Mr. BOMAR. Good morning. My name is Jack Bomar, retired Air Force Colonel. I am a graduate of the “Fidel” Program, Class of 1968. I wish to thank the Members of this panel for their interest in uncovering the truth about a subject that has been buried for 31 years-especially you, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen from Florida. When I was shot down in 1967, we were flying an ECM aircraft out of Takhli, Thailand. It is kind of amazing that a SAM suppression aircraft can get knocked down by a SAM. But that is what happened. There were six of us on the aircraft; three of us survived. One was captured by the Chinese and turned over to the North Vietnamese. I went through the initial torture of peasants on the ground trying to spear me with spears as I came toward the ground. I kicked one of them aside and in doing that, I think I ruptured a disc in my back, and broke an ankle. I got a big chunk of shrapnel through my left leg before bailing out. So when I arrived in North Vietnam, I was not in the mood for games. I was tired, I just wanted a drink of water and to be allowed to lay down. The peasants tortured me all day.
Finally I got into Hanoi that night, and went into some real torture by the North Vietnamese.
They didn¹t need our “Fidel” to teach them how to torture people. The Vietnamese were experts at this. I went through what we call the “Rope Trick.” Your arms are tied behind your back, wrists in manacles and the pressure is slowly applied to the upper arms with straps. Eventually I was hung from a hook because I would not reveal the names of my crew.
Finally after three days with no food or water, constant interrogation, the camp commander was suddenly there, then gone. The torture guy-we call him “Straps and Bars”-applied the pressure again. Finally, they showed me a list of my crew members, so they had been working on one of the other three of us pretty harshly. I was sent to “The Zoo” and put in a camp where I met a delegation from the United States. There were three men in this delegation. One was a doctor, I think from France, one was a lawyer from Denmark or someplace, and the other was an anti war type from Berkeley, California, named Neilands, a professor from Berkeley. He and I immediately hit it off by him sticking out his hand-I was on crutches, had bandages from here to here to cover up all the wounds on my hands. I asked him, “What the hell are you doing in North Vietnam?” He said, “Dean Rusk, the son of a bitch, will not tell me where I can go and when I can be there.” So my purpose, primarily, was to get a letter to my family, which got my name out in public. We felt that if you were known to be a POW, your survival chances were much greater than those that were not known.
After that interrogation, I was tortured several more times by the Vietnamese and thrown into solitary. I was in solitary confinement in June. After the delegation visit, there was no more treatment for the hole in my leg. I dug the shrapnel out with my fingers. I was on crutches when I saw the delegation; but now the crutches were long gone. Because of my attitude at the delegation, I was stashed in solitary.
Suddenly they came in and wanted me to meet “several of my countrymen”. I think they said, “When you go to Quiz at night, it is a pretty scary thing; you are not sure what is coming.” I wasn’t sure when I walked in the room with Dum Dum and there were two Caucasians sitting at this table, and the one in the center was quite tall, spoke good English, had a Latin accent, offered me a cigarette, ,which I refused; and then I took it after a few words of encouragement from him. On his side was another gentleman-smaller, lighter hair, I believe-and they said, “Where do you think we are from?” I said “I think you are from Romania.” It was obvious that they were Latin Americans. He said he was there to help me with my defense. I was to be tried by the war crimes tribunal, the Bertrand Russell Tribunal for War Crimes against the Vietnamese people, and he would work on my defense for me. Then he sent me back to the room.
I didn’t know what to make of these two guys, but they weren’t the normal delegation like the one I had just seen. They were a little scarier; they were a little more intense. They were sitting with the camp commander to his right, which is a position of authority. I was called back a couple of days later after he told me now we must fill out a sheet of paper and you will describe your aircraft, 20 pages written there. I left it lying on my bunk. Being in solitary, I had a bunk there, a platform of boards, and I left it blank. Finally, at the last minute, I scratched in a crude sketch of the aircraft. This is a wing, this is a window, this is a door-this is the top, this is the bottom, pure nonsense. The next day I gathered up my stuff, and I met with two other POW’s. Ray Vohden was one of them, on crutches. He was badly hurt; he had also met “Fidel.” The other one was a gentleman named Dave Duart; I think he was an Air Force captain flying a 105. There we sat in this room looking at each other, wondering, what is going on here. Ray Vohden made the-I will not repeat the statement he made, but it was, I think, that we are in deep you-know-what. and we were.
We were in that position maybe three or four weeks. We would go to Quiz, he would threaten us; “Fidel” would threaten us. His entire program to me, I felt was, you will surrender. He didn’t say surrender to what, he didn’t say what he wanted you to do, he said surrender. I think he was running a surrender program up there and could get maybe 10 or 15 POW’s to surrender to anything that came up. That’s a bad position to be in.
