More POW claimants than actual POWs

[jimmy olsen]

Despicable. 

This is a long article, so I just posted the first few paragraphs, read the rest at the link.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30168352/

AP: More POW claimants than actual POWs
Some of the recipients  of POW benefits apparently don't deserve them

updated 4:46 p.m. ET, Sat., April 11, 2009

Prisoners of war suffer in ways most veterans don't, enduring humiliating forced marches, torture or other trauma that may haunt them long afterward. In partial recompense, the government extends them special benefits, from free parking and tax breaks to priority in medical treatment.

Trouble is, some of the much-admired recipients of these benefits apparently don't deserve them.

There are only 21 surviving POWs from the first Gulf War in 1991, the Department of Defense says. Yet the Department of Veterans Affairs is paying disability benefits to 286 service members it says were taken prisoner during that conflict, according to data released by VA to The Associated Press.

A similar discrepancy arises with Vietnam POWs. Only 661 officially recognized prisoners returned from that war alive — and about 100 of those have since died, according to Defense figures. But 966 purported Vietnam POWs are getting disability payments, the VA told AP.

Being classified as a POW doesn't directly increase a veteran's monthly disability check. There's no "POW payment."

But a tale of torture and privation can influence whether a vet receives some money or nothing at all in disability payments — and the VA's numbers raise questions about how often such tales are exaggerated or invented altogether.

For one Korean War veteran, a made-up story helped to ensure more than $400,000 in benefits before his lies were discovered. A Gulf War vet told a tale of beatings and mock executions, though he was never even a POW. Four women Vietnam vets blamed disabilities on their time as prisoners — even though there's no record of female POWs in that war.

At the root of the problem is a disconnect between two branches of government: The Defense Department determines POW status and posts the lists online; the VA awards benefits, but evidently does not always check the DoD list to verify applicants' claims. Result: Numbers of benefit recipients that are higher than the number of recognized POWs.

"They're either phonies or there's a major administrative error somewhere," retired Navy Cmdr. Paul Galanti, who is on a VA advisory panel for POW issues, said when told of the agency's numbers.

VA spokesman Terry Jemison says POW status is confirmed "in conjunction with Department of Defense authoritative records." But the agency has not explained discrepancies between its POW numbers and the DoD's, despite repeated requests for comment.

Galanti, who was shot down over North Vietnam in 1966 and spent nearly seven years in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" prison, calls the discrepancy "outrageous" and adds: "Somebody ought to get fired for that."

But as service members return from Iraq and Afghanistan, he knows an investigation that could bog down benefits would be shouted down as anti-veteran. And so the investigating falls to private watchdog groups like the P.O.W. Network, which says it has outed some 2,000 POW pretenders.

Nothing could be more pro-veteran, such groups say, than to go after people who are taking money meant for their comrades — and also, in effect, stealing their honor.

[Tamas]

Those over the numbers were rescued post-war by Chuck Norris.

[Ed Anger]

Despicable

APOLLING!

[jimmy olsen]

Those over the numbers were rescued post-war by Chuck Norris.

Rambo!

[Tamas]

Those over the numbers were rescued post-war by Chuck Norris.

Rambo!

Chuck Norris!

[Phillip V]

Luckily, government is tamping down on phonies through new punitive laws and better information management.

People are especially taking advantage of the current wars to claim all sorts of crap.

[Razgovory]

I wonder if Grumbler gets any benifits from this.  The guys been a POW seven time over twenty five centuries.

[The Nickname Who Was Thursday]

I wonder if Grumbler gets any benifits from this.  The guys been a POW seven time over twenty five centuries.

He's looking for a bank that will take his denarii.

[Syt]

I wonder if Grumbler gets any benifits from this.  The guys been a POW seven time over twenty five centuries.

[Alan Moore reference]His name is Orlando. Look at his war record, ye mighty, and despair.[/Alan Moore Reference]