Captors Confession

He was so tough he was viewed as a danger to the health, and even the lives, of the other POWs. Dramesi knows what they thought about him, and still think. As Dickinson noted, Dramesi escaped and was recaptured twice.

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The second time, the North Vietnamese made vicious reprisals against the rest of their prisoners, and Dramesi and Ed Atterberry, the POW he escaped with, were beaten so badly that Atterberry died. Dramesi planned a third escape, but the senior POWs at his camp ordered him not to try it. Nobody wanted to be tortured again. In his memoir Faith of My Fathers , McCain admitted to being a lousy midshipman at the naval academy and a flier who lost four or five planes. The time he decided to hug the ground in Spain for the hell of it and flew into some power lines the plane may have survived--it's not clear from his account.

And when he was captured he caved under torture. He concedes other POWs performed better.

I asked Dramesi if four or five planes was par for the course. He laughed long and hard. How could anybody still be in the military and lose six or eight planes. Here he was talking to a guy who had friends who killed themselves trying to save an airplane. So Dramesi doesn't think much of McCain. But in his eyes, few of his fellow prisoners measured up. He told me their behavior, graphed, would form the familiar bell curve, with the outright collaborators on the far left and the POWs like Atterberry who died resisting on the far right.

The prisoners to the left of center were easy to break, while those to the right of center took the North Vietnamese a little longer. Dramesi, according to his memoir Code of Honor -- and the testimony of other prisoners -- didn't break at all. I mentioned one of his prison's senior officers, James Bond Stockdale.

A navy pilot, Stockdale attempted suicide to show his captors he'd rather die than talk. He feared that under unremitting torture he would talk, and there was no way he could let the North Vietnamese find out what he knew: Later he wrote, "I was in possession of the most damaging information a North Vietnamese torturer could possibly extract from an American prisoner of war.

But the origins of the Vietnam war are another story. When Stockdale came home he was awarded the Medal of Honor. The best Dramesi can do for him is place him on the right side of the bell curve. He told me about a conversation they once had. Stockdale was wondering how Dramesi had managed to do what so few POWs could -- give the North Vietnamese nothing beyond his name, rank, and serial number.

Stockdale told Dramesi it had been so hard to uphold the code he was prepared to kill himself rather than violate it. And again he asked, "How did you do it? In English he said he was an MI6 analyst, but then later appeared to change his story and said he was in fact trying to develop sources in the country.

But it is unclear if the statements were made under duress. It was not immediately clear why he was given a pardon when the UAE has not backed down from the spying claims. Mr Hedges and wife Daniela Tejada. A government spokesman said: Hedges was predicated on evidence secured from Mr.

Hedges himself -- including a corroborated account of asset recruitment and training and the confidential information being targeted. Mr Hedges denied he used his PhD work as cover for spying for British intelligence. Hussein Yazdi Samadi that I be released in exchange for 2 Iranians being held abroad. I had nothing to do with their arrest, committed no crime, and see no reason why the U. Government should entertain such a ridiculous proposition.

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I do not wish to set a precedent for others that may be unlawfully obtained for political gain in the future. While my family and I have suffered greatly I will accept nothing but my unconditional release. The very same suffering that the 3 American hikers have recently suffered and many others by these unlawful tactics. My hope is that those individuals within the Iranian government who respect rule of law and international ethics will intervene in my case. As someone of Iranian heritage, I hope that the Iranian people will also support me and call on their government to respect my legal rights.

Hekmati goes on to implore Kerry not to buckle under the pressure of Iran's demands. Full transcript To: Kerry I first of all would like to thank you and your department for your sincere efforts in supporting me and securing my release. Middle East and North Africa news.