Precise Truth
Sunday, August 29, 2004
 
Unfit for Command: SUPPORTING POINTS & AUTHORITIES (Vets 10, Shambo 0)
Following are some of the major charges made against Hanoi John French Kerry by the SwiftVets, alongside supporting points and authorities, from Unfit for Command and other readily available documented sources on the internet and elsewhere:


I. Kerry refuses to release official military and medical records (Unfit for Command pages 180-181)

Kerry's campaign refuses to complete the simple Form 180 which would provide for the official & proper release of Kerry's military records and has sought to hide other records from the public and the press.

1) Washington Post reports on August 22, 2004, "Although Kerry campaign officials insist that they have published Kerry's full military records on their Web site (with the exception of medical records shown briefly to reporters earlier this year), they have not permitted independent access to his original Navy records. A Freedom of Information Act request by The Post for Kerry's records produced six pages of information. A spokesman for the Navy Personnel Command, Mike McClellan, said he was not authorized to release the full file, which consists of at least a hundred pages."

2) In 2004 Michael Kranish of the Boston Globe discovered the Kerry campaign removed references to documents for January 26 + January 29, 1969, and 20 or more other pages, from the official Kerry campaign web site, after Globe reporters challenged whether "documents wrongly portrayed Kerry's service", noting "The campaign did not respond to a request to explain why the records were removed."

3) On May 4, 2004, over 250 swift boat veterans wrote a letter to Kerry asking him to file Form 180

4) On August 18, 2004, August 25, 2004, and on other occasions, in official interviews, Kerry spokesman Michael Meehan was asked by various media reporters to complete Form 180 and he repeatedly declined to do so.

5) On August 28, 2004, the Washington Post reported that historian Douglas Brinkley, author of John Kerry's authorized biography, Tour of Duty, now officially disputes Kerry's repeated assertions his document archives are under the sole control of Brinkley and cannot be released. Brinkley said, "I don't mind if John Kerry shows anybody anything" and "If he wants to let anybody in, that's his business. Go bug John Kerry, and leave me alone."

STATUS: Kerry's unwillingness to release his official records in this manner is truly unprecedented for a candidate seeking the office of President of the United States and Commander in Chief.


II. Kerry avoided combat duty and officially joined the US Naval Reserve (like the National Guard) (Unfit for Command Chapter 1: The Reluctant Warrior)

Contrary to the Kerry campaign assertions, Kerry was actually a legacy graduate of Yale who sought deferment and joined the Naval Reserves (similar to National Guard) after facing draft and chose to serve on swift boats to avoid combat.

1) On April 30, 2004, CBS News reported, “Kerry, whose father worked for the State Department after graduating from Yale, was involved in politics from the moment he arrived in New Haven. He was head of the Yale Political Union, a college debating society, and joined the Fence Club, which was popular with preppy, blue-blood students.”

2) Kerry admits in Brinkley's Tour of Duty, pages 370-373 that he decided to enlist after facing the draft and the navy formally refused to grant Kerry's requested deferment to study in Paris, France.

3) US Navy Records confirm John F. Kerry enlisted in the United States Naval Reserves with initial status listed as "inactive" on February 18, 1966.

4) The Department of the Navy released a letter dated May 24, 1986, at Senator Kerry's request, specifying "18 Feb 1966: Enlisted as an OCSA (E-2), USNR (inactive)" - USNR = US Naval Reserves.

5) Kerry campaign document "Enlistment Contract" confirms Kerry enlisted in "USNR-R", the US Naval Reserve

6) Kerry campaign document "Service Record" shows Kerry was inducted and "D.O.R. as Ensign, USNR" (US Naval Reserve)

7) In an interview with New York Times, April 23, 1971, "An Angry War Veteran", Kerry stated "I wanted to go back and see for myself what was going on, but I didn't really want to get involved in the war." So late in 1968 he volunteered for an assignment on "swift boats" - the short, fast aluminum craft that were then used for patrol duty off the coast of Viet Nam."

8) Kerry also admitted the same to the Boston Globe, "Kerry initially hoped to continue his service at a relatively safe distance from most fighting, securing an assignment as "swift boat" skipper. While the 50-foot swift boats cruised the Vietnamese coast a little closer to the action than the Gridley had come, they were still considered relatively safe. "I didn't really want to get involved in the war," Kerry said in a little-noticed contribution to a book of Vietnam reminiscences published in 1986. "When I signed up for the swift boats, they had very little to do with the war. They were engaged in coastal patrolling and that's what I thought I was going to be doing."

9) Kery campaign document "Duty Recommendation" confirms Kerry "desires Swift boat billet" and that he was also "Interested in Language School", emphasizing Kerry "Speak(s) French fluently."

10) Kerry spoke with Harvard Crimson In a February 18, 1970 article, John Kerry: A Navy Dove Runs for Congress , "At Yale, Kerry was chairman of the Political Union and later, as Commencement speaker, urged the United States to withdraw from Vietnam and to scale down foreign military operations. And this was way back in 1966. When he approached his draft board for permission to study for a year in Paris, the draft board refused and Kerry decided to enlist in the Navy."

11) The Crimson interview & Kerry's statements were re-confirmed with the original reporter, Samuel Goldhaber, on July, 3 2004 by Charles Laurence of the UK Telegraph who reports "the revelation appears to undercut Sen Kerry's carefully-cultivated image as a man who willingly served his country in a dangerous war" and notes "at no point did Kerry contact either me or the Crimson to dispute anything I (Goldhaber) had written." (Revealed: how 'war hero' Kerry tried to put off Vietnam military duty)

12) In a June 15, 2003 article "A privileged youth, a taste for risk", the favored Boston Globe reporters wrote:
...As graduation approached, Kerry knew that he had three choices: be drafted, seek a deferment for graduate school, or join up and position himself to become an officer. ``It was clear to me that I was going to be at risk,'' Kerry recalled. ``My draft board . . . said, `Look, the likelihood is you are probably going to be drafted.' I said, `If I'm going to be drafted, I'd like to have responsibility and be an officer.' ''
At the same time, Kerry was losing interest in academics and was ready for adventure. ``I cut classes,'' Kerry said. ``I didn't do much. I spent a lot of time learning to fly.''
Kerry also had political ambitions -- and was aware of how much military service had served John Kennedy's career. ``John would clearly say, `If I could make my dream come true, it would be running for president of the United States,' '' recalled William Stanberry, Kerry's debate team partner for three years. ``It was not a casual interest. It was a serious, stated interest. His lifetime ambition was to be in political office.''

13) Kerry's naval records state he was discharged "from the United States Naval Reserve as a Lieutenant (O-3)"

14) Kerry campaign documents "Honorable Discharge From Reserve" and "Acceptance of Discharge confirms Kerry was officially discharged from the US Naval Reserve.

STATUS: To date the Kerry campaign has not chosen to dispute his prior statements or any of the official records which have been made available to the public.


III. Kerry's military experience was not as it's being portrayed in presidential campaign (Unfit for Command Chapter 1: The Reluctant Warrior)

Contrary to Kerry campaign's presentations, Kerry spent only a few months in Vietnam, was never "shot", and reenacted scenes now used in presidential campaign advertising including his official convention video directed by Steven Spielberg protégé James Smoll.

1) Kerry's first year's service, from June 1967 to June 1968, was spent on a frigate, the USS Gridley, which spent much of that period patrolling off the coast of California.

2) Kerry's campaign military records show he was (falsely) awarded a Vietnam Service Medal which required at least six months combat duty in Vietnam.

3) Kerry arrived at camp in Vietnam for one month of training at Cam Ranh Bay on November 17, 1968.

4) Navy records on Kerry campaign site & his own personal accounts in Tour of Duty and elsewhere confirm Kerry left Vietnam and arrived home on March 17, 1969.

5) No records yet made public or any official account ever refer to Kerry being shot - any of his purported wounds involved minor accidents with self-inflicted shrapnel.

6) Kerry admitted to buying his Super-8 movie camera at the PX in Cam Ranh Bay and also admitted to faking reenactment of events in the October 6, 1996 article, "THE MAKING OF THE CANDIDATES: JOHN FORBES KERRY OFTEN TAGGED AS A POLITICAL OPPORTUNIST" by reporter Charles Sennott of the Boston Globe. Kerry showed him footage including a reenactment at the area where the Silver Star incident took place and exclaimed, "I'll show you were they shot from. See? That's the hole covered up with reeds.". Also recounted in National Review

7) The Boston Globe further reported, "The Kerry home movies revealed something indelible about the man who shot them. The tall, thin, handsome naval officer seen striding through the reeds in flak jacket and helmet, hold aloft the captured B-40 rocket. The young man so unconscious of risk in the heat of battle, yet so focused on his future ambitions, that he would reenact the moment for film. It is as if he had cast himself in the sequel to the experience of his hero, John F. Kennedy, on the PT-109". Thomas Vallely, one of Kerry's closest political advisers and friends, also told the Globe, "John was thinking Camelot when he shot that film, absolutely."

