Cambodia

[busybody..]

There are but two pillars "supporting" Kerry

* I am not Bush

* As a war hero, I can do a better job at war then Bush. (The premise is debateable).

It has now become obvious that the many "stories" over the years that Kerry told, over and over, were outright fabrications. By not releasing his entire military records, he invites even more questions.

He is now down to #1, it wont be enough.

BTW, Did you notice, he no longer answers questions from reporters, or even gets close to em? This will turn the press AGAINST him. He is cooked!

 

[A_Jacks]

Which, btw, means he's ACTUALLY invented more than Algore...

 

[busybody..]

It's not going away Throb...

It's going to get bigger this week.

Once the British Tabloids get going, the US Press will play me-to because of their flagging circulations.

You better come up with an explanation for Kerry's lie that has been repeated 50 times on Record.

Nixon was no more President than Clinton saw burning churches as a kid.

He's a flake.

He is AlGore without the charisma.

 

[busybody..]

Which, btw, means he's ACTUALLY invented more than Algore...

Thief!

 

[A_Jacks]

Bubbling to the surface...

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04228/361477.stm

 

[busybody..]

There is one sure fire way to know that the LIES are getting traction.........

The Kerry supporters now say, "What difference does it make where he was?"

The damage control brigade out full blast.

The public, who didnt like Kerry in the first place, will hate him now.

 

[A_Jacks]

He’s trying to be Clinton, who was trying to be JFK, but the Blue-Blood John Forbes Kerry completely lacks charisma!

Left and Lefter
LURCHing to the Center

 

[A_Jacks]

I thought you said you trimmed your sigline...

 

[busybody..]

KrashinKerry is goin down faster then a $10 hooker.

I see Robbie is down to counting how many "right wingers" are on this thread......some defense.

 

[busybody..]

I thought you said you trimmed your sigline...

Show me Oh Master how to make it better

 

[A_Jacks]

I know exactly what you mean...

 

[busybody..]

Seems the only defense of Kerry is:

"You are a right winger"

So what?

That doesnt refute the charges, does it? NOPE!

 

[A_Jacks]

No, that's just the denial.

The defense comes when they smear the reputations and ruin the lives of any veteran not drinking Kerry's Koolaid. Since he wants to be Clinton/Kennedy, he will use the same tactic Clinton used on any woman dumb enough to get groped and tell...

 

[overthebow]

TWO JOHNS ON THE MEKONG....Here's an interesting little factoid. Reader Michael M. sends along the following audio clip from a Daily Show interview in January between Jon Stewart and former Bush EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman:

Jon Stewart: Do you know [John Kerry]? Have you met him at all?

Christine Whitman: Oh yeah, oh yeah....

Stewart: Nice fellow?

Whitman: Actually, my husband went through school with him, college, and served in Vietnam with him.

Stewart: You're kidding me.

Whitman: No, no, they spent Christmas on a Swift boat going up the river.

I'm not sure this would really tell us anything new, but it would be sort of interesting to hear what John Whitman has to say about Kerry's service in Vietnam.

 

[A_Jacks]

John Forbes Kerry says he was on base writing letters.

It's in his book!

It would be MORE interesting if John Forbes Kerry released ALL his medical records and simply answered ALL the questions about Viet Nam and put this whole issue behind him and make the Neo-conns look bad.

Instead he sent out J_CARVILLE and Lanny Davis...

 

[busybody..]

Kerry’s Brief Brotherhood


In the last few days, there's been a new accusation floating around the Internet about John Kerry's Vietnam record. It involves speculation that David Alston, one of the "band of brothers" who served on board Kerry's Swift Boat, did not actually serve with Kerry at all. If such a story were true, it would be sensational news, given that Alston has made extensive public statements, including a speech at the Democratic National Convention, about his time with Kerry. The only problem is, it's not true. Alston did indeed serve under Kerry.


But the attention the rumor brought to Alston and his service aboard Kerry's boat, PCF-94, has cast new light on the time the men were together. And it appears that while Alston was in fact on board PCF-94 when Kerry was in command, his total time of service under Kerry was quite brief — perhaps as little as seven days. According to records of Kerry's service posted on his campaign's website, it appears the two men were in actual combat together on two of those days.


Alston, a gunner's mate, was wounded in battle on January 29, 1969, while serving on PCF-94. The skipper of the boat at the time, Lt. Tedd Peck, was seriously wounded in the same incident. In Peck's absence, Kerry was chosen to take over command of PCF-94. Alston was also replaced, temporarily; his job was taken over by an Arkansas native named Fred Short. According to Short, who supports the Kerry candidacy and appeared alongside Alston with Kerry at last month's convention, Alston was gone during the month of February and did not return to the boat until March.


