcini's campaigns. At one point, DeConcini even pushed Keating for ambassador to the Bahamas, where Keating owned a luxurious vacation home.Now Keating had a job for DeConcini. He wanted him to organize a meeting with the regulators. The message: Get off Lincoln's back. Eventually, DeConcini would set up a meeting between five senators and the regulators.

One of them was John McCain.McCain knew Keating well. His ties to the home builder dated to 1981, when the two men met at a Navy League dinner where McCain was the speaker.After the speech, Keating walked up to McCain and told him that he, too, was a Navy flier, and that he greatly respected McCain's war record. He met McCain's wife and family. The two men became friends.Charlie Keating always took care of his friends, especially those in politics.

John McCain was no exception.In 1982, during McCain's first run for the House, Keating held a fund-raiser for him, collecting more than $11,000 from 40 employees of American Continental Corp. McCain would spend more than $550,000 to win the primary and the general election.In 1983, during McCain's second House race, Keating hosted a $1,000-a-plate dinner for McCain, though he had no serious competition and coasted into his second term.

When McCain pushed for the Senate in 1986, Keating was there with more than $50,000.By 1987, McCain had received about $112,000 in political contributions from Keating and his associates.McCain had also carried a little water for Keating in Washington. While in the House, McCain, along with a majority of representatives, co-sponsored a resolution to delay new regulations designed to curb risky investments by thrifts like Lincoln.

HESITANT PARTICIPANT
Despite his history with Keating, McCain was hesitant about intervening. At that point, he had been in the Senate only three months. DeConcini wanted McCain to fly to San Francisco with him and talk to the regulators. McCain refused.Keating would not be dissuaded.On March 24 at 9:30 a.m., Keating went to DeConcini's office and asked him if the meeting with the regulators was on. DeConcini told Keating that McCain was nervous.

''McCain's a wimp,'' Keating replied, according to the book Trust Me, by Michael Binstein and Charles Bowden. ''We'll go talk to him.''Keating had other business on the Hill and did not reach McCain's office until 1:30.

A DeConcini staffer had already told McCain about the wimp comment.When he arrived, Keating presented McCain with a laundry list of demands for the regulators.McCain told Keating that he would attend the meeting and find out whether Keating was getting treated fairly, but that was all.''Keating gave me the clear impression that he expected me to do more,'' McCain said later. ''He had several specific requests.

''When Keating questioned his courage, McCain invoked his POW experience. He told Keating that he didn't spend 5 1/2 years in the Hanoi Hilton to be called a coward.The two argued, then Keating stormed out.Despite the dust-up, McCain attended not one but two meetings with the regulators. McCain later explained that he thought it was the right thing to do, because Keating was a constituent.McCain would live to regret it.

The first meeting, on April 2 in DeConcini's office, included Ed Gray, chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, as well as four senators: DeConcini, McCain, Alan Cranston, D-Calif., and John Glenn, D-Ohio.The meeting had a clandestine air. Gray came alone. None of the senators brought their aides. DeConcini asked Gray to withdraw a regulation in order to help Lincoln. Gray shook his head.For Keating, the meeting was a bust. Gray told the senators that as head of the loan board, he worried about the big picture. He didn't have any specific information about Lincoln. Bank regulators in San Francisco would be versed in that, not him. Gray offered to set up a meeting between the senators and the San Francisco regulators.

The second meeting was on April 9. The same four senators attended, along with Sen. Don Riegle, D-Mich. Also at the meeting were William Black, then deputy director of the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp., James Cirona, president of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, and Michael Patriarca, director of agency functions at the FSLIC.In a recent interview with The Republic, Black said the meeting was a show of force by Keating, who wanted the senators to pressure the regulators into dropping their case against Lincoln.

The thrift was in trouble for violating ''direct investment'' rules, which prohibited S&Ls from taking large ownership positions in various ventures.''The Senate is a really small club, like the cliche goes,'' Black said. ''And you really did have one-twentieth of the Senate in one room, called by one guy, who was the biggest crook in the S&L debacle.''Black said the senators could have accomplished their goal ''if they had simply had us show up and see this incredible room and said, 'Hi. Charles Keating asked us to meet with you. 'Bye.' ''

'ALWAYS HAMLET'
The five senators, including McCain, seemed like a united front to Black.''They presented themselves as a group,'' Black said, ''and DeConcini is the dad, who's going to take the primary speaking role. Both meetings are in his office, and in both cases it's 'we' want this, with no one going, 'What do you mean we, kemo sabe?' ''According to nearly verbatim notes taken by Black, McCain started the second meeting with a careful comment.''One of our jobs as elected officials is to help constituents in a proper fashion,'' McCain said. ''ACC (American Continental Corp.) is a big employer and important to the local economy. I wouldn't want any special favors for them. . . .''I don't want any part of our conversation to be improper.''Black said the comment had the opposite effect for the regulators. It made them nervous about what might really be going on.

''McCain was the weirdest,'' Black said. ''They were all different in their own way. McCain was always Hamlet . . . wringing his hands about what to do.''Glenn, a former astronaut and the first American to orbit the Earth, was not as tactful.''To be blunt, you should charge them or get off their backs,'' he told the regulators. ''If things are bad there, get to them. Their view is that they took a failing business and put it back on its feet. It's now viable and profitable. They took it off the endangered species list.

Why has the exam dragged on and on and on?''Added DeConcini, ''What's wrong with this if they're willing to clean up their act?''Cirona, the banking official, told the senators that it was ''very unusual'' to hold a meeting to discuss a particular company.DeConcini shot back: ''It's very unusual for us to have a company that could be put out of business by its regulators.''The meeting went on. McCain was quiet, while DeConcini carried the ball.

The regulators told the senators that Lincoln was in trouble. The thrift, Cirona said, was a ''ticking time bomb.''Then Patriarca made a stunning comment, according to transcripts released later.''We're sending a criminal referral to the Department of Justice,'' he said. ''Not maybe, we're sending one. This is an extraordinarily serious matter. It involves a whole range of imprudent actions. I can't tell you strongly enough how serious this is. This is not a profitable institution.

''The statement made DeConcini back off a little.''The criminality surprises me,'' he said. ''We're not interested in discussing those issues. Our premise was that we had a viable institution concerned that it was being overregulated.''''What can we say to Lincoln?'' Glenn asked.''Nothing,'' Black responded, ''with regard to the criminal referral. They haven't, and won't be told by us that we're making one.''''You haven't told them?'' Glenn asked.''No,'' said Black. ''Justice would skin us alive if we did. Those referrals are very confidential. We can't prosecute anyone ourselves. All we can do is refer it to Justice.'

'After the meeting, McCain was done with Keating.''Again, I was troubled by the appearance of the meeting,'' McCain said later. ''I stated I didn't want any special favors from them. I only wanted them (Lincoln Savings) to be fairly treated.''Black doesn't completely buy that argument. If McCain was concerned about Keating asking him to do things that were improper, why go to either meeting at all?Black said McCain probably went because Keating was close to being the political godfather of Arizona and McCain still had plenty of ambition.''Keating was incredibly powerful,'' Black said. ''And incredibly useful.''McCain's reservations aside, Keating accomplished his goal. He had bought some time, though the price was very high.

SHORT-LIVED REPRIEVE
A month later, the San Francisco regulators finished a yearlong audit and recommended that Lincoln be seized. But the report was virtually ignored because of politics on the bank board.Gray was being replaced as chairman by Danny Wall, who was more sympathetic to Keating.The audit, which described Lincoln as a thrift reeling out of control, sat on a shelf.In September 1987, the investigation was taken away from the San Francisco office, away from Black and Patriarca. In May 1988, it was transferred to Washington, where Lincoln would get a new audit.It was a win for Keating. A battle, not the war.In Phoenix, the move sparked a triumphant party at the posh headquarters of American Continental.Someone hurled a computer from the second floor, shattering a window. Keating, all 6-feet-5 of him, struck a Superman pose and ripped open his shirt to display a hand-drawn skull and crossbones over the letters FHLBB - the Federal Home Loan Bank Board.

A secretary climbed onto a desk to take photos, and American Continental executive Robert Kielty joined her. Keating grabbed a roll of tape and lashed their legs together.Potted plants were knocked over. Beer and champagne were spilled on the carved wood desks. Kielty took a bottle of champagne and poured it down another secretary's blouse.''Get this champagne colder,'' Keating yelled

.Back in San Francisco, Black was fuming.''Clearly, we were shot in the back,'' he would say later.Despite the reprieve, Keating's businesses continued to spiral downward, taking the five senators with him. News of the meeting leaked out, and now all five men were answering some very embarrassing questions.''Did you lean on regulators for Charlie Keating?''''Did you get campaign contributions in exchange for your cooperation?''''Why did you protect Keating?'

'Together, the five senators had accepted more than $300,000 in contributions from Keating, and their critics added a new term to the American lexicon:Keating Five.As the S&L failure deepened, the sheer magnitude of the losses hit the press. Billions of dollars had been squandered. The Keating Five became shorthand for the kind of political influence that money can buy. The five senators were linked as the gang who went to bat for an S&L bandit.S&L ''trading cards'' came out. The Keating Five card showed Charles Keating holding up his hand, with a senator's head adorning each finger.

McCain was on Keating's pinkie.As the Keating investigation dragged through 1988, McCain dodged the body blows. Most landed on DeConcini, who had arranged the meetings and had other close ties to Keating, including $50 million in loans from Keating to DeConcini's aides.But McCain made a critical error.

In spinning his side of the Keating story, McCain adopted the blanket defense that Keating was a constituent and that he had every right to ask his senators for help. In attending the meetings, McCain said, he simply wanted to make sure that Keating was treated like any other constituent.Keating was far more than a constituent to McCain, however.

On Oct. 8, 1989, The Republic revealed that McCain's wife and her father had invested $359,100 in a Keating shopping center in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators.The paper also reported that the McCains, sometimes accompanied by their daughter and baby-sitter, had made at least nine trips at Keating's expense, sometimes aboard the American Continental jet. Three of trips were made during vacations to Keating's opulent Bahamas retreat at Cat Cay.McCain also did not pay Keating for the trips until years after they were taken, when he learned that Keating was in trouble over Lincoln. Total cost: $13,433.

When the story broke, McCain did nothing to help himself. When reporters first called him, he was furious. Caught out in the open, the former fighter pilot let go with a barrage of cover fire. Sen. Hothead came out in all his glory.''You're a liar,''' McCain snapped Sept. 29 when a Republic reporter asked him about business ties between his wife and Keating.''That's the spouse's involvement, you idiot,'' McCain said later in the same conversation.

''You do understand English, don't you?''He also belittled the reporters when they asked about his wife's ties to Keating.''It's up to you to find that out, kids.''And then he played the POW card.''Even the Vietnamese didn't question my ethics,'' McCain said.The paper ran the story a few days later.

At a news conference, McCain was a changed man. He stood calmly for 90 minutes and answered every question.On the shopping center, his defense was simple. The deal did not involve him. The shares in the shopping center had been purchased by a partnership set up between McCain's wife and her father.

But McCain also had to explain his trips with Keating and why he didn't pay Keating back right away.On that score, McCain admitted he had fouled up. He said he should have reimbursed Keating immediately, not waited several years. His staff said it was an oversight, but it looked bad, McCain jetting around with Keating, then going to bat for him with the federal regulators.Meanwhile, Lincoln continued to founder.In April 1989, two years after the Keating Five meetings, the government seized Lincoln, which declared bankruptcy.

In September 1990, Keating was booked into Los Angeles County Jail, charged with 42 counts of fraud. His bond was set at $5 million.During Keating's eventual trial, the prosecution produced a parade of elderly investors who had lost their life's savings by investing in American Continental junk bonds.

'THE ULTIMATE SURVIVOR'
In November 1990, the Senate Ethics Committee convened to decide what punishment, if any, should be doled out to the Keating Five.

Robert Bennett, who would later represent President Bill Clinton in the Paula Jones case, was the special counsel for the committee. In his opening remarks, he slammed DeConcini but went lightly on McCain, the lone Republican ensnared with four Democrats.

''In the case of Senator McCain, there is very substantial evidence that he thought he had an understanding with Senator DeConcini's office that certain matters would not be gone into at the meeting with (bank board) Chairman (Ed) Gray,'' Bennett said.''Moreover, there is substantial evidence that, as a result of Senator McCain's refusal to do certain things, he had a fallout with Mr. Keating.''McCain, the ultimate survivor, had dodged another missile.

Among the Keating Five, McCain received the most direct contributions from Keating. But the investigation found that he was the least culpable, along with Glenn. McCain attended the meetings but did nothing afterward to stop Lincoln's death spiral.Lincoln's losses eventually were set at $3.4 billion, the most expensive failure in the national S&L scandal.

McCain also looked good in contrast to DeConcini, who continued to defend Keating until fall 1989, when federal regulators filed a $1.1 billion civil racketeering and fraud suit against Keating, accusing him of siphoning Lincoln's deposits to his family and into political campaigns.

In the end, McCain received only a mild rebuke from the Ethics Committee for exercising ''poor judgment'' for intervening with the federal regulators on behalf of Keating. Still, he felt tarred by the affair.''The appearance of it was wrong,'' McCain said recently.

''It's a wrong appearance when a group of senators appear in a meeting with a group of regulators, because it conveys the impression of undue and improper influence. And it was the wrong thing to do.''McCain noted that Bennett, the independent counsel, recommended that McCain and Glenn be dropped from the investigation.

''For the first time in history, the Ethics Committee overruled the recommendation of the independent counsel,'' McCain said. ''I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that I was the only Republican of the five and the Democrats were in the majority (in the Senate).'

'But McCain owns up to his mistake:''I was judged eventually, after three years, of using, quote, poor judgment, and I agree with that assessment.''

[Calpernia]

By all appearances, John McCain would make a great president. A war hero who spent five years in a Vietnamese prison camp, his military career seems to raise him to a pedestal beyond moral reproach. He’s held a distinguished tenure in the Senate, advocating campaign finance reform and ran a presidential campaign which promised a cleaner, more ethical government. Now, after a disastrous showing on Super Tuesday, many of his top advisors are urging him to bolt the GOP and run as an independent for the White House.

The reason I fear he might is McCain saw this election as more than just a campaign — to him it was a crusade against the vile political establishment in Washington, DC. On more than one occasion, McCain compared himself to Luke Skywalker attacking the Death Star.

Luke Skywalker? OK folks, this whole “McCain is God” sham I’ve seen the senator try to perpetuate in the media has gone too far. It’s great when a candidate believes he’d do a good job as president, but when he begins to compare himself to messianic movie characters, the charade has to end.

The media’s done a fine job of showing McCain, reformer and war hero.

But there’s another side to him they don’t touch — a darker, more suspect side. And I think while we’re on the subject of Star Wars analogies, there is one character who McCain could claim some similarity: Senator Palpatine.

For those of you who didn’t see The Phantom Menace and who are oblivious to the Star Wars saga, Palpatine is the ambitious senator who maneuvers his way into becoming Chancellor of the Galactic Republic by promising to tackle corruption. But unbeknownst to most people, Palpatine has a hidden, dark side to his personality. He stealthily begins increasing his power and becomes a dictator, destroying the Republic altogether. Eventually, Palpatine becomes the shriveled up, cloaked emperor we see in Return of the Jedi.

Now I’m not saying Sen. McCain is evil like the fictional Sen. Palpatine, but they do share some common traits. For instance, McCain often exhibits a mean streak which the media have downplayed because, darn it, they like the guy.

Because he’s very accessible and candid with journalists, he often gets away with saying outrageous statements no one else could escape.

Case in point — a couple of years ago, when McCain was speaking at a Republican fundraising event, he told the following joke: “Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because Janet Reno is her father.” Not only was this quip in extremely bad taste, but McCain’s judgment was doubly asinine because at the time he was attempting to work with President Clinton to get an important tobacco bill passed. McCain admitted his idiocy and apologized to Clinton, who accepted.

But how did the media respond to that episode? Many news outlets didn’t even bother to mention it. Those that did skirted around the joke’s contents, focusing instead on McCain’s apology for a remark The Washington Post said was “too vicious to print.” I’d bet the holy hogs if Newt Gingrich or Dan Quayle had told that same joke (two men the media had little affection for) it would’ve been plastered on all the network news faster than you could spell “potatoe.”

Another time, McCain made a rather mean crack about Titanic actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who he characterized in an interview as an “androgynous wimp” who smoked too much. Now this really take the cake! Attacking Janet Reno is one thing, but for McCain to call DiCaprio, one of the most ... heh heh ... prestigious young actors of our time ... heh heh heh .... an “androgynous wimp” is not only distasteful but ... HA HA! HA!

OK, OK, I’ll let the senator off the hook for THAT one — it was a classic line. DiCaprio, who recently announced his support for Al Gore, probably had that coming anyway.

But McCain’s fierce temper is one thing which cannot be ignored. When McCain first began his campaign for president, the Arizona Republic (the main newspaper from his home state) wrote a harsh editorial stating that McCain’s temper was “volcanic” and had been unleashed often at other state officials.

The paper urged the national media to cease their lovefest with McCain and take a hard look at a man who could very well have his finger on the nuclear button one day. The Washington press took little heed of the Arizona Republic’s advice, deciding instead to focus that month on George W. Bush’s failure to know who the president of Chechnya was in a pop quiz. Many of those who did write about McCain’s notorious temper defended it by suggesting Teddy Roosevelt and Andrew Jackson had hot tempers too and they turned out to be great presidents.

Yes, tempers can sometimes be beneficial in leaders. It’s nice to have politicians who stand up forcefully for their beliefs, but McCain goes overboard — often getting downright vicious when people disagree with him. A recent article in Newsweek magazine reported that McCain called one respected senator an “a--hole.” When the senator urged McCain to observe some decorum, McCain retorted: “I wouldn’t call you an a--hole unless you were an a--hole!” In another instance, McCain called one Republican senator “a f--king jerk!” for questioning him on a policy.

So I guess it’s understandable why only four of his fellow Republican senators (out of 55) have endorsed him. Working with McCain sounds more tense than working with Jaws.

Is this the type of person we want commanding our nation’s armed forces and dealing with other nuclear powers? McCain’s heroism in Vietnam was admirable, but when choosing our presidents, it’s important we elect folks who work well with others and take criticisms in stride. I seriously doubt McCain is that type of person.

[Calpernia]

9/8/94

Opiate for the Mrs.


When laws are broken, somebody's got to be punished. In the case of Cindy McCain, that somebody is Tom Golinski.
By Amy Silverman and Jeremy Voas

You're U.S. Senator John McCain, and you've got a big problem.

Your wife, Cindy, was addicted to prescription painkillers. She stole pills from a medical-aid charity she heads and she used the names of unsuspecting employees to get prescriptions.

The public is about to find out about it.

Until now, you've managed to keep it all quiet. When Tom Gosinski, a man your wife fired, sued for wrongful termination and threatened to expose the whole sordid story, you didn't hesitate to call in the big guns.

John Dowd, the attorney who got you out of your Keating Five mess, worked on getting your wife a sweetheart deal with federal prosecutors. He also made Gosinski's lawsuit go away.

He didn't stop there.

To help maintain your reputation and discredit your wife's accuser, Dowd called Maricopa County Attorney Richard Romley and complained that Gosinski was trying to extort money. Romley, your Republican ally, promptly launched an extortion investigation.

But now New Times makes a public records request for documents in the extortion case. It's only a matter of days before the story gets out.

Here's what the senator does.

He calls in another big gun, political strategist Jay Smith, who conceives a rather remarkable plan.

On August 19--just three days before the records are to be made public--Smith parades your wife before a select group of journalist friends. She tells a tale of pain and triumph, and, incredibly, all the reporters agree to sit on the story until August 22. When Cindy McCain says her confession is intended to quell rumors and to inspire other druggies to turn their lives around, the journalists lap it up. They write about her "bravery." The first round of stories is one-sided. There is no mention of Tom Gosinski or Romley's extortion investigation.

