« An interesting article from the OC (March 2008) | Mariana Mensch's Blog | Best American President on Screen - Moviefone Readers Poll »
French interview with prisoner John McCain
Just released on the INA website - view it now - it will only be there for a week.
http://www.ina.fr/archivespourtous/index.php?vue=notice&id_notice=I08290030
Advertisement
His voice hasn't changed since then. Just add "my friends".
October 22, 2008 8:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have the same reaction every time I view this footage. This is not a man who is going to be taken back and tortured. He has cut his deal with his captors and is going to be well taken care of in exchange for military targeting information. As the son and grandson of four-star Admirals, McCain would never have felt it necessary or appropriate for him to have to suffer the fate of an ordinary POW. I have had this confirmed by at least three people who know the truth,even though the documentation to prove it has been sealed by the efforts of McCain in "normalizing" relations with Vietnam after the war. Mark my words, sooner or later it will become common knowledge. Not, perhaps, in time to affect the outcome of this election, but in time to insure that people will at last understand that John Sidney McCain, IV, did not sell out for the first time in order to attempt to win the Presidency; he had already sold out years ago because he was already of the opinion that his life was more valuable than the rest of those jerks in captivity.
October 22, 2008 8:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
quit passing Sampley's garbage.
October 22, 2008 9:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am not passing anything by Sampley because I don't even know who that is. My conversations were with people who were directly involved and who despise McCain for lying about his record. Do you understand how frustrating it is to those who know the truth for McCain to continue to paint himself as a hero when he was the exact opposite? Whatever you may believe, ultimately the evidence will arise to prove the truth of my assertions. McCain didn't SUDDENLY become dishonorable just to become President. He has always been opportunistic and self-serving. Do a little research before you attempt to insult me. I've followed the evidence and have found the truth.
October 22, 2008 9:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
First and foremost: every human will eventually break under torture. How many times could you have a syringe needle driven into a tooth to the root nerve before you would betray your own grandmother? How many finger joints snapped off with tin snips could you withstand before you'd sell your very soul to the devil?
In McCain's case, he had a complex leg fracture that was gangrenous and was not receiving proper medical attention until they realised who his daddy was. He did not have to be tortured, because he was high value for pure propaganda as an Admiral's son. He likely would have died if the North Vietnamese had not figured out who he was.
How many times could you stand having a stick driven into a gangrenous complex fracture wound before you'd sell out America?
Second: any intelligence gained through breaking humans by torture is not actionable, because the tortured human will tell their interrogators anything that they believe will stop the torture. The North Vietnamese knew this. The American government knew this, and they damn well knew that captured soldiers would break sooner or later. If there were any security breeches because of American GIs broken through torture by the North Vietnamese, it was the fault of the desk jockeys, not the POWs.
Third: The US Government did not forget POWs in Vietnam. This is a conspiracy theory, perpetrated by real a**holes and believed by the easily duped. In order to believe this theory, one must believe that the whole US military Officer Corps is infected with dishonourable individuals, who care naught about their brothers in arms. Look around at the MIA Facts website. Be sure to read the "Merry Prankster" chapter. It's about Ted Sampley. While you're at it, browse through the text and links published at Sourcewatch's Ted Sampley article. Whether you know who Ted Sampley is or not, you are still carrying his polluted water.
October 22, 2008 11:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
I saw this on TF1 earlier today.
Until I see DOCUMENTED proof otherwise, I have to take his scars, the inability to raise his arms over his chest and his obviously restricted ability to walk normally as real indications of the suffering John McCain endured in Vietnam.
For whatever reason and in whatever way, John McCain survived 66 months in a physical and psychological hellhole that I do not believe anyone who posts here can even begin to imagine. When faced with such, all you can do is try to survive.
You may not like McCain as a person, as a politician or as a candidate for President, I certainly do not. But please, please - do not start doing to him what the Neo-Roves are doing to Obama right now.
Do not denigrate or dishonor McCain's past service without hard & irrefutable evidence that he deserves such - or we will become as morally bankrupt as those we seek to depose.
October 22, 2008 9:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Was it normal practice for NVA guards to provide cigarettes?
October 22, 2008 11:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
I suspect that the cigarette given to McCain was from one of the French interviewers, but would not be surprised if it was given to him at the onset of the interview by a NVA official as a way to distort how the POWs were being treated.
October 23, 2008 12:43 AM | Reply | Permalink