Short remembers going on his first patrol on PCF-94 on February 18, 1969 — he recalls the date clearly because it was his birthday. Short remembers taking part in his last operation on PCF-94 around March 4. He believes Alston returned a few days later.

Alston himself, while not questioning Short's recollection, remembers being away for a shorter period of time. Alston says he was not as seriously wounded as some have assumed — the scar tissue that is visible on his head, he says, is the result of a scalp condition and not the result of a grievous war wound. Rather, Alston says, he suffered a relatively minor wound to the head along with a more serious injury, which he described as a "clean bullet wound" in the arm. "I was not hospitalized," Alston says. "I was treated on a Coast Guard Cutter...I was only off the boat [PCF-94] two weeks, and that's when Fred Short took my place." Alston says he doesn't have an exact memory of when he returned to the boat — "You're talking about 30 or so years ago," he says.

Alston spoke only briefly with National Review Online, saying all interviews must be approved by the Kerry campaign. Asked about Alston's length of service, John Hurley, the campaign's national director of veterans' issues, said, "My understanding is that he [Alston] was gone for a month.... Fred [Short] was on the boat for about a month." Hurley said he has not checked the specific dates of Alston's time on PCF-94, but, like Alston, Hurley cautioned, "It's 35 years later, and memories are different."

Whatever the exact dates, Hurley confirmed that Alston was not on board PCF-94 on February 28, 1969, the day Kerry earned a Silver Star for an engagement in which he beached his Swift Boat and chased down and killed a Viet Cong guerilla armed with a rocket launcher. That suggests that Alston, who was wounded on January 29, was indeed away for at least a month. Short was manning the guns on February 28 and received the Navy Commendation Medal for his work. According to Hurley, Alston was on board PCF-94 during the now-famous March 13, 1969 engagement in which Kerry pulled Army Green Beret Jim Rassman from the water after one of the boats in Kerry's group struck a mine. Kerry won a Bronze Star for that action, as well as a third Purple Heart.

After that engagement, Kerry made use of a regulation that allowed three-time Purple Heart recipients to leave Vietnam. It is not clear if Kerry engaged in any more patrols after the Rassman rescue incident, but a timeline of Kerry's after-action reports on his campaign website shows no missions after March 13. (The timeline also shows that PCF-94 came under Viet Cong fire the day before, March 12, which was the other time Alston and Kerry appear to have been in combat together.)

In light of the timeline and interviews with the participants, it seems likely that Alston's time with Kerry was at most two weeks, and, if Short's recollection is correct, as little as one week. Given that, it is possible that some of Alston's public statements might have left audiences with the impression that he and Kerry were together for a longer period of time. "I know him from a small boat in Vietnam where we fought and bled together serving our country," Alston said at the Democratic convention. "We usually patrolled the narrow waterways of the Mekong Delta, flanked on both sides by thick jungle."

After combat engagements, Alston said, "Lieutenant Kerry always took the time to calm us down, to bring us back to reality, to give us hope, to show us what we truly had within ourselves. I came to love and respect him as a man I could trust with life itself."

In addition, Alston has on at least one occasion seemed to give the impression that he was present for Kerry's Silver Star-winning actions on February 28. "I know when John Kerry told [crew member Del Sandusky] to beach that damn boat, this was a brand-new ball game," Alston told ABC's Nightline on June 22. "We wasn't running. We took it to Charlie." For his part, Kerry has sometimes left the impression that he was present when Alston was wounded. Paying tribute to Alston's service during a speech before a South Carolina veterans' group in May 2002, Kerry said, according to an account in The New Republic, "He [Alston] sat up in a turret above my head in the pilot house — firing twin fifty-calibers to suppress enemy fire from ambushes. We were extremely exposed — always shot at first.... On one occasion in an ambush his turret was riddled with almost one hundred bullets penetrating the aluminum skin. This gunman kept firing even though he was wounded — one bullet going through his helmet, grazing his head and another hitting his arm...."
That description sounds precisely like the incident on January 29, 1969 in which Alston was wounded.


But Lt. Peck, and not Kerry, was in command of PCF-94 that day. According to a report in the Boston Globe, the Kerry campaign website has in the past listed Kerry as being the skipper of PCF-94 at the time of Alston's wounding. When Kerry's military records were first posted on the site, according to the Globe, "the campaign summarize[d] action that took place on Jan. 29, 1969, this way: 'While Kerry's boat and another (PCF-72) were probing a canal along the river, Kerry's boat came under heavy fire and was hit by a B-40 rocket in the cabin area. One member of Kerry's crew Forward Gunner David Alston suffered shrapnel wounds in his head....'"