But after a week, there is no glossing over huge gaps in the image that has been spun for the public:

€ Cindy McCain lied about drug treatment she claims to have undergone. Although she told reporters she went into a residential drug treatment program earlier this year, she told investigators she had treatment during 1991 and 1992. Whom did she lie to--investigators or reporters?

€ If Cindy McCain did undergo treatment before 1994, as she told investigators, the senator's claim that he didn't learn of his wife's addiction until this January simply defies credibility.

€ Cindy McCain and Jay Smith lied about her status with federal prosecutors. She told a Tucson reporter she had already completed a pretrial diversion program. Smith told another reporter that the case had come to "resolution." In fact, Cindy McCain hasn't even been accepted into a diversion program.

€ Jay Smith misled the Arizona Republic when he said that Gosinski had, in an act of retribution, tipped federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents after failing to get a cash settlement. In fact, Gosinski was talking to the DEA 11 months before he ever filed his wrongful termination claim.

€ Tom Gosinski no longer has a civil lawsuit against Cindy McCain. It died of neglect this summer.

While the stories told by the senator, his wife and his hired guns are rife with inaccuracies and inconsistencies, everything Tom Gosinski says seems to check out. John and Cindy McCain are now attempting to return to lives of privilege and prestige. If she gets into a diversion program and lives by its rules, she'll have no criminal record.

Meanwhile, one volunteer doctor who wrote prescriptions at Cindy McCain's behest is under investigation. He could lose his license.

And Tom Gosinski, the man who knew too much, is under criminal investigation, working two jobs and trying to put his life back together.

From September 1991 to January 1993, Tom Gosinski was the director of government and international affairs for the American Voluntary Medical Team, a nonprofit organization headed by Cindy Hensley McCain.

Gosinski says McCain started behaving erratically in the summer of 1992. He says he and other AVMT staff members became convinced she was addicted to the prescription narcotics Percocet and Vicodin. They believed she was obtaining these drugs illegally in the names of her employees and the public charity she founded.

Gosinski's multiple claims--the knowledge of which, he says, led McCain to fire him in January 1993--were central to a federal investigation, a civil lawsuit, the extortion investigation and, finally, a statewide media circus.

New Times obtained a copy of Gosinski's private journal. It covers the period from early July 1992 through January 1993. Gosinski did not grant New Times permission to print excerpts from the journal, but neither did he disavow their accuracy. The 52 journal entries, recorded during Cindy McCain's drug meltdown, paint a disturbing picture.

July 27, 1992: I have always wondered why John McCain has done nothing to fix the problem. He must either not see that a problem exists or does not choose to do anything about it. It would seem that it would be in everyone's best interest to come to terms with the situation. And do whatever is necessary to fix it. There is so much at risk: The welfare of the children; John's political career; the integrity of Hensley & Company; the welfare of Jim and Smitty Hensley; and the health and happiness of Cindy McCain.

The aforementioned matters are of great concern to those directly involved but my main concern is the ability of AVMT to survive a major shake-up. If the DEA were to ever conduct an audit of AVMT's inventory, I am afraid of what the results might be. . . . It is because of CHM's willingness to jeopardize the credibility of those that work for her that I truly worry.

During my short tenure at AVMT I have been surrounded by what on the surface appears to be the ultimate all-American family. In reality, I am working for a very sad, lonely woman whose marriage of convenience to a U.S. Senator has driven her to: distance herself from friends; cover feelings of despair with drugs; and replace lonely moments with self-indulgences.

As Gosinski observed in a September entry, the journal soon evolved into a "bitch pad" for his complaints about Cindy McCain. He also wrote at length of his concern for her well-being.

The journal entries don't tell the whole story. But certainly they add depth, providing glimpses of life with a drug-addled boss, and identifying previously unmentioned doctors who were associated with AVMT and who were drawn in--unwittingly or otherwise--to Cindy McCain's illicit activities.

Until now, Gosinski has not spoken on the record to the press. It has taken months of cajoling, Cindy McCain's public admission and the release of documents relating to the extortion investigation to convince him to open up.

Even now, he is nervous. He shows up at New Times over the weekend with an old friend at his side as a "comfort blanket." He won't sit for a portrait, although he had agreed to do so just days before. He's looking for a better job, he says, so he doesn't want his face on the cover.

And the county attorney's extortion investigation is ongoing. Although Gosinski is certain he has done nothing wrong--in fact, he may be one of the few in this story who hasn't--he also knows that might not mean much.

At 36, Gosinski is of medium build and below-average height. He's clean-shaven, with brown eyes, bristly brown hair. He knits his brow constantly, making deep grooves between the eyes. He laughs a lot, mostly from nerves, and wears a baseball cap with the hapless Wile E. Coyote embroidered on it. The cap matches his outfit: long-sleeved, hunter-green button-down and faded Pepe jeans. He's a hip, polished, well-spoken, conservative Republican.

His roots are in small-town Nebraska. Although he'd originally planned to study music, Gosinski majored in organizational communications at Concordia College in Minnesota, because he thought he'd earn a better living.

He moved to Phoenix "on a lark" 12 years ago and got a job with America West Airlines as a customer service representative. He worked his way up to middle management and a position in the airline's governmental and international affairs office. It was while he was in that post that he met Cindy McCain.

That was in 1991, and Desert Storm had just rumbled through Kuwait. McCain had asked America West for a government charter to take AVMT to aid war victims. As a reward for his assistance, she invited Gosinski along. He jumped at the chance.

When the plane touched down at noon in Kuwait City, the smoke was so thick the streetlights were on. The heat was searing. The AVMT crew slept on hospital floors and cots. Cindy McCain was a hard worker, Gosinski recalls. She slept in the hallway, lugged boxes and tended children with the rest of the volunteers.

Close friendships were formed, particularly because of the danger, Gosinski says.

"People were still stepping on land mines. People were still being shot."

After Kuwait, McCain invited Gosinski on another trip--this time to Washington, D.C., to receive thanks from Vice President Dan Quayle and dine at the McCains' Alexandria home.

The day Gosinski met Quayle, America West Airlines filed for bankruptcy, and Gosinski fretted about his future. He stayed in touch with Cindy McCain and AVMT. That September 1991, he quit America West and began working full-time as AVMT's first director of government and international affairs. Annual salary: $48,000.

Over the next two years, Gosinski's job would take him on missions to Bangladesh, Vietnam, El Salvador and, in the wake of Hurricane Andrew, to Florida.

Most of his time was spent at AVMT's headquarters in Phoenix. He also grew close to Cindy McCain and her family. He took her and the children on outings, to the state fair. He gave one of her sons swimming lessons.

Things went swimmingly, indeed, until the summer of 1992. That's when things started getting weird at AVMT. It's also when he began documenting events at the workplace in his journal.

In addition to people already mentioned, the journal's cast of characters includes Cindy McCain's parents, Jim and Smitty Hensley; Cindy's aunt and former AVMT receptionist, Jeri Johnson; AVMT employees Kathy Walker and Tracy Orrick; Cari Clark McCain, Jeri Johnson's granddaughter and Cindy's adopted daughter; John Bircumshaw, a contract fund raiser for AVMT; and doctors John Max Johnson, Tom Moffo, Francis Fote, Dennis Everton and Daniel De La Pava.

(All the people mentioned in the passages New Times is publishing have been contacted by phone, and given the opportunity to respond to comments in the journal. Only one, Everton, chose to comment.)

July 20, 1992: Well, this morning I received a call from Francis Fote, a doctor who traveled to El Salvador with AVMT. Fote called to inform me that he had visited with Cindy on Friday regarding the use of his DEA number. He asked that I tell Cindy his number could only be used in the state of New York as that is where he is licensed. I do not know what Cindy is up to but it appears as though she is trying to use several doctors' DEA #'s so that she can acquire drugs for personal use. Kathy Walker has stated several times in the past that this has been going on for quite some time and that the DEA has questioned large acquisitions of drugs such as percocet. We know that 300 percocet have been missing from AVMT's inventory and that Cindy says they are locked up at her home. I really don't know what is going on but I certainly hope that Cindy does not get herself or AVMT in trouble. I also hope that if it is necessary, Cindy is able to get help before she does herself harm. . . .

July 22, 1992: We haven't heard from Cindy today. Who knows what she might be up to. Kathy did find a DEA number from Doctor Everton on Cindy's desk this morning. . . . To date, Tracy, Kathy and I know that on Friday of last week she requested or received DEA numbers from Drs. Tom Moffo, Francis Fote . . . Max Johnson, De La Pava and Everton. I certainly hope that she does not get all of these guys in a lot of trouble.

(Everton says New Times' inquiry marked the first time anyone had asked him about his DEA number--a federally assigned code that allows doctors to dispense drugs internationally--despite his being interviewed by two DEA agents about a year ago. Everton says he doesn't recall giving AVMT his DEA number, although the organization might have had it. Everton adds that he found it odd that months after he went on his one and only AVMT mission, a staff member tracked him down on vacation and asked him to prescribe Tylenol 3--a drug similar to Vicodin--for an upcoming AVMT trip. Everton says he prescribed the drug anyway. He doesn't recall that the prescription was in any individual's name.)

July 29, 1992: Jeri Johnson said that Jim and Smitty are going to confront Cindy about her drug problem. I don't know what the end result will be but I fear that it may be the end of AVMT and my job. Should AVMT be closed down, I trust Jim Hensley will take care of all of us until we are able to find other means of income. I hate to have nasty thoughts, but this family cannot afford to have any of us leave the organization with negative feelings. We all know too much about the way Cindy and John conduct their personal lives. Not a pretty picture.

August 10, 1992: Work is the same. CHM is in Phoenix today and, as is common these days, is up to her old tricks. She told Kathy this morning that she has a call in to Dr. Moffo. I certainly hope she doesn't get him to write her prescriptions for pain pills. Also, we received a bill this morning from Professional Pharmacy for vicodin and Apap with codeine, 200 units each, the prescription written by Max Johnson. I cannot believe the amount of doctors who . . . continue to fill her prescriptions. August 14, 1992: Work started off at a relatively normal pace this morning. And then--Kathy received a call from Royal Norman at Ch 3 regarding a possible AVMT trip to Somalia. Before Kathy informed me of her conversation with Royal she told Cindy and Cindy jumped all over the issue. Now Cindy wants to airlift a load of supplies to Somalia and use Ch 3 to get the coverage she so desperately goes after. I think the whole idea is crazy as we have so much to do with the Navajos but Cindy seems intent on making it happen.

Kathy asked Cindy about the bill for the drugs I referred to in my 10AUG92 entry as Kathy has not received them for inventory for AVMT. Cindy told Kathy that those drugs and some antibiotics were sent to Micronesia with military personnel since AVMT was unable to make a trip to that area this year. To the best of my knowledge no drugs or supplies of any kind were sent to Micronesia. . . .

August 21, 1992: Cindy and John returned from the Republican convention today. John's speech last night was full of worthy messages but his delivery was less than inspirational. Cindy sounded as though she had a good time at the convention. I inquired what the president's intentions were for John and she stated that, off the record, the president may ask John to serve as secretary of defense. Everything is contingent upon the outcome of both the president's and John's campaigns--John being named as secretary of defense might mean that I would have an opportunity to move to Washington.

August 28, 1992: Work has been crazy--Cindy decided we should take a load of supplies to the Miami area to assist in the Hurricane Andrew relief efforts. It would be simple to complete the task if Cindy would not interfere with the rest of us doing our jobs, however, she is constantly stirring things up.

We are also contemplating a trip to Somalia--Mark Salter in John McCain's Washington office has stated that the State Department and the Department of Defense believe it is not safe to travel to Somalia or the northern regions of Kenya. Cindy insists that we are going to go on the trip and that it may be wise for us to pack guns. She is absolutely crazy--I don't know how to load a gun let alone shoot one. . . . September 2, 1992: This past week at AVMT has certainly been a challenge. All of us that work for Cindy have been asked to put in extended hours at night and on the weekend and have not even received a thank you. Cindy is the most demanding and thankless person I have ever met.

. . . . About Cindy's drug problem--Today Kathy asked Cindy about the invoice for drugs prescribed by Tom Moffo, the second such prescription in two weeks. Cindy stated the drugs had been sent to two different islands in the federated states of Micronesia with a Navy officer and that I had been aware of the request and AVMT's response. When Kathy told me about Cindy's statement I called Cindy to inquire about these two shipments about which I have no knowledge and Cindy changed the story and said that Kathy was confused and that what actually happened was that the shipment had in fact been sent with the Navy office but it had been so small that she had simply had him put it in his luggage--she stated the shipment was 'penicillin and a few items Dr. Moffo had put together for her.'. . .

September 3, 1992: Work is crazy as usual. The trip to Florida on Monday is on schedule--we are now traveling as a cleanup crew in blue hospital scrubs. I questioned wearing scrubs but Cindy insisted that the 'visual' is important, so--we are going to rummage through the rubble of Hurricane Andrew in scrubs.

Whatever . . . Per Mrs. McCain the AVMT schedule for the next couple of weeks is as follows: Miami cleanup from September 7 through September 11; Navajo Nation parade September 12; and depart for Somalia on September 13. Cindy must think that we have a staff of 20 as she has certainly not sat down, looked at a calendar and rationally thought about what she is suggesting we accomplish. . . .

September 29, 1992: Regardless of what happens with Cindy McCain, it is time for me to get out of AVMT. I have so little respect for Cindy and her objectives--she has made AVMT a media event--that even under the best of circumstances I do not think this organization merits existence. . . .

October 2, 1992: Well, it is done. Last night Jim and Smitty confronted Cindy regarding her dependency to prescription drugs and she admitted to her addiction. I understand that she told the Hensleys her addiction was rooted in her unhappiness--her marriage--and that she took the pills to mask her depression. The Hensleys told Cindy they knew she had a problem because of her severe mood swings and her change in character. They also said her meanness towards others was not excusable and must stop. . . . October 6, 1992: All shit hit the fan yesterday!

Jeri Johnson called Dr. Moffo to ask him not to fill anymore prescriptions for Cindy McCain. Dr. Moffo said he had not been filling any prescriptions for Cindy--it seems Cindy has been using Tom's DEA number to obtain her drugs.

Jim Hensley called Cindy this morning and told her not to use Moffo's number again. She denied she had used the number and since then has been trying to contact Moffo. God knows what she will say to Moffo if she reaches him. Also, Cindy was trying to reach Dr. John Johnson. She is either trying to do some quick damage control or she is going to set somebody up for the fall. . . .

October 7, 1992: More of the same.

Yesterday the Tom Moffo issue became more complicated. After Jim Hensley confronted Cindy with information about her using Tom's name to obtain drugs Cindy called Moffo to question him. Moffo told Cindy he would not do any follow-up, i.e., turn her in, but told her to never do it again.

This morning Cindy called me to inform me that she and Max Johnson had contacted the DEA and asked that an investigation be conducted to 'investigate allegations made against her.' She said a 'bogus' phone call had been received which made wild accusations about her and that she believed the phone call was 'political.' Cindy also said she had called the supposed originator of the call and that the individual denied ever making the call. . . .

October 28, 1992: I am still concerned about Cindy McCain's drug problem--it seems her parents are falling into a denial mode and believe that time will heal Cindy's problem. . . .

November 3, 1992: Tonight I am attending an elections return party at the McCains' home. . . . John is expected to win his race by a landslide. . . .

January 11, 1993: Cindy was in the office today--first time in a couple of months. She and I met with John Bircumshaw to discuss an April fund raiser and John's grant-writing efforts. Shortly after the meeting, Cindy, very casually told me that I won't be traveling to Calcutta next week, instead I am to stay in Phoenix to work on the Navajo Nation project. God only knows what all of this means. . . .

January 13, 1993: Chalk up another day at AVMT.

Yesterday was going great until I got a call from Cindy McCain who stated that she heard I was mad because I wasn't going to India.

I explained to Cindy that when she told me I was not going to be traveling to Calcutta I was upset because of the inconvenience that the last-minute change in plans had caused.

. . . It is evident to me that AVMT is in serious need of an organizational change. . . . Our shot gun approach to providing medical care has minimal impact when a focused approach on a specific area or type of care could significantly impact the target constituency. . . .

January 15, 1993: Well yesterday was certainly a bang!

For the first time in my life I was fired from a job. Cindy asked me to come to her office so that we might speak. She immediately handed me a termination letter and began a speech of praise. She thanked me for my contribution to AVMT, for my loyalty and stated she would be 'forever thankful' for what I had done for her newest daughter, Bridget McCain.

End of chapter.

Tom Gosinski knew something was up that day, because Cindy McCain was actually in the office. His co-workers would later tell a county attorney investigator that he took the news well, but Gosinski says his outward appearance was deceiving.

"I don't know that I was that well-composed on the inside," he says. McCain allowed him to stay through January, at his request, and offered a month's severance pay. Typed on AVMT stationery, McCain's letter read in part: "It is with deep regret and a heavy heart that I must terminate your position with AVMT. Your termination is due to the decline in contributions and our inability to continue to pay you at this time. Your service both to a small nonprofit such as we are and more importantly to the suffering peoples of the world is commendable. . . ." She offered her assistance in finding another job and signed the letter "Respectfully."

Fellow workers Orrick and Walker took Gosinski to Lombardi's restaurant at Arizona Center for a farewell lunch on his last day; McCain was invited, but didn't attend. Gosinski was hurt.

Hurt turned to disbelief, he says, when he learned he was not eligible for unemployment benefits because AVMT, as a nonprofit organization, has the luxury of opting not to pay into the kitty.

Gosinski suspected that prescriptions had been filled in his name without his knowledge. So in February 1993, a month after his termination, Gosinski met with a representative from the DEA whose name he refuses to reveal. A DEA official confirms that Gosinski first contacted the agency in "early 1993."

He says he did not go to the DEA intending to blow the whistle, but was concerned that his name might become embroiled in a future investigation. He posed what he calls a "what if" scenario: "If a person knows that prescriptions have been written in their name, and they never met with the doctor and they don't know the whereabouts of the drugs, what is their responsibility? And I was told it was my responsibility to turn it in. So at that moment I began to cooperate with the DEA."

Gosinski says he told the DEA of his suspicions, and an agent called Gosinski back to show him copies of two prescriptions written in his name, by Dr. Max Johnson at Cindy McCain's behest. Gosinski says he told the DEA he had no knowledge of the prescriptions. Gosinski says he went to Lahr Pharmacy in north-central Phoenix and asked if any prescriptions had been filled in his name. Indeed, two had; the pharmacist gave him copies, he says.

It had been months since his departure from AVMT, and he couldn't find a job. After sending out hundreds of r¹sum¹s for positions in government relations and personnel, he took a part-time job at a gift shop owned by friends. He was humiliated and broke. In late 1993, he was hired as a salesman at Borders Books & Music in Phoenix. He applied with his old employer, America West, as a new hire and got a job selling tour packages. Gosinski works 80 hours a week and makes half of what he made at AVMT. The more he thought about AVMT, the more he became convinced that he had been wrongfully terminated. He believed that after Cindy McCain learned that he was bellyaching about prescription-writing practices--and

after John McCain had been sworn into the U.S. Senate--he became expendable. Under state law, he had just one year from the day he was fired to file a civil lawsuit against his former employer. A local labor attorney, Stan Lubin, agreed to take his case on a contingency basis, but warned Gosinski he wouldn't represent him if the case went to court--unless Gosinski could scrape together the money to pay him up-front. Gosinski filed his lawsuit in January 1994, but kept his complaint vague and withheld specific allegations about Cindy McCain. In February, Lubin wrote a letter to one of McCain's attorneys, Gary Stuart, asking for a $250,000 settlement.

After Lubin withdrew, Gosinski searched for a new attorney, but none would take on a case against Cindy McCain. He missed subsequent deadlines to file amendments to his complaint and keep it alive.

"There is no lawsuit. It expired July 11," Stuart tells New Times.

