Phony Photos
Summary. In the summer of 1991, three photographs
surfaced, each of which was alleged to be of US POWs alive, right now, in Southeast
Asia. The photos were phony. Yet, in some MIA cult circles, these photos
continue to be sacred relics.
First, A Little Background
Before launching into a description of the three phony photos from the
summer of 1991, I need to provide a little background on the way things work in the murky
world of MIA information.
Names and identifying data are not secret
The first thing to understand is that the names of missing men and detailed information
about them are not secret. Anyone who wants to can, with a little effort, come up
with much detailed information about a missing man. Name, date of birth, wife's
name, details of loss incident, social security number, military service number, address,
tail number of aircraft, are only some of the information that is readily available from
open sources: US government records, unit histories, newspaper stories about missing
men, books, you name it. Add to this the fact that family members and MIA
"activists" have spread around detailed information about missing men.
Thus, anyone who wants to put together a document or a story, alleging that a missing
man is still alive, will have no problem coming up with data that can be included in the
story to make it appear authentic.
Fertile ground for stories
In East and NE Thailand were located the refugee camps holding thousands of
Vietnamese, Lao, and Cambodian refugees. The majority of these refugees had no hope
of being moved on to another country so they simply waited -- some for years -- to be sent
back to their home. In the meantime, these refugee camps provided fertile ground for
phony MIA stories. US interviewers worked in these camps, collecting
information form refugees regarding missing Americans. The refugee sources provided
all sorts of information:
- Some had seen captured Americans during the war.
- Some knew the locations of crashsites or gravesites.
- Those who were former inmates of the Yen Bai re-education camp system in northern
Vietnam had seen -- some had even talked with -- former USMC Private Robert Garwood,
working as a North Vietnamese soldier in the camps, during the period of his
collaboration.
- Others were former Communist soldiers who knew the policies and procedures for handling
captured Americans.
- Still others, hoping that knowledge of missing Americans would earn them a ticket to the
US, were sources of phony stories. Additionally, there were a number of bad actors
around the camps who preyed on the refugees, promising them visas, assistance in travel,
etc., in exchange for the gold that many of the refugees carried with them; none of these
characters delivered anything but grief.
These conditions gave rise to two results. First, US intelligence
collected a lot of good information. In the main, the information provided by
these refugee sources was good. Whenever a source claimed to have seen an American
alive, that was dubbed a "live-sighting report."
Most observers do not realize that the bulk of the live-sighting reports -- around 85
percent of them -- were accurate. The sources described Garwood; Americans who were
captured and returned; Westerners who were imprisoned in Vietnam after the end of the war;
and an occasional Eurasian who was mistaken for an American.
The second result was a substantial cottage industry in bogus MIA reports.
For detailed articles on this activity, check out these two articles:
-- Let's Sell
the Bones
-- Fraudulent Reporting
Some war stories
Here is an example of the sort of thing that we dealt with regularly in the Defense
Intelligence Agency. In one case, an Air Force officer was lost over
Laos. His brother was a businessman who traveled throughout Southeast Asia.
The brother would use his trips to SEAsia as an opportunity to go to the refugee camps and
distribute handbills advertising for information about his missing brother. These
handbills contained, among other information, the missing brother's name, service number,
social security number, tail number of aircraft, details of loss, and, the family's
address and telephone number. We could always tell when the brother had been on one
of his forays into the camps because we would be flooded with reports about the missing
man.
Refugees would come up to our interviewers clutching pieces of paper on which they had
written various words. They would tell us that they had just returned from a foray
into Laos with the anti-Communist resistance. Or, they had a brother who was in the
resistance and he had just brought them some information about US POWs. Or, they had
a friend who was in contact with a disillusioned Communist officer who knew the
whereabouts of US POWs. Etc. Etc. Etc. Then, as "proof" of
their story, they would hand over the piece of paper. On it would be written bits
and pieces of identifying data of this particular MIA. We had only to wait a few
days and someone would come in with one of the handbills then we would know the source of
the reports.
In another case, there was a photograph of a tall, skinny American that would
surface from time to time. In the photo, the American is standing next to an Asian
man. The way the American is standing, his left arm appears to be missing.
People who handed over this photo gave us the name of the American and told various
stories about him. In one story, he is a US pilot who was shot down, lost his arm in
his incident, was nursed back to life by the people of a village. To show his
gratitude, he stayed in the village. The man standing next to him is a Communist
officer who wants to bring out the American in exchange for asylum (and a lot of money).
Follow this link to see the actual photo and
another commonly used phony photo.
There was one problem with all the stories accompanying the photo of the tall, skinny
American. The man was not a US POW. He was a Peace Corps worker in NE
Thailand. The Asian man in the photo was a friend of his. The original of the
photo had been in some papers stolen from the Thai man's home.
The amount of time that we spent tracking down these bogus stories is uncountable.
