Swiftboating the New York Times

Powerline ^ | June 5 2006 | Scott Johnson

[Tirian]

That's "Swiftboating" -- as John Hinderaker defines it: "when a veteran says somehthing that liberals disagree with." Kate Zernike is John Kerry's latest mainstream media stenographer regarding his service in Vietnam. I wrote briefly about her New York Times article in "Return of the magic hat" and called on Tom Lipscomb to rise to the bait:

Preparing for another grab at the brass ring, John Kerry seeks to engage the claims of the Swift Boat veterans. In today's New York Times, the "magic hat" -- the hat that Kerry claims was tossed to him by the "special forces" (apparently Navy SEALS) he dropped off on his journey to Cambodia (formerly dated to Christmas Eve 1968, now to February 1969) -- magically reappears. The story by Kate Zernike is 'Kerry pressing Swift Boat case long after loss'."

The "magic hat" made its last appearance in Laura Blumenfeld's June 2003 Washington Post profile of Kerry. In Blumenfeld's piece, Kerry stated it was his "good luck hat" and that it had been given to him by "a CIA guy as we went in for a special mission to Cambodia." Does Kerry save it to impress the lady reporters? I'd like to see him pull it on Tom Lipscomb...

Today Lipscomb -- a real journalist who served as New York chairman of the Vietnam Veterans Leadership Program -- reports for duty with a fine column: "The truth, John Kerry and the New York Times." Here's the beauty part:

Zernike appears to have made no effort to look at any record besides listing Kerry's latest assertions with obligatory quotes from the usual Swiftie suspects to provide "balance." She doesn't appear to be aware of the hilarious inconsistency of the Kerry hat story she recites dutifully as if this was the very first time the hat had appeared in print. As the clips should have shown her, Kerry first pulled the famous hat out of a "secret compartment" for Washington Post reporter Laura Blumenfeld's feature story in 2003. "My good luck hat," Kerry told Blumenfeld, "given to me by a CIA guy." Now he tells Zernike a "special operations team" member gave it to him on a secret "mission that records say was to insert Navy Seals" in February.

Once again Zernike cites a Kerry claim as fact, this time directly conflicting with the Washington Post account on the record. But the facts on this are already on the record and no matter what Kerry "researchers" may come up with they should be addressed by any reporter attempting a review of the dispute. Admiral Roy Hoffman may have been head of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, but he was also in command of all the Swift Boat operations in Vietnam, directly under the commander of all sea operations in Vietnam, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt.

Any tasking for insertions of special operations troops across borders by sea, whether Seals, CIA, Army Special Forces or Vietnamese troops like CIDG had to come through his command. Hoffman stated he was never asked to handle missions for the CIA. "They had their own teams for that. And none of my Coastal Commands ever inserted any troops of this kind into Cambodia. We had some operations we ran north that I am not at liberty to discuss."

Orders for sensitive incursion operations like this don't appear by magic. And an individual boat commander, whether it is Kerry or anyone else, doesn't simply head across a border with a boatful of Seals on his own. Kerry's direct commander at An Thoi, George Elliott, has denied ever being asked to run such a mission out of his base and three of Kerry's PCF 44 crewmen have denied ever being in Cambodia with Kerry.

Tedd Peck, accompanied Kerry's PCF 44 on his PCF 57 from Cam Ranh down to their new assignment at An Thoi where they arrived on December 8, 1968. Peck served there with Kerry until he was wounded and med-evaced out on January 29, 1969. Douglas Brinkley states that "Kerry liked Peck." So what does Peck have to say about secret missions out of An Thoi to Cambodia? "There never was one. And I never saw a Navy Seal at An Thoi the whole time I served there with Kerry"

What does it take to wake up a good reporter that there are some issues here besides one junior lieutenant's latest assertions on the basis, once again, of totally undisclosed records? It isn't simply a matter of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth "lies." The facts recited by Kerry make no military sense, fly in direct opposition to authoritative testimony, and are yet to be backed by any records anyone has seen. And Kerry keeps changing his story.

