Posted on 02/21/2004 6:45:10 AM PST by thesummerwind
In a stark about-face, Democratic presidential front-runner John Kerry is now denying that he ever accused U.S. soldiers of committing war crimes in Vietnam, despite amply documented comments - some televised, others delivered while under oath - where he did exactly that.
Asked on Thursday whether he had accused his fellow soldiers of committing war crimes in Vietnam during his April 1971 testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Kerry told CNN's Judy Woodruff:
"No, I was accusing American leaders of abandoning the troops. And if you read what I said, it is very clearly an indictment of leadership. I said to the Senate, where is the leadership of our country? And it's the leaders who are responsible, not the soldiers. I never said that."
However, a transcript of Kerry's April 22, 1971 testimony contains accusations that his brother-soldiers committed all manner of atrocities; charges he based on interviews of returning Vietnam vets earlier that year at the Winter Soldier Investigation, an event Kerry organized with anti-American actress Jane Fonda.
Kerry told the Senate that Winter Soldier witnesses "testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia, not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command."
Speaking under oath, Kerry continued:
"They told stories at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires with 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."
A few days before his Senate testimony, Kerry gave the following account on NBC's "Meet the Press":
"There are all kinds of atrocities, and I would have to say that, 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 conducted harassment and interdiction fire. I used 50 calibre machine guns, which we were granted and ordered to use, which were our only weapon against people. I took part in search and destroy missions, in the burning of villages."
The future presidential candidate added:
"All of this is contrary to the laws of warfare, all of this is contrary to the Geneva Conventions and all of this is ordered as a matter of written established policy by the government of the United States from the top down."
Appearing on "The Dick Cavett Show" in July 1971, Kerry admitted that he'd never actually seen some of the atrocities he testified about, but still maintained that U.S. soldiers fighting in Vietnam routinely violated the Nuremberg Principles.
"I personally didn't see personal atrocities in the sense I saw somebody cut a head off or something like that," he told Cavett. "However, I did take part in free-fire zones, I did take part in harassment and interdiction fire, I did take part in search-and-destroy missions in which the houses of noncombatants were burned to the ground."
Kerry continued:
"And all of these acts, I find out later on, are contrary to the Hague and Geneva conventions and to the laws of warfare. So in that sense, anybody who took part in those, if you carry out the application of the Nuremberg Principles, is in fact guilty."
CNN's Woodruff declined to confront Kerry with his previous comments accusing his brother soldiers of committing war crimes in Vietnam.
In a stark about-longface .............
Liberals simply can't grasp the problem Lexis-Nexis poses to their incessant lying.
Its never time to get over-confident, but its time to inventory the ammo we have so that when the time is ripe, we let loose the dogs of war.
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I am tire of playing defense
That hatred of Kerry's is just THE WRONG THING for a President at this time in history.
This interview and it's lies (if factual) should sink Kerry in voters' eyes!!!!!!White House --- teach the people of the real John Kerry!
Check this out -- Open Letter to Senator John F.Kerry ........ http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1079110/posts
Kerry is merely a pretender and a coward. He must be exposed. Are you reading, White House?
He was a junior officer, so he was both a leader and a subordinate sailor. He's responsible.
Cake-and-eat-it-too Kerry!
Which facts in the article are you contesting?
Just don't put the ammo here ..........
Stored Bullets Explode in Wis. HOWARD, Wis. - A man and his wife ducked behind a refrigerator when bullets began exploding in their oven, authorities say. Capt. Craig Kohlbeck of the Brown County Sheriff's Department said the husband had put the ammunition and three handguns in the oven before the couple left on a vacation.
Yoi.
Kerry is but a scrawny FAKE. That foolish 'Mr.Tough Monotone' that he uses when he's trying to be a man is a laughable joke.
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