‘John McCain was never tortured in my jail’, says Tran Trong Duyet

From The Times of London -- October 25, 2008 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article5010491.ece

Leo Lewis in Hanoi

...

He (Le Van Lua) mimes clutching Mr McCain’s hair in one hand and a kitchen knife in the other: “I didn’t care about the politics, I just saw a man who had killed so many Vietnamese that I longed to kill him. He was injured badly and at the time I was desperate to finish him off. We only stopped because we were told he was more valuable alive. Now I’m glad I did stop: that day was truly the turning point in his life.”

Mr Lua’s account of that day – along with Vietnamese accounts of the five and a half years that Mr McCain spent as a prisoner of war – differ significantly from the presidential candidate’s own record. Mr Lua speaks of quickly getting Mr McCain to the safety of a police station (now the aerobics studio) before any harm was done. Mr McCain writes of mob attacks on his shoulder, ankle and groin with rifle-butt and bayonet.

...

Tran Trong Duyet, the former prison director who now surrounds himself with caged birds in a house in Hai Phong, first met Mr McCain a year after he had been shot down. He recalls a defiant rule-breaker, the patriotic son of an admiral and a fervent believer in the war. What he does not recall, however, is a victim of torture or violence.

“I never tortured or mistreated the PoWs and nor did my staff,” says Mr Duyet in contradiction of Mr McCain’s account and those of other prisoners. “The Americans were dropping bombs on military and civilian targets – so it’s not as if they had important information we needed to extract.” Mr Duyet says that he sympathises with Mr McCain and other PoWs for claiming that they were tortured. “It’s up to the Americans to decide whether or not he counts as a hero. He was very brave, very manly, he dared to argue with me and he was very intelligent. But all the talk of being tortured is for the sake of votes.”

...

mccain was a valuable capture, and therefor they took great steps to prevent him from being harmed. just mccain. not the other soldiers.

but , i wouldnt trust anything any of their leaders said... so... its kinda irrelevant

was...

and there's absolutely nothing to be gained by trying to make a case for it.

was enhanced interrogation.

the story that McCain was tortured is so established in American myth -- such as the myth that the Pilgrims came here looking for religious freedom -- that you'll never dislodge it. No use wasting your breath.

Calling question upon McCain's service is bullshit.

and he didn't get treatment for awhile. I don't know and haven't read if they tortured him more and hurt him worse than he already was though.

My father-in-law was a pow and he lived in a cage and ate nasty rice with bugs in it. He won't talk about what else happened.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/05/22/ST2008052203781.html




This crap will get us nowhere.

Could it be that it's only trolls who want to get us worked up over a non-story like this so they can point to us as "wacko-liberals"?

To suggest that mcRacist, or any other POW wasn't tortured is asinine. What the Hell does anyone expect the head of a prison camp to say? "Sure I tortured him. Wanna see the pics"?

:eyes:

Isn't that special.

Great reason to give a torturer's words the exposure they deserve here on DU.

Not taking about this torture issue, just saying some who served honorably in nam have some issues over here.

http://www.redpills.org/?p=782

http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnmccain.com/

I can't stand john mccain or anything he stands for, but, for the love of all the gods, let this stuff go. He was shot down over VN. He broke both his arms and one leg. He says one arm was rebroken thru a beating.

Now, how he acted, what he did during his captivity, I don't know. But he was a POW for five and a half years and that has to be considered torture in it's self.

It's the same kind of bullshit the swiftboaters tried to pull on Kerry in 04 and we're better than that.

It was forty fucking years ago.

Let it go.

:thumbsup:

his time as a POW. It's about his despicable behavior during the fire on board his ship. A true "hero" would never retire to the ready room and watch his ship and shipmates burn, nor would he hop on a plane and go on shore leave the next day, leaving the rest of the crew to care for the dead and dying
He disgusts me.