8) Kerry campaign commercials, videos, photographs and the official biography Tour of Duty by Douglas Brinkley include, among other various reenactments, "a staged clip of Kerry in 1969 as an infantryman in Vietnam, in bandoliers (and violating Rule Number One of the infantry, by pointing his weapon down)". (Unfit for Command page 181)

9) Other observable factual discrepancies include Kerry's video depictions of himself armed with any number of hand grenades hanging from the flak jacket he's wearing, given Swift Boat policy was to never allow such on the boats because of the potential accidents or ricochet which could result by lobbing one from the deck.

STATUS: To date the Kerry campaign has not chosen to dispute his prior statements or any of the official records which have been made available to the public.


IV. Kerry faked & falsified 1st Purple Heart (Unfit for Command pages 31-41)

Kerry's alleged wound, a small 1-2 cm piece of M-79 grenade shrapnel, was accidentally self-inflicted, not involving enemy combat, resulted in only a minor scratch (described as equivalent of a rose thorn prick), did not meet official regulations and was formally rejected by his superior & commanding officers.

1) Kerry's diary and book Tour of Duty indicates there was no enemy combat involved (Washington Times 8/25/04 Diary refutes Kerry's other claims that it did)

2) Official Criteria for a Purple Heart confirm Kerry's lack of eligibility

3) Attending physician Leo Letson, who has sworn an affidavit and appeared on the first SwiftVet advertisement, confirms alleged wound shrapnel was due to a small M-79 grenade fragment only 1-2 cm in size, unquestionably not worthy, only treated with a band-aid, & personally rejected Kerry's request for a Purple Heart; Kerry campaign suggests only the nurse who signed the standard report for the doctor was the only one who ever saw Kerry.

4) Now retired Rear Admiral and senior JAG officer William Schachte, who was present and in command of the mission as John Kerry's superior officer at the time, has now made a statement also speaks elsewhere to having berated Kerry "for almost putting someone's eye out" and on August 27, 2004, told the NY Post Kerry wasn't wounded by hostile fire, wasn't even under fire by the enemy at the time and that he "nicked" himself with a grenade launcher and "requested a Purple Heart" afterward. and also told Lisa Myers of NBC News on August 27, 2004 that "it was an accident".

5) Kerry's then Commanding Officer Grant Hibbard confirms he refused Kerry's pleas requesting he be awarded a Purple Heart. Hibbard describes the wound he was shown by Kerry as "a scratch", adding "I've seen worse injuries from a rose thorn. ... Kerry wasn't getting any Purple Heart recommendation from me" (Unfit for Command pages 37-38).

6) No official incident reports for the action were - purposely - ever filed by all of Kerry's superior + commanding officers (because of the dubious severity, self-inflicted nature and the fact it did not involve any enemy fire)

7) On April 14, 2004, Kerry refused to be interviewed about this incident with Boston Globe reporter Michael Kranish: Kerry faces questions over Purple Heart

8) Kerry campaign now admits to the potential wound was accidental & self-inflicted (Major Garrett / Video)

9) Submissions for Kerry's Purple Heart were first made three months after the incident; and the Kerry campaign has yet to file the Form 180 which would allow for the public release of all these documents and the required supporting materials including affidavits and appropriate recommendations.

10) In prior interview with USA Today in 2004, Kerry admitted he may have personally requested the Purple Heart and recalled "someone raising a question" about it.

11) Kerry campaign now admits Kerry completed the paperwork for himself

STATUS: Given Kerry campaign's stated admissions and refusal to sign 180 for release of additional records, it is increasingly clear this Purple Heart was gamed by Kerry.


V. Sampan Incident (Unfit for Command pages 53-62)

A tragic incident involving John Kerry's reported negligence and incompetence results in the killing of a young boy and his father in a small boat with Kerry submitting false after reports to avoid inevitable disciplinary action.

1) Kerry himself admits to the killing of the child on pages 269-270 of Doug Brinkley's Tour of Duty.

2) Steven Gardner, former crewmate of Kerry's who spent more time on John Kerry's boat than any other crew member and was present on the mission and the gunner at the time, learned of & identifies the discrepancies in his sworn testimony summarized on pages 56-57 of Unfit for Command

3) Original after-action report uncovered by Boston Globe revealing Kerry reported multiple Viet Cong enemy KIA, 5000 lbs. of "contraband" (the equivalent weight of an automobile being carried on the small Sampan) and no mention whatsoever of the child who was killed.

4) Kerry's former Division Commander George Elliot confirmed he received the false report Kerry submitted and was - for years - unaware of the true circumstances of the incident nor that involved the death of a young boy.

5) John Hurley, head of Vietnam Veterans for Kerry and former associate in VVAW, declined to challenge Gardner's account of this incident nor the accompanying records documentation during debate on MSNBC / Scarborough Country 8/20/04.

STATUS: Given the evidence, eyewitness testimony & documents revealed, combined with the Kerry campaign's unwillingness to even dispute the SwiftVet's account of these specific actions, it is certain that John Kerry did indeed fraudulently falsify the official documents he submitted in this matter.


VI. Christmas in Cambodia (Unfit for Command pages 45-49)

Thirty year long claims made over 50 times or more in public, that Kerry was forced to make an illegal mission to Cambodia on Christmas in 1968 while Nixon was president, an event which was "seared -- seared" into his being and described to Michael Kranish, biographer for the Boston Globe, in addition to other reporters and historians, as the entire basis for the most critical turning point in his life.

1) On March 27, 1986, Kerry argued on the Senate floor against supporting the anti-Communist forces in Nicaragua and stated passionately, "Mr. President, I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia, I remember what it was like to be shot at by Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and have the president of the United States telling the American people that I was not there; the troops were not in Cambodia. I have that memory, which is seared--seared--in me, that says to me, before we send another generation into harm's way, we have a responsibility in the United States Senate to go the last step, to make the best effort possible in order to avoid that kind of conflict."

2) In June 2003 Kerry spoke in considerable detail about his experience spending Christmas 1968 in Cambodia with the Boston Globe

3) In June 2003 Kerry showed reporter Laura Blumenfeld his " good luck hat", which he revealed he keeps in a special, secret hidden compartment of his briefcase and was "Given to me by a CIA guy as we went in for a special mission in Cambodia." as reported in the Washington Post

4) Richard Nixon was inaugurated President of the United States on January 20, 1969

5) No crewmate of Kerry's has ever testified accordingly and/or, in fact, dispute Kerry's ever having gone to Cambodia at any time during their tenure with him (NY Post)

6) No records, amongst all which are long since declassified and publicly available on the internet and elsewhere (Operation SEALORDS), neither mention nor reference any such purported Swift Boat missions.

7) Kerry's entire Chain of Command denies any such orders were ever issued and state flatly Kerry would have been officially court-martialed if he'd tried it.

8) Former US Foreign Service official and Cambodian station chief Andrew Antippas, in letters to the Washington Times, has come forward to deny any such incident involving a swift boat ever took place in articles published August 13, 2004 and

9) Kerry campaign now readily admits he was not in Cambodia on Christmas, 1968

10) Further revision of Kerry's history during this period is precluded by his statements to Douglas Brinkley, in Tour of Duty, that he had never crossed the border before. "John Kerry's Final Mission in Vietnam".

STATUS: Obfuscations aside, this was an obvious lie on the part of John Kerry which has been thoroughly debunked revealing deeply rooted psychological traits which appear delusional & narcissistic.


VII. Silver Star was not warranted (Unfit for Command pages 80-86)

Kerry filed a false report describing an incident when Kerry shot a young boy in the back, misportraying & misreporting his actions in grandiose terms, above and beyond the call of duty, to an extent actually worthy of such honors & citations.

1) Citation for Kerry's medal (and others) states:
On a request from U.S. Army advisors ashore, Lieutenant (junior grade) KERRY ordered PCFs 94 and 23 further up river to suppress enemy sniper fire. After proceeding approximately eight hundred yards, the boats were again taken under fire from a heavily foliated area and B-40 rocket exploded close aboard PCF 94, with utter disregard for his own safety and the enemy rockets, he again ordered a charge on the enemy, beached his boat only ten feet from the VC rocket position, and personally led a landing party ashore in pursuit of the enemy. Upon sweeping the area in an immediate search uncovered an enemy rest and supply area which was destroyed. The extraordinary daring and personal courage of Lieutenant (junior grade) KERRY in attacking a numerically superior force in the face of intense fire were responsible for the highly successful mission.
2) No witnesses to this event have described Kerry facing such force or fire.

3) William Rood of the Chicago Tribune, this year, describes no such "numerically superior force" being faced by Kerry and, to the contrary, only recalled "seeing a loaded B-40 launcher pointed at the boats. It wasn't fired."

4) A photograph of Kerry taken afterwards confirms Rood's assertions as it shows a loaded rocket launcher.

5) Admiral Roy Hoffman and Kerry's other superiors were led to believe Kerry's false renditions of these tales as Kerry had originally submitted, indicating he - near alone - actually & personally "routed the enemy".

6) Commander George Elliot, who wrote up the initial draft of Kerry's citation, also testifies he was also - until more recently - unaware of the true circumstances of the incident and that if he'd known the actual facts at that time, he would not have awarded Kerry the Silver Star.