While his civil claim was withering away, a criminal investigation of Tom Gosinski was going strong.

Cindy McCain can thank her attorney, John Dowd, for thrusting the story of her drug addiction into the public realm. If Dowd had not insisted that the county attorney investigate Tom Gosinski's alleged extortion of Cindy McCain, accounts of her pill-popping likely would have remained on the cocktail circuit.

But that's Dowd's style. He's got lots of political muscle and he doesn't hesitate to flex it. The former federal prosecutor, now in private law practice in Washington, D.C., has become a fixture on the Arizona political landscape in recent years.

He represented John McCain during the Keating Five hearings, and although McCain was rebuked for his role, the senator was treated with relative lenience.

Dowd orchestrated Governor Fife Symington's favorable settlement of a $210 million suit filed against the governor by the federal Resolution Trust Corporation. Symington and Dowd attacked the governor's accusers. At one point during the ruckus, Dowd got an enterprising Mesa Tribune reporter yanked off the story by challenging him to a fistfight. When the reporter accepted--in front of a group of horrified editors--Dowd achieved his goal. (The reporter, John Dougherty, now writes for New Times.)

Dowd also served as Major League Baseball's special prosecutor in the Pete Rose and George Steinbrenner cases, relentlessly pursuing and eventually getting both men suspended. But in demolishing his quarry, Dowd's heavy-handed tactics also bloodied the office of baseball's commissioner. In his book Lords of the Realm, which examines baseball's labor history, author John Helyar describes Dowd as a "blunderbuss." That description seems apt in the Cindy McCain case.

Without Dowd, Tom Gosinski's claims against McCain and AVMT were going nowhere. His fleeting contacts with reporters were bearing no fruit. New Times interviewed Gosinski on several occasions, but he was unwilling to go on the record with his allegations. The Arizona Republic caught wind of the story and made inquiries, too.

Gosinski's assertion that Cindy McCain was addicted to painkillers required corroboration, some kind of official documentation, and when Dowd persuaded County Attorney Richard Romley to launch his extortion investigation, Dowd unwittingly provided it.

In a "confidential" April 28 letter to Romley, Dowd blurted, "We believe that Mr. Gosinski is aware that in the past Cindy had an addiction to prescription painkillers. . . . Given Cindy's public position, exposure of this sensitive matter would harm her reputation, career, the operation of AVMT, and subject her to contempt and ridicule." There it was. On the record. In John Dowd's own words.

What was in it for Romley? To Romley, the extortion investigation must have appeared to be a no-lose situation. He could take comfort in the knowledge that the DEA and the U.S. Attorney were already probing drug acquisition and handling at AVMT. The feds normally refer cases of prescription fraud to state courts, but federal sources say that because of the possibility that ill-gotten drugs had been transported out of the country, the DEA and U.S. Attorney retained jurisdiction.

That left Romley free to go after Gosinski without much fear of damaging the McCains. On May 12, Romley's office launched its extortion probe.

An edited version of the investigative report was released August 22, jarred loose by a New Times public records request. Because the McCain camp was informed that the report was to be released, there was time to set up Cindy McCain's confessions before the agreeable journalists, none of whom was aware that the report was to be released. Barnett Lotstein, special assistant county attorney, says the office has prosecuted an average of 14 extortion charges each year since 1988. He says the Gosinski investigation is "substantially complete," but that no decision has been made on whether Gosinski will be prosecuted.

Lotstein also says it is common to provide complainants--in this case, Dowd, et al.--with opportunities to edit investigative reports before they are made public. Lotstein says Dowd and company were not shown the report, "but they did assert their privacy interests with regard to certain privacy issues."

Asked repeatedly to cite another example where complainants had been allowed to such access, Lotstein says, "I don't have a specific case, but I can tell you that it's the normal procedure."

As a sometimes-special prosecutor is wont to do, John Dowd left his mark on the county attorney's investigation. About one-fourth of the 200-plus pages in the report consists of Dowd submissions, including a 26-page diatribe dated June 14 that reads like an insider's summary of the investigation to that point.

Dowd met with the investigators on at least one occasion, June 27. And the phone lines between Dowd's D.C. office and the County Attorney's Office apparently were buzzing.

The report indicates that Dowd landed some blows, and took some as well. Portions of it seem to buttress Dowd's claim that Tom Gosinski was attempting "a shakedown." Gosinski's colleagues at AVMT heard him say he would be willing to use what he knew about Cindy McCain to enrich himself.

AVMT employee Tracy Orrick told investigators Gosinski "would make comments like, 'I wonder how much Cindy's father would pay to keep this quiet,' referring to gossip around the office."

Kathy Walker--who is identified in the report as being "employed by Hensley & Company as Cindy McCain's Administrative Assistant and Director of Operations" of AVMT--told investigators that Gosinski told her in November 1992 that "I'm going to get her [McCain], I'm going to blackmail her if she ever fires me."

Gosinski denies ever threatening to blackmail McCain, and says he's saddened by Orrick's and Walker's statements. Gosinski claims that Walker and Orrick often joined in speculation about their job security, based on their observations of Cindy McCain. "I truly don't understand that," he says. "I think it's noteworthy, though, that Kathy Walker is still employed by Mrs. McCain, as is Tracy [Orrick], and that Kathy Walker, in fact, picked up prescriptions written in [Walker's] name by a doctor and had them filled even though she had no need for them."

Indeed, both Orrick and Walker told investigators that they became aware that prescriptions for controlled substances were being written in their names, and Dr. John Max Johnson, AVMT's medical director, admitted writing prescriptions in the names of Orrick, Walker and Gosinski.

Orrick told investigators that when Gosinski learned that prescriptions had been written in Orrick's and Walker's names, he declared, "They'd better not be doing that in my name."

Some prescriptions were for quantities of 400 and 500 pills. Sometimes, Cindy McCain would go to Johnson's home to pick up the prescription. Sometimes, she would send an underling, Johnson said.

Johnson told investigators that he never dispensed any painkillers during overseas missions, and that Cindy McCain carried the drugs in her personal luggage. Gosinski says he knew of no doctors who prescribed them on an overseas mission. Dr. Dennis Everton, however, tells New Times that on his sole AVMT mission--to Kuwait in 1991--he did prescribe pain medication.

Johnson told investigators that he wrote prescriptions in employees' names even though he knew it was improper. Johnson said he also wrote two prescriptions for painkillers for Cindy McCain, although he was unaware that she was addicted to them. Johnson is being investigated by the Arizona Board of Medical Examiners, which has the power to revoke or suspend his license.

The report raises questions about Walker's veracity. Orrick told investigators that after Gosinski was fired, she received four or five inquiries from prospective employers. She says he forwarded the calls to Walker after specifically informing her of their nature. When Walker was interviewed separately, however, she denied receiving inquiries from prospective employers. Instead, she stated that unidentified people had called, asking where Gosinski could be located.

"Ms. Walker seemed somewhat confused on this issue but stated that no prospective employers had called her," the investigative report states. "It should be noted that Tracy Orrick previously stated that four or five prospective employers did call AVMT requesting to speak with the personnel manager. Tracy said she turned these calls over to Kathy Walker."

The discrepancy may be significant, because although he has yet to offer solid proof, Gosinski believes that AVMT sabotaged his job prospects elsewhere. It also seems noteworthy that throughout the wide-ranging county extortion probe, nobody from AVMT was asked to verify the condition of the organization's finances at the time Gosinski was fired because of a funding shortfall. AVMT appears to be intertwined with Hensley & Company, the beer distributorship owned by Cindy McCain's father. In fact, when Gosinski was hired at AVMT, he filled out an employment form from Hensley & Company.

In letters urging county investigators onward, Dowd asserts that Stan Lubin, who initially represented Gosinski in his lawsuit against AVMT and Cindy McCain, was persuaded to quit the case after meeting with Dowd and fellow AVMT attorney Gary Stuart in February and March of 1994. "We informed Mr. Lubin that Mr. Gosinski's allegations were false and presented facts refuting the allegations," Dowd wrote. "As a result of the meetings, Mr. Lubin decided to terminate his representation of Mr. Gosinski."

Not so, says Lubin.

"For him to say that I withdrew because of so-called irrefutable evidence is an absolute lie. I never said that," Lubin tells New Times.

In his February 4 demand letter to McCain's lawyers, Lubin wrote, "Due to the sensitive nature of the circumstances surrounding her actions, Mr. Gosinski has kept the allegations in the complaint very general. . . . I am sure you recognize what he has done to keep the sensitive matters from exposure."

He also stated that Gosinski was willing to settle the suit for $250,000.

What John Dowd views as extortion, Gosinski and Lubin view as compassion. "Based upon what I knew at the time, and what I think today, he [Gosinski] was wronged," Lubin says. "He was treated badly. And I think he has some legal remedies. "What's wrong, then, with writing a demand letter and saying in it, 'Hey, nobody needs publicity. Let's resolve this. We have a legitimate claim. Let's resolve this quietly.' . . . And so I said what I said with that in mind. And I'm not going to retract one word of it.

"Dowd is trying to make a lot of noise with it, but, good God, look at what he's doing. He's threatening someone with criminal action if he files a lawsuit. . . . There's a lot of things that get done that you try to keep quiet, not because of any evil motive but because you have some compassion. And this is what's happened to Gosinski, who said to me, 'Good idea, yes, let's keep it quiet. I don't need any ink. They don't need any ink. This woman is ill. We don't need ink. I just want to be remedied.' "That is not extortion. To claim that it is is bullshit."

John Dowd may have unleashed the media hounds on Cindy McCain, and he might never get an extortion charge filed against Gosinski. But local defense attorneys who have monitored the case say there is little doubt that he has secured a highly favorable deal for his client with federal prosecutors. First and foremost, the case has remained a federal one. That's unusual.

"Federal prosecutors routinely throw this stuff to state prosecutors," says one Phoenix attorney. "The DEA and the U.S. Attorney's Office are not in the habit of popping penny-ante drug offenders."

Second, the federal pretrial diversion program requires complete confidentiality, which is required at this stage of the investigation in any case. Moreover, although it is not clear what laws the feds believe Cindy McCain has broken, it seems likely that her offenses would be treated as misdemeanors.

"At worst, she probably could have gotten ten to 16 months," says one defense attorney who researched federal sentencing guidelines. He adds that under federal guidelines, McCain looks like a good candidate for diversion.

Another defense attorney says that in cases like McCain's, it is not uncommon for prosecutors to attempt to seize the offender's property, which, among other things, would include an interest in Hensley & Company and the McCains' North Central Avenue residence.

That attorney also says that Cindy McCain and John Dowd have done a service to other drug offenders.

"We're certainly going to jump on this when we have a client in a similar position," he says. "When we have a client that's charged in this same kind of 'script' writing, if the behavior is milder than Cindy McCain's, we should be getting diversion." State courts would have offered a much greater challenge for Dowd and his client. "If she were charged in state court--and there is an offense that fits her case to a T--she's looking at Class 3 felonies," says one defense attorney. "If we assume conservatively that there were six separate counts, her liability in state court is astronomical. She could have been looking at ten to 20 years, with a presumptive sentence of 11.25 years and two-thirds served before she would be eligible for parole.

"If I had a client named Jos¹ Lopez, I'm not so sure we wouldn't be looking at that."

Doug McEachern, a reporter for Tribune Newspapers, was one of the chosen few who was leaked the Cindy McCain saga. The resulting August 22 lead paragraph: "She was blonde and beautiful. A rich man's daughter who became a politically powerful man's wife. She had it all, including an insidious addiction to drugs that sapped the beauty from her life like a spider on a butterfly."

As most East Valley residents were fathoming McEachern's piece that Monday morning, New Times and the Arizona Republic were securing copies of Romley's investigative report. (The Republic, acting on a tip, made a public records request for the report that very morning; New Times' had been made 19 days earlier.) Armed with the report, the Republic, which had been left out of the Cindy McCain exclusives, carried a front-page story on Tuesday morning that told of Tom Gosinski's lawsuit and the extortion investigation.

McEachern, a veteran political reporter, knew he had been had. "I'm not so sure it was a lie," McEachern says of the spin job. "It was hedging the truth."

McEachern dashed back to the subject like a lemming on a cliff. In an August 24 analysis, he attempted to explain why he'd only reported half the story the first time around. Again, he employed imagery: "News is not static. It flows like summer rain down a wash. The first bubbling rivulets coming down over the rocks may carry just a few nuggets of a big story. Later, as details become clear, the story eventually may build into a raging, foaming torrent."

If there was no torrent, a steady trickle fell on the McCain camp over the next week. The Republic, apparently piqued at being stiffed on the initial story, carried reports about Cindy McCain's drug habit on the front page every day during the week, and ran another piece on B1 on Saturday.

And all the while, key facts were out of whack. Steve Meissner of the Arizona Daily Star reported that Cindy McCain had completed "a diversion program established by the U.S. Attorney's Office."

Meissner says both Smith and Cindy McCain told him that she had completed a diversion program. "Then they put out a statement saying that--quote, inaccurate press accounts, unquote--had made it sound as though she had already completed the diversion program," Meissner says. "So I confronted them to that effect, and Jay Smith said that he was telling me what the lawyers were authorizing him to say and he said he didn't know what a diversion program was."

All of the McCain camp's wild talk of the diversion program and twisted investigation chronology no doubt rankled federal prosecutors and DEA agents, who are not able to comment on a case under investigation. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Phoenix actually issued Cindy McCain's statement about the inaccurate press accounts. The release went on to say that she had merely applied for the diversion program. The statement also indicated that McCain had agreed to reorganize AVMT, and pay for the cost of the federal investigation.

Accounts of Cindy McCain's drug treatment and exactly when her husband learned of her addiction don't jibe.

Phoenix Gazette columnist John Kolbe, who compared Cindy McCain's addiction to her husband's captivity in a Vietnamese POW camp, devoted a paragraph to the revelation that it was John Dowd who informed the senator that his wife was an addict in January 1994. County records show that Dowd was representing Cindy McCain in talks with the DEA in May 1993.

Both Kolbe and McEachern reported that McCain had checked into a drug rehab clinic in Wickenburg earlier this year.

But in their report, county attorney's investigators state flatly: "Mrs. McCain admits that she acquired a drug dependency for Percocet because of a back problem and received rehabilitation in Wickenburg Arizona in 1991 & 1992."

Dowd, after agreeing to a phone interview with New Times on Monday afternoon, changed his mind. Jay Smith and John and Cindy McCain did not respond to requests for interviews.

As is his habit, Tom Gosinski rose on Monday, August 22, and turned on a morning news show. He was nearly floored by what he heard.

"They announced that in the next segment they would be discussing Mrs. McCain . . . and that she was a drug addict," he says.

"I had no idea the story was coming out."

After more than two years of tumult, Gosinski felt a tremendous burden slip from his shoulders. That morning, co-workers at America West who had doubted Gosinski's claims approached him to apologize.

"I felt really good that the story was out. . . . I also felt like this thing was coming clean--everything that I had said, everything that I had suggested to the DEA when I first went to them and everything that I had been talking about for a year and a half." That was Monday. On Tuesday, news of Romley's extortion investigation broke. Reporters flocked to Gosinski's workplace, seeking interviews. By Thursday, the papers were quoting John McCain as calling Gosinski a liar.

By Saturday, Gosinski was almost too rattled to tell his side of the story. But he did. After nearly five hours of answering questions, he struggles to answer a query about his feelings toward Cindy McCain.

"I feel bad for Cindy. And I truly do. Cindy was an addict; she's admitted to it. [But] I don't think that excuses the things she's done to obtain drugs or the way she treated people."You're U.S. Senator John McCain, and you've got a big problem.

Your wife, Cindy, was addicted to prescription painkillers. She stole pills from a medical-aid charity she heads and she used the names of unsuspecting employees to get prescriptions.

The public is about to find out about it.

Until now, you've managed to keep it all quiet. When Tom Gosinski, a man your wife fired, sued for wrongful termination and threatened to expose the whole sordid story, you didn't hesitate to call in the big guns.

John Dowd, the attorney who got you out of your Keating Five mess, worked on getting your wife a sweetheart deal with federal prosecutors. He also made Gosinski's lawsuit go away.

He didn't stop there.

To help maintain your reputation and discredit your wife's accuser, Dowd called Maricopa County Attorney Richard Romley and complained that Gosinski was trying to extort money. Romley, your Republican ally, promptly launched an extortion investigation.

But now New Times makes a public records request for documents in the extortion case. It's only a matter of days before the story gets out.

Here's what the senator does.

He calls in another big gun, political strategist Jay Smith, who conceives a rather remarkable plan.

On August 19--just three days before the records are to be made public--Smith parades your wife before a select group of journalist friends. She tells a tale of pain and triumph, and, incredibly, all the reporters agree to sit on the story until August 22. When Cindy McCain says her confession is intended to quell rumors and to inspire other druggies to turn their lives around, the journalists lap it up. They write about her "bravery." The first round of stories is one-sided. There is no mention of Tom Gosinski or Romley's extortion investigation.

But after a week, there is no glossing over huge gaps in the image that has been spun for the public:

€ Cindy McCain lied about drug treatment she claims to have undergone. Although she told reporters she went into a residential drug treatment program earlier this year, she told investigators she had treatment during 1991 and 1992. Whom did she lie to--investigators or reporters?

€ If Cindy McCain did undergo treatment before 1994, as she told investigators, the senator's claim that he didn't learn of his wife's addiction until this January simply defies credibility.

€ Cindy McCain and Jay Smith lied about her status with federal prosecutors. She told a Tucson reporter she had already completed a pretrial diversion program. Smith told another reporter that the case had come to "resolution." In fact, Cindy McCain hasn't even been accepted into a diversion program.

€ Jay Smith misled the Arizona Republic when he said that Gosinski had, in an act of retribution, tipped federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents after failing to get a cash settlement. In fact, Gosinski was talking to the DEA 11 months before he ever filed his wrongful termination claim.

€ Tom Gosinski no longer has a civil lawsuit against Cindy McCain. It died of neglect this summer.

While the stories told by the senator, his wife and his hired guns are rife with inaccuracies and inconsistencies, everything Tom Gosinski says seems to check out. John and Cindy McCain are now attempting to return to lives of privilege and prestige. If she gets into a diversion program and lives by its rules, she'll have no criminal record.

Meanwhile, one volunteer doctor who wrote prescriptions at Cindy McCain's behest is under investigation. He could lose his license.

And Tom Gosinski, the man who knew too much, is under criminal investigation, working two jobs and trying to put his life back together.

From September 1991 to January 1993, Tom Gosinski was the director of government and international affairs for the American Voluntary Medical Team, a nonprofit organization headed by Cindy Hensley McCain.

Gosinski says McCain started behaving erratically in the summer of 1992. He says he and other AVMT staff members became convinced she was addicted to the prescription narcotics Percocet and Vicodin. They believed she was obtaining these drugs illegally in the names of her employees and the public charity she founded.

Gosinski's multiple claims--the knowledge of which, he says, led McCain to fire him in January 1993--were central to a federal investigation, a civil lawsuit, the extortion investigation and, finally, a statewide media circus.

New Times obtained a copy of Gosinski's private journal. It covers the period from early July 1992 through January 1993. Gosinski did not grant New Times permission to print excerpts from the journal, but neither did he disavow their accuracy. The 52 journal entries, recorded during Cindy McCain's drug meltdown, paint a disturbing picture.

July 27, 1992: I have always wondered why John McCain has done nothing to fix the problem. He must either not see that a problem exists or does not choose to do anything about it. It would seem that it would be in everyone's best interest to come to terms with the situation. And do whatever is necessary to fix it. There is so much at risk: The welfare of the children; John's political career; the integrity of Hensley & Company; the welfare of Jim and Smitty Hensley; and the health and happiness of Cindy McCain.

The aforementioned matters are of great concern to those directly involved but my main concern is the ability of AVMT to survive a major shake-up. If the DEA were to ever conduct an audit of AVMT's inventory, I am afraid of what the results might be. . . . It is because of CHM's willingness to jeopardize the credibility of those that work for her that I truly worry.

