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McCain's wartime 'jailer' endorses him

Republican presidential candidate John McCain answers reporters' questions on his campaign bus en route to Cleveland, Ohio, on Friday. PHOTO: AP

US Republican presidential candidate John McCain has an unusual endorsement — from the Vietnamese jailer who says he held him captive for about five years as a POW and now considers him a friend.

“If I were an American voter, I would vote for Mr John McCain,” Tran Trong Duyet said on Friday, sitting in his living room in the northern city of Haiphong, surrounded by black-and-white photos of a much younger version of himself and former Vietnam War prisoners.

At the same time, he rebutted McCain’s accounts of torture.

Despite detailed POW accounts and physical wounds, Duyet said McCain made up beatings and solitary confinement to win votes.

Duyet said one of the reasons he likes McCain for president was the candidate’s willingness to forgive and look to the future.

Duyet said he often met the young Navy pilot when off duty, that McCain would correct his English and that he had a great sense of humor.

Asked for a response, the McCain campaign referred reporters to Orson Swindle, a retired Marine lieutenant colonel who was imprisoned with McCain.

Swindle said Duyet “has no credibility on every utterance he makes.”

“For him to say that no one was tortured — he’s a damn liar,” he said.
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