7) Records reveal that, over time, Kerry has repeatedly modified the official records pertaining to this incident, rendering at least three different versions of his citation and analysis + commentary reveals "it has come to light that his Silver Star award is fraught with other peculiarities" - including the revelation "that Kerry's DD 214 ("Report of Transfer or Separation"), displayed on his website, shows his Silver Star embellished with an unauthorized "V" for valor-which makes it facially false and at variance with official government records.

8) Records withheld by the Kerry campaign or otherwise missing and not released include the nomination form for the Silver Star, the official investigation required, or the statements required of two witnesses.

STATUS: Given no witnesses have described the incident consistent with Kerry's citation and the Kerry campaign's unwillingness to release the records, it appears clear that the premise under which this citation was issued for Kerry was, indeed, falsified on his behalf, and his medal was wrongly awarded.


VIII. Faked 3rd Purple Heart with self-inflicted wound to buttocks (Unfit for Command pages 86-92)

Kerry injured himself while detonating a grenade in a rice pile resulting in rice & shrapnel in his buttocks and then fraudulently attributed such injuries to an underwater mine in claiming his third Purple Hear, promptly leaving Viet Nam just a few days later.

1) Kerry admits to the incident in Douglas Brinkley's authorized biography Tour of Duty, page 313, "I got a piece of small grenade in my ass from one of the rice-bin explosions"

2) Official Records confirm wound was to Kerry's "left buttocks".

3) Kerry supporter Jim Rassman confirms being present & participating in the rice incident on Page 105 of John F. Kerry: The Complete Biography By The Boston Globe Reporters Who Know Him Best, by Michael Kranish, Brian C. Mooney, and Nina J. Easton (New York: Public Affairs, 2004), describing the incident as "hilarious" and ""it was more embarrassing than painful."

4) Other witnesses offer similar accounts, including Swift Boat Veteran Larry Thurlow who recalled the event in detail and has testified accordingly.

5) Kerry campaign has acknowledged medical records only reflect a slight wound on Kerry's buttocks and that "treatment" only involved application of Neosporin and a band-aid.

6) Kerry prepared the 3rd Purple Heart casualty reports on March 13, 1969 and left Viet Nam on March 17, 1969, arriving home in New York (Kennedy Airport), whereupon his then fiancée, on page 329 of Tour of Duty, recalled Kerry appeared to be "bandaged" so heavily "some of it was sticking out".

STATUS: Given the odds that Kerry could suffer the exact same kind of wound in exactly the same place on his body within hours on the exact same day are highly unlikely, and with nobody able confirm the story he supplied for the records, plus his own admissions about the incident in his authorized biography, it appears Kerry's 3rd Purple Heart was fraudulently obtained in a concerted & premeditated effort to go home.


IX. Bronze Star account is disputed (Unfit for Command pages 86-92)

Kerry fled the scene after a mine explosion disabled one of the group of swift boats, only to return a short while later, while the SwiftVets saved the damaged boat and rescued injured crew mates, indeed rescuing Rassman who'd actually fallen off his boat, after which Kerry left fellow sailors behind again and returned to a Coast Guard cutter offshore, falsely recasting the entire sequence events with him as the hero in his official records & reports, his personal biography and DNC movies entitled "No Man Left Behind".

1) Recent admissions by the Kerry campaign and detailed analysis by the Washington Post depicted in this diagram reveal Kerry's boat left the scene while other boats gathered around the injured vessel to help save the craft and rescue the crew, with Kerry returning to retrieve Rassman as another of the remaining vessels moved to save him.

2) Kerry admits the boat damage he officially reported for this mission as damage from a mine was actually due to a prior experience noting "All the windows on my boat and on [Larry Thurlow's PCF-53] boat had been blown out in the ambush two days earlier" from Douglas Brinkley's authorized biography of Kerry in "John Kerry's Final Mission in Vietnam"

3) Kerry admitted Rassman fell off his own boat in his own statements on the floor of the US Senate, From Congressional Record: January 28, 1998 (Senate) Page S186-S187 :

JOHN KERRY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the text of the eulogy I gave for my friend, Thomas M. Belodeau, on November 10, 1997.
There was the time we were carrying Special Forces up a river and a mine exploded under our boat sending it 2 feet into the air. We were receiving incoming rocket and small arms fire and Tommy was returning fire with his M-60 machine gun when it literally broke apart in his hands. He was left holding the pieces unable to fire back while one of the Green Berets walked along the edge of the boat to get Tommy another M-60. As he was doing so, the boat made a high speed turn to starboard and the Green Beret kept going--straight into the river. The entire time while the boat went back to get the Green Beret, Tommy was without a machine gun or a weapon of any kind, but all the time he was hurling the greatest single string of Lowell-Chelmsford curses ever heard at the Viet Cong. He literally had swear words with tracers on them!

4) Kerry's own records confirm wound Kerry reported "contusion on right forearm". A contusion is "contusion" is an "injury to tissue usually without laceration".

5) The Aug. 10, 2004, Wall Street Journal op-ed prepared for Rassman blatantly contradicts official Kerry campaign depictions by confirming Rassman was on Kerry's boat: "The second blast blew me off John's Swift boat, PCF-94 ..."

6) From Unfit for Command page 91:
When Chenoweth's boat left a second time to deliver the wounded PCF 3 crewmen to a Coast Guard cutter offshore, Kerry jumped into the boat, leaving the few remaining officers and men the job of saving PCF 3, which was then in terrible condition, sinking just outisde the river. Kerry's eagerness to secure his third and final Purple Heart evidently outweighed any feelings he may have had of loyalty, duty, or honor with regard to his fellow sailors. Thurlow and the brave sailors who saved PCF 3 and towed it out did not seek Purple Hearts for their "minor contusions." Indeed, several of the PCF 3 sailors did not seek or receive Purple Hearts. Chenoweth, Odell, and their boat-mates who fished out and saved the sailors of PCF 3 likewise had no thought of seeking medals but only of rescuing their comrades and saving PCF 3. Kerry, however, portrays himself towing the disabled PCF 3 to safety after saving it. Another lie: The damage control on PCF 3 was done by Thurlow. While Kerry's boat, PCF 94, participated in towing PCF-3, Kerry was no longer on it for most of the trip (he was safely on the Coast Guard cutter), and Thurlow and Chenoweth are certain that Kerry played no role in saving PCF 3 or its crew.

When Chenoweth and Thurlow (as well as several other Swiftees who were there on March 13, 1969) first saw the Kerry ads, they believed the event that Kerry had described in his campaign biography and that was portrayed in his campaign television ads (as well as in the medal citations) had to be different events involving different people. What they had experienced on March 13, 1969, was so unlike the incident Kerry described that they could not imagine that he was describing the same event. They were horrified when they finally realized Kerry had received medals for the incident they remembered.


STATUS: It is up to Kerry to release his records in order to confirm whether Kerry was the source for orinal, erroneous, exaggerated reports, and to reconcile whether there was enemy fire, other than the mine itself, is only source of contention regarding this event. Kerry and his crew state there was, as does Rassman, who repeatedly submerged himself after falling off Kerry's boat as he first fled the scene. Numerous others, also at the scene, including the other boat commanders, and the gunners, report no enemy fire and that Rassman was confused by the tremendous volley of fire which the boats first engaged in an automatic defensive posture immediately after the mine first exploded. Kerry's description & official reporting of the events reflect over 5000 meters of intense enemy fire (literally more than 2-1/2 miles), a battle scene representative of the Battle of Gettysburg.


X. Kerry betrayed his fellow veterans (Unfit for Command pages 126-137)

Kerry slandered fellow troops by falsely accusing vets of mass atrocities and war crimes, consorted with the enemy by meeting with Madame Binh as the official representative for the North Vietnamese Communist regime at the 1971 Paris Peace Talks, praised Ho Chi Min, and was present during the plotting for assassination of US Senators who opposed the Viet Nam war.

1) John Kerry's testimony before the US Senate included his infamous & slanderous allegation that US troops "had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, tape wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the country side of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country" and that these were "crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command."

2) In subsequent interviews and on television NBC's Meet the Press on April 18, 1971, when Kerry was asked — regarding his claim that our policies in Vietnam were tantamount to genocide — "Do you consider that you personally as a Naval officer committed atrocities in Vietnam or crimes punishable by law in this country?" Kerry stated, "Yes, yes, I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers have committed in that I took part in shootings in free fire zones.... I took part in search and destroy missions, in the burning of villages."

3) In recent interviews, John Hurley, Kerry's former comrade from VVAW and now head of Vietnam Veterans for Kerry, Kerry stands by his 1971 Senate testimony.

4) John Kerry wrote a book entitled "The New Soldier" which slandered Vietnam Vets with further "Winter Soldier" accusations of war crimes and defaced the Iwo Jiwa Memorial, which represents the flag-raising on Mount Suribachi in 1945, a battle that claimed the lives of 6,821 Marines, with a mocking representation combined with an upside down American flag on its cover.