I was badly tortured by him when I refused to surrender, or as he said, choose the match box or choose the cigarette case. The match box I chose and went through the straps again. It was just as bad the second time with the manacles that tore up my hands. I was just off crutches, I didn¹t walk that well right then. So he got my attention after a guard came running toward me and grabbed me by the throat and tried to crush my windpipe. That got my attention.
So I nodded, “I surrender.” There was some histrionics of knocking me around the room, and I was sent back to solitary confinement with some leg irons. We were finally joined in a large group, either nine or ten POW’s, and some of them are right here. Jim Kasler was not in our group, as such. I felt that we were being held in limbo there. He would threaten us. He would send us to Quiz. We would go back there, back and forth. He sounded like a Cuban revolutionary to me-Che Guevara. I made a big mistake one day; when Che Guevara died, I said something like “Good riddance”-really a bright statement at the time-and that got me in real big trouble, as if I could get in any more.
We were joined eventually by a fellow prisoner, Earl Cobeil. Cobeil was a complete physical disaster when we saw him. He had been tortured for days and days and days. I went down to clean him up. When “Fidel” dragged us down there, he said, Clean him up; and if anything happens to this man you, Bomar, are responsible.Then he hit him right in the face, knocked him down again. His hands were almost severed from the manacles. He had bamboo in his shins. All kinds of welts up and down all over; his face was bloody. He was a complete mess. They brought him into the room and as far as we could tell, Captain Cobeil was totally mentally out of it. He did not know where he was. I don¹t think he knew where he had been or where he was going. He was just there. ,”Fidel” began to beat him with a fan belt. I call it a fan belt but it wasn¹t really a fan belt. I think it was the side of a Russian truck tire, a very, very painful experience to be hit by this length of fan belt. I saw Cobeil hit as many as 12 or 13 times directly in the face. He never blinked his eyes. He never opened his mouth. He just stood there.
We had him in our cell for I would say 8 months or so. He refused to eat. He refused to bow to the guards. You must understand when the door opened, the guards demanded you will bow, all criminals will bow. We were always a criminal in North Vietnam. We were never a POW. We were governed by the camp regu-lations, not the U.S. code of conduct for military personnel. We took care of Cobeil for about a year. We force-fed him by holding him down, putting a stick in his mouth, and pushing the food down his throat. In all that time he never recognized anything that was going on. Finally he was removed from the room for electrical shock treatments, and then finally was gone. I understand he died a couple of years later there at the Hanoi Hilton. I don’t believe “Fidel” was in Hanoi just to torture American POW’s. I think that events controlled him that he had no control over. I think the Tet Offensive of 1968 was involved. I think when Johnson halted the bombing in 1968, that involved what “Fidel” was doing up there. I believe a conference that was taking place in Hanoi-Havana in 1968 had something to do with “Fidel” being up there. I think we were being prepared for some selective release that would enhance the Vietnam image of lenient and humane treatment worldwide. We were almost waiting for something to trigger this release.
“Fidel” used torture not for direct propaganda or anti war statement as the Vietnamese did. He used torture to break us initially, and to control us and keep us right under his thumb so we would do what he wanted done. His brutal torture of Cobeil and Kasler was due mostly to his frustration and his inability to force his will on others.
When he lost his temper, he was a complete madman. He would get red in the face; he just exploded with rage. So if you refused to bow to him like Cobeil refused to do or if I refused to take the cigarette case instead of the deal, his temper just went out of control. The North Vietnamese knew exactly what “Fidel” was doing up there. They may tell you that he was there to teach English to the guards. I don¹t think that had any part in it whatsoever. He was allowed to do to Cobeil, Kasler and others what was unjustifiable in any society, even a Communist society. Perhaps one day we will positively identify and locate this man. Thank you.
Thanks for posting that. I hope President McCain starts a program to track down and exterminate Fidel and the other torturers of American POWs.
1967 : (VIETNAM ERA : BERTRAND RUSSELL "HEARINGS") The BRussells Tribunal, inspired by the hearings held in 1967 by philosopher Bertrand Russell into American war crimes in Vietnam---"Permanent war ," Al Ahram Weekly, 15 - 21 April 2004, Issue No. 686, Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875
Believe it or not, the Bertrand Russell type douchebags are still around, waging war on the Bush admin.