During my short tenure at AVMT I have been surrounded by what on the surface appears to be the ultimate all-American family. In reality, I am working for a very sad, lonely woman whose marriage of convenience to a U.S. Senator has driven her to: distance herself from friends; cover feelings of despair with drugs; and replace lonely moments with self-indulgences.

As Gosinski observed in a September entry, the journal soon evolved into a "bitch pad" for his complaints about Cindy McCain. He also wrote at length of his concern for her well-being.

The journal entries don't tell the whole story. But certainly they add depth, providing glimpses of life with a drug-addled boss, and identifying previously unmentioned doctors who were associated with AVMT and who were drawn in--unwittingly or otherwise--to Cindy McCain's illicit activities.

Until now, Gosinski has not spoken on the record to the press. It has taken months of cajoling, Cindy McCain's public admission and the release of documents relating to the extortion investigation to convince him to open up.

Even now, he is nervous. He shows up at New Times over the weekend with an old friend at his side as a "comfort blanket." He won't sit for a portrait, although he had agreed to do so just days before. He's looking for a better job, he says, so he doesn't want his face on the cover.

And the county attorney's extortion investigation is ongoing. Although Gosinski is certain he has done nothing wrong--in fact, he may be one of the few in this story who hasn't--he also knows that might not mean much.

At 36, Gosinski is of medium build and below-average height. He's clean-shaven, with brown eyes, bristly brown hair. He knits his brow constantly, making deep grooves between the eyes. He laughs a lot, mostly from nerves, and wears a baseball cap with the hapless Wile E. Coyote embroidered on it. The cap matches his outfit: long-sleeved, hunter-green button-down and faded Pepe jeans. He's a hip, polished, well-spoken, conservative Republican.

His roots are in small-town Nebraska. Although he'd originally planned to study music, Gosinski majored in organizational communications at Concordia College in Minnesota, because he thought he'd earn a better living.

He moved to Phoenix "on a lark" 12 years ago and got a job with America West Airlines as a customer service representative. He worked his way up to middle management and a position in the airline's governmental and international affairs office. It was while he was in that post that he met Cindy McCain.

That was in 1991, and Desert Storm had just rumbled through Kuwait. McCain had asked America West for a government charter to take AVMT to aid war victims. As a reward for his assistance, she invited Gosinski along. He jumped at the chance.

When the plane touched down at noon in Kuwait City, the smoke was so thick the streetlights were on. The heat was searing. The AVMT crew slept on hospital floors and cots. Cindy McCain was a hard worker, Gosinski recalls. She slept in the hallway, lugged boxes and tended children with the rest of the volunteers.

Close friendships were formed, particularly because of the danger, Gosinski says.

"People were still stepping on land mines. People were still being shot."

After Kuwait, McCain invited Gosinski on another trip--this time to Washington, D.C., to receive thanks from Vice President Dan Quayle and dine at the McCains' Alexandria home.

The day Gosinski met Quayle, America West Airlines filed for bankruptcy, and Gosinski fretted about his future. He stayed in touch with Cindy McCain and AVMT. That September 1991, he quit America West and began working full-time as AVMT's first director of government and international affairs. Annual salary: $48,000.

Over the next two years, Gosinski's job would take him on missions to Bangladesh, Vietnam, El Salvador and, in the wake of Hurricane Andrew, to Florida.

Most of his time was spent at AVMT's headquarters in Phoenix. He also grew close to Cindy McCain and her family. He took her and the children on outings, to the state fair. He gave one of her sons swimming lessons.

Things went swimmingly, indeed, until the summer of 1992. That's when things started getting weird at AVMT. It's also when he began documenting events at the workplace in his journal.

In addition to people already mentioned, the journal's cast of characters includes Cindy McCain's parents, Jim and Smitty Hensley; Cindy's aunt and former AVMT receptionist, Jeri Johnson; AVMT employees Kathy Walker and Tracy Orrick; Cari Clark McCain, Jeri Johnson's granddaughter and Cindy's adopted daughter; John Bircumshaw, a contract fund raiser for AVMT; and doctors John Max Johnson, Tom Moffo, Francis Fote, Dennis Everton and Daniel De La Pava.

(All the people mentioned in the passages New Times is publishing have been contacted by phone, and given the opportunity to respond to comments in the journal. Only one, Everton, chose to comment.)

July 20, 1992: Well, this morning I received a call from Francis Fote, a doctor who traveled to El Salvador with AVMT. Fote called to inform me that he had visited with Cindy on Friday regarding the use of his DEA number. He asked that I tell Cindy his number could only be used in the state of New York as that is where he is licensed. I do not know what Cindy is up to but it appears as though she is trying to use several doctors' DEA #'s so that she can acquire drugs for personal use. Kathy Walker has stated several times in the past that this has been going on for quite some time and that the DEA has questioned large acquisitions of drugs such as percocet. We know that 300 percocet have been missing from AVMT's inventory and that Cindy says they are locked up at her home. I really don't know what is going on but I certainly hope that Cindy does not get herself or AVMT in trouble. I also hope that if it is necessary, Cindy is able to get help before she does herself harm. . . .

July 22, 1992: We haven't heard from Cindy today. Who knows what she might be up to. Kathy did find a DEA number from Doctor Everton on Cindy's desk this morning. . . . To date, Tracy, Kathy and I know that on Friday of last week she requested or received DEA numbers from Drs. Tom Moffo, Francis Fote . . . Max Johnson, De La Pava and Everton. I certainly hope that she does not get all of these guys in a lot of trouble.

(Everton says New Times' inquiry marked the first time anyone had asked him about his DEA number--a federally assigned code that allows doctors to dispense drugs internationally--despite his being interviewed by two DEA agents about a year ago. Everton says he doesn't recall giving AVMT his DEA number, although the organization might have had it. Everton adds that he found it odd that months after he went on his one and only AVMT mission, a staff member tracked him down on vacation and asked him to prescribe Tylenol 3--a drug similar to Vicodin--for an upcoming AVMT trip. Everton says he prescribed the drug anyway. He doesn't recall that the prescription was in any individual's name.)

July 29, 1992: Jeri Johnson said that Jim and Smitty are going to confront Cindy about her drug problem. I don't know what the end result will be but I fear that it may be the end of AVMT and my job. Should AVMT be closed down, I trust Jim Hensley will take care of all of us until we are able to find other means of income. I hate to have nasty thoughts, but this family cannot afford to have any of us leave the organization with negative feelings. We all know too much about the way Cindy and John conduct their personal lives. Not a pretty picture.

August 10, 1992: Work is the same. CHM is in Phoenix today and, as is common these days, is up to her old tricks. She told Kathy this morning that she has a call in to Dr. Moffo. I certainly hope she doesn't get him to write her prescriptions for pain pills. Also, we received a bill this morning from Professional Pharmacy for vicodin and Apap with codeine, 200 units each, the prescription written by Max Johnson. I cannot believe the amount of doctors who . . . continue to fill her prescriptions. August 14, 1992: Work started off at a relatively normal pace this morning. And then--Kathy received a call from Royal Norman at Ch 3 regarding a possible AVMT trip to Somalia. Before Kathy informed me of her conversation with Royal she told Cindy and Cindy jumped all over the issue. Now Cindy wants to airlift a load of supplies to Somalia and use Ch 3 to get the coverage she so desperately goes after. I think the whole idea is crazy as we have so much to do with the Navajos but Cindy seems intent on making it happen.

Kathy asked Cindy about the bill for the drugs I referred to in my 10AUG92 entry as Kathy has not received them for inventory for AVMT. Cindy told Kathy that those drugs and some antibiotics were sent to Micronesia with military personnel since AVMT was unable to make a trip to that area this year. To the best of my knowledge no drugs or supplies of any kind were sent to Micronesia. . . .

August 21, 1992: Cindy and John returned from the Republican convention today. John's speech last night was full of worthy messages but his delivery was less than inspirational. Cindy sounded as though she had a good time at the convention. I inquired what the president's intentions were for John and she stated that, off the record, the president may ask John to serve as secretary of defense. Everything is contingent upon the outcome of both the president's and John's campaigns--John being named as secretary of defense might mean that I would have an opportunity to move to Washington.

August 28, 1992: Work has been crazy--Cindy decided we should take a load of supplies to the Miami area to assist in the Hurricane Andrew relief efforts. It would be simple to complete the task if Cindy would not interfere with the rest of us doing our jobs, however, she is constantly stirring things up.

We are also contemplating a trip to Somalia--Mark Salter in John McCain's Washington office has stated that the State Department and the Department of Defense believe it is not safe to travel to Somalia or the northern regions of Kenya. Cindy insists that we are going to go on the trip and that it may be wise for us to pack guns. She is absolutely crazy--I don't know how to load a gun let alone shoot one. . . . September 2, 1992: This past week at AVMT has certainly been a challenge. All of us that work for Cindy have been asked to put in extended hours at night and on the weekend and have not even received a thank you. Cindy is the most demanding and thankless person I have ever met.

. . . . About Cindy's drug problem--Today Kathy asked Cindy about the invoice for drugs prescribed by Tom Moffo, the second such prescription in two weeks. Cindy stated the drugs had been sent to two different islands in the federated states of Micronesia with a Navy officer and that I had been aware of the request and AVMT's response. When Kathy told me about Cindy's statement I called Cindy to inquire about these two shipments about which I have no knowledge and Cindy changed the story and said that Kathy was confused and that what actually happened was that the shipment had in fact been sent with the Navy office but it had been so small that she had simply had him put it in his luggage--she stated the shipment was 'penicillin and a few items Dr. Moffo had put together for her.'. . .

September 3, 1992: Work is crazy as usual. The trip to Florida on Monday is on schedule--we are now traveling as a cleanup crew in blue hospital scrubs. I questioned wearing scrubs but Cindy insisted that the 'visual' is important, so--we are going to rummage through the rubble of Hurricane Andrew in scrubs.

Whatever . . . Per Mrs. McCain the AVMT schedule for the next couple of weeks is as follows: Miami cleanup from September 7 through September 11; Navajo Nation parade September 12; and depart for Somalia on September 13. Cindy must think that we have a staff of 20 as she has certainly not sat down, looked at a calendar and rationally thought about what she is suggesting we accomplish. . . .

September 29, 1992: Regardless of what happens with Cindy McCain, it is time for me to get out of AVMT. I have so little respect for Cindy and her objectives--she has made AVMT a media event--that even under the best of circumstances I do not think this organization merits existence. . . .

October 2, 1992: Well, it is done. Last night Jim and Smitty confronted Cindy regarding her dependency to prescription drugs and she admitted to her addiction. I understand that she told the Hensleys her addiction was rooted in her unhappiness--her marriage--and that she took the pills to mask her depression. The Hensleys told Cindy they knew she had a problem because of her severe mood swings and her change in character. They also said her meanness towards others was not excusable and must stop. . . . October 6, 1992: All shit hit the fan yesterday!

Jeri Johnson called Dr. Moffo to ask him not to fill anymore prescriptions for Cindy McCain. Dr. Moffo said he had not been filling any prescriptions for Cindy--it seems Cindy has been using Tom's DEA number to obtain her drugs.

Jim Hensley called Cindy this morning and told her not to use Moffo's number again. She denied she had used the number and since then has been trying to contact Moffo. God knows what she will say to Moffo if she reaches him. Also, Cindy was trying to reach Dr. John Johnson. She is either trying to do some quick damage control or she is going to set somebody up for the fall. . . .

October 7, 1992: More of the same.

Yesterday the Tom Moffo issue became more complicated. After Jim Hensley confronted Cindy with information about her using Tom's name to obtain drugs Cindy called Moffo to question him. Moffo told Cindy he would not do any follow-up, i.e., turn her in, but told her to never do it again.

This morning Cindy called me to inform me that she and Max Johnson had contacted the DEA and asked that an investigation be conducted to 'investigate allegations made against her.' She said a 'bogus' phone call had been received which made wild accusations about her and that she believed the phone call was 'political.' Cindy also said she had called the supposed originator of the call and that the individual denied ever making the call. . . .

October 28, 1992: I am still concerned about Cindy McCain's drug problem--it seems her parents are falling into a denial mode and believe that time will heal Cindy's problem. . . .

November 3, 1992: Tonight I am attending an elections return party at the McCains' home. . . . John is expected to win his race by a landslide. . . .

January 11, 1993: Cindy was in the office today--first time in a couple of months. She and I met with John Bircumshaw to discuss an April fund raiser and John's grant-writing efforts. Shortly after the meeting, Cindy, very casually told me that I won't be traveling to Calcutta next week, instead I am to stay in Phoenix to work on the Navajo Nation project. God only knows what all of this means. . . .

January 13, 1993: Chalk up another day at AVMT.

Yesterday was going great until I got a call from Cindy McCain who stated that she heard I was mad because I wasn't going to India.

I explained to Cindy that when she told me I was not going to be traveling to Calcutta I was upset because of the inconvenience that the last-minute change in plans had caused.

. . . It is evident to me that AVMT is in serious need of an organizational change. . . . Our shot gun approach to providing medical care has minimal impact when a focused approach on a specific area or type of care could significantly impact the target constituency. . . .

January 15, 1993: Well yesterday was certainly a bang!

For the first time in my life I was fired from a job. Cindy asked me to come to her office so that we might speak. She immediately handed me a termination letter and began a speech of praise. She thanked me for my contribution to AVMT, for my loyalty and stated she would be 'forever thankful' for what I had done for her newest daughter, Bridget McCain.

End of chapter.

Tom Gosinski knew something was up that day, because Cindy McCain was actually in the office. His co-workers would later tell a county attorney investigator that he took the news well, but Gosinski says his outward appearance was deceiving.

"I don't know that I was that well-composed on the inside," he says. McCain allowed him to stay through January, at his request, and offered a month's severance pay. Typed on AVMT stationery, McCain's letter read in part: "It is with deep regret and a heavy heart that I must terminate your position with AVMT. Your termination is due to the decline in contributions and our inability to continue to pay you at this time. Your service both to a small nonprofit such as we are and more importantly to the suffering peoples of the world is commendable. . . ." She offered her assistance in finding another job and signed the letter "Respectfully."

Fellow workers Orrick and Walker took Gosinski to Lombardi's restaurant at Arizona Center for a farewell lunch on his last day; McCain was invited, but didn't attend. Gosinski was hurt.

Hurt turned to disbelief, he says, when he learned he was not eligible for unemployment benefits because AVMT, as a nonprofit organization, has the luxury of opting not to pay into the kitty.

Gosinski suspected that prescriptions had been filled in his name without his knowledge. So in February 1993, a month after his termination, Gosinski met with a representative from the DEA whose name he refuses to reveal. A DEA official confirms that Gosinski first contacted the agency in "early 1993."

He says he did not go to the DEA intending to blow the whistle, but was concerned that his name might become embroiled in a future investigation. He posed what he calls a "what if" scenario: "If a person knows that prescriptions have been written in their name, and they never met with the doctor and they don't know the whereabouts of the drugs, what is their responsibility? And I was told it was my responsibility to turn it in. So at that moment I began to cooperate with the DEA."

Gosinski says he told the DEA of his suspicions, and an agent called Gosinski back to show him copies of two prescriptions written in his name, by Dr. Max Johnson at Cindy McCain's behest. Gosinski says he told the DEA he had no knowledge of the prescriptions. Gosinski says he went to Lahr Pharmacy in north-central Phoenix and asked if any prescriptions had been filled in his name. Indeed, two had; the pharmacist gave him copies, he says.

It had been months since his departure from AVMT, and he couldn't find a job. After sending out hundreds of r¹sum¹s for positions in government relations and personnel, he took a part-time job at a gift shop owned by friends. He was humiliated and broke. In late 1993, he was hired as a salesman at Borders Books & Music in Phoenix. He applied with his old employer, America West, as a new hire and got a job selling tour packages. Gosinski works 80 hours a week and makes half of what he made at AVMT. The more he thought about AVMT, the more he became convinced that he had been wrongfully terminated. He believed that after Cindy McCain learned that he was bellyaching about prescription-writing practices--and

after John McCain had been sworn into the U.S. Senate--he became expendable. Under state law, he had just one year from the day he was fired to file a civil lawsuit against his former employer. A local labor attorney, Stan Lubin, agreed to take his case on a contingency basis, but warned Gosinski he wouldn't represent him if the case went to court--unless Gosinski could scrape together the money to pay him up-front. Gosinski filed his lawsuit in January 1994, but kept his complaint vague and withheld specific allegations about Cindy McCain. In February, Lubin wrote a letter to one of McCain's attorneys, Gary Stuart, asking for a $250,000 settlement.

After Lubin withdrew, Gosinski searched for a new attorney, but none would take on a case against Cindy McCain. He missed subsequent deadlines to file amendments to his complaint and keep it alive.

"There is no lawsuit. It expired July 11," Stuart tells New Times.

While his civil claim was withering away, a criminal investigation of Tom Gosinski was going strong.

Cindy McCain can thank her attorney, John Dowd, for thrusting the story of her drug addiction into the public realm. If Dowd had not insisted that the county attorney investigate Tom Gosinski's alleged extortion of Cindy McCain, accounts of her pill-popping likely would have remained on the cocktail circuit.

But that's Dowd's style. He's got lots of political muscle and he doesn't hesitate to flex it. The former federal prosecutor, now in private law practice in Washington, D.C., has become a fixture on the Arizona political landscape in recent years.

He represented John McCain during the Keating Five hearings, and although McCain was rebuked for his role, the senator was treated with relative lenience.

Dowd orchestrated Governor Fife Symington's favorable settlement of a $210 million suit filed against the governor by the federal Resolution Trust Corporation. Symington and Dowd attacked the governor's accusers. At one point during the ruckus, Dowd got an enterprising Mesa Tribune reporter yanked off the story by challenging him to a fistfight. When the reporter accepted--in front of a group of horrified editors--Dowd achieved his goal. (The reporter, John Dougherty, now writes for New Times.)

Dowd also served as Major League Baseball's special prosecutor in the Pete Rose and George Steinbrenner cases, relentlessly pursuing and eventually getting both men suspended. But in demolishing his quarry, Dowd's heavy-handed tactics also bloodied the office of baseball's commissioner. In his book Lords of the Realm, which examines baseball's labor history, author John Helyar describes Dowd as a "blunderbuss." That description seems apt in the Cindy McCain case.

Without Dowd, Tom Gosinski's claims against McCain and AVMT were going nowhere. His fleeting contacts with reporters were bearing no fruit. New Times interviewed Gosinski on several occasions, but he was unwilling to go on the record with his allegations. The Arizona Republic caught wind of the story and made inquiries, too.

Gosinski's assertion that Cindy McCain was addicted to painkillers required corroboration, some kind of official documentation, and when Dowd persuaded County Attorney Richard Romley to launch his extortion investigation, Dowd unwittingly provided it.

In a "confidential" April 28 letter to Romley, Dowd blurted, "We believe that Mr. Gosinski is aware that in the past Cindy had an addiction to prescription painkillers. . . . Given Cindy's public position, exposure of this sensitive matter would harm her reputation, career, the operation of AVMT, and subject her to contempt and ridicule." There it was. On the record. In John Dowd's own words.

What was in it for Romley? To Romley, the extortion investigation must have appeared to be a no-lose situation. He could take comfort in the knowledge that the DEA and the U.S. Attorney were already probing drug acquisition and handling at AVMT. The feds normally refer cases of prescription fraud to state courts, but federal sources say that because of the possibility that ill-gotten drugs had been transported out of the country, the DEA and U.S. Attorney retained jurisdiction.

That left Romley free to go after Gosinski without much fear of damaging the McCains. On May 12, Romley's office launched its extortion probe.