5) Historical writers Neil Sheehan and James Reston exposed the sources for John Kerry's "Winter Soldier" allegations as fabrications and their perpetrators as frauds who, in many cases, hadn't even served in Vietnam such as Al Hubbard, Kerry's VVAW counterpart who often appeared in public events together, was revealed to have personally lied himself & later officially joined the Communist Party.

6) Numerous POWs, including Paul Galanti, Ken Cordier, Jim Warner, John Flynn and many others have come forward and testified in detail to the use of John Kerry's 1971 Senate Testimony and other VVAW related activities, albeit documentary representations or audio recordings played over the P/A (Public Address) systems duing torture sessions at some of Vietnam's most heinous and notorious prisons to include "The Hanoi Hilton" and "Skid Row". See SwiftVet Ad "SELLOUT"

7) Kerry first admitted meeting with communist representatives in Paris in 1970, in his own testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 22, 1971, at a time he remained an officer in the US Naval Reserve and in apparent violation of U.S. code 18 U.S.C. 953, which disallowed private citizens from negotiating with foreign powers. Kerry stated, "I have been to Paris. I have talked with both delegations at the peace talks, that is to say the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PVR)."

8) On March 24, 2004, Michael Meehan, official spokesman of the Kerry campaign, confirmed that John Kerry indeed traveled to Paris in 1971 and met with Madame Binh and also admitted he met with other members representing both the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (the North Vietnamese) and the Provisional Revolutionary Government (the Viet Cong).

9) Michael Kranish and Patrick Healy report "Kerry Spoke of Meeting Negotiators in Paris", in the Boston Globe, March 25, 2004.

10) On July 22, 1971, John Kerry held a public press conference in which he advanced the positions stated & outlined in his personal meeting with Madame Binh.

11) In publicly FOIA released FBI Documents reveal Kerry was present in the discussion & planning for the assassination of prominent US Senators who were deemed to support US participation in the war against the Vietnamese Communists, to include Senate legends John Tower of Texas and Senator John Stennis of Mississippi, for whom the Navy Aircraft Carrier USS Stennis CVN-74 is named after.

12) Writing in the New York Sun, March 12, 2004, Thomas Lipscomb writes about "HOW KERRY QUIT VETERANS GROUP AMID DARK PLOT"

13) Kansas City Star reports on Kerry's attendance at the assassination plotting in March 2004 article.

14) From Unfit for Command, page 137: FBI field surveillance reports document a speech that Kerry gave in 1971 in which he praised Ho Chi Minh, the founder of Vietnamese Communism. The occasion was a speech Kerry gave to a group at the YMCA in Philadelphian on June 14, 1971. As reported by the FBI:
On June 29, 1971, [BLACKED OUT SECURITY EDIT] advised that JOHN KERRY of the National Office of the VVAW, spoke at the YMCA, Philadelphia, on June 14, 1971. In this talk he stated that HO CHI MINH is the GEORGE WASHINGTON of Vietnam. Ho studied the United States Constitution and wants to install the same provisions into the Government of Vietnam. KERRY criticized United States activities in Vietnam, saying we are destroying villages, cities, crops, and the people there and these activities must be stopped.

15) A photograph featuring John Kerry meeting with the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Comrade Du Muoi today hangs in honor at the Vietnamese Communist War Remnants Museum (formerly known as the War Crimes Museum) in Ho Chi Mihn City (formerly Saigon), within a room titled "The World Supports Vietnam in its Resistance" amongst the many other exhibits "honoring" all those who had helped the Vietnamese Communists win their war against the United States.

STATUS: To date the Kerry campaign has not chosen to dispute his prior statements or any of the official records which have been made available to the public.


Friday, August 27, 2004
 
Lisa Myers interviews Admiral Schachte
Adm. William Schachte: 'No enemy fire'
 
Latest News Channel Ratings
Drudge has the latest cable news ratings which translate to:

#1 FOX covers SwiftVets fair & balanced
#2 MSNBC covers SwiftVets quite a bit but largely representative of Media Wing in Kerry campaign
#3 CNN covers SwiftVets barely mostly focused on representing the Michael Moore-on Wing of the Kerry Campaign
#4 CNBC doesn't cover SwiftVets at all as Jim Cramer attacks the president
 
Kurtz links Kerry's Vietnam posture to current events
Noting "The mainstream media do not want to talk about the connection between John Kerry's Vietnam experience and his views on war and foreign policy" and "The Dangerous Secret ...is what Kerry believes now, not what he did then."
 
Thomas Lipscomb hones in on Silver Star fraud
In today's Chicago Sun Times, Lipscomb takes notice that "Plot thickens after checking records", ponders what could be in the 100 or more documents the Kerry campaign refuses to release that would be made public if Kerry signed Form 180, and notes Kerry could be subject to imprisonment for falsifying his official records.
Thursday, August 26, 2004
 
Novak on Schachte & Kerry as Robin


Robert Novak has interviewed now-Rear Admiral William Schachte whose testimony on Perry's (faked) Purple Heart is summarized as follows in Unfit for Command pages 36-37:
The truth is that at the time of this incident Kerry was an officer in command (OinC) under training, aboard the skimmer using the call sign "Robin" on the operation, with now-Rear Admiral William Schachte using the call sign "Batman," who was also on the skimmer. After Kerry's M-16 jammed, Kerry picked up an M-79 grenade launcher and fired a grenade too close, causing a tiny piece of shrapnel (one to two centimeters) to barely stick in his arm. Schachte berated Kerry for almost putting someone's eye out. There was no hostile fire of any kind, nor did Kerry on the way back mention to PFC OinC Mike Voss, who commanded the PCF that had towed the skimmer, that he was wounded. There was no report of any hostile fire that day (as would be required), nor do the records at Cam Ranh Bay reveal any such hostile fire. No other records reflect any hostile fire. There is also no casualty report, as would have been required had there actually been a casualty.

 
Advanced Polls & Politics
New polls out from LA Times & Gallup show Bush got a respectable bounce from the DemoncRAT National Convention and the early reintroduction of the SwiftVets who put out a new video today with Kerry's former Swift Boat crewmember Steven Gardner laying out the Precise Truth on Kerry's Christmas in Cambodia.

Meanwhile Bush counter's Kerry's stunt sending Max Cleland and Rassman to Bush's home in Crawford, Texas by hooking up with John McCain to try and stop all of the 527 ads. This appears to be a win-win-win scenario for Bush. If Kerry does not join their action he will again appear as a total whiner and hypocrite. If the suit loses then all the 527 activity, including the SwiftVet ads, will continue. Even if the suit were to prevail it would not affect the SwiftVets to the same degree it would all of the Kerry / Soros / Ickes / Podesta / DNC / MoveOn.org flames because the SwiftVets can still make the rounds of talk radio, poltical tv shows and other alternative media, whereas the DemoncRAT 527s don't have that kind of message & whatever hate-Bush message they do have is already commonplace throughout all available media.

Kerry's response? The political equivalent of "Thank you sir. May I have another?" He demands weekly debates. Seriously, there is something terribly wrong within the Kerry campaign. They played this card last spring and the Bush campaign whacked them in on it & now they get to repeat one of their best lines of the year, "There will be a time for debates after the convention, and during the next few weeks, John Kerry should take the time to finish the debates with himself," responded Bush-Cheney spokesman Steve Schmidt.
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
 
Overlooking the impact of KJW
In the recent Washington Post article Michael Woods notes the following:
A review of other Swift boat after-action reports at the Naval Historical Center here reveals several that include the initials "KJW" but describe incidents at which Kerry was not present.

Note the inference there is that Kerry didn't write them because he wasn't present. However, the SwiftVets might be onto something - if KJW was indeed symbolic of Kerry in some way, or - as Swifties suggest - KJW was the person at Headquarters merely responsible for processing Kerry's action reports, accepting them at face value as true, the implications are just as easily interpreted to reveal that there are other incidents, which Kerry is well known not to have participated, for which Kerry submitted (other, falsified) reports (those could be the other infamous DOUBLE SECRET CAMBODIA missions)

FOLLOW-UP: CNS News catches relevant statements by John Kerry, under oath, in his 1971 testimony that Kerry responded, "I had direct experience with that. Senator, I had direct experience with that and I can recall often sending in the spot reports which we made after each mission; and including the GDA, gunfire damage assessments, in which we would say, maybe 15 sampans sunk or whatever it was. And I often read about my own missions in the Stars and Stripes and the very mission we had been on had been doubled in figures and tripled in figures. Kerry later added, "I also think men in the military, sir, as do men in many other things, have a tendency to report what they want to report and see what they want to see."
 