The campaign website also listed two other incidents that took place prior to January 29 as having occurred under Kerry's leadership. Peck, who would later sign a letter to Kerry written by the anti-Kerry group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, protested. "Those are definitely mine," he told the Globe. "There is no doubt about it." The campaign later removed the January 29 reference from the website.

 

[busybody..]

Holiday in Cambodia
The most damning testimony on John Kerry in Vietnam has come from John Kerry.

BY ROBERT L. POLLOCK
Monday, August 16, 2004 12:01 a.m. EDT

John Kerry volunteered for service in Vietnam. John Kerry was wounded in Vietnam. And a number of the men with whom John Kerry served testify to acts of courage on his part.

This much seems beyond question, and I see no reason to weigh in on the factual disputes surrounding Mr. Kerry's medals being waged by pro-Kerry vets like Jim Rassmann and the anti-Kerry vets of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Both sides strike me as sincere, but eyewitness accounts of fast-moving and stressful situations like combat are too unreliable for there to be much hope of getting at the "truth" here.

But Americans have never accepted that a record of service, however honorable, should forever entitle a man to deference on matters of war and peace. (Ask George McGovern.) And the political uses to which Mr. Kerry would later put his Vietnam experience are certainly fair game for criticism. Which brings up Mr. Kerry's claim--repeated in at least three different decades, and on the floor of the Senate--that he spent Christmas Eve of 1968 not in Vietnam but in Cambodia. He obviously considered it a point of some significance, since he used it to impugn the integrity of those who waged the Vietnam War.

This is how he described it to the Boston Herald in 1979: "I remember spending Christmas Eve of 1968 five miles across the Cambodian border being shot at by our South Vietnamese allies. . . . The absurdity of almost being killed by our own allies in a country in which President Nixon claimed there were no American troops was very real."

In 1986 Mr. Kerry argued on the Senate floor against U.S. support for the Nicaraguan contras, again citing the 1968 Christmas in Cambodia and "the president of the United States telling the American people I was not there; the troops were not in Cambodia. I have that memory which is seared--seared--in me." In a 1992 interview with the Associated Press the story came back: "By Christmas 1968, part of Kerry's patrol extended across the border of South Vietnam into Cambodia."

Trouble is, the person who appears to have been wrong here about Mr. Kerry's location was not the president--who was Lyndon Johnson, not Nixon, by the way--but Mr. Kerry himself. His commanding officers all testify to this fact, as do men who were on his boat at the time. And so now, reluctantly, does the Kerry campaign.





Last Wednesday Kerry spokesman Michael Meehan sent me a statement saying that "During John Kerry's service in Vietnam, many times he was on or near the Cambodian border and on one occasion crossed into Cambodia. . . . On December 24, 1968 Lieutenant John Kerry and his crew were on patrol in the watery borders between Vietnam and Cambodia deep in enemy territory." I asked for clarification as to whether the "one occasion" was Christmas Eve 1968. "No," was the reply.
"Watery borders" is something of an evasion, intended to imply that Mr. Kerry's "seared" memory might have been easily confused. But according to both the maps and the testimony of swift vets, the Mekong doesn't run along the Cambodian border but bisects it, such that the coincidence between the two is obvious. In any case, Mr. Kerry's own journal, as cited in Douglas Brinkley's biography, records him being 50-some miles from the border at Sa Dec on that day contemplating visions of "sugar plums."

Does this matter? Well, if President Bush was found to be using tall tales from his National Guard days to justify his policies in the war on terror it would certainly attract some attention. So the would-be commander in chief can hardly complain of being subject to scrutiny, especially since he's joined in criticism of Mr. Bush's war record and made his own a campaign centerpiece. Never mind the anti-Kerry swiftees. So far the veteran whose testimony is doing John Kerry the most damage is . . . John Kerry.

 

[Lancecastor]

Neoconbot.

 

[Bandit1]

For all those who are getting stressed out over this...

 

[A_Jacks]

The question linger and swirl as Kerry fights the rip-tides of universal judgement.

I guess the fawker won't be answering the question soon.

He went on vacation, again...

What's his excuse for his poor attendance at the intelligence meetings? A lot like his Cambodia experiences, he was attending secret meetings. Well, that lie is about to be exposed to. Pat Roberts hinted as much this weekend in asking Kerry and Edwards permission to release their attendance records.

Why are his medical records secret too?

Rice-a-Roni?

 

[busybody..]

He has a SECRET plan for Iraq

His medical records are SECRET

His tax returns are SECRET

His military records are SECRET

His attendance record at the Senate is SECRET

Oh, did you know his website said he was Vice Chair of the Senate Intel Commitee?

Even his own campaign doesnt know the difference between JON and Bob Kerry.