An edited version of the investigative report was released August 22, jarred loose by a New Times public records request. Because the McCain camp was informed that the report was to be released, there was time to set up Cindy McCain's confessions before the agreeable journalists, none of whom was aware that the report was to be released. Barnett Lotstein, special assistant county attorney, says the office has prosecuted an average of 14 extortion charges each year since 1988. He says the Gosinski investigation is "substantially complete," but that no decision has been made on whether Gosinski will be prosecuted.

Lotstein also says it is common to provide complainants--in this case, Dowd, et al.--with opportunities to edit investigative reports before they are made public. Lotstein says Dowd and company were not shown the report, "but they did assert their privacy interests with regard to certain privacy issues."

Asked repeatedly to cite another example where complainants had been allowed to such access, Lotstein says, "I don't have a specific case, but I can tell you that it's the normal procedure."

As a sometimes-special prosecutor is wont to do, John Dowd left his mark on the county attorney's investigation. About one-fourth of the 200-plus pages in the report consists of Dowd submissions, including a 26-page diatribe dated June 14 that reads like an insider's summary of the investigation to that point.

Dowd met with the investigators on at least one occasion, June 27. And the phone lines between Dowd's D.C. office and the County Attorney's Office apparently were buzzing.

The report indicates that Dowd landed some blows, and took some as well. Portions of it seem to buttress Dowd's claim that Tom Gosinski was attempting "a shakedown." Gosinski's colleagues at AVMT heard him say he would be willing to use what he knew about Cindy McCain to enrich himself.

AVMT employee Tracy Orrick told investigators Gosinski "would make comments like, 'I wonder how much Cindy's father would pay to keep this quiet,' referring to gossip around the office."

Kathy Walker--who is identified in the report as being "employed by Hensley & Company as Cindy McCain's Administrative Assistant and Director of Operations" of AVMT--told investigators that Gosinski told her in November 1992 that "I'm going to get her [McCain], I'm going to blackmail her if she ever fires me."

Gosinski denies ever threatening to blackmail McCain, and says he's saddened by Orrick's and Walker's statements. Gosinski claims that Walker and Orrick often joined in speculation about their job security, based on their observations of Cindy McCain. "I truly don't understand that," he says. "I think it's noteworthy, though, that Kathy Walker is still employed by Mrs. McCain, as is Tracy [Orrick], and that Kathy Walker, in fact, picked up prescriptions written in [Walker's] name by a doctor and had them filled even though she had no need for them."

Indeed, both Orrick and Walker told investigators that they became aware that prescriptions for controlled substances were being written in their names, and Dr. John Max Johnson, AVMT's medical director, admitted writing prescriptions in the names of Orrick, Walker and Gosinski.

Orrick told investigators that when Gosinski learned that prescriptions had been written in Orrick's and Walker's names, he declared, "They'd better not be doing that in my name."

Some prescriptions were for quantities of 400 and 500 pills. Sometimes, Cindy McCain would go to Johnson's home to pick up the prescription. Sometimes, she would send an underling, Johnson said.

Johnson told investigators that he never dispensed any painkillers during overseas missions, and that Cindy McCain carried the drugs in her personal luggage. Gosinski says he knew of no doctors who prescribed them on an overseas mission. Dr. Dennis Everton, however, tells New Times that on his sole AVMT mission--to Kuwait in 1991--he did prescribe pain medication.

Johnson told investigators that he wrote prescriptions in employees' names even though he knew it was improper. Johnson said he also wrote two prescriptions for painkillers for Cindy McCain, although he was unaware that she was addicted to them. Johnson is being investigated by the Arizona Board of Medical Examiners, which has the power to revoke or suspend his license.

The report raises questions about Walker's veracity. Orrick told investigators that after Gosinski was fired, she received four or five inquiries from prospective employers. She says he forwarded the calls to Walker after specifically informing her of their nature. When Walker was interviewed separately, however, she denied receiving inquiries from prospective employers. Instead, she stated that unidentified people had called, asking where Gosinski could be located.

"Ms. Walker seemed somewhat confused on this issue but stated that no prospective employers had called her," the investigative report states. "It should be noted that Tracy Orrick previously stated that four or five prospective employers did call AVMT requesting to speak with the personnel manager. Tracy said she turned these calls over to Kathy Walker."

The discrepancy may be significant, because although he has yet to offer solid proof, Gosinski believes that AVMT sabotaged his job prospects elsewhere. It also seems noteworthy that throughout the wide-ranging county extortion probe, nobody from AVMT was asked to verify the condition of the organization's finances at the time Gosinski was fired because of a funding shortfall. AVMT appears to be intertwined with Hensley & Company, the beer distributorship owned by Cindy McCain's father. In fact, when Gosinski was hired at AVMT, he filled out an employment form from Hensley & Company.

In letters urging county investigators onward, Dowd asserts that Stan Lubin, who initially represented Gosinski in his lawsuit against AVMT and Cindy McCain, was persuaded to quit the case after meeting with Dowd and fellow AVMT attorney Gary Stuart in February and March of 1994. "We informed Mr. Lubin that Mr. Gosinski's allegations were false and presented facts refuting the allegations," Dowd wrote. "As a result of the meetings, Mr. Lubin decided to terminate his representation of Mr. Gosinski."

Not so, says Lubin.

"For him to say that I withdrew because of so-called irrefutable evidence is an absolute lie. I never said that," Lubin tells New Times.

In his February 4 demand letter to McCain's lawyers, Lubin wrote, "Due to the sensitive nature of the circumstances surrounding her actions, Mr. Gosinski has kept the allegations in the complaint very general. . . . I am sure you recognize what he has done to keep the sensitive matters from exposure."

He also stated that Gosinski was willing to settle the suit for $250,000.

What John Dowd views as extortion, Gosinski and Lubin view as compassion. "Based upon what I knew at the time, and what I think today, he [Gosinski] was wronged," Lubin says. "He was treated badly. And I think he has some legal remedies. "What's wrong, then, with writing a demand letter and saying in it, 'Hey, nobody needs publicity. Let's resolve this. We have a legitimate claim. Let's resolve this quietly.' . . . And so I said what I said with that in mind. And I'm not going to retract one word of it.

"Dowd is trying to make a lot of noise with it, but, good God, look at what he's doing. He's threatening someone with criminal action if he files a lawsuit. . . . There's a lot of things that get done that you try to keep quiet, not because of any evil motive but because you have some compassion. And this is what's happened to Gosinski, who said to me, 'Good idea, yes, let's keep it quiet. I don't need any ink. They don't need any ink. This woman is ill. We don't need ink. I just want to be remedied.' "That is not extortion. To claim that it is is bullshit."

John Dowd may have unleashed the media hounds on Cindy McCain, and he might never get an extortion charge filed against Gosinski. But local defense attorneys who have monitored the case say there is little doubt that he has secured a highly favorable deal for his client with federal prosecutors. First and foremost, the case has remained a federal one. That's unusual.

"Federal prosecutors routinely throw this stuff to state prosecutors," says one Phoenix attorney. "The DEA and the U.S. Attorney's Office are not in the habit of popping penny-ante drug offenders."

Second, the federal pretrial diversion program requires complete confidentiality, which is required at this stage of the investigation in any case. Moreover, although it is not clear what laws the feds believe Cindy McCain has broken, it seems likely that her offenses would be treated as misdemeanors.

"At worst, she probably could have gotten ten to 16 months," says one defense attorney who researched federal sentencing guidelines. He adds that under federal guidelines, McCain looks like a good candidate for diversion.

Another defense attorney says that in cases like McCain's, it is not uncommon for prosecutors to attempt to seize the offender's property, which, among other things, would include an interest in Hensley & Company and the McCains' North Central Avenue residence.

That attorney also says that Cindy McCain and John Dowd have done a service to other drug offenders.

"We're certainly going to jump on this when we have a client in a similar position," he says. "When we have a client that's charged in this same kind of 'script' writing, if the behavior is milder than Cindy McCain's, we should be getting diversion." State courts would have offered a much greater challenge for Dowd and his client. "If she were charged in state court--and there is an offense that fits her case to a T--she's looking at Class 3 felonies," says one defense attorney. "If we assume conservatively that there were six separate counts, her liability in state court is astronomical. She could have been looking at ten to 20 years, with a presumptive sentence of 11.25 years and two-thirds served before she would be eligible for parole.

"If I had a client named Jos¹ Lopez, I'm not so sure we wouldn't be looking at that."

Doug McEachern, a reporter for Tribune Newspapers, was one of the chosen few who was leaked the Cindy McCain saga. The resulting August 22 lead paragraph: "She was blonde and beautiful. A rich man's daughter who became a politically powerful man's wife. She had it all, including an insidious addiction to drugs that sapped the beauty from her life like a spider on a butterfly."

As most East Valley residents were fathoming McEachern's piece that Monday morning, New Times and the Arizona Republic were securing copies of Romley's investigative report. (The Republic, acting on a tip, made a public records request for the report that very morning; New Times' had been made 19 days earlier.) Armed with the report, the Republic, which had been left out of the Cindy McCain exclusives, carried a front-page story on Tuesday morning that told of Tom Gosinski's lawsuit and the extortion investigation.

McEachern, a veteran political reporter, knew he had been had. "I'm not so sure it was a lie," McEachern says of the spin job. "It was hedging the truth."

McEachern dashed back to the subject like a lemming on a cliff. In an August 24 analysis, he attempted to explain why he'd only reported half the story the first time around. Again, he employed imagery: "News is not static. It flows like summer rain down a wash. The first bubbling rivulets coming down over the rocks may carry just a few nuggets of a big story. Later, as details become clear, the story eventually may build into a raging, foaming torrent."

If there was no torrent, a steady trickle fell on the McCain camp over the next week. The Republic, apparently piqued at being stiffed on the initial story, carried reports about Cindy McCain's drug habit on the front page every day during the week, and ran another piece on B1 on Saturday.

And all the while, key facts were out of whack. Steve Meissner of the Arizona Daily Star reported that Cindy McCain had completed "a diversion program established by the U.S. Attorney's Office."

Meissner says both Smith and Cindy McCain told him that she had completed a diversion program. "Then they put out a statement saying that--quote, inaccurate press accounts, unquote--had made it sound as though she had already completed the diversion program," Meissner says. "So I confronted them to that effect, and Jay Smith said that he was telling me what the lawyers were authorizing him to say and he said he didn't know what a diversion program was."

All of the McCain camp's wild talk of the diversion program and twisted investigation chronology no doubt rankled federal prosecutors and DEA agents, who are not able to comment on a case under investigation. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Phoenix actually issued Cindy McCain's statement about the inaccurate press accounts. The release went on to say that she had merely applied for the diversion program. The statement also indicated that McCain had agreed to reorganize AVMT, and pay for the cost of the federal investigation.

Accounts of Cindy McCain's drug treatment and exactly when her husband learned of her addiction don't jibe.

Phoenix Gazette columnist John Kolbe, who compared Cindy McCain's addiction to her husband's captivity in a Vietnamese POW camp, devoted a paragraph to the revelation that it was John Dowd who informed the senator that his wife was an addict in January 1994. County records show that Dowd was representing Cindy McCain in talks with the DEA in May 1993.

Both Kolbe and McEachern reported that McCain had checked into a drug rehab clinic in Wickenburg earlier this year.

But in their report, county attorney's investigators state flatly: "Mrs. McCain admits that she acquired a drug dependency for Percocet because of a back problem and received rehabilitation in Wickenburg Arizona in 1991 & 1992."

Dowd, after agreeing to a phone interview with New Times on Monday afternoon, changed his mind. Jay Smith and John and Cindy McCain did not respond to requests for interviews.

As is his habit, Tom Gosinski rose on Monday, August 22, and turned on a morning news show. He was nearly floored by what he heard.

"They announced that in the next segment they would be discussing Mrs. McCain . . . and that she was a drug addict," he says.

"I had no idea the story was coming out."

After more than two years of tumult, Gosinski felt a tremendous burden slip from his shoulders. That morning, co-workers at America West who had doubted Gosinski's claims approached him to apologize.

"I felt really good that the story was out. . . . I also felt like this thing was coming clean--everything that I had said, everything that I had suggested to the DEA when I first went to them and everything that I had been talking about for a year and a half." That was Monday. On Tuesday, news of Romley's extortion investigation broke. Reporters flocked to Gosinski's workplace, seeking interviews. By Thursday, the papers were quoting John McCain as calling Gosinski a liar.

By Saturday, Gosinski was almost too rattled to tell his side of the story. But he did. After nearly five hours of answering questions, he struggles to answer a query about his feelings toward Cindy McCain.

"I feel bad for Cindy. And I truly do. Cindy was an addict; she's admitted to it. [But] I don't think that excuses the things she's done to obtain drugs or the way she treated people."

[Calpernia]

Keating gets new trial

Former S&L chief's lawyers say
jurors in last trial were prejudiced

December 2, 1996: 8:18 p.m. ET


LOS ANGELES (CNNfn) - Former Lincoln Savings & Loan chief Charles Keating Jr. Monday was granted a new trial on federal fraud charges.

After the ruling, federal prosecutors said they were prepared to retrial Keating, but maintained they believe he received a fair trial earlier.

Keating has been free on bail for the last three months while his attorneys worked to get him a new trial on grounds of jury misconduct. His attorneys successfully argued that jurors were prejudiced by information about Keating's previous state conviction.

Keating's attorneys say jurors knew about a prior state conviction for securities fraud and discussed it among themselves despite a judge's ruling that the evidence be banned because it was "highly prejudicial."

In January 1993, Keating was convicted of federal racketeering, fraud and conspiracy charges, sentenced to 12 years in prison and ordered to pay $122 million in restitution. The Lincoln Savings & Loan failure cost taxpayers $3.4 billion.

Keating's state court conviction was thrown out in April by a U.S. District Court judge who ruled Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lance Ito botched the jury instructions.Link to top

[Calpernia]

Is John McCain a Crook?
Chris Suellentrop
Posted Friday, Feb. 18, 2000, at 11:35 AM PT

The controversial George W. Bush-sponsored poll in South Carolina mentioned John McCain's role in the so-called Keating Five scandal, and McCain says his involvement in the scandal "will probably be on my tombstone." What exactly did McCain do?

In early 1987, at the beginning of his first Senate term, McCain attended two meetings with federal banking regulators to discuss an investigation into Lincoln Savings and Loan, an Irvine, Calif., thrift owned by Arizona developer Charles Keating. Federal auditors were investigating Keating's banking practices, and Keating, fearful that the government would seize his S&L, sought intervention from a number of U.S. senators.

At Keating's behest, four senators--McCain and Democrats Dennis DeConcini of Arizona, Alan Cranston of California, and John Glenn of Ohio--met with Ed Gray, chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, on April 2. Those four senators and Sen. Don Riegle, D-Mich., attended a second meeting at Keating's behest on April 9 with bank regulators in San Francisco.

Regulators did not seize Lincoln Savings and Loan until two years later. The Lincoln bailout cost taxpayers $2.6 billion, making it the biggest of the S&L scandals. In addition, 17,000 Lincoln investors lost $190 million.

In November 1990, the Senate Ethics Committee launched an investigation into the meetings between the senators and the regulators. McCain, Cranston, DeConcini, Glenn, and Riegle became known as the Keating Five.

(Keating himself was convicted in January 1993 of 73 counts of wire and bankruptcy fraud and served more than four years in prison before his conviction was overturned. Last year, he pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud and was sentenced to time served.)

McCain defended his attendance at the meetings by saying Keating was a constituent and that Keating's development company, American Continental Corporation, was a major Arizona employer. McCain said he wanted to know only whether Keating was being treated fairly and that he had not tried to influence the regulators. At the second meeting, McCain told the regulators, "I wouldn't want any special favors for them," and "I don't want any part of our conversation to be improper."

But Keating was more than a constituent to McCain--he was a longtime friend and associate. McCain met Keating in 1981 at a Navy League dinner in Arizona where McCain was the speaker. Keating was a former naval aviator himself, and the two men became friends. Keating raised money for McCain's two congressional campaigns in 1982 and 1984, and for McCain's 1986 Senate bid. By 1987, McCain campaigns had received $112,000 from Keating, his relatives, and his employees--the most received by any of the Keating Five. (Keating raised a total of $300,000 for the five senators.)

After McCain's election to the House in 1982, he and his family made at least nine trips at Keating's expense, three of which were to Keating's Bahamas retreat. McCain did not disclose the trips (as he was required to under House rules) until the scandal broke in 1989. At that point, he paid Keating $13,433 for the flights.

And in April 1986, one year before the meeting with the regulators, McCain's wife, Cindy, and her father invested $359,100 in a Keating strip mall.

The Senate Ethics Committee probe of the Keating Five began in November 1990, and committee Special Counsel Robert Bennett recommended that McCain and Glenn be dropped from the investigation. They were not. McCain believes Democrats on the committee blocked Bennett's recommendation because he was the lone Keating Five Republican.

In February 1991, the Senate Ethics Committee found McCain and Glenn to be the least blameworthy of the five senators. (McCain and Glenn attended the meetings but did nothing else to influence the regulators.) McCain was guilty of nothing more than "poor judgment," the committee said, and declared his actions were not "improper nor attended with gross negligence." McCain considered the committee's judgment to be "full exoneration," and he contributed $112,000 (the amount raised for him by Keating) to the U.S. Treasury.

[Calpernia]

'The Keating One,' and Carl Lindner

From 1981—the year before John McCain ran for U.S. Congress—until the early 1990s, the former Navy pilot was totally beholden to junk bond swindler Charles Keating for his political fortunes. When the S&L scandal exploded and Federal prosecutors were breathing down Keating's neck, it was McCain who tried to bully Federal regulators into backing off. While the affair became known as the "Keating Five" scandal, none of the other members of the Senate and House implicated in the ethics violations, were as closely tied to Keating as John McCain.

And Charles Keating was no "loan assassin." He was but one player in a larger organized crime apparatus that ran the $200 billion-plus rip-off, in what may have been the biggest actual RICO (racketeering) scheme ever.

Between 1959 and the late 1980s, Charles Keating was the business partner of Carl Lindner, the Cincinnati, Ohio-based financier who would be one of the central figures in the $200 billion S&L rip-off. In 1959, Lindner and Keating co-founded American Financial Corporation (AFC). Keating served as the mortgage and insurance company's general counsel, and later as vice president.

Between 1974 and 1976, Lindner and Keating engineered a series of stock purchases and mergers with some of the leading figures in the Lansky crime syndicate—who had followed the Bronfman family recipe, and gone from "rags, to rackets, to riches, to respectability."

In 1975, Lindner's AFC allied with Detroit financier Max Fisher, formerly of the murderous Purple Gang; Detroit real estate developer Alfred Taubman (a Fisher associate); and Paul and Seymour Milstein, to grab a 50% controlling interest in the United Fruit Company. Drug Enforcement Administration officials had confirmed to the authors of EIR's bestselling book Dope, Inc.: Britain's Opium War Against America, that United Fruit was a major force in the Latin American cocaine trade—a business that skyrocketed following the Lindner-Fisher, et al. takeover.

The Lindner group's takeover of United Fruit was only made possible by the mysterious death of the company's chairman and largest stockholder, Eli Black, on Feb. 3, 1975. Black fell to his death from the 44th floor of the Pan Am Building in New York City, in what was officially declared a suicide.

At the same time that Lindner, Fisher et. al. were grabbling United Fruit, Lindner's AFC simultaneously allied with a group of other Lansky-linked entities to establish a formidable pool of interlocking companies that would collectively form the core of the junk-bond raiders. By 1977, Lindner owned:

* 40% of Saul Steinberg's Reliance Insurance Company. Steinberg had gotten his start as a business partner of Britain's Lord Jacob Rothschild and later had extensive dealings with Kenneth Bialkin, the longtime Chairman of the Anti-Defamation League and a top New York City lawyer representing many junk bond pirates and corporate raiders of the 1980s.