Halloween Comes Early at the Bush Residence
James Taranto has assembled some classic Kerry quotes including a "back to the future moment" with today's pathetic show of Kerry sending Max Cleland to Crawford to play Trick or Treat, cry & whine (before being handed the Bush campaign's response in the form of a Dear John Letter):
"I called the media. . . . I said, 'If I take some crippled veterans down to the White House and we chain ourselves to the gates, will we get coverage?' 'Oh, yes, we will cover that.' "--John Kerry, testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, April 22, 1971

"Kerry is sending to Crawford former Sen. Max Cleland of Georgia, a frequent companion of Kerry's on the campaign trail and a fellow Vietnam War veteran who lost three limbs during the war. Cleland . . . will try to deliver a letter protesting the [Swift Boat Veterans for Truth] ads to [President] Bush at his heavily guarded ranch, Kerry aides said."--Reuters, Aug. 25, 2004

And a close second to "I voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it":
The truth, which is what elections are all about, is that the tax burden of the middle class has gone up while the tax burden of the middle class has gone down."--John Kerry, quoted by the Associated Press, Aug. 25

Tuesday, August 24, 2004
 
Dinanand and Hurt: the next Woodward & Bernstein?
Washington Times on Kerry Faking Purple Heart: Diary refutes Kerry claim

There was a day when most reporters would be insulted with a response like this that doesn't even pass a laugh test and run back to their typewriters and write it up ... wait, these guys did!

A Kerry campaign official, speaking on background, told The Washington Times yesterday that the "we" in the passage from Mr. Kerry's journal refers to "the crew on Kerry's first swift boat, operating as a crew" rather than Mr. Kerry himself.
"John Kerry didn't yet have his own boat or crew on December 2," according to the aide. "Other members of the crew had been in Vietnam for some time and had been shot at and Kerry knew that at the time. However, the crew had not yet been fired on while they served together on PCF 44 under Lieutenant Kerry."
Mr. Kerry's campaign could not say definitively whether he did receive enemy fire that day.

Hmmmm ... that sounds an awful lot like the familiar ring of "Mr. Kerry's campaign could not say definitively whether" ... HE SPENT CHRISTMAS IN CAMBODIA
Then we get assurance that the Kerry folks are doing well with Kerry's new Viet Nam movie - amazingly "What's remarkable to me is when you see the interviews in the movie, how consistent they are on what happened,"

- they have EXACTLY the same story? doesn't that fail Introductory Witnessing 101 ???

 
Another Moore-onic bites the dust
Ben Shapiro at Townhall.com

Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" spends a full seven minutes focusing on this ridiculous argument -- and mislabeling the book Bush read to a group of second-graders "My Pet Goat." The real name of the book is "Reading Mastery 2," and the story Bush read was called "The Pet Goat." Kerry's spokeswoman simply lifted Moore wholesale.

 
Kerry on ... Republicans or Kerry?
From today's speech in New York:

"Next week at Madison Square Garden, the Republican convention will focus on slogans, excuses, and attack politics. And mark my words, they'll bend over backwards with last minute proposals and last minute promises to make up for all they haven't done and to pretend they're not who they are. In fact, pretending to be something they're not may be the single most consistent thing about them, because that's what they've been doing all along.

But the American people want truthful answers and real plans. They want leadership that will really put the middle class first. And that's why this is the most important election of our lifetime."

 
Spaeth Speaks
In interview today, Merrie Spaeth, President & CEO of her own Spaeth Communications, and representative for the SwiftVets addressed the Kerry campaign talking points to the effect she's a dark mysterious figure operating at six degrees of separation from the Bush campaign.

In summary it appears Kerry partisans are clearly drawing from their wealth of experience attacking women who in some way come forth to speak about DemoncRATs running for president. Of course the implications of that presumption are that Ms. Spaeth is telling the truth and her attackers are grasping here.

Ms. Spaeth pointed out that the appearance of her name on the White House web site is due to her prior association with the "non-partisan White House Fellows Program" in 1980 and is simply listed as listed on a press release amongst several "Prominent public and private sector leaders who are alumni of the White House Fellows Program from Texas".

So they're left with "Texas" as the common denominator ... and she's probably a REPUBLICAN. no doubt VRWC too. (pledge at least)
 
NBC likely source of Nixon / O'Neill "Cambodia" tape
Kerrytistas are crowing about some tape they've received in which they claim John O'Neill discusses his secret Cambodia missions in person with Richard Nixon.

The rest of the story:

This video no doubt comes from NBC which had enough to produce a couple hours of specials a few weeks back. They originated along with the Nixon tapes in addition to some new material that was recently released FOIA.

O'Neill caught the interest of Nixon's team because they'd been monitoring Kerry's anti-US activities politically while the FBI was monitoring his interaction with the VVAW and Viet Nam reps. O'Neill - as he's discussed - was personally offended by Kerry's false war crime charges and was looking to debate him but the liberal media establishment (even then) was not willing to put him on.

Nixon & Colson (and I even believe Pat Buchanan was seen - though maybe not heard - in the materials I'm familiar with) specifically discussed the possibility of getting somebody like Dick Cavett to sponsor a debate between Kerry & O'Neill. Ultimately O'Neill got to meet former President Nixon. After greeting Nixon he told him - in a rather awkward moment, really, if you see it - that he'd voted for Hubert Humphrey and his parents were lifelong Democrats.

As for the "Cambodia" issue O'Neill has addressed this and pointed out (a) they've taken his statement out of context by discarding the rest of the sentence. (b) he specifically indicated river areas around the Cambodian border - not IN Cambodia - which, unless you're delusional, still remains a significant difference. (c) when he had the duties in those areas he was based in different places where Hanoi John French Kerry never was, throughout his short stay in Viet Nam.

Here is a Kerry + Nixon story & video; following is a relevant portion of a partial transcript with O'Neill portions edited in text (it does not include the O'Neill meeting introduction in which O'Neill mentioned his political legacy)

June 2, 1971: Oval Office meeting with Bob Haldeman
Haldeman: We got these guys now forming this Veterans for a – Peace with Justice, or uh – the veterans –
Nixon: They came in to see me? Are they here?
Haldeman: No we don’t want them to be able to see you yet. We don’t want to –
Nixon: Who are they?
Haldeman: Well, it’s this guy, uh, he’s got a beard, one of ‘em, and there’s this Navy officer [John O'Neill], just got out yesterday –
President: Yeah.
Haldeman: -- crew cut, real sharp looking guy who is more articulate than Kerry. He’s not as eloquent; he isn’t the ham that Kerry is. But he’s more believable.
[edit]
Haldeman: Colson put this together.
[edit]
Haldeman: This guy now [O’Neill], is gonna, he’s gonna move on Kerry. He’s gonna move around the country.

June 16, 1971: Oval Office meeting with John O’Neill
Nixon: I really feel that what you’re doing, you’ll take brickbats, you go on some of these TV shows like the Cavett thing, you’re gonna get banged, but – you’ll get terribly discouraged and say the whole country’s – and so forth. But I think ya gotta remember, uh, you have to remember, that uh, that uh, now {unintelligible] in Vietnam should be enough, that now you would have the [unint] to get back and reassure people that those few that come back – like Kerry and the rest – don’t speak for all.

[edit]

Nixon: That’s great. Give it to him, give it to him. And you can do it, because you have a pleasant manner, too, because you’ve got – and I think it’s a great service to the country.

[edit]

Nixon: You fellows have been out there. You’ve got to know, seeing the barbarians that we’re up against, you’ve got to know what we’re doing in that horrible swamp that North Vietnam is. 33:40 You’ve got to know from all our faults of what we have in this country that, that what we’re doing is right. You’ve got to know too, people are critics. Critics of the war, critics of [unint], run America down. Those that are, uh – well in every respect, either get out of Vietnam, get out of [unint], get out of the world, etcetera etcetera. You’ve gotta know that you’re on the winning s—that, that you’re on the right side.

 
Finally Asked, Kerry refuses to answer whether he spent Christmas in Cambodia
Kerry took to the friendly confines of The Daily Show and was asked if he'd been to Cambodia but Kerry never answered.

Rather they discussed more pertinent issues which will no doubt leave Theresa wondering if she should stop for an AIDS test on the way to see the lawyer about the pre-nup:

Kerry offered an interesting observation on life as a presidential candidate.
"You'd be amazed at the number of people who want to introduce themselves to you in the men's room," he said. "It's the most bizarre part of this entire thing."

 
Chicago Tribune did their duty
"What I've heard from colleagues is that people feel it probably has had too long a life," said Frank James, a Chicago Tribune reporter. "We wish someone would put a stake in this vampire."

How about taking out the 1st Purple Heart with that stake? Kerry campaign now admits it was a sham! Then we can talk about about Rood and the Silver Star. That should leave us just enough time to finish off the 3rd Purple Heart and Bronze Star before next week's Republican National Convention. ROFLMAO
 
Edwards' Two Americas rooted in Hanoi John's New Soldier
From Hanoi John French Kerry's anti-American epic The New Soldier, "I think that, more than anything, the New Soldier is trying to point out how there are two Americas -- the one the speeches are about and the one we really are. Rhetoric has blinded us so much that we are unable to see the realities which exist in this country."
 