Their identities are SECRET

 

[A_Jacks]

They are now trying to advance the idea that Kerry ran four classified secret missions into Cambodia running in special ops and CIA...

Of course, he has to "declassify" the information to diseminate it...

It is a SECRET, ya know!

 

[A_Jacks]

Monday, Aug. 16, 2004

Democrat Attacks Help Swift Boat Veterans for Truth Raise Money
Thanks to favorable reception of their TV ad, and especially the publicity caused by the Kerry forces' attempts at censorship, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has raised a whopping $400,000 from about 8,000 contributors nationwide.

According to the Knight Ridder News Service, one of the few major news organizations that has been willing to investigate the veterans' charges, the money will be used to monitor Kerry's campaign travels and run ads in cities where he appears.

"That's our goal," said John E. O'Neill, a Houston attorney who is one of the group's leaders and co-author of "Unfit for Command," a 251-page book being distributed by Regnery Publishing.

Rather than address the substance of the organization's charges, which are backed by 254 Swift Boat vets, many of whom served alongside Kerry in Vietnam, Kerry's campaign falls back on the hackneyed claim of a "vast right-wing conspiracy."

Swift Boat Veterans for Truth is registered with the Federal Election Commission as a so-called 527 organization and is not affiliated with any party, Knght Ridder explained. It got off the ground with a $100,000 donation from Texas homebuilder Bob J. Perry, who happens to be a prominent Republican donor as well as a friend of O'Neill.

Retired admiral Roy F. Hoffman, chairman of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, told Knight Ridder that the first TV ad, which ran for one week in Ohio, Wisconsin and West Virginia at a cost of $550,000, got so much national news attention that it generated the additional $400,000.

"We are putting together the second ad," said Hoffman, 78, of Richmond, Va.

As a Navy captain in 1968 and 1969, Hoffman commanded a unit of 1,650 sailors that included Kerry as a lieutenant. He is among the entire chain of command questioning Kerry's claims about his Vietnam service. He said the unit, known as Task Force 115, included about 16 Swift Boats and their crews, which patrolled the Mekong Delta looking for Viet Cong and other enemy fighters.

"I knew Kerry pretty well," he added. "I did not ride his boat, but we operated very close together. ... I can't say I was a personal friend or buddy-buddy, but I sure knew him ... and I never felt he had the qualifications."

Media's Leftist Bias Backfires

Hoffman hasn't been politically involved since leaving the Navy in 1978, he said. Swift Boat Veterans for Truth accepted cash donations from Republicans after the major media ignored a news conference announcing the formation of the group in May, he said.

 

[A_Jacks]

From Neals Nuze today:

WHY NO INVESTIGATION?

Those who have read the entire book "Unfit for Command" say that it the charges that John Kerry trumped up his war record are rather meticulously documented.

Let's take that rescue of Jim Rassman, for instance. Kerry's story is that a mine blew up very close to his boat. Rassman was thrown in the water. There was withering fire from both banks of the river. As the boats in Kerry's group fled down the river Kerry noticed Rassman in the river. He turned around and went back to rescue him. That's Kerry's story. Now for the events as seen by the men who were in the other boats in Kerry's group. The men quoted in the book say that the mine explosion disabled another boat (not Kerry's) in the group. All of the boats except one converged on the disabled boat to rescue the crew. The remaining boat, Kerry's, fled down the river. There was no fire from either bank of the river. When Kerry realized that nobody was shooting he turned his boat around, came back, and pulled Rassman out of the water.

OK .. you have two significantly different scenarios here. Both can't be true. If Kerry's war record is legitimate then he is due all of the accolades he has received. If not .... well, let's just say that in wartime this country doesn't need a president who campaigned on a trumped-up war record, and nothing else.

So .. how about an investigation? The media was quick to demand an investigation into Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard. Where are the demands for investigations into Kerry's war record? The winner of this election is going to command our armed forces as we fight Islamic terrorism over the next four years. Don't we want to know if John Kerry is at least being honest about the wars he's already fought?

No investigation? OK .. how about some interviews? How many of these Swift Boat Veterans for Truth have you seen on the morning shows?

May I be so bold as to suggest that one possible reason for the media's silence on this issue is that they suspect that the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth might actually be telling the truth? Call for an investigation? Are you kidding? Why promote a story that would defeat your candidate?

 

[busybody..]

They are now trying to advance the idea that Kerry ran four classified secret missions into Cambodia running in special ops and CIA...

Of course, he has to "declassify" the information to diseminate it...

It is a SECRET, ya know!

His "plan" for Iraq is SECRET

His tax returns are SECRET

His medical records are SECRET

His military records are SECRET