New York, Aug 25 : The organizer of Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain claims that Senator John McCain, the Purple Heart-winning former POW, has never admitted the full extent to which he cooperated with his captors.

Green Beret Ted Sampley, who helped Democrat John Kerry in the 2004 presidential race, charges that in the 1990s McCain ignored "credible evidence" that American POWs were still alive in Southeast Asia.

The New York Daily News while quoting Sampley said, "He wanted to normalize relations with Vietnam."

"He took away the only leverage we had for getting those soldiers back. Why? He was paying back the Vietnamese for keeping quiet about him," added Sampley.

However, McCain while refuting Sampley’s charges called him a profiteering "enemy of the truth" and "one of the most despicable people I have ever had the misfortune to encounter."

Phillip Butler, former POW criticized McCain for allowing the media to make him a hero POW, which according to Butler is absolutely false.

Bill Hendon, former GOP Congressmen and John LeBoutillier, who both served on the House Task Force on POW/MIA Affairs, stated that McCain "abandoned American POWs" on Sampley''''s U. S. Veteran Dispatch. (ANI)