"We've got to learn from history or else we'll repeat it"
Those were the words of caution from American hero Ken Cordier being interviewed on the Rick Roberts show this morning in response to those criticizing the POWs for coming out against John Kerry. He (Cordier) muses at the Kerry Campaign and DNC for choosing him as their point of attack. He notes there will be a movie (possibly the same as the reported SwiftVet's?) "Stolen Honor" released around Labor Day on http://www.stolenhonor.com. Also in the news today, follow-up to Sean Hannity's interviews yesterday with Paul Galanti about his flashback earlier this year hearing John Kerry's pronounciation of "Ghengis Kahn" when testifying (LYING) before the US Senate in 1971, reminding him of how Kerry's own words were played over the Public Address system at the infamous Hanoi Hilton. Cordier has personally seen Hanoi John's photograph in the Vietnam War Crimes museum and also reminds those who weren't familiar with its legend or even the movie, the notorious Vietnamese hellhole was not a hotel but the basement of an old French prison.
Meanwhile Kerry clarifies his treason to fellow SwiftVets, "When we dedicated swift boat one in '92, I said to all the swift guys that I wasn't talking about the swifties, I was talking about all the rest of the veterans." I think Theresa could best characterize millions of veterans' reaction to that outrageous statement with an obligatory "SHOVE IT".

FOLLOW-UP from WorldNetDaily
Monday, August 23, 2004
 
LA Times Strikes Vets with Anger & Vengeance
I just sent letters@latimes.com the following in response to their Editors' diatribe against the SwiftVets:

There is no excuse for such negligence as demonstrated by your Editors in their opinion piece of today regarding John Kerry. His campaign has admitted the central, life changing moment of his life & Vietnam experience was a falsehood. A lie. A lie he has retold over and over, 50 times or more, over 30 years.

Secondly your review of the Chicago Tribune editor Rood's piece was flawed - you have neglected the basic fact Rood has confirmed the SwiftVets' contention that there was no numerically superior force, firing rockets which exploded on John Kerry's boat, as his Silver Star citation states.

It's that simple. John Kerry's Silver Star citation is wrong. Every witness, including John Kerry & his supporters, state that the incident involved Kerry's shooting a young boy in the back. There is a picture on the Tribune web site with a loaded rocket launcher which Rood confirms was never launched.

Where are the rockets John Kerry's citation speaks about?

Does the LA Times really believe in Christmas in Cambodia?

Please correct the record.

 
Joe Klein & Abu Ghraib Sooth Paula Zahn's Hysteria
From CNN:

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Tonight, the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, four American soldiers facing justice.
...
ZAHN: And an explosion of negative ads nastier than ever. The new hatchet men of politics.
...
ZAHN: Nobody admits liking them.

SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D-NC), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Stop these ads.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think they're bad for the system.

[enable Zahn hysteria mode]
ZAHN: But can anyone stop them? Tonight, 527s, will they ever go away?
[disable Zahn hysteria mode]

... ZAHN: And coming up next, disturbing new allegations about Abu Ghraib, U.S. military doctors and their role in the abuse scandal -- when we come back.
...
ZAHN: So what is the truth of that story, Joe? I know "The Washington Post" tried to lay that out yesterday in a very detailed story.

KLEIN: The truth of the story seems to be, from the guy who were on the boat with John Kerry, that he behaved honorably, that he behaved in a heroic fashion. All of the documentation says the same thing.

Of course, you can always call into question a guy who puts in for a Purple Heart because he got a scratch. But there were an awful lot of guys in Vietnam who were doing that. And there were an awful lot of guys who got out of Vietnam because they'd been wounded three times.
...
ZAHN: Joe Klein, thank you for dropping by.

KLEIN: My pleasure.

ZAHN: And now it's time for us to take a short break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: We turn again now to the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.

 
Wesley Pruden
Paying the price for padding a resume
... Not all of his Purple Hearts are suspect, only two of them are. Or maybe it's only one. Or was that the Silver Star? Voters, who don't always pay close attention to the nuances or even the details, are likely to remember only that questions were raised about his medals. (Were those the medals he threw away?)
A politician's reputation for telling the truth, particularly about how he won combat decorations, is a lot like a woman's reputation for virtue. Once veracity and virtue are subjects for public discussion, both pols in trouble and careless damsels can only suffer. Close only counts if you're pitching horseshoes.
...
Another Democrat "close to the campaign," otherwise unidentified, sees it in an even grimmer light: "When you're basically running on your biography and there are ongoing attacks that are undermining the credibility of your biography, you have a really big problem."

 
New Cambodia Quote is a Dagger to Brinkley's Credibility
Washington Post has an EXCELLENT column Kerry's Cambodia Whopper which includes another - yet definitive - Kerry Cambodia classic I don't believe I've read before:

Now a new official statement from the campaign undercuts Brinkley. It offers a minimal (thus harder to impeach) claim: that Kerry "on one occasion crossed into Cambodia," on an unspecified date. But at least two of the shipmates who are supporting Kerry's campaign (and one who is not) deny their boat ever crossed the border, and their testimony on this score is corroborated by Kerry's own journal, kept while on duty. One passage reproduced in Brinkley's book says: "The banks of the [Rach Giang Thanh River] whistled by as we churned out mile after mile at full speed. On my left were occasional open fields that allowed us a clear view into Cambodia. At some points, the border was only fifty yards away and it then would meander out to several hundred or even as much as a thousand yards away, always making one wonder what lay on the other side." His curiosity was never satisfied, because this entry was from Kerry's final mission.

 
Begging for Mercy
This headline Editors Grapple With How to Cover Swift Boat Controversy is just begging for commentary.

OK ... I'll bite.

How about ignoring the Kerry campaign & telling the truth here?

Just asking.

 
Kerry Campaign close to admitting 1st Purple Heart was faked
The pain of the truth. For John Kerry it obviously hurts.

as well it should!

Major Garrett on FOX News Channel tonight reports that the Kerry campaign is in a real quandry as to how they can explain Hanoi John French Kerry's 1st Purple Heart.

The first Purple Heart involves Doctor Letson removing a rose thorn size of shrapenel & treating it with a band-aid. The SwiftVets contend that resulted from an unintentionally self-inflicted wound from the shell of a grenade he was (obviously) mishandling and has been written about in his own accounts and others'. The award was denied as an insulting joke by his commanding officer. There are no supporting documents other than those Kerry presumably created on his own for himself.

Ultimately it's Kerry vs. Kerry on this one - either he LIED and "gamed the system" or it's going to be blamed on the hatless CIA guys gunrunning in Cambodia forcing him to write, days later, in his diaries and later included in other writings, that he hadn't seen combat or been shot at 9 days after that fateful one when he nearly injured his crew but still ended up with a Purple Heart for the efforts.

So .... now, let's talk about the "issues"!

 
Kerry's Island (proposed theme for new Kerry / Vietnam movie)
Sit right back
and John will tell his tale
a tale of his fateful trip
they started in Cambodia
aboard this tiny ship

the boy was a mighty girly man
as skipper brave and strong
7 crew and Rassman set sail that day

to end his three months tour
to end his three months tour

the battles started getting rough,
after action reports all were lost

if not for the effort of fearless John that day
the swift boat would be lost
some medals could be lost

now here aground in the midst of this
unchartered fall campaign

with Hanoi John
his medals, too
a millionaire
and his wife
three purple hearts
to become president

here on John Kerry's Isle [AUDIO]
 
O'Neill on Roger Hedgecock Show
John O'Neill appeared on the Roger Hedgecock show at 8:00 PM EST / 5:00 PM PST ... I was on hold hoping to have the privilege of speaking with him & convey the Rood "rockets" potential BOMBSHELL as I imagine he hasn't had the opportunity to review Rood's article more thoroughly alongside Kerry's Silver Star citation.

Unfortunately I was left on hold with other remaining callers (darn!) - however O'Neill was able to take a couple calls; one gal called & explained her father believes the SwiftVets are being paid by those wascally REPUBLICANS. In addition to his donating royalties to Navy & Marine Relief Fund O'Neill also noted it's Kerry's "band of brothers" that's flying around in the jet & staying in $1K-per-night hotel rooms. Another caller notes, according to the records, Rassman didn't suffer any wounds or even hearing difficulties resulting from the supposed concussion if there was, in fact, a 2nd mine impacting Hanoi John French Kerry's boat rather than the (more likely) 'ol dropped the guy off the back of the boat' scenario.
 
Kerry Spot Sucks up Rood Spin
Rather disappointing that Jim Geraghty of National Review's (otherwise fine) Kerry Spot thinks "Undermining ONE of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth charges — such as William Rood did — does not undermine them all. The reporting on Rood by many news organizations over the weekend — painting him as repudiating all the charges being made after "dramatically breaking his silence" — was embarrassing."

It was embarrassing so many just read the media spin - straight from the Kerry campaign - & sucked it up without a simple comparison of Rood's account with Kerry's medal citation and reported accordingly.

UPDATE: Somebody got a little attention from Kerry Spot ... in the right direction but only the afterthought below, based on Rood's citation, not the potential BOMBSHELL revealed from a comparison with Kerry's citation:

"NOT TO BE RUDE TO ROOD, BUT WAIT A MINUTE... [08/23 05:21 PM]

Kerry Spot reader Barnaby observes that the article by former Swift Boat commander William B. Rood creates a new problem for John Kerry. Rood's bronze star citation says he earned the medal "while serving with friendly foreign forces" and "Underwater Demolition Team THIRTEEN and Vietnamese Regional and Popular Force personnel."

Kerry's Silver Star citation makes no mention of Underwater Demolition Team THIRTEEN, and the friendly foreign forces aren't credited with any role in the battle. The description makes it sound like Kerry and his crew saved the day.