MARCH 21, 2003 : ('WAR ON CHENEY, RUMSFELD & WOLFOWITZ' : PUBLICATION OF SILLY-ASS PETITION AGAINST PNAC-- See ICTI, BERTRAND RUSSELL PEACE FOUNDATION, BRUSSELS TRIBUNAL {see RAMSEY CLARK, DENIS HALLIDAY [UN Oil for Food official], HANS VON SPONECK [Denis Haliday's successor in the UN oil for Food program]} ) Let me [Belgian Lieven De Cauter] briefly evoke the history of our initiative. Just before the start of the war in Iraq a petition was launched. It was signed by some 500 artists, writers, intellectuals and academics. It called for moral and, if possible, legal action against the 'Project for the New American Century' and the authorities responsible for the war against Iraq. It was published on March 21st [2003] in two Belgian newspapers, De Standaard and De Morgen. It soon appeared that legal action was unlikely to succeed as the United States have consistently acted against any legal authority that would be liable to threaten them and still continue to do so. Hence the idea to set up a 'Moral Court' or 'People's Court' to condemn the new American policy as well as the think tanks behind it (the latter always remain beyond the grasp of legal action). A broad platform composed of several Belgian cultural organizations was created to carry out the petition's first proposal: to set up a Brussels Tribunal, after the historical example of the Russell Tribunal. -----"THE PEOPLE VERSUS TOTAL WAR INCORPORATED" LOOKING BACK TO THE BRUSSELLS TRIBUNAL (Yokohama-testimony, 5th ICTI hearing June 6th 2004)http://www.icti-e.com/Lieven%20De%20Cauter.html
1997 SPRING : (PNAC IS FOUNDED-- SEE KAGAN, KRISTOL, THE WEEKLY STANDARD, CHENEY, RUMSFELD, FL GOVERNOR BUSH, FUKUYAMA, WOLFOWITZ, SCHMITT, ARMITAGE,...) In the spring of 1997 the neo-conservatives Robert Kagan and William Kristol of The Weekly Standard founded 'The Project for the New American Century' (PNAC). The most distinguished signatories of the mission statement are Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Jeb Bush (George W. Bush's brother), Francis Fukuyama, and 'last but not least' Paul Wolfowitz, a former Professor of International Politics and former Dean of the Department of International Politics at Johns Hopkins University. Its current director is Gary Schmitt. It is important to note that many of its members have close ties with both the military and the oil industry. PNAC describes itself as "a non-profit, educational organization whose goal it is to promote American global leadership."JUNE 3, 2003 Tuesday : (BELGIUM : THREE MORE TOXIC LETTERS FOUND BY POSTMEN, THESE ADDRESSED TO PRIME MINISTER, JUSTICE & FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTER, A BELGIAN COURT, AND THE US EMBASSY; AN ADDITIONAL THREE LETTERS ARRIVED AT BRUSSELS COURT, OSTEND AIRPORT & ANTWERP PORT AUTHORITY) Coinkidink?
Its 'Statement of principles' is unequivocal: "The history of the 20th century should have taught us that it is important to shape circumstances before crises emerge, and to meet threats before they become dire. The history of this century should have taught us to embrace the cause of American leadership." (That is the doctrine of "Premptive Strike" and "Benevolent Hegemony")---SOURCE : "THE PEOPLE VERSUS TOTAL WAR INCORPORATED" : LOOKING BACK TO THE BRUSSELLS TRIBUNAL," (Yokohama-testimony, 5th ICTI hearing June 6th 2004), Lieven De Cauter http://www.icti-e.com/Lieven%20De%20Cauter.html1998 : (RUMSFELD & WOLFOWITZ LETTER TO PRESIDENT CLINTON -- SEE PNAC)DONALD Rumsfeld...and ...Paul Wolfowitz wrote to President Bill Clinton in 1998 urging...the removal of Saddam Hussein...
Those who signed the letter, dated January 26, 1998, include Bush's current Pentagon adviser, Richard Perle; Richard Armitage, the number two at the State Department; John Bolton and Paula Dobriansky, under-secretaries of state; Elliott Abrams, the presidential adviser for the Middle East and a member of the National Security Council; and Peter W Rodman, assistant secretary of defence for international security affairs. It reads:
' We urge you to seize [the] opportunity and to enunciate a new strategy that would secure the interests of the US and our friends and allies around the world. 'That strategy should aim, above all, at the removal of Saddam Hussein's regime from power.'
' We can no longer depend on our partners in the Gulf war coalition to uphold the sanctions or to punish Saddam when he blocks or evades the UN inspections.
'If Saddam does acquire the capability to deliver weapons of mass destruction, as he is almost certain to do if we continue along the present course, the safety of American troops in the region, of our friends and allies like Israel and the moderate Arab states, and a significant portion of the world's supply of oil, will all be put at hazard.'
