This movie was obtained via the Freedom of Information Act and received from the CIA by The Black Vault.

This 2011 documentary film produced by the CIA discusses the history behind John Downey and Richard Fecteau, two CIA operatives who were captured by Communist China during a mission there in 1952. The two agents would be held prisoner by the People’s Republic of China until they were finally released in December of 1971, later being awarded for their bravery and conduct.

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The post Extraordinary Fidelity: The Story of Richard Fecteau & John Downey (CIA Produced Movie) first appeared on The Black Vault.

This was a reference document created by the Department of Defense, of all personnel that were Prisoners of War (POWs) or Missing in Action (MIA) in Southeast Asia with their status as of November 1993.

You will find John McCain listed, among many others.

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Defense Prisoner of War Missing in Action Office Reference Document, November 1993 [53 Pages, 2.28MB]

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The post Defense Prisoner of War Missing in Action Office Reference Document, November 1993 first appeared on The Black Vault.

On 10 April 1997, the President’s National Security Adviser indicated in a letter to the Senate Majority Leader that he would direct the Intelligence Community to prepare a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Vietnam’s cooperation with the United States on Prisoner of War/Missing in Action (POW/MIA) issues. Terms of Reference for the estimate were formulated by the National Intelligence Council and coordinated with members of the Intelligence Community and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The draft estimate was presented to the Military Intelligence Board and the National Foreign Intelligence Board for approval in April 1998, and NIE 98-03, “Vietnamese Intentions, Capabilities, and Performance Concerning the POW/MIA Issue,” was published in May 1998.

Senator Robert C. Smith issued A Critical Assessment of the NIE in November 1998 and asked that the Military Intelligence Board and the National Foreign Intelligence Board retract the estimate for reasons cited in his assessment. In January 1999, the Director of Central Intelligence advised. Senator Smith that both boards had voted unanimously to let the estimate stand, describing it as an accurate assessment of current knowledge and understanding of the POW/MIA issue. Senator Smith continued to demand that the estimate be retracted and, on 18 March 1999, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence requested that the Inspectors General of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Department of Defense examine the estimate and the charges made in the Critical Assessment. We began a joint inquiry in mid-April 1999.

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A Review of the 1998 National Intelligence Estimate on POW/MIA Issues and the Charges Levied by A Critical Assessment of the Estimate, 29 February 2000 [178 Pages, 7.8MB]

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The post A Review of the 1998 National Intelligence Estimate on POW/MIA Issues and the Charges Levied by A Critical Assessment of the Estimate, 29 February 2000 first appeared on The Black Vault.

The Code of Conduct and the Vietnam Prisoners of War – by Commander John S. McCain, United States Navy

Individual Research Project: The Code of Conduct and the Vietnam Prisoners of War by John S. McCain, U.S. Navy

POW: It Can Happen to You! [49 Pages]

Performance of American POWS in the Vietnam War : adequate training or creative leadership? by Scott A. Arcuri

Prisoner of War Negotiations – Korea and Vietnam (Master Thesis) [93 Pages, 12.68mb]

The post Prisoners of War (POWs) first appeared on The Black Vault.

According to Wikipedia:

John Sidney McCain III (born August 29, 1936) is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican presidential nominee in the 2008 United States presidential election. McCain followed his father and grandfather, both four-star admirals, into the United States Navy, graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1958. He became a naval aviator, flying ground-attack aircraft from aircraft carriers. During the Vietnam War, he was almost killed in the 1967 USS Forrestal fire. In October 1967, while on a bombing mission over Hanoi, he was shot down, seriously injured, and captured by the North Vietnamese. He was a prisoner of war until 1973. McCain experienced episodes of torture, and refused an out-of-sequence early repatriation offer. His war wounds left him with lifelong physical limitations.

Below you will find documents relating to McCain during this era.

Navy Personnel Command Documents relating to Senator John S. McCain, United States Navy

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/mccain/JohnMcCainDocuments.pdf

The post Senator John S. McCain first appeared on The Black Vault.

Bowe Robert Bergdahl (born March 28, 1986) is a United States Army soldier who was held captive by the Taliban-aligned Haqqani network in Afghanistan from June 2009 until his release in May 2014. The circumstances under which Bergdahl went missing and how he was captured by the Taliban have since become a subject of intense media scrutiny.

Bergdahl was released on May 31, 2014, as part of a prisoner exchange for five Taliban members who were being held at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay. This exchange quickly became a political controversy within the United States.

Below, are documents relating to this trade.

Document Archive

 Department of Defense—Compliance with Statutory Notification Requirement [ 7 Pages, 0.3MB ] – GAO Report Dated August 21, 2014, stating the trade was against the law.

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The post Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five high-level Taliban prisoners in Guantanamo Bay Trade first appeared on The Black Vault.

Jessica Dawn Lynch (born April 26, 1983) is a former Private First Class (PFC) in the United States Army Quartermaster Corps. Lynch served in Iraq during the 2003 invasion by U.S. and allied forces. On March 23, 2003 she was injured and captured by Iraqi forces but was recovered on April 1 by U.S. special operations forces, with the incident subsequently receiving considerable news coverage.Lynch, along with major media outlets, has since accused the U.S. government of embellishing the story as part of the Pentagon’s propaganda effort.

The following was obtained under the FOIA from the DoD.  It was obtained of one DVD and one CD-R. You can download the raw files below, or watch the embedded players for ease of viewing.

Video Archive

Raw Video Downloads

Jessica Lynch Rescue Video DVD (Uncompressed) [ 3.6GB ] Please note: This file is incredibly large, and is more than 3.5 gigs in size.  This is for use for broadcast television and other needs for a high quality.  Please credit The Black Vault. ( Compressed MPEG-4 version )

Video #1 [ 12.4 MB ]

Video #2 [ 6.5 MB ]

Video #3 [ 7.0 MB ]

The post Jessica Lynch Rescue Videos first appeared on The Black Vault.