This inconsistency bears out one of the Swift Boat Vets's objection to Kerry's Silver Star citation. Page 83 of Unfit for Command: "The citation simply ignores the presence of the soldiers and advisors who actually "captured the many enemy weapons" and routed the Viet Cong. Further, the citation ignores the preplanned nature of the tactic and the fact that Kerry's boat did not beach first. Finally, the citations statement that Kerry attacked a "numerically superior force in the face of intense fire" is simply false." Admiral Roy Hoffman, who keeps being cited as a formerly pro-Kerry vet who has "changed his story," says he was told Kerry had "almost single-handedly" routed the Viet Cong.

It's little things like this that make one wish one could ask questions of Mr. Rood. And it makes one wonder if Kerry's reports to his superiors after battles were more than a little self-serving.

FOLLOW-UP: Note there are actually multiple citations for Kerry's medals because he went back and massaged the records; there are three versions of this particular (Kerry Silver Star) incident - as noted further below, one copy contains the following:
"While transiting the Bay Hap River en route to an insertion point along the Dong Cung River, these craft with thirty Regional/Popular Force personnel embarked in each unit"

Obviously, the more passengers Kerry or others admit to have raises the ante on becoming that numerically superior force (of 1) that John Kerry obviously exaggerated - errh LIED - about in his after action report(s) to assure the actions appeared medal worthy and truly beyond the call of duty.
Sunday, August 22, 2004
 
Jim Russell - Latest Straw-Man "Witness" for Kerry
in a Letter to the Editor, Jim Russell answers to Kerry. The piece is largely a leftist diatribe attacking the Swifties as vast right wing conspiracy types.

The only real or new / additional facts he brings - other than reverting back to the "No Man Left Behind" theme - is that:

"Almost immediately, another mine went off somewhere behind us. All boats, except the one hit ..." reinforcing Kerry's boat was not hit by a mine (only one was)

It sure appears these are not only fed to these guys as boilerplates from the Kerry campaign but likely originating from Kerry himself given this obsession he has with repeatedly attacking criticisms lodged by O'Neill (in Unfit for Command) against Kerry's SwiftBoat "tactics". Bottom line, Kerry's escapades were usually more worthy of demerits than the accolades Kerry reaped through his own reporting compared to the expected mastery of tactics less than 3 months of experience would obviously testify.

"... immediately wheeled toward the beach that most of the fire came from (a tactic devised by Lt. Kerry, I later learned) and commenced showering the beaches with so much lead, that it could probably be now mined there. The noise was of course, deafening."

Russell's statement reads like the Kerry diatribe handed to Rassman for his submission to the Wall St. Journal a couple weeks passed; indicates they were under enemy fire (just didn't "think it was very accurate") while confirming the Swifties' contention that a tremendous barrage of firepower was laid down by US gunners just in case there were any enemy on the beach.

Then the straw man, picking a bone with a point not of any contention ... tada! the plucking of Rassman from the river:

The picture I have in my mind of Kerry bending over from his boat picking some hapless guy out of the river while all hell was breaking loose around us, is a picture based on fact and it cannot be disputed or changed. It's a piece of history drawn in my mind that cannot be redrawn. Sorry, "Swift Boats Veterans for the Truth"- that is the truth.

That's actually Sorry Kerry because Russell does nothing to address the issues which are a source of contention :(

 
Steve McMahon: Moore-on
Steve McMahon, former Howard Dean advisor was on Scarborough Sunday night along with Hugh Hewitt. Hugh pounded him over Christmas in Cambodia and how that relates to Kerry's phony posturing and unreliability through the decades to this very day. Steve McMahon was left to the dregs of Michael Mooredom, the DNC propaganda that there's nobody who remembers Bush from his National Guard service. Of course, that's a lie, as a woman stood up in Portland recently to rectify.

Prior reports include

Bush's drills with the Alabama Guard confirmed,

But further confirmation was supplied yesterday by a woman who dated the young George W. Bush in 1972 who says she distinctly remembers the young pilot visiting Montgomery that year to fulfill his Air National Guard commitment.
...
William Campenni, a retired Guard pilot, served with Mr. Bush in the 111th. He remembers a training flight over the Gulf during which the future president mimicked a Soviet bomber.

'Bush and I were lieutenants'
Lt. Col. John (Bill) Calhoun
Ex-airmen douse rumors over Bush's Guard service: 'Serious' pilot flew in NORAD runs, volunteered for Vietnam combat duty.
and Bush and the National Guard: Case Closed
F-102, Vietnam & George W. Bush

On 9/12/04 The Decatur Daily (Alabama) published an interview with former Air Force Sgt. James Copeland, who insists that he saw George W. Bush doing his required drills at Dannelly Air National Guard Base in Montgomery, AL during the period CBS and Democrats claim he was AWOL

Retired Colonel: Bush Volunteered for Vietnam (Retired Colonel Ed Morrisey)

UPDATE: Comprehensive list "Bush Served Honorably"
 
Unfit for Command now Available on MSNBC Web Site
The "Purple Heart Hunter" chapter of Unfit for Command is now available on MSNBC Web Site in text / HTML.
 
John Kerry's Nightmare
A 28 minute documentary produced by the SwiftVets for the Truth to be made available as quickly as possible (in September or October). 527 Organizations are prevented from airing public commercials featuring presidential candidates 60 days from the election. However this issue was already brought up before the FEC by David Bossie's group Citizens United and the good friends there decided to punt the issue and allow MoveOn.org to do practically whatever they wished this year. Besides this is a DOCUMENTARY ... though, unlike anything Michael Moore has ever written, it will be TRUE and not likely to be subject to banning by the Kerry campaign ... or will it?
 
Newsweek catches another Kerry (Bronze Star) story change
Captains Quarters relays how Newsweek caught Dale Sandusky, Kerry crewmate, changing the story and providing some rather compelling details to reaffirm Kerry's frauds in receipt of his Bronze Star.

Important to keep in mind it is the SwiftVets's contention that Kerry's intent that day was to game a third Purple Heart, to assure his quick passage home, and that the Bronze Star was merely icing on the cake, as well as assuring a Hat Trick if he were to be granted the Gold Medal in the form of the White House by fooling his way to be POTUS.

Also relevant is that what damage which was done to Kerry's boat was done prior to the Rassman incident and described in Kerry's own account in Brinkley's "Tour of Duty" - he combined reports of that (prior) damage along with the brazen exaggerations and falsehoods in his fraudulent reporting of the matter to assure the awards would be granted (and Rassman was previously experienced towards helping him completing) as he promptly finished up the paperwork and was actually granted leave and left Vietnam within 4 short days (on March 17, 1969) after the Rassman / Bronze Star incident (on March 13, 1969). Upon arriving home Brinkley wrote that Kerry was so heavily "bandaged" that "some of it was sticking out" enough for his then fiancee, Julia Thorne, to notice, when she met him at (where else?!?!) Kennedy airport in NY.

What really irked the SwiftVets about this incident was the outrage they felt when they read "Tour of Duty" and saw the movie made for John Kerry's presidential campaign because of the additional details they recalled about the incident:

From Unfit for Command, page 91:

When Chenoweth's boat left a second time to deliver the wounded PCF 3 crewmen to a Coast Guard cutter offshore, Kerry jumped into the boat, leaving the few remaining officers and men the job of saving PCF 3, which was then in terrible condition, sinking just outisde the river. Kerry's eagerness to secure his third and final Purple Heart evidently outweighed any feelings he may have had of loyalty, duty, or honor with regard to his fellow sailors. Thurlow and the brave sailors who saved PCF 3 and towed it out did not seek Purple Hearts for their "minor contusions." Indeed, several of the PCF 3 sailors did not seek or receive Purple Hearts. Chenoweth, Odell, and their boat-mates who fished out and saved the sailors of PCF 3 likewise had no thought of seeking medals but only of rescuing their comrades and saving PCF 3. Kerry, however, portrays himself towing the disabled PCF 3 to safety after saving it. Another lie: The damage control on PCF 3 was done by Thurlow. While Kerry's boat, PCF 94, participated in towing PCF-3, Kerry was no longer on it for most of the trip (he was safely on the Coast Guard cutter), and Thurlow and Chenoweth are certain that Kerry played no role in saving PCF 3 or its crew.

When Chenoweth and Thurlow (as well as several other Swiftees who were there on March 13, 1969) first saw the Kerry ads, they believed the event that Kerry had described in his campaign biography and that was portrayed in his campaign television ads (as well as in the medal citations) had to be different events involving different people. What they had experienced on March 13, 1969, was so unlike the incident Kerry described that they could not imagine that he was describing the same event. They were horrified when they finally realized Kerry had received medals for the incident they remembered.

In other words, rather than "No Man Left Behind" as Steven Spielberg helped portray for the DemoncRAT National Convention, it was Kerry leaving the vets behind AGAIN, after he'd first fled the scene, jumping off onto the Coast Guard cutter to be "treated" for his "wound" while leaving the men behind to finish tendering to the truly injured and sustain the fallen craft. Rather than "beyond the call of duty" Kerry's actions were truly beneath any basic level of human dignity.
 