* 40% of Meshulim Riklis' Rapid-American Corp., which at the time, owned Schenley Distilleries, Playtex International, Lerner Shops, and RKO-Stanley Warner Theaters. Riklis was an Israeli immigrant mobster and onetime British Mandate police informant, who had been bankrolled, from the 1950s, by Burton Joseph, a Minneapolis grain merchant and top ADL official. Riklis was so close to Israel's top mafia politician, Ariel Sharon, that he bought Sharon his Negev Desert ranch.

* The largest minority share of Laurence and Robert Preston Tisch's Loew's Corp., the theater, hotel and real estate corporation that had also evolved out of the Prohibition-era Lansky move into Hollywood's motion picture industry. Laurence Tisch was later a founder, with Michael Steinhardt, of the secretive "Mega" group of some 50 billionaires, which today supports Ariel Sharon's war drive and the broader Clash of Civilizations.

* 10% of NVF, the holding company of Victor Posner, who had been the chief accountant for Meyer Lansky and the National Crime Syndicate.

* 8% of Gulf & Western, the debt-pyramided conglomerate run by Charles Bludhorn, which owned Paramount Pictures, Simon and Schuster Publishers, Esquire magazine and extensive properties in the Dominican Republic.

* 19% of Charter Oil, the Florida-based company partly owned by Armand Hammer. Charter was at the center of the late 1970s "Billygate" scandal, implicating President Jimmy Carter's brother with Libyan dictator Muammar Qadaffi and Italian Propaganda-2 Freemasonic Lodge gangster Michele Papa.

Over the years, this group of companies' ill-gotten money created and funded 70 separate pro-Israel political actions committees—all part of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee money-machine, earmarked to buy members of the U.S. Congress.

The Overworld Meets the Underworld

As Lindner and Keating were forging their corporate alliances with Steinberg, Tisch, Fisher, Riklis, and Posner, two of the leading Anglo-American financial groups—JP Morgan and the banking and brokerage empire of Baron Edmund de Rothschild—were sealing their own alliance. These top bankers transformed the relatively small investment bank/brokerage house of Drexel Harriman Ripley, during the 1970s, into Drexel Burnham Lambert.

Baron Edmund de Rothschild personified the intersection of the overworld of high finance with the underworld. Between the 1950s and the 1970s, the Geneva-based Rothschild had bankrolled the careers of Purple Gang tough Max Fisher; pyramid swindler Bernie Cornfeld of Investors Overseas Services (IOS) infamy; pioneer drug-money launderer Robert Vesco; and hedge fund pirate George Soros.

The newly built Drexel Burnham dispatched hotshot bond trader Michael Milken to their newly established Beverly Hills, California office.

Then the screws of usury were tightened on the whole economy. In 1979, Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker began driving interest rates up over 20%, gutting America's productive agro-industrial sector, and the stage was set for the looting and carnage. The passage of Garn-St Germain in 1982, after interest rates had soared past the 20% mark, was the final step.

The Securities and Exchange Commission slapped a $1.4 million fine on Charles Keating for his role in his and Lindner's AFC in the late 1970s. Keating then formally left Lindner's employ. The split was in name only. Keating bought AFC subsidiary American Continental Homes, which he later parlayed into American Continental Corp.—with funding from Lindner. In 1979, Keating moved to Arizona. Two years later, he was introduced to John McCain, and he immediately began bankrolling McCain's political career. In this, Keating joined McCain's new father-in-law and other major financial backer, beer distributor Jim Hensley, a pivotal figure within the Kemper Marley-run Southwest crime syndicate. (The political smoke had not yet cleared from the 1976 gangland bombing that had killed investigative reporter Don Bolles, over his probe into the Marley/Hensley ties to the mafia's Emprise company.)

In 1983, Keating bought the Irvine, California-based Lincoln Savings and Loan, which had $2.2 billion in deposits. By 1987, Lincoln's deposits had soared to $4.2 billion—largely through brokered deposits, referred to in the industry as "hot money." These are short-term deposits, placed by large institutions like pension funds and insurance companies, seeking high-yield but secured "parking lots" for their funds. Prior to Garn-St Germain, S&Ls could only hold 5% brokered deposits. In connection with Garn-St Germain, all restrictions were lifted.

Once the Milken scheme was under way, Drexel floated high-risk, high-yield corporate bonds—the cash used by the "monsters" to buy up corporate America, and then asset-strip and sell off the carcasses to meet the payment schedules on the high-interest bearing bonds. S&Ls like Keating's Lincoln, and corporations like the Riklis, Posner, Steinberg, and Tisch enterprises, were both the purchasers and the generators of the Milken-brokered junk. By the time the bottom fell out of this vast Ponzi scheme, Keating alone had palmed off $250 million in now-worthless junk bonds to 20,000 Lincoln customers; thousands of elderly depositors were wiped out.

The total cost of the Lincoln bailout was between $2.2 and 3 billion in taxpayers' money. At least $110,000 of that money had gone directly to the campaign coffers of John McCain, according to FEC records.

McCain in the Keating Family

Keating and Hensley first put John McCain up for the House of Representatives in 1982.

Charles Keating and his family and employees made 40 donations, including at least 12 of $1,000 each, to the McCain campaign. Keating's American Continental company political action committee had only two beneficiaries in the 1982 campaign—$5,000 to McCain, and $2,500 to Sen. Jake Garn (R-Utay). The Garn-St Germain bill was the license to steal; McCain was to drive the getaway car.

In February 1984, Keating assumed formal ownership of Lincoln Savings, formerly a bank servicing many minority people. In April 1984, Keating attended the "Predators' Ball"—the annual junk-bond gangsters' strategy and celebration session in Los Angeles.

Billions of dollars were now flowing out of and through Lincoln, through Keating, to Lindner and his co-conspirators at Drexel Burnham. Over $134 million also went to Keating's partner, Sir James Goldsmith, notorious corporate blackmailer and backer of the Central American "Contras," alongside Carl Lindner's United Fruit Company. The Keating loot helped Sir James fund his brother Teddy Goldsmith, sponsor of Jacobin "anti-globalization" anarchist demonstrators whose real target is the nation-state.

McCain's second Congressional race in 1984 was a Keating extravaganza. There were at least 32 individual contributions of $1,000 each from Keating family members and employees. Of this, $4,000 came from Brad Boland and his wife; Boland was John McCain's former staff driver, who had been selected by Keating's staff to date and marry Keating's daughter Elaine.

Another nine $1,000 contributions to the McCain campaign came from crooked Atlanta lawyer Lee J. Henkel and his partners and spouses. Henkel would soon go to center stage in a spectacular Keating/McCain attempt to sabotage U.S. government oversight of the S&Ls.

As the Arizona Republic reported (Oct. 8, 1989), "the McCains—sometimes with their daughter and baby sitter—made at least nine trips at Keating's expense from August 1984 to August 1986, aboard either Keating's American Continental Corporation jet or chartered planes and helicopters owned by (Lansky-originated) Resorts International. Three of the trips were for vacations at Keating's luxurious retreat in the Bahamas."

The U.S.A., or the Gangsters?

In 1985, a showdown loomed.

Ed Gray, chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB), appalled at the plundering of the S&Ls, called for re-regulation and the end of brokered deposits.

Gray's attention was first called to the Keating scheme in particular, when Gray saw that Alan Greenspan, then a big-name economist for J.P. Morgan, was being paid by Keating ($30-40,000, in fact) to lobby and lie about how honest and sound Keating was in running Lincoln Savings and Loan; this was two years before Greenspan was appointed Federal Reserve chairman.

Keating now demanded that Gray be fired and/or blocked. He got Representative McCain and three Senators to write to Gray, to delay new rules that would cut off Lincoln's looting.

On Jan. 31, 1985, Gray got the Bank Board to roll back the limit on speculative non-home-mortgage investments by S&Ls to 10% of their assets. Keating responded by falsifying his records to make speculations look like permitted loans. Tension was rising; would McCain's benefactor keep getting away with it?

In 1986, John McCain ran for Senate. At least 45 individual contributions of $1,000 for that campaign appear in Federal records for individuals identified with the Keating organization. Meanwhile, in April 1986, mob-appointed beer distributor Jim Hensley and his daughter Cindy, John McCain's wife, invested $359,100 and became the main owners in a Keating-run shopping center.

In a personal letter to John McCain, July 31, 1986, Charles Keating asked McCain for action against Ed Gray, calling Gray's FHLBB a "mad dog."

Then: double pay dirt! On Nov. 4, 1986, Keating's man, John McCain, was elected to the Senate. Three days later, Lee J. Henkel, Keating's agent and McCain's backer, was appointed by President Reagan to the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, upon the insistence of Keating's politicians. Henkel's purpose was to overpower Gray on the Board. At his first Board meeting, Dec. 18, 1986, Henkel proposed a plan to raise the direct investment (speculation) limit for Lincoln savings bank alone! On the same day, Keating's Arizona firm transferred $3.7 million to Henkel's blind trust. Henkel withdrew $250,000 cash the next day.

But Gray's allies moved ahead with plans to seize Lincoln Savings, and in March 1987, Keating asked his kept politicians for direct political help to stave off the regulators. All accounts of these events show John McCain to be worried stiff over the outcome, and evidently aware that he is acting as a criminal. Keating met with a nervous McCain, they had a stormy scene, and Keating called in his chips. On April 2, 1987, FHLBB Chairman Ed Gray met with the new Senator McCain, and three Democratic Senators, Dennis DeConcini (Ariz.), Alan Cranston (Calif.), and John Glenn (Ohio).

The Arizona Republic later wrote, "The meeting had a clandestine air. Gray came alone. None of the senators brought their aides." Gray was asked to withdraw regulations so as to aid Keating's S&L. He refused. Within a few days, Lee Henkel resigned in disgrace from the FHLBB; his ties to Keating had been leaked to the press.

'McCain Was the Weirdest'

But a second meeting took place one week after the first. There were McCain and the other three Senators, plus Don Riegle (D-Mich.), and more regulators. According to notes made by William Black, deputy director of the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp., a frantic McCain started this second meeting with the comment: "One of our jobs as elected officials is to help constituents in a proper fashion. ACC [owner of Lincoln S&L] is a big employer and important to the local economy. I wouldn't want any special favors for them.... I don't want any part of our conversation to be improper."

Black told reporters, "McCain was the weirdest. They [the Senators] were all different in their own way. McCain was always Hamlet ... wringing his hands about what to do."

Rather than submit to the political blackmail of elected officials demanding favors for nation-wrecking bandits, the regulators played their trump card, informing McCain and the others that the Justice Department had just been directed to start criminal prosecution against Keating's operation. A shaken McCain left the room, and, it is claimed, never spoke to his moneybags Keating again.

Seized in 1989, Lincoln Savings involved the biggest Federal bank fraud case ever. An Arizona Republic reporter (Sept. 29, 1989) asked McCain about his ties to Keating. McCain replied, "You're a liar.... That's the spouse's involvement, you idiot. You do understand English, don't you?." When reporters probed further on the Hensley-Keating investment tie, McCain retorted, "It's up to you to find that out, kids." And, referring to his days as a prisoner of war, McCain said, "Even the Vietnamese didn't question my ethics."

Charles Keating was sentenced to ten years in prison for fraud, and served five. Lee Henkel was barred from dealing with banks. Lee Fishbein, Keating-Lindner attorney/co-conspirator, Anti-Defamation League official, and heavy contributor to McCain's campaigns, was banned from ever having any dealings with banks or any other financial institution.

But the Senate Ethics Committee, considering the "Keating Five" Senators, gave McCain merely a rebuke for exercising "poor judgment" in trying to bend Federal regulators. McCain went on in the same orbit, minus one of the stars. In each of his later Senate campaigns, 1992 and 1998, McCain received at least $3,000 in contributions from Dope, Inc. godfather Carl Lindner; McCain got into some bad odor around Scottsdale, Arizona, in the late 1990s, for pushing officials to give in to a Lindner land scam.

Today's "McCain the Reformer" is an image crafted by media backers allied to the Tisches, and the old Wall Street-gangster axis.

[Calpernia]

Translation of Memorial at Truc Bach Lake

"Here on 26 October 1967 at Truc Bach Lake in the capital city of Ha Noi John Sidney McCain was shot out of the sky in his A4 aircraft by local (militia?) citizens defending Yen Phu. There were 10 other planes shot down on the same day."

[Calpernia]

John McCain: The Manchurian Candidate

U.S. Veteran Dispatch
December 1992 Issue

Those following the proceedings during the past year of the Senate Select Committee on POW and MIA Affairs have been mystified by the rabid actions of the one man on the committee who should be grateful that for the nearly three decades there have been activists in America who have refused to let die the issue of the fate of Americans lost and missing in Southeast Asia from the Vietnam War.

I am speaking of course of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). None of the Senators on the Select Committee have been as vicious in their attacks on POW/MIA family members and activists than the man behind the mask of war hero, former POW, and patriotic United States Senator . . .

Not even Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), who went into his job as chairman of the Select Committee with a predisposition that no one was left alive in Southeast Asia, that it was therefore "time to put the war behind us" and normalize relations with Hanoi, has shown such a bias against those who have fought and kept alive the POW/MIA cause.

Not even Sen. Kerry, with his own record as an anti-war protester during the early 1970s after serving in Vietnam--has turned a totally deaf ear to the numerous individuals and groups who are, correctly or not, convinced that Americans were and are alive in captivity in Southeast Asia.

What, therefore, motivates a John McCain to attack as a pit bull everyone and anyone who has the opinion that men are still alive in the very same captivity that he himself once experienced? Mr. McCain disguises his attacks on the POW/MIA by claiming he is on the committee to ask "the tough questions" to grill and berate in order to get to the truth. What motivates the man, who at the same time has shown a sensitive, almost patronizing approach to U.S. government officials who have lied to the committee? . . .

Borrowing from the title of a popular movie of some years ago, many activists who have felt the fangs of this pit bull call him the "Manchurian Candidate." Is that a fair accusation to level at Senator McCain, the war hero and the former POW?

In the movie, "The Manchurian Candidate," actor Lawrence Harvey portrayed the character of a former POW and war hero of the Korean War, whose brainwashing by his communist captors resulted in his enemies being able to manipulate his actions. To trigger him to do their bidding all they had to do was have him play solitaire with the Queen of Diamonds being the trigger that made him theirs, body and soul . . .

SOMETIMES TAKES EXTREMES

While there are some who have over the years taken extreme measures to keep alive the POW/MIA issue, to paint everyone--even some of the most extreme--with a broad brush as being frauds and predators is not just.

As Senator Kerry, once an activist himself, knows, and I am sure understands in his heart, the activist must be at times an extremist. He must do extreme things because he is the David taking on the Goliath, or, to put it another way--you can't fight a tiger with a dish rag.

In the case of Kerry, the anti-war activist, he could not fight the powerful, often vengeful government officials with the proverbial dish rag. So, he and his followers disrupted Senate committee meetings, threw red paint, representing blood, on the Capitol steps, etc.

In the case of the POW/MIA activists they have chained themselves to the White House fence, at times verbally abused government officials--whatever it took to peacefully draw attention to their cause, just as Kerry before them.

Presently, Kerry the senator does not approve of POW/MIA activists and POW/MIA activists, particularly Vietnam veterans, do not approve of the pro-Hanoi Kerry. And yet there is a common ground with Kerry.

There is none with McCain. He has, simply put, declared his own personal war on POW/MIA activists, and one must ask why?

Even during the Select Committee hearings, H. Ross Perot, perhaps at one time, one of the most devout POW/MIA activists of all, was a target of Senator McCain. And yet, it is doubtful if another POW in America would have anything but the deepest respect for Mr. Perot.

When someone suggested during the committee hearings that Mr. Perot's efforts in drawing attention to the plight of the POWs in Vietnam during the war years which ultimately caused the POWs to receive more humane treatment from their captors, McCain snidely remarked that he thought it was the bombing of Hanoi that was responsible for their better care.

But after his release by Hanoi in 1973, McCain had nothing but praise for Perot and his followers who ignited and fanned the flames of POW/MIA activism.

Nor has McCain stopped there. He has also viciously attacked fellow war hero, fellow POW and fellow retired Navy captain, Eugene "Red" McDaniel, as a fraud and a dishonorable man who preys upon the families of those still unaccounted for from the war.

Again, it is a case of McCain attacking the activist. McDaniel has been in the forefront of activism in keeping the POW/MIA issue alive during the years, before the Select Committee, when few, particularly much of the press, could have cared less.

Today, there is extreme pressure on members of Congress to lift the trade embargo with Vietnam and to establish diplomatic relations with Hanoi, both actions are opposed by the POW/MIA activists.

McCain, like his fellow Senator, Mr. Kerry, favors lifting the embargo and both were on record as such long before they became associated with the Select Committee. In fact, the efforts of both have reflected at times more interest in bettering relations with Vietnam, in consort with greedy U.S. big business interests, than resolving the POW/MIA issue by accounting for the missing men; in McCain's case his FELLOW POWs.

However, before becoming a powerful figure in Congress, McCain the candidate, said: "The regime in Hanoi, politically degenerate even by totalitarian standards, refused to provide or even assist in providing a satisfactory accounting of American MIAs . . .

EXPLOITATION OF POWS

While the Senate Select Committee in its final days of existence is spending its time and resources on alleged instances of what it considers to be "fraud," and "predator fund-raising activities," it has and is ignoring an issue which is vital to resolving the POW/MIA riddle, that being the issue of intelligence exploitation of U.S. prisoners of war by Soviet, Chinese, Cuban and Vietnamese psychological warfare experts.

There has been some debate in the committee as to the extent of Soviet KGB and GRU (Soviet military intelligence) involvement in attempts to "turn" American POWs, with attempts by the Pentagon, supported always by McCain, to deny that the Soviets were involved in any such activity. Nevertheless, there was extensive testimony that POWs were interrogated and possibly recruited before the Paris Peace Accords were signed in 1973 ending U.S. military involvement in the war--and afterwards, possibly as late as 1978.

"While we all assume the very best about our servicemen who were held it captivity," one POW/MIA activist wrote to Sen. Kerry, "there is a historical precedence of Soviet, Chinese and North Korean exploitation of American prisoners of war. The success of the communist program in Korea may well have been duplicated to a degree in Vietnam."

The communist definitely had a sophisticated system of "turning" U.S. prisoners of war in Korea and, ironically, the movie, "The Manchurian Candidate," fiction that it may be, was not a misrepresentation of the creative experiments and attempts by the communists to "turn" American prisoners of war into agents.

According to some, the FBI has/had a program to monitor the activities of returned prisoners of war from Indochina. That FBI investigation is based on historical knowledge which concluded that some American POWs had been "turned" into agents of the communist.

"Turning" a prisoner of war is not necessarily the prisoner being convinced or "re-educated" by his captors to change his beliefs or politics. The process can involve the use of a variety of means, both subtle and brutal, elaborately contrived to manipulate an otherwise patriotic U.S. prisoner's situation or environment to a point where he is convinced that he must cooperate with his captors in order to remain alive.

One method which had been used successfully by the KGB for their clandestine purposes was the use of threats of exposing embarrassing behavior, particularly any illicit sexual behavior. As a classic example, several years ago, the KGB used sex and seduction to get the U.S. Marine guards to allow them to infiltrate the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

Another example, if a subject, in this case a POW, became involved in a homosexual situation and his captors found out about it, his captors would most certainly make a record of the homosexual behavior. Later an interrogator would use that record as blackmail to extort intelligence information from anyone involved.

Thus, an otherwise defiant prisoner could be blackmailed into becoming an unwilling collaborator and agent of his captors. After the first collaboration it is a process of threatening to expose the prisoner to his peers or family back home unless the prisoner further "cooperates" by giving even more information.

Another example, if U.S. prisoner "X," under duress or torture, reveals sensitive information about prisoner "Y," which causes prisoner "Y" to be tortured or punished, prisoner "X" certainly doesn't want prisoner "Y" to know he was the source of that information.