Bush's current advisers spell out their solution to the Iraqi problem: 'The only acceptable strategy is one that eliminates the possibility that Iraq will be able to use or threaten to use weapons of mass destruction. In the near term, this means a willingness to undertake military action as diplomacy is clearly failing. That now needs to become the aim of American foreign policy.
'We believe the US has the authority under existing UN resolutions to take the necessary steps, including military steps, to protect our vital interests in the Gulf. In any case, American policy cannot continue to be crippled by a misguided insistence on unanimity in the Security Council.'
The letter -- also signed by Zalmay Khalilzad, Bush's special envoy to the Iraqi opposition; ex-director James Woolsey and Robert B Zoelick, the US trade representative -- was written by the signatories on behalf of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), a right-wing think-tank, to which they all belong. Other founding members of PNAC include Dick Cheney...---- "Rumsfeld urged Clinton to attack Iraq," Sunday Herald (UK) ^ | March 16, 2003 | Neil Mackay, Home Affairs Editor
[NOTE THAT CONTRARY TO THE LEFT'S ASSERTIONS, THE CONCERN ABOUT IRAQ IS IT MAY GAIN THER ABILITY TO DELIVER WMD, NOT THAT IT HAS THE ABILTY YET.]OCTOBER 1998 : (ANYTHING FOR AN OIL VOUCHER...-- SEE HALLIDAY {SEE BRUSSELS TRIBUNAL}) Washington DC - A bipartisan ad-hoc congressional hearing on Tuesday, October 6 on the effects of sanctions on Iraqi civilians coincided with the official delivery to President Clinton of a congressional letter calling upon the U.S. government to delink economic sanctions from military sanctions, improve and expand the "oil-for-food" program, and stop impeding the flow of humanitarian goods into Iraq. The letter has gathered the signatures of 44 U.S. members of Congress. Senators Paul Wellstone (D-MN) and Spencer Abraham (R-MI) also sent the President a letter calling for the easing of sanctions on Iraq...
Mr. Halliday, who resigned last Wednesday from his posts as UN Assistant Secretary-General and head of the UN humanitarian mission in Iraq, spoke of the "tragic incompatibility of sanctions with the UN charter and the Convention on Human Rights." The hearing was chaired by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), who said that he would insist on full committee hearings on this issue. The hearing was organized with the aid of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), the Arab-American Institute (AAI), and a national network of religious and peace organizations.-------44 Reps., 2 Senators Send Clinton letters Calling for Easing Iraq Sanctions; Former UN Official Denounces Iraq Sanctions at Congressional Hearing, Press Release For Immediate Release from Peace Action October 6, 1998MAY 3, 2000 Wednesday : (CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFING : THREE UN OFFICIALS - HANS VON SPONECK, DENIS HALLIDAY {See BRUSSELS TRIBUNAL, OIL FOR FOOD} & SCOTT RITTER CALL FOR THE LIFTING OF SANCTIONS AGAINST IRAQ - US REPRESENTATIVES / DEMOCRATS DENNIS KUCINICH, JOHN CONYERS & CYNTHIA MCKINNEY ALSO CALL FOR THE LIFTING OF SANCTIONS)
SEPTEMBER 2000 : (PNAC PUBLISHES ) In September 2000, before George W. Bush won the presidential election, PNAC published 'Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategies, Forces And Resources For A New Century'----------"THE PEOPLE VERSUS TOTAL WAR INCORPORATED" : LOOKING BACK TO THE BRUSSELLS TRIBUNAL, (Yokohama-testimony, 5th ICTI hearing June 6th 2004), Lieven De Cauter http://www.icti-e.com/Lieven%20De%20Cauter.html
JANUARY 21, 2001 : (INAUGERATION DAY) Many of the key supporters of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) entered the White House along with George W Bush in 2000, and have been instrumental in designing and launching the war on terror in general, and the occupation of Iraq in particular. -------- "Permanent war ," Al Ahram Weekly, 15 - 21 April 2004, Issue No. 686, Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875
SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 : (9/11)
SEPTEMBER 2002 : (WHITE HOUSE: BUSH SIGNS NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGY DOCUMENT...) ... the PNAC theories became a blueprint for the American defense and international policy. This policy was officially accepted in a White House document personally signed by President Bush: 'The National Security Strategy of the United States of America' (September 2002).