The Letson Implications
John O'Neill & John Podesta on This Week with George Stephanopolous featured one of O'Neill's best performances. Podesta totally denies any involvement by Dr. Letson in treating Kerry's wound for the first purple heart. Yet if Letson, the only doctor whom could have possibly treated Kerry, was not present, as the Kerrytistas would claim, what does that indicate about the extent of Kerry's injuries? that they weren't even serious to the degree a simple nurse (corpsman who signed the report) would even refer Kerry to a doctor? Podesta was looking very nervous and repeatedly twitching during this appearance (as well he should be!)
 
Hurley Spins & Lies about Christmas in Cambodia
Close caption transcript from Fox News Sunday:

Ok, let's switch to you, mr. Hurley. Senator kerry has repeatedly said he was sitting on a gunboat five miles inside cambodia on christmas eve 1968 being shot at while the president denied there were any U.S. Troops there. In 1986 senate speech, kerry had this to say --

Simple question, what proof do you have that john kerry was in cambodia on christmas eve 1968?

I think, chris, what what is seared in john kerry's mind is that he was under fire. On christmas eve, P.C.F. 44, john kerry was on patrol up near the cambodian border. They did come under fire that night. An old man was killed that night. They came under fire three times that night. It's a watery area. They were in that vicinity. I don't think anyone knows for sure, but they were near cambodia.

But he doesn't say near cambodia, he says it was seared in my memory that we were five miles inside cambodia on a specific night.

Right. He was five miles in cambodia -- but not that night. He was five miles on a different occasions. He was near cambodia on christmas eve. That's well-documented. They came under five three separate times that night. It's being under fire is what's seared in miss mind.

What proof do you have that kerry was inside cambodia?

John kerry's record.

Do you have a record?

No. They were in cambodia. They were delivering various supplies. They were in there. His crew will say the same thing.

Well, you say the crew, he's had crew members who have stood up and defended him on almost everything else. Do you have a single crew member who's come forward to say he was five miles inside cambodia?

This hasn't been an issue until really recently. Why we're revisiting where john kerry was on a single night in 1968 is beyond me. The same questions can be asked of president bush. Where was he when he was to be reporting for duty in alabama? John kerry acknowledges he was in cambodia. Where he was is not part of this discussion.

I take it then the answer is no, you don't say single crew member who will say he was in five miles inside cambodia on christmas eve 1968 or any other night?

On other nights, yes. On december 24, they will not say that --

Who will say that?

It was the 94 boat. This issue hasn't come up. The reason why it hasn't been addressed. On christmas eve, he was on the 44 boat. They were near the cambodian border. They may or may not have crossed over. On a different occasion on the 94 boat, they were inside cambodia. The crew will testify to that.

So now Hurley is claiming there were was a mission "near" Cambodia on Christmas on the 44 boat that was seared into him and then these other previously unmentioned secret missions with CIA guys and hats, presumably, using the 94 boat. Even a professional liar like VVAW comrade Hurley is finding it difficult to get out of this one.
 
Findings of Fact on Rassman Episode
Career Marine Operations Officer uses standard operating procedure to break down & analyze what Kerry & Rassman have said here, concluding John Kerry "profoundly disrespects the Office of the President" and "is a dangerous man and is not qualified to hold any public office".
Saturday, August 21, 2004
 
Kerry's Olympics?
Given the weekend revelations forthcoming from William Rood (see below) ...

It's seeming more possible, beyond plausible and even likely probable, IMO, that, wittingly or unwittingly, there was indeed medal gaming going on amongst any number of Kerry's "band of brothers" (granted only a few served with him for much if any time). That need not have involved everybody or anybody in particular. For example, Rood himself may not have perceived alterior motives in discussing the planning for the mission with Kerry. Stephen Gardner, though not present that day, we know, has been forthcoming about Kerry's other prior episodes.

One of the crew, Fred Short, who later ("re-discovered" in Arkansas during political campaign) became close to Kerry, had only just arrived that day, then serving a mere two weeks time with Kerry as a secondary replacement for David Alston (who'd been injured the day before Kerry even took over the boat at the beginning of the month, despite suggestions from the Kerry campaign that he was present on this and / or other occasions).

Set aside any number of tempting riches or personal wealth which could be bestowed by John Kerry (or Theresa, his wife or the recipients of all their secret contributions) or any other promises of other future rewards such a unique bond might yield enticing favors & special treatment from a potential Kerry administration.

Even more compelling, in a couple different ways, earned or not, expected or not, each of these men themselves shared in the bounty (Rood himself was awarded a bronze star in this action) based on the same bogus After Action reports filed by Kerry (and / or others). Only the SwiftVets have expressed justifiably righteous anger about such possible circumstance & said they'd feel any of their medals were tainted if in any way influenced by John Kerry's duplicitous delusions in his fraudulent reporting.

Each of these men would now stand to face a similar yet contradictory kind of predicament to that which each of the SwiftVets forcefully contend on their behalf by demanding John Kerry account for his wrongful characterizations of them as war criminals. Then they, Kerry's "band of brothers", might be questioned by their children, friends, strangers and family, or perceivably seen as contributory frauds or, worse, further tainted by Kerry, possibly even outright phonies.

Naw, can't be any motivations there ... or could there?

Brinkley notes "In addition to Kerry's Silver Star PCF-94's performance on February 28 also earned Bronze Stars for Tommy Belodeau and Mike Medeiros and Navy Commendation Medals with Combat V Devices for Del Sandusky, Fred Short, and Gene Thorson."

From Rood's article we now know he was awarded a bronze citation as well. The implications of that are significant because they indicate, clearly, the After Action report (which Kerry won't release) must have given the majority of credit to himself becuase he - above all the others - got the silver medal!

According to Unfit for Command, page 82:

What actually occurred was quite different. According to Kerry's crewman Michael Medeiros, Kerry had an agreement with him to turn the boat in and onto the beach if fired upon. Each of the three boats involved in the operation was involved in the agreement. Larry Lee, a crewman and gunner, recalls the agreement as Medeiros recounts it and further recalls a prior discussion of probable medals for those participating. Bronze Stars for selected landers were contemplated and Navy commendations for others. Some crewmen dispute this, but none deny that the landing had been calculated the night before.

According to Doug Reese, a pro-Kerry Army veteran, and many others, what happened that day differs from the retelling in the citation. Far from being alone, the boats were loaded with many soldiers commanded by Reese and two other advisors. When fired at, Reese's boat - not Kerry's - was the first to beach in the ambush zone. Then Reese and other troops and advisors (not Kerry) disembarked, killing a number of Viet Cong and capturing a number of weapons. None of the participants from Reese's boat received any Silver Stars. Indeed, most, if not all, of the non-PCF troops received no medals for this action. Doug Reese, who advised the South Vietnamese who were the first group ashore and who killed most of the Viet Cong, received a well-deserved Army Commendation Medal - a much lower medal than the Silver Star. After the first boat beached, Kerry's boat moved slightly downstream and was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade in its aft cabin
...
Admiral Roy Hoffmann, who sent a Bravo Zulu (meaning "good work") to Kerry upon learning of the incident, was very surprised to discover in 2004 what had actually occurred. Hoffmann had been told that Kerry had spontaneously beached next to the bunker and almost single-handedly routed a bunkered force of Viet Cong. He was shocked to find out that Kerry had beached his boat second in a preplanned operation, and that he had killed a single, wounded teenage foe as he fled.

Since we now know Kerry went back (several times and possibly even illegally in some cases) and had his citations reworked, it's interesting one copy contains the following:

"While transiting the Bay Hap River en route to an insertion point along the Dong Cung River, these craft with thirty Regional/Popular Force personnel embarked in each unit" and Kerry is definitely highlighted as "The Officer in Tactical Command, Lieutenant (junior grade) KERRY."
...
Arriving at the area, Lieutenant (junior grade) KERRY's craft received a B-40 rocket close aboard. Once again Lieutenant (junior grade) KERRY ordered his units to charge the enemy positions and summoned Patrol Craft Fast 43 to the area to provide additional firepower. Patrol Craft Fast 94 then beached in the center of the enemy positions and an enemy soldier sprang up from his position not ten feet from Patrol Craft Fast 94 and fled. Without hesitation Lieutenant (junior grade) KERRY leaped ashore, pursued the man behind a hootch and killed him, capturing a B-40 rocket launcher with a round in the chamber. Lieutenant (junior grade) KERRY then led an assault party and conducted a sweep of the area while the Patrol Craft Fast continued to provide fire support. After the enemy had been completely routed, all personnel returned to the Patrol Craft Fast to withdraw from the area. While backing off the beach, these units again came under a hail of fire, this time from the opposite river bank. Lieutenant (junior grade) KERRY immediately coordinated the firepower of his units and supressed the enemy fire. Later, after disembarking personnel, and while exiting from the Bay Hap River, the Patrol Craft Fast were again under fire. Lieutenant (junior grade) KERRY immediately maneuvered his craft through several strafing runs which completely silenced the enemy. As a result of this operation, ten Viet Cong were killed and one wounded with no friendly casualties.


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