Thus, even more information or collaboration can be extracted from prisoner "X." What in the beginning would seem a necessary collaboration to save one's reputation or life, could be used over the long term by experienced interrogators to create an extensive dossier of collaborations by the prisoner. Anyone trained in the interrogation of enemy prisoners knows this.

Nearly all of the POWs have reported that they were threatened with the denial of medical treatment unless they provided their captors with specific information.

BOTH KOREA AND VIETNAM

According to sources, some of the same KGB agents and their associates, often the latter posing as foreign journalists, were involved in attempting to exploit American POWs for intelligence and propaganda purposes in both Korea and Vietnam. To cite as just one example, Australian communist journalist Wilfred Burchett, well known to American POWs for this activity in Korea, later appeared in the same role in Vietnam.

Pentagon files regarding exploitation of U.S. prisoners of war in Indochina are kept secret, except from the hierarchy of the U.S. intelligence community and some high U.S. government officials. It of course also remains in the files of the communist exploiters of the POWs.

As it stands, the American people will never know the truth about this exploitation in Vietnam, unless some official body, such as the Senate Select Committee, subpoenas the files from the Pentagon. As an example, the Senate Select Committee has never followed up on the explosive testimony of former KGB Maj. Gen. Oleg Kalugin, who testified, under oath, that the KGB interrogated U.S. POWs in Vietnam.

Kalugin stated that one of the POWs worked on by the KGB was a "high-ranking naval officer," who, according to Kalugin, agreed to work with the Soviets upon his repatriation to the United States and has frequently appeared on U.S. television.

Whether this is true or not it certainly begs to be investigated and, like it or not, Sen. John McCain fits the description, and his behavior, also like it or not, raises serious questions. The fact that he is a United States Senator should not be a factor, alas, "The Manchurian Candidate" possibility.

When it comes to matters of national security and the welfare of every man, woman and child in the United States, there should be no sacred cows, and it must not be forgotten that Sen. McCain was being considered for higher office, prior to his numerous appearances on national television defending his involvement in the Savings and Loan scandal.

In November of 1991, when Tracy Usry, the former chief investigator of the Minority Staff of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, testified before the Select Committee, he revealed that the Soviets interrogated U.S. prisoners of war in Vietnam. Sen. McCain became outraged interrupting Usry several times, arguing that "none of the returned U.S. prisoners of war released by Vietnam were ever interrogated by the Soviets." However, this was simply not true and Sen. McCain knows that from firsthand experience.

Col. Bui Tin, a former Senior Colonel in the North Vietnamese Army, testified on the same day, but after Usry, that because of his high position in the Communist Party during the war, he had the authority to "read all documents and secret telegrams from the politburo" pertaining to American prisoners of war. He said that not only did the Soviets interrogate some American prisoners of war, but that they treated the Americans very badly.

Bui Tin, who indicated he favored a normalization of relations between the U.S. and Vietnam, also offered the committee his records concerning his personal interrogations of American POWs.

A WARM HUG FOR THE ENEMY

Sen. McCain stunned onlookers at the hearing when he moved forward to the witness table and warmly embraced Bui Tin as if he was a long, lost brother.

"Was that hug for Bui Tin, a Vietnamese official responsible for the torture of some American prisoners of war, a message 'please don't give them my records?'" one activist questioned at the time.

In any case, many of McCain's fellow Vietnam War POWs were aghast, not to mention former POWs of World War II and Korea, who could, only in some instances after decades, forgive but never forget the inhumanity of their captors--certainly not to the point of embracing them.

Shortly thereafter, as a direct result of Sen. McCain's lobbying of other Republican Senators, Usry, a distinguished Vietnam veteran, and all other members of the Minority Staff, who had participated in the POW/MIA investigations, were abruptly fired.

If the Senate Select Committee finds it pertinent to investigate alleged instances of "fraud" by POW/MIA activists, then certainly, by even the most liberal standards, the charge of collaboration with the enemy by a "high-ranking naval" officer should be investigated just as seriously as were the charges against Marine Private Robert Garwood, the only American POW charged and convicted of this crime.

THE ADMIRAL'S SON

John McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone on August 29, 1936. His father was Admiral John McCain II, who became commander-in-chief of the Pacific forces in 1968. Admiral McCain later ordered the bombing of Hanoi while his son was in prison. His grandfather was Admiral John S. McCain, Sr., the famous commander of aircraft carriers in the Pacific under Admiral William F. Halsey in World War II . . .

On his 23rd mission in Vietnam on Oct. 26, 1967, he was shot down by a surface-to-air missile.

To relate the event, McCain later recalled that he was "flying right over the heart of Hanoi in a dive at about 4,500 feet, when a Russian missile the size of a telephone pole came up--the sky was full of them--and blew the right wing off my Skyhawk dive bomber. It went into an inverted, almost straight-down spin.

"I pulled the ejection handle, and was knocked unconscious by the force of of the ejection--the air speed was about 500 knots. I didn't realize it at the moment, but I had broken my right leg around the knee, my right arm in three places and my left arm. I regained consciousness just before I landed by parachute in a lake right in the center of Hanoi, one they called the Western Lake. My helmet and my oxygen mask had been blown off. "I hit the water and sank to the bottom . . . I did not feel any pain at the time, and I was able to rise to the surface. I took a breath of air and started sinking again."After bobbing up and down, he was eventually pulled from the water by Vietnamese who had swam out to get him.

A mob gathered on shore and McCain was bayoneted in the foot and his shoulder was smashed with a rifle butt. He was put on a truck and taken to Hanoi's main prison.

After being periodically slapped around for "three or four days" by his captors who wanted military information from him, which McCain claims he refused to give, providing only his name, rank and serial number, he realized he was in critical shape and called for an officer. He told the officer, "O.K., I'll give you military information if you will take me to the hospital."

Regardless of the reasons, the offer to give "military information" in exchange for better treatment was a violation of the military Code of Conduct and Collaboration No. l.

The doctor, according to McCain, said about taking him to the hospital, "It's too late."

At that point, McCain knew he was in big trouble. According to information obtained by the U.S. VETERAN, the flier in desperation invoked the name of his famous father, Admiral John S. McCain, Jr., the soon-to-be commander of all U.S. Forces in the Pacific.

And that was a violation of the Code of Conduct and Collaboration No. 2.

McCain admits that because of the Vietnamese having the knowledge of who his father was, he thus survived because they rushed him to the hospital. The Vietnamese figured that because POW McCain's father was of such high military rank that he was of royalty or the governing circle. Thereafter the communist bragged that they had captured "the crown prince."

Later, the Vietnamese would erect a monument in Hanoi near the site of his landing in the lake, stone figure of a pilot raising his arms skyward in surrender and referring to their catch McCain, by name, as an "air pirate."

At the hospital his wounds were treated. He readily admits that other U.S. prisoners with similar wounds were left to die, pointing out "There were hardly any amputees among the prisoners who came back because the North Vietnamese just would not give medical treatment to someone who was badly injured. They weren't going to waste their time.

"McCain has failed to mention in public what he has confided to another U.S. prisoner privately, that since the Vietnamese felt they had in their hands such a "special prisoner", a propaganda bonanza, a Soviet surgeon was called in to treat him.

HOW MUCH MORE INFORMATION DID HE GIVE?

McCain has admitted that the Vietnamese repeatedly threatened to withhold much needed operations unless he would give them more information. Did he provide it?

After six weeks of this type of threats and medical treatment, he was delivered to Room No. 11 of "The Plantation" and into the hands of two other POWs, who helped further nurse him along until he was eventually able to walk by himself.

For the next 22 months, McCain was kept isolated from the other American prisoners. Because the Vietnamese considered him a "special prisoner" he was the target of intense indoctrination programs. His communist interrogators believed that because McCain came from a "royal family," he would, when finally released, return to the United States to some important military or government job.

The communist were very much aware that POW McCain would be under great psychological pressure not to do or say anything that would tarnish his famous military family and they considered that to be the key to eventually breaking and then "turning" him.

During that period of time McCain was visited by several foreign delegations (including Cubans) and interviewed by many high ranking North Vietnamese leaders including Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, North Vietnam's Minster of Defense and national hero . . .

On Dec. 7, 1969, McCain was moved out of "The Plantation" and into the "Hanoi Hilton" with other prisoners of war.

McCain was released as a prisoner of war on March 15, 1973.

Following various medical and surgical procedures, he attended the National War College in Washington, D.C. and was later posted as commanding officer of Replacement Training Squadron 174 in Jacksonville, Fla.

In 1977, McCain was ordered to the Office of Legislative Affairs and was assigned as the Director of the Navy Senate Liaison Office, where he remained until disability retirement in April 1981.

A year earlier, in 1980, his marriage and personal life soured. His marriage to Carol, who had been seriously injured and crippled in a motor vehicle accident during his confinement in Vietnam, ended in divorce.

NEW WIFE, NEW LIFE, ENTER McCAIN THE POLITICIAN

Later that year, McCain married Cindy Hensley, whose father, Jim, was an Arizona "beer baron," owning Hensley and Co., the Anheauser-Busch distributor for Phoenix and Tempe, where McCain settled with his new wife after his retirement from the Navy in the spring of 1981.

His new father-in-law made him vice president in charge of public relations for Hensley and Co., and soon McCain was writing guest editorials for Arizona newspapers and thus paving the way for a career in politics. Most of the articles were of a patriotic nature--"For POWs in Hanoi, Christmas Eve 1971 marked a spiritual turning point," "America--Bastion of liberty, beacon ofhope," "Remember MIAs fought for valid cause," etc.

It was not long until McCain caught the attention of Sens. Barry Goldwater and Paul Fannin, both Arizona institutions and devout conservative Republicans, men who could easily be identified with "America--Bastion of liberty, beacon of hope."

Soon, McCain was their choice to succeed veteran Congressman John J. Rhodes, a Republican representing Arizona's 1st Congressional DIstrict, which conveniently included the city of Tempe.

When McCain was still with the Navy's congressional liaison office it was no secret that Rhodes, the House minority leader, was getting ready for retirement. The seat to be vacated in the House was a ripe plum waiting to be picked. The would-be Congressman had long envisioned a career in government service.

And thus began John McCain's first run for elective office. From the beginning the cards were in his favor, even though he was accused of being a carpetbagger since he had only recently moved to Arizona . . .

THE COUNTERFEIT HERO

McCain's rising political power in Arizona Republican politics was due in large measure to his friendship with Duke Tully, the publisher of the conservative and powerful ARIZONA REPUBLIC and the PHOENIZ GAZETTE, with a combined daily circulation of about 400,000.

Described as "equal parts cowboy, commando, swashbuckler and elegant tycoon" by the CHICAGO TRIBUNE (Jan. 9, 1986), Tully was, according to the Chicago paper, "a George Patton who drove a Corvette, a Randolph Hearst who flew an F-16, a John Wayne in aviator glasses and Air Force dress blues."

"I tell Arizona what to think," he stated in public more than once, and it was particularly true regarding backing for the efforts of his friend, Congressman McCain.

Tully appeared to have a lot in common with his close friend, former Navy combat pilot and war hero John McCain. He boasted of his 100 missions over Vietnam, retiring from the Air Force as a lieutenant-colonel. His service, according to Tully, also included air combat in Korea, where he once was forced to crash land his P-51 Mustang fighter and spent time in a hospital as a result--so he said. His smashed front teeth were replaced with stainless steel, he also said.

He had, just like his friend John McCain, received the Purple Heart, Distinguished Flying Cross and the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry.

However, the day after Christmas 1985, it was revealed, according to the CHICAGO TRIBUNE, that John McCain's close friend had "an imagination as big as his ego."

In fact, the man who even was the godfather to one of McCain's daughters, was a total fake.

Duke Tully, the man who had arranged to have his newspapers endorse and further the chances of McCain's first run for the House and was already touting him as Goldwater's successor, had "never even went to boot camp."

Nevertheless, the genuine American patriot, Barry Goldwater, almost a national icon, decided not to run for re-election in 1986 and McCain quickly moved in to fill his shoes.

According to the NEW YORK TIMES (June 1, 1988), "When John McCain arrived in here [in Washington] as a freshman Republican Congressman in 1983, one of the issues very much on his mind was how the United States should deal with Vietnam . . . He was, he said, dismayed by the Reagan Administration's flat refusal to afford any kind of diplomatic recognition to Hanoi, something he thought could help clear up a number of issues, including the fate of those servicemen still missing in action . . . Mr. McCain, now the junior Senator from Arizona, is leading a legislative effort to force the Administration to open a lower-level American post in Vietnam, which could be preliminary to more formal relations."

SPEAKING OF FRAUD

Otherwise, McCain after his switch to the Senate differed little on any Reagan Administration policy.

He made few waves until suddenly he found himself on television trying to explain himself as one of the "Keating 5," five U.S. Senators who became enmeshed in the scandal involving the collapsed Lincoln Savings and Loan and the financial machinations of now convicted cheat Charles Keating. The U.S. taxpayers will feel for years the aftershocks of what has become known as the "S & L scandal" and will be paying off the billions that S & L clients found themselves swindled out of by Keating and others involved in the massive fraud.

As one of the "Keating 5" Senators, John McCain saw his chances to higher office go down the drain.

Reports from a variety of U.S. publications tell of the involvement of McCain in the ever-widening scandal.

ECONOMIST, Mar. 9, 1991--"Mr. McCain, despite his claims of innocense, was the only one of the five who benefited personally--family holidays in the Bahamas on Mr. Keating's tab."

NEW REPUBLIC, Dec. 31, 1990--"The only Republican of the bunch [the five Senators], John McCain of Arizona wins credit for finally drawing the line. After the second of the two April meetings [with Federal regulators] he told Mr. [Sen. Dennis] DeConcini [D-Ariz.] and Mr. Keating that he wouldn't lean on the regulators any more. Mr. Keating called him a wimp. But before the rupture, Mr. McCain and his family were regular guests of Mr. Keating's on trips to the Bahamas. Mr. McCain reimbursed the owner of Lincoln Savings and Loan for only a small fraction of the cost of these holidays. Yet, he never reported the vacations on Senate disclosure forms, or his income taxes. He said he thought his wife had paid Mr. Keating back. This is hard to believe."

NEW REPUBLIC, Sept. 9, 1991--Calling McCain part of the "Senatorial Lincoln Brigade," the NEW REPUBLIC reported that Keating, while bankrupting his Savings and Loan, had channeled $1.4 million to the campaigns or causes of the five Senators, who in turn pressured the Savings and Loan regulators to "back off our friend."Ultimately, the fall of Lincoln Savings and Loan will cost the U.S. taxpayers $2 billion. It lost $1 million dollars a day from the time Keating bought it in 1984 until its collapse in 1989, and yet he continued to pay off McCain as "one of his assets," REGARDIE'S magazine reported in its April-May 1992 issue.

POT CALLS THE KETTLE BLACK

Referring to POW/MIA activists who have raised public funds for their work in trying to resolve the issue of Americans left behind in Vietnam, McCain said while seated on the Senate Select Committee on POW and MIA Affairs:

"The people who have done these things are not zealots in a good cause. They are criminals and some of the most craven, most cynical and most despicable human beings to ever run a scam."

Yet, it's difficult to find anything bad Sen. McCain has said about his friend, Charles F. Keating. And words like "craven" and "despicable" are impossible to find at all to describe his friend, who cheated, among others, little old ladies out of their life savings . . .

The U.S. VETERAN has also learned that during a meeting with Vietnamese officials last July, Frances Zwenig, the $118,000-a-year staff director of the Senate Select Committee, was told by the Vietnamese that something had to be done about the POW/MIA activists.

Not long after the meeting in Hanoi, the Senate Select Committee started after POW/MIA activists, painting them as cheats and con artists, prompting one observer to ask, "Are the Vietnamese now directing the affairs of the Senate Select Committee?"

The Senate Select Committee will make its final report to the Senate and the American people on Jan. 5, 1993, as its plans now stand. If Sens. John McCain and John Kerry have their way, as all factors seem to indicate that they will, the report will trash POW/MIA activists, whose activities the Vietnamese have asked the senators to curtail.

The report will conclude that U.S. Prisoners of war were left behind but all have since died and that the Vietnamese are doing all they can to help search for the remains of the dead.

Nevertheless, a report by Senators, each following his own personal agenda, will not be written in stone and it will not end the dispute.

And the U.S. government will soon lift the trade embargo with Vietnam and normalize relations.

However, if there are no POWs/MIAs left alive in Southeast Asia then it must be assumed that in one way or another the Vietnamese caused their deaths. Certainly, Sen. John McCain, a former POW, knows the current leaders of Vietnam were responsible for murdering many while he was in a Hanoi prison.

Why, Sen. McCain, is there such a rush by you and others to do business with the same regime, which you, yourself, once called "degenerate" and whose leaders' hands are dripping with the blood of captive, helpless Americans--your fellow POWs? Have the Vietnamese flipped you a Queen of Diamonds?

[Calpernia]

FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

Hanoi Correspondent's Dispatch in English to Prensa Latina Havana 1205 CMT 9 Nov 67

(Text) Nhan Dan on 9 November carries a story about the U.S. Pilot McCain who was captured on 26 October after his plane had been shot down over Hanoi.

His flight on a raid against Hanoi was the first for him and his 23rd raiding flight over North Vietnam. McCain was very afraid of the (?Intense) antiaircraft network in Hanoi, which is not only (?Intense) but very accurate. That is why it became important. Three out of 25 aircraft of his group were downed. The United States in not able to bear it if out of every 25 aircraft three are downed, he said.

McCain stated: There is not any doubt for me; things are taking place in a favorable way for North Vietnam. In particular world opinion. At present, the United states is (?virtually) standing alone.'

[end of text]



Interview with McCain

Hanoi VNA International Service in French 1339 GMT 9 Nov 67 B

(Interview of American POW LT CDR John Sidney McCain published in 9 November Nhan Dan)

(Excerpt) Hanoi 9 November --/Passage Omitted on circumstances behind McCain's transfer from carrier Forrestal to Oriskany and his capture on Truc Bach Lake on 26 October 1967)

To a question of the correspondent, McCain answered: 'My assignment to the Oriskany, I told myself, was due to serious losses in pilots which were sustained by this aircraft carrier (due to its raids over North Vietnam territory--VNA) and which necessitated replacements. From 10 to 12 pilots were transferred like me from the Forrestal to the Oriskany. Before I was shot down we had made several sorties. Altogether I made about 23 flights over North Vietnam.'

McCain admitted that he participated five or six times in the attacks on the Haiphong sector.

Fear still clearly showed on his face when he recalled his disastrous sortie on 26 October against Hanoi. 'The briefing was held in the morning,' he said. 'That's right. I remember that it was the morning that they told me of the situation and the plan of the raid, which should take place about noon. A reconnaissance officer explained this plan to me. They showed me photographs of my target marked out the paths to be followed by the Oriskany at this point. They pointed out to me a number of antiaircraft positions near Hanoi and a number of possible rocket positions, the position of our rescue ships, the radio frequency, the composition of the flight, and so forth. Upon arrival near the target, our formation with six bombers, would mount the attack according to the following order: I would be number three, and the chief of the formation, number one. Each pilot would have to approach the target from a different direction, the choice of which would be left to [undecipherable].

'While moving toward the target, we stumbled over a very dense network of fire, a very powerful riposte. A few rockets were seen. Our chief turned to approach the target and I followed him at a distance. At the time when I was preparing to drop my bombs--I did not know whether or not I could drop them because things were happening too fast--I heard a terrible explosion which shook my plane and sent it toward the ground. It was hit so violently that I was thrown on my back and went straight toward the ground in this posture. I tried to pull the direction-stick I do not know at what [undecipherable]

Naturally I felt buffeting because my bailing out was made at the time when the plane was falling too fast. When the parachute opened I looked down and found out I was going to fall into a lake. I was really lucky to be able to fall into a lake. All around me bombs were exploding while rockets and antiaircraft shells were streaking through the sky. I hit the lake and went to the bottom. While trying to return to the surface, I was seized by Vietnamese and pushed to the bank of the lake. They disarmed me and brought me to prison.' 'What do you think of Hanoi's fire barrage?' asked the Nhan Dan Correspondent.