Now, let's get on with the stories about the photos from summer, 1991.
The "Three Amigos"
Probably the most famous of the summer 1991 photos is one that became known in the
Pentagon as the "Three Amigos" photo.
In August 1990, US officials in Phnom Penh began to receive reports about three live
Americans, still in captivity who could be released with the payment of some amount of
ransom. A frequently mentioned figure was $2.4 million; this is the same amount of
money offered by a group of US Congressmen. For several months, we negotiated with
the Cambodian source. Finally, he provided some written information that correlated
to three missing Americans: USAF Major John Robertson, shot down over North Vietnam
in 1966; USN Lieutenant Larry Stevens, shot down over Laos in 1969, and USAF Major Albro
Lundy, Jr., lost in Laos in 1970.
Included in the gibberish provided by the Cambodian guy was "biographical
information" that was supposed to prove that the information was accurate.
According to this data:
- Stevens and Lundy were both married to ladies named "Sweet Mary."
- Major Robertson's mother, who is named Phyllis, was listed with the name
"Rpoesioner."
- Stevens' mother, Gladys, had become "Russiver Lumerriper." (No, I am not
making up any of this. This is what the guy had written down.)
In fact, there had been a handbill circulating in SEAsia for several years that had
various biographical data about all three of these men. At some point, someone
started getting with families and providing artistically aged drawings of their missing
man. That is, the family would provide an old photo of the missing man and some
artist somewhere would age the photo, producing a drawing of what the man might look like
today. The handbills that had circulated contained just such aged drawings.
DIA concluded that the story was a fraud and dropped the whole thing. Then came
the photograph.
In November 1990, a photocopy of a grainy black-and-white photo was sent via fax to a
Cambodian living in California. He photocopied the fax then, in summer 1991, sent
the photocopies to the Robertson, Lundy, and Stevens families. The photo showed
three Caucasian men, each with a mustache, each fairly well fed, standing together and
holding a sign. On the sign were letters and numbers:
PHOTO
25-5-1990 NNTK!
K.B.e-19
The Robertson, Lundy, and Stevens families declared that the photos were of their
missing men. The photo appeared on the cover of Newsweek (July 1991), in several
major newspapers, and even showed up on highway billboards. Never mind that a total
of eight families claimed that the three men were their family member.
Later, more of the story would emerge. It seems that DIA had, before the photo
appeared, concluded that the whole thing was bogus and filed it away. Army Colonel
Mike Peck, who followed me as Chief of the DIA POW-MIA Office, gave a copy of the report
to Robertson's daughter and told her how to get in touch with the Cambodian who made the
report. (No, don't get me started on Peck. Suffice it to
say that Mike's elevator does not run to the top floor. He is, however, a legend in
his own mind.) With Billy Hendon's help, the
daughter went to Cambodia, and tried to win her father's freedom.
Meanwhile, the Cambodian source got word to Red McDaniel (returned
POW, source of many bogus reports; never has provided anything of value)
that they would trade Robertson, Lundy, and Stevens for the $2.4 million that a group of
Congressmen had offered a few years earlier. McDaniel went to Capitol Hill, telling
folks there that they could see the photo for $500 a peep. No one showed any
interest so McDaniel released the photo to the press and the fun began.
Eventually, DIA researchers working in a Soviet cultural library in Phnom Penh,
uncovered a moldy stack of Soviet Life magazines. These were propaganda
pieces, featuring articles about what great things the Communist revolution was producing
in the Soviet Union. In one issue was an article about a huge grain harvest in the
Ukraine in 1923 and there was the photo of the "Three Amigos." It was not
a photo of US POWs, instead, it was of three farmers holding up a basket of wheat after
the harvest. The photo had been doctored to produce the "sign" that the
three men were holding. (A small point. MIA
cultists who attack this story claim that the Khmer Rouge destroyed all printed material
in Cambodia; how could a collection of magazines survive? The Khmer Rouge did no
such thing. They did attack and destroy many libraries and museums, but they certainly did
not destroy every library, museum, or written collection in the country.)
Believe it or not, this photo still shows up in MIA fund-raising appeals. Follow
this link to see the phony photo and the real photo.
Update: Major Albro Lundy's remains identified (updated 9 Feb
2004).
On October 28, 2001, the Associated Press reported:
"Laos has returned the possible remains of an American aviator missing in action from
the Vietnam War to U.S. officials. The remains were presented Tuesday to U.S. Ambassador
Wendy Chamberlin by Soubanh Srinthirath, Laotian vice minister for foreign affairs.... The
remains were the first returned under a new program in which Laotian teams unilaterally
investigate leads on cases that joint U.S.-Laotian teams have been unable to
resolve..."
On March 26, 2002 those remains were officially
identified as Major Albro L. Lundy Jr. At that time, the family chose not to accept the
identification, pending independent examination and testing.