JUNE 3- 4, 2003 Tues & Wed : (BELGIUM : TOXIC LETTERS CONTAINING HYDRAZINE & PHENARSAZINE CLAIMING TO BE SENT BY THE "INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC SOCIETY" ARE DISCOVERED; WERE ADDRESSED TO AMERICAN, SAUDI & BRITISH EMBASSIES, THE BELGIAN PRIME MINISTER, JUSTICE AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTRY OFFICES, AND AIRPORT DIRECTOR)
JUNE 4, 2003 Wednesday late : (BELGIUM : TOXIC LETTERS CASE : IRAQI'S HOME SEARCHED) Police searched the home of the Iraqi late Wednesday and took him to the local police office for questioning. If convicted of the charges, the suspect could face up to three years in prison. Five police officials were treated for skin and eye irritation and breathing problems after examining bags of documents seized at the man's home in Deinze, some 30 miles west of Brussels, said judge Lieve Pellens. The five policemen increased to 20 the total of people needing treatment after coming into contact with suspicious toxins over the past days. None remained hospitalized. Fifteen other people who handled the letters during the past days developed identical symptoms. - "Iraqi Arrested After Letters In Belgium (Arsenic Derivatives)," by Raf Casert, Associated Press Writer, The Guardian (UK) , Friday June 6, 2003 3:09 AM
JUNE 4, 2003 Wednesday, late : (BELGIANS DETAIN AN IRAQI MAN IN CONNECTION TO LETTERS CONTAINING PHENARSAZINE CHLORIDE TO PRIME MINISTER, US, SAUDI & UK EMBASSIES, AN AIRPORT, PORT AUTHORITY AND A COURT TRYING AL QAEDA SUSPECTS)
JUNE 2003 end : (BRUSSELS, BELGIUM : BERTRAND RUSSELL PEACE FOUNDATION CONFERENCE -- See BRUSSELS TRIBUNAL, 'WAR ON PNAC, CHENEY, RUMSFELD & WOLFOWITZ') It soon appeared that legal action was unlikely to succeed as the United States have consistently acted against any legal authority that would be liable to threaten them and still continue to do so. Hence the idea to set up a 'Moral Court' or 'People's Court' to condemn the new American policy as well as the think tanks behind it (the latter always remain beyond the grasp of legal action). A broad platform composed of several Belgian cultural organizations was created to carry out the petition's first proposal: to set up a Brussels Tribunal, after the historical example of the Russell Tribunal. At a networking conference set up by the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation at the end of June 2003 in Brussels it was decided that a series of hearings would be held in different places all over the world, culminating in a final session in Istanbul. The Brussels Tribunal was the official opening session of the has become the World Tribunal on Iraq and of wich ICTI an integral part.------"THE PEOPLE VERSUS TOTAL WAR INCORPORATED" LOOKING BACK TO THE BRUSSELLS TRIBUNAL (Yokohama-testimony, 5th ICTI hearing June 6th 2004)http://www.icti-e.com/Lieven%20De%20Cauter.html
APRIL 15-17, 2004 : (BRUSSELS, BELGIUM : "PEOPLE'S TRIBUNAL" OPENS- A CESSPOOL OF MARXIST & ANTISEMITIC CONSPIRACY THEORIES CENTERED AROUND FEARS OF "US HEGEMONY")This week, a People's Tribunal opens in Brussels, Belgium, to try the PNAC for their part in dragging the world into a state of permanent war. The BRussells Tribunal, inspired by the hearings held in 1967 by philosopher Bertrand Russell into American war crimes in Vietnam, is just the first session in a series of citizens' forums which will be held around the world over the next year, and which seek to expose and condemn the dark face of current American foreign policy. As the Tribunal opens in Belgium, Frederick Bowie spoke to participants about what they hoped to achieve, and what the world needs to know about America's neo-conservative palace revolution. Blueprint for war The BRussels Tribunal began life as the brainchild of Belgian philosopher Lieven de Cauter. On the eve of the proceedings, he talks to Fredrick Bowie about "benevolent hegemony" and the coming state of permanent catastrophe For a justice to come Lieven De Cauter talks to Jacques Derrida about the BRussells Tribunal 'We are Palestinians now' Fredrick Bowie talks to the Iraqi film maker Hana Al-Bayaty about her film screened at the BRussells Tribunal No way back Fredrick Bowie talks to Immanuel Wallerstein, the distinguished historian who believes the invasion of Iraq marks the end of an era in US foreign policy A beginner's guide to PNAC Al-Ahram Weekly talks to Jim Lobe, Inter Press correspondent in Washington DC, and 'defence counsel' of the BRussells Tribunal about the fundamental delusions inherent in the Project for the New American Century --- "Permanent war ," Al Ahram Weekly, 15 - 21 April 2004, Issue No. 686, Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875