McCain cried out: 'Very intense, very accurate. When a fire barrage is so accurate, one has to reckon with it. You are excellent artillerymen. Naturally, I have never seen such a fire network, because it was the first time I flew over Hanoi.'

'Were the pilots who had flown over Hanoi afraid of the firepower from the ground?'

'Yes, certainly!' McCain said, 'How lucky are those who do not have to come often to the Hanoi Sector. Very dangerous! Because they could very well be shot down, hit, something that no one wants! When I arrived near my target I saw two rockets streaking by my side, and it was terrible to see. They flew very fast, very strongly.'

Suddenly the air pirate was silent as if still obsessed by the memory of his disasterous sortie.

'For me,' he concluded, 'there is no longer any doubt. Things are taking place in a favorable opinion. The United States at present seems to be standing alone, so much is its isolation.'

[end of text]



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HANOI VNA INTERNATIONAL SERVICE IN FRENCH 1339 GMT 9 NOV 67 B
(FURTHER B091315 HANOI CORRESPONDENT'S DISPATCH ENGLISH DRENSA LATINA 091205--SHORT VERSION NHAN DAN)
(FIRST OF TWO TAKES--INTERVIEW WITH MCCAIN)
(TEXT) HANOI, 9 NINE NOVEMBER--NHAN DAN TODAY PUBLISHED ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY ONE OF ITS CORRESPONDENTS MADE BY A U.S. AIR PIRATE DETAINED IN NORTH VIETNAM.
HE IS LT CDR JOHN SIDNEY MCCAIN OF THE U.S. NAVY, SERIAL NUMBER 624787 SIXTWOFOURSEVENEIGHTSEVEN, CAPTURE IN THZ TRUC BACH LAKE IN HANOI 26 TWOSIX OCTOBER 1967 ONENINESIXSEVEN AFTER HE HAD BAILED OUT FROM HIS PLANE IN FLAMES. IT WAS FROM THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER U.S. ORISKANY THAT HE TOOK OFF FOR THE LAST TIME. BEFORE BEING TRANSFERRED TO THIS SHIP IN OCTOBER 1967 ONENINESIXSEVEN, HE WAS AMONG THE PERSONNEL FLYING FROM ANOTHER AIRCRAFT CARRIER, THE FORESTAL. BECAUSE THE LATTER SUSTAINED CONSIDERABLE LOSSES DUE TO A TERRIBLE EXPLOSION WHICH HAPPENED 29 TWONINE JULY 1967 ONENINESIXSEVEN, MCCAIN COULD TAKE LEAVE IN HIS NATIVE COUNTRY AS ONE OF

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THE SURVIVORS. HOWEVER, HE COULD SPEND ONLY A FEW DAYS WITH HIS FAMILY, BECAUSE HE SOON RECEIVED AN ORDER TO REPORT URGENTLY TO THE ORISKANY WHERE HE WAS TO BE ASSIGNED. DURING HIS LEAVE, HE RELATED, HIS WIFE AND EVEN HIS FATHER IN HIS LETTERS ADVISED HIM TO BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL BECAUSE A GREAT NUMBER OF COFFINS OF AMERICAN MILITARYMEN KILLED IN VIETNAM HAD ALREADY ARRIVED IN THE UNITED STATES.
TO A QUESTION OF THE CORRESPONDENT, MCCAIN ANSWERED: 'MY ASSIGNMENT TO THE ORISKANY, I TOLD MYSELF, WAS DIE TO SERIOUS LOSSES IN PILOTS, WHICH WERE SUSTAINED BY THIS AIRCRAFT CARRIER (DUE TO ITS RAIDS ON THE NORTH VIETNAM TERRITORY--VNA)(BRACKETS AS TRANSMITTED) AND WHICH NECESSITATED REPLACEMENTS. FROM 10 ONEZERO TO 12 ONETWO PILOTS WERE TRANSFERRED LIKE ME FROM THE FORESTAL TO THE ORISKANY. BEFORE I WAS SHOT DOWN WE HAD MADE SEVERAL SORTIE. ALTOGETHER I MADE ABOUT 23 TWOTHREE FLIGHTS OVER NORTH VIETNAM.'
MCCAIN ADMITTED THAT HE PARTICIPATED FIVE OR SIX TIMES IN THE ATTACKS IN THE HAIPHONG SECTOR.
FEAR STILL CLEARLY SHOWED ON HIS FACE WHEN HE RECALLED HIS DISADTROUS SORTIE ON 26 TWOSIX OCTOBER AGAIN HANOI. 'THE BRIEFING WAS HELD IN THE MORNING,' HE SAID. 'THAT'S RIGHT. I REMEMBER THAT IT WAS IN THE MORNING THAT THEY TOLD ME OF THE SITUATION AND THE PLAN OF THE RAID, WHICH SHOULD TAKE PLACE ABOUT NOON. A RECONNAISSANCE OFFICER EXPLAINED THIS PLAN TO ME. THEY SHOWED ME PHOTOGRAPHS OF MY TARGET AND MARKED OUT THE PATHS TO BE FOLLOWED BY THE ORISKANY AT THIS POINT. THEY POINTED OUT TO ME A NUMBER OF ANTIAIRCRAFT POSITIONS NEAR HANOI AND A NUMBER OF POSSIBLE ROCKET POSITIONS, THE POSITION OF OUR RESCUE SHIPS, THE RADIO FREQUENCY, THE COMPOSITION OF THE FLIGHT, AND SO FORTH. UPON ARRIVAL NEAR THE TARGET, OUR FORMTION WUTH SIX BOMBERS, WOULD MOUNT THE ATTACK ACCORDING TO THE FOLLOWING ORDER: I WOULD BE NUMBER THREE, AND THE CHIEF OF THE FORMATION, NUMBER ONE. EACH PILOT WOULD HAVE TO APPROACH THE TARGET FROM A DIFFERENT DIRECTION THE CHOICE OF WHICH WOULD BE LEFT TO HIM.
'WHILE MOVING TOWARD THE TARGET, WE STUMBLED OVER A VERY DENSE NETWORK OF FIRE, A VERY POWERFUL RIPOSTE. A FEW ROCKETS WERE SEEN. OUR CHIEF TURNED TO APPROACH THE TARGET AND I FOLLOWED HIM AT A DISTANCE. AT THE TIME WHEN I WAS PREPARING TO DROP MY BOMBS--I DID NOT KNOW WHETHER OR NOT I COULD DROP THEM, BECAUSE

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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
NATIONAL MILITARY COMMAND CENTER
MESSAGE CENTER



THINGS WERE HAPPENING TOO FAST--I HEARD A TERRIBLE EXPLOSION WHICH SHOOK MY PLANE AND SENT IT TOWARD THE GROUN. IT WAS HIT SO VIOLENTLY THAT I WAS THROWN ON MY BACK AND WENT STRAIGHT TOWARD THE GROUND IN THIS POSTURE. I TRIED TO PULL THE DIRECTION-STICK TO REESTABLISH THE BALANCE OF MY PLANE BUT IT NO LONGER RESPONDED TO ME.
I CONTINUED TO DESCENT AT A DIZZY SPEED. THEN, I EJECTED MYSELF. I DO NOT KNOW AT WHAT ALTITUDE, BUT IT MUST HAVE BEEN VERY LOW. NATURALLY I FELT BUFFETTING BECAUSE MY BAILING OUT WAS MADE AT THE TIME WHEN THE PLANE WAS FALLING TOO FAST. WHEN THE PARACHUTE OPENED, I LOOKED DOWN AND FOUND OUT THAT I WAS GOING TO FALL INTO A LAKE. I WAS REALLY LUCKY TO BE ABLE TO FALL INTO A LAKE. ALL AROUND ME BOMBS WERE EXPLODING WHILE ROCKETS AND ANTIAIRCRAFT SHELLS WERE STREAKING THROUGH THE SKY. I HIT THE LAKE AND WENT TO THE BOTTOM. WHILE TRYING TO RETURN TO THE SURFACE, I WAS SEIZED BY VIETNAMESE AND PUSHED TO THE BANK OF THE LAKE. THEY DISARMED ME AND BROUGHT ME TO PRISON.' MORE 0913398 [ BLACKED OUT ] 11/1933Z
NOV
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More Transcirpts

• 31 October 1967
  

• 01 January 1968

• Translation of Memorial
  
  

• Return to the PoW/MIA Forum
  
  

[Calpernia]

31 October 1967 "Hanoi in English to American Servicemen in South Vietnam
[Talk: 'From the Pacific to Truc Bach Lake']

[Text]" In his newest step of war escalation--successive air strikes at Hanoi city these days--Mr. Johnson has wasted scores of U.S. aircraft and pilots.

"Adding to the ever longer list of American pilots captured over North Vietnam was a series of newcomers. John Sydney McCain was one of them. Who is he? A U.S. Navy lieutenant commander. Last Thursday, 26 October, he took off from the carrier Oriksany for a raiding mission against Hanoi city. Unfortunately for him, the jetplane he piloted was one of the 10 knocked out of Hanoi's sky. He tried in vain to evade the deadly accurate antiaircraft barrage of fire of this city. A surface-to-air missile shot down his jet on the spot. He bailed out and was captured on the surface of Truc Bach Lake right in the heart of the DRV capital.

"What were the feats of arms which McCain achieved? Foreign correspondents in Hanoi saw with their eyes civilian dwelling houses destroyed and Hanoi's women, old folks, and children killed by steel-pellet bombs dropped from McCain's aircraft and those of his colleagues.

"LtCom John Sydney McCain nearly perished in the conflagration that swept the flight deck of the U.S. carrier Forrestal last July. He also narrowly escaped death in Haiphong the Sunday before last but this time what must happen has happened. There is no future in it.

"McCain was married in 1965 to [name indistinct] and has a 10-month-old daughter. Surely he loved his wife and child. Then why did he fly here dropping bombs on the necks of the Vietnamese women and children?

"The killing he was ordered to do in Vietnam has aroused indignation among the world's peoples. What glory had he brought by his job to his father, Adm. John S McCain Jr., commander in chief of U.S. Naval Forces in Europe? His grandfather, Adm. John S. McCain, commander of all aircraft carriers in the Pacific in World War II, participated in a just war against the Japanese forces. But nowadays Lt. Com. McCain is participating in an unjust war, the most unpopular one in U.S. history and mankind's history too. This is Johnson's war to enslave the Vietnamese people.

"From the Pacific to Truc Bach Lake, McCain has brought no reputation for his family in the United States. The one who is smearing McCain's family honor is also smearing the honor of Washington's United States of America. He is Lyndon B. Johnson."

[end of text]



More Transcripts

• 09 November 1967
  

• 01 January 1968

• Translation of Memorial
  
  

• Return to the PoW/MIA Forum
  
  

[Calpernia]

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
NATIONAL MILITARY COMMAND CENTER
MESSAGE CENTER

1 2 7 6 8

CALL 53337
FOR NMCC/MC
SERVICE

I 0Z 04 46 ?

IC340 J
JCS053/02/
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DE RUQVLS 047 0012215
ZNR UUUUU
R 0122087 JAN 68 ZYT1
FM FBIS KYRENIA
TO RUEPJS/DIA DIACO
RUMSMA/COMUSMACV JPRC
RUCIJ F A/BUPERS
RUWTFJA/USAFMPC
RUENAAA/NAVINTCOM
RUQMAT/AMEMBASSY ATHENS
RUFKRB/VCA MUNICH FOR RHODES
FEDMON
BT
UNCLAS WA RUQV
ATTN AD4.ATHENS FOR VOA/MEA
M012208 COPY TO LIAISON
BEIRUT L'ORCENT IN FRENCH 29 DEC 67 P 1 M
(ARTICLE IN SERIES WRITTEN BY 'PROMINENT' FRENCH TELEVISION REPORTER FRANCOIS CHALAIS--AN EXCLUSIVE TO L'ORIENT--TITLED 'LIFE IN HANOI' AND DESCRIBING THE REPORTER'S ONE-MONTH VISIT TO NORTH VIETNAM. DATE IF VISIT NOTT GIVEN. THE SERIES WAS ANNOUNCED 25 DECEMBER AND BEGAN 27 DECEMBER. THIS INSTALLMENT IS TITLED 'THE U.S. PRISONERS DO NOTT UNDERSTAND')

(EXCERPTS)(PASSAGE OMITTED) I MZT SOME AMERICANS IN HANOI--PILOTS OFTEN WOUNDED, HAVING EJECTED FROM THEIR PLANES. THEY--LIKE THE VIETNAMESE THEY ARE MASSACRING, BUT FOR DIFFERENT REASONS--DO NOTT UNDERSTAND WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THEM. HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF THEIR THINKING:

'WE WILL REBUILD YOUR BRIDGES.' TO THIS PILOT, SOMEONE HAS BROUGHT PICTURES OF DESTROYED BRIDGES. DO YOU RECOGNIZE THESE BRIDGES? YES, SAYS THE PILOT, THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN MY WORK. (PASSAGE OMITTED) THEN HE IS SHOWN THE SAME PICTURES, TAKEN A SHORT WHILE BEFORE, THE FIRST FIRST PICTURES--ED.) THESE PICTURES SHOW MANY BODIES--SEVERAL 9S83-SCATTERED AROUND THE BRIDGE. IS THIS ALSO YOUR WORK? THE AMERICAN HESITATES, THEN SAYS: IT IS NOTT MY FAULT IF PEOPLE ARE FOOLISH ENOUGH TO PASS OVER BRIDGES WHILE I AM BOMBING. SOON HE ADDS: MOREOVER I DO NOTT UNDERSTAND YOU. YOU HAVE ONLY TO STOP THE

ACT. .DIA-15

INFO. . .CSAF-1 FILE-1(17)CAC/JP
1 OF 3

Approved for Release
Date AUG 1987



DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
NATIONAL MILITARY COMMAND CENTER
MESSAGE CENTER



WAR: AS SOON AS YOU DO SO WE WILL REBUILD YOUR BRIDGES. (PASSAGE OMITTED) MY FATHER IS A MULTIMILLIONAIRE. I WILL PAY YOU FOR THEM. (PASSAGE OMMITTED)
ANOTHER PILOT IS INJURED. THE DOCTOR ASKS HIM HOW HE FEELS. HE REPLIES: WELL. BUT I MUST TELL YOU SOMETHING DOCTOR. YOU ARE ALL QUITE KIND, BUT YOUR MEDICINES ARE WORTHLESS. ONLY AMERICAN MEDICINES ARE GOOD. YOU ARE DOING WHATEVER YOU CAN, BUT COMPARED TO THE U.S. DOCTORS, YOU ARE ONLY BEGINNERS. THEREFORE THIS IS WHAT I SUGGEST: WE HAVE CLARKIBASE IN THE PHILIPPINES WHERE THEY HAVE EVERYTHING THAT IS NEEDED. YOU LET ME GO THERE AND AS SOON AS I RECOVER I WILL RETURN HERE TO GIVE MYSELF UP. (PASSAGE OMITTED)
DOWNED U.S. PILOTS ENERGETICALLY REFUSE TO ADMIT THAT THEY MAY HAVE BEEN SHOT DOWN BY VIETNAMESE PILOTS--AN INDERIOR SPECIES IN THE MINDS OF AMERICAN PILOTS. NO, THEY WERE HIT BY SAM MISSILES OR BY ANTIAIRCRAFT BATTERIES--BUT NEVER BY MIG PILOTS. ONE PILOT, FOR EXAMPLE, IS GIVEN ALL THE PROOF THAT HE WAS HIT BY ONE OF HIS VIETNAMESE COUNTERPARTS. HE DEFENDS HIMSELF VEHEMENTLY. NEVERTHELESS, HHERE ARE IRREFUTABLE PICTURES. THEY EVEN BRING TO HIS HOSPITAL BED THE PILOT WHO DOWNED HIS PLANE. THE AMERICAN STILL HESITATES, THEN SAYS: I WOULD NEVER BELIEVED IT, BUT EVIDENTLY IT IS AS YOU SAY. (PASSAGE OMITTED)
A MEETING WHICH WILL LEAVE ITS MARK ON MY LIFE:
MY MEETING WITH JOHN SIDNEY MCCAIN WAS CERTAINLY ONE OF THOSE MEETINGS WHICH AFFECT ME MOST PROFOUNDLY FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE. I HAD ASKED THE NORTH VIETNAMESE AUTHORITIES TO ALLOW ME TO PERSONALLY INTERROGATE AN AMERICAN PRISONER. THEY AUTHORIZED ME TO DO SO. WHEN NIGHT FELL, THEY TOOK ME--WITHOUT PRECAUTIONS OR MYSTERY--TO A HOSPITAL NEAR THE GIA LAM AIRPORT RESERVED FOR THE MILITARY (PASSAGE OMITTED) THE OFFICER WHO RECEIVES ME BEGINS: I ASK YOU NOTT TO ASK ANY QUESTIONS OF POLITICAL NATURE. IF THIS MAN REPLIES IN A WAY UNFAVORABLE TO US, THEY WILL NOTT HESITATE TO SPEAK OF 'BRAINWASHING' AND CONCLUDE THAT WE THREATENED HIM. (PASSAGE OMITTED)
THIS JOHN SIDNEY MCCAIN IS NOTT AN ORDINARY PRISONER. HIS FATHER IS NONE OTHER THAN ADMIRAL EDMOND JOHN MCCAIN, COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF U.S. NAVAL FORCES IN EUROPE. (PASSAGE OMITTED) IN A WEAK VOICE, HE RELATES HIS STORY TO ME: I WAS CARRYING OUT A BOMBING MISSION, MY 23D TWENTYTHIRD RAID, OVER HANOI. IT WAS THEN

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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
NATIONAL MILITARY COMMAND CENTER
MESSAGE CENTER



THAT I WAS HIT. I WANTED TO EJECT BUT WHILE DOING SO I BROKE BOTH ARMS AND MY RIGHT THIGH. UNCONSCIOUS I FELL IN A LAKE. SOME VIETNAMESE JUMPED INTO THE WATER AND PULLED ME OUT. LATER I LEARNED THERE MUST HAVE BEEN ABOUT 12 OF THEM. THEY IMMEDIATELY TOOK ME TO HOSPITAL, IN CONDITION TWO INCHES AWAY FROM DEATH. A DOCTOR OPERATED ON MY THIGHT. OTHERS AT THE SAME TIME DEALT WITH MY ARMS.
HOW ARE YOU TREATED HERE?
VERY WELL. EVERYBODY IS VERY NICE TO ME.
HOW IS THE FOOD?
HE SMILES FEEBLY. OBVIOUSLY, THE LEAST REACTION HURTS HIM. THIS ISN'T PARIS, BUT IT IS ALRIGHT.
DO YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO READ?
THEY HAVE SUGGESTED THAT I READ, BUT MY HANDS ARE UNABLE TO HOLD EVEN A NEWSPAPER.
HIS CIGARETTE HAS GONE OUT. HE TALKS TO ME ABOUT HIS WIFE WHO LIVES IN JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA, AND ABOUT HIS THREE CHILDREN. AND NOW HE ADDRESSES HIS FAMILY: I KNOW THAT THIS IS GOING TO TURN OUT WELL. I HOPE THAT I WILL SEE YOU SOON. I WILL BE WELL. THIS IS AL PECEPEATS: THIS IS ALL. (PASSAGE OMITTED)
[BLACKED OUT] 01/2232Z JAN
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Transcripts:

• Translation of Memorial
  
• 31 October 1967
  
• 09 November 1967
  

• Return to the PoW/MIA Forum
  
  

[nw_arizona_granny]

Bump
(thanks)

[Dan from Michigan]

Good riddance to Don Riegle. He was going to be offed in 94 and he knew it. He retired instead and went back to Flint!!!!!

[Enterprise]

Good riddance to bad Riegle.

[newsgatherer]

bump to the top