That independent review is now complete. In a note
dated January 2004, sent to family and friends, the Lundy family states: "We have independently confirmed through multiple DNA testing that
the remains returned by the Laotian Government are his and we will inter them at Arlington
National Cemetery on April 7th 2004 with a hero's farewell." The note continues: "We don't know exactly what happened to him
between the time that he parachuted out of his plane on December 24, 1970 and the day his
remains were returned. But we do know that we are finally able to lay him and our hopes to
rest."
While it has been clear for years that the
"Three Amigos" photo is a doctored version of a real photo, and that Major Lundy
is not depicted in this photo, the photo remains a matter of faith in the 'MIA
activist" community who still flash this photo as "proof" of Americans
still being held alive in SEAsia.
The Daniel Borah Photo
Just a few days after the "Three Amigos" photo appeared in public, a photo
surfaced of a balding, dark complexioned man sitting in a wooded area. MIA parents
Dan and Betty Borah claimed that the man was their son, USN Lieutenant Daniel Borah, shot
down over Vietnam in 1972.
The Donald Carr Photo
Before anyone had time to catch their breath, former USAF LTC Jack Bailey, the source
of a vast mountain of nonsense, announced that he had found a live US POW in Laos and that
he had dispatched an agent to photograph the man. Bailey claimed that he had
provided the agent with a blue polo shirt, a watch, and sandals. The agent was to
have the US POW don these items, then photograph the POW wearing the shirt, watch, and
sandals.
Bailey then produced a photo. Are you at all surprised that the guy in the photo
was wearing a blue polo shirt, a watch, and sandals? BAiley claimed that the man in the
photo was missing US Army Captain Donald Carr, lost in an OV-10 in Laos, 1971. To
make things even better, forensic anthropologist Dr. Michael Charney stated that he had
examined photos of Carr and the photo surfaced by Bailey and, yes, this was, without a
doubt, a photo of Donald Carr.
Now, the Facts
The summer of 1991 was a tough one for the Defense Intelligence Agency. POWs were
all the rage in the news, what with the unveiling of these three photos. Gradually,
though, the truth began to emerge.
No Borah
The Borah photograph was found to be a picture of a seventy-year-old man from a Laotian
hill tribe; his name was Ahroe, he lived in Muang Nong, Laos, and he was
French-Laotian. He had been photographed by a Laotian refugee who gave some copies
of his photographs to a friend who gave them to Khambang Sibounheuang, a Laotian
emigre living in Nashville, TN.
Khambang had shown the photos to his boss, a Tennessee judge named Hamilton
Gayden. Gayden looked through a Life magazine article on POWs until he found
a "match" and declared that this was a photo of Borah. Gayden withheld the
photos from DIA and contacted the Borah family who "positively identified"
the photo. The family called Senator Bob Smith for guidance. DIA contacted
Smith and asked for copies of the photo. Smith refused. Then, Smith and
Mr. Borah appeared on the Today show where Smith -- get this -- accused DIA of
trying to suppress the photo!! (How does DIA suppress what they
do not even have?)
Later , the Borah family went to Laos and met Ahroe who confirmed that he was the man
in the photo. Ahroe was fingerprinted and photographed to prove that he was not a
brainwashed Borah. Still, the "Borah" photo is an article of faith among
the MIA faithful. Follow this link to see the phony photo.
A photo for the birds
Remember Jack Bailey's blue polo shirt, watch, and sandals? What more proof do
you need? But, a couple of ABC reporters, Jimmy Walker and another whose name I do
not remember but I visited him on his houseboat in the Washington yacht basin, were a bit
skeptical. They went to Thailand, flashed the photo around, and soon were led to a
tropical bird exporting company in the suburbs of Bangkok. There they were put onto
a German national, Gunther Dietrich. Dietrich had worked in Thailand but was, in
1991, in prison in Germany on smuggling charges.
They tracked Dietrich to Germany and interviewed him. Dietrich confirmed that he
was the man in the photo, that the shirt, watch, and sandals were his and that no one had
given them to him. Carr's wife later met Dietrich and confirmed that he was the man
in the photo and he was not Donald Carr. Follow this link to see the phony photo and a photo of Dietrich.
One footnote to all this. Jimmy Walker and an ABC camera crew tracked Bailey down
to his girlfriend's house in Thailand and confronted him with the proof that his photo was
bogus. Bailey jumped up and punched Jimmy; it was all on video and was shown on
national TV.
These three photos were part of events in early 1991 that stampeded the Senate
into forming the Senate Select Committee on POW-MIA Affairs. For a description of
the circus of 1991, follow this link.
So, what else is there to say? These photos were fake. They
had nothing to do with US POWs. All the energy spent on them could have been spent
with more results elsewhere. And, the families will never recover from having their
wounds ripped open again. Meanwhile, Jack Bailey, Khambang, Senator Smith, Hendon,
and a few other heroes continue to rave.
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