The mission Kerry described to Laura Blumenfeld was the famous "Christmas in Cambodia" trip since disproved by Kerry's own log. Zernike ledes with "showing the entry in a log he kept from 1969: 'Feb 12: 0800 run to Cambodia'" and swallows it unquestioningly. The only authority that "Kerry log" has ever had is that it has been in the sole possession of John Kerry and carefully kept away from objective research that may or not have disclosed changes or heavy editing over time.

Everything that Tom Lipscomb writes about Zernike applies even more so to hacks such as Star Tribune deputy editorial page editor Jim "Boydot" Boyd, who castigated John and me as smear artists after the Star Tribune published an August 2004 op-ed column we wrote on Kerry's bogus journey to Cambodia. Over the weekend Boydot seems to have rejoined the fray with a typically fact-free and inaccurate Star Tribune editorial that would be an embarassment to a serious newspaper ("No candidate should have to endure what Kerry got"). Our own close encounter with Boydot in August 2004 gave rise to an extended series of posts providing a glimpse into the wacky world of the fellow we dubbed the cowardly lion of Portland Avenue...

[Henchster]

"And Kerry keeps changing his story."

"How can I? It's SEARED into my memory, it's right here in my log, I have this hat, and gosh darnit, people like me!" </Kerry-Smalley Complex>

[Al Gator]

exactamundo!

Almost all so-called "secret" missions by the military were logged somewhere. The military can't get away with not recording stuff, like the CIA.

Sooo, if a mission was authorized, somewhere is a record of it.

And since the military has been declassifying most of the stuff from that era, the mission should be easy to find.

Operation Phoenix was one of the SEAL's most closely guarded secrets of that time. All that is public knowledge now, all you have to do is ask.

So why would Kerry's so called drop of a team up a river be more secret than Phoenix?

End of the day, Kerry can BS those folks who want to believe him.

[Matchett-PI]

bttt

[Al Gator]

"Also Swift boats were terrible boats to do that job

HEHEHE,
Yea, let's "sneak" up the river with a clunky river boat that everyone can hear for miles.

And they did have a unique sound to them, so you knew it wasn't one of Uncle Ho's sampans.

[Steely Tom]

I think Kerry got the idea for this bogus story from Apocalypse Now. He reviewed the film for some publication and even used it as a comparision for this Magic Hat Episode.

So what you guys are saying is that Kerry's story is approximately as believable as Jeff Spicoli's story (in the '80's movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High) about how he hung out with Mick Jagger. Transparently, blatently obvious BS to anyone who knows dick about reality in Viet Nam.

Wow. I can see how Kerry gets you guys so pissed. I never really understood this before. If he ever gets to be President, it'll be President Spicoli. Bizarre. And the MSM is fully on board with it.

(steely)

[Al Gator]

Well, let's just look at one part of what ol Johnny Effin Kerry said.

President Nixon sent him up the river at christmas time '68. He could hear drunken RVN troops singing christmas carols.

Problem:

Dick Nixon didn't get sworn in till Jan. 20 of '69.
Nuther problem: Almost all RVN were Buddists. Don't think they gave a hoot in hell about christmas, let alone carols.

Those are just some of the smaller difficulties with the tale.

[Steely Tom]

LOL. I'd forgotten about that. VN forces singing Christmas carols.

Kerry must be an absolute whack-job. I mean, like, out there. How can the pooh-bahs of the MSM possibly believe he won't self-destruct again? They must be as whacked as he is.

Has the entire left gone out on a huge limb here? Or can they actually fool a majority of Americans into buying their alternate view of reality. I find that very hard to swallow, and I'm as cynical as anyone. Well, maybe not quite that cynical, but come on.

Kerry must think that the Swift Boat Vets "shot their wad" in 2004, and that they won't be able to muster the energy to do it again. I've met one or two VN vets personally (I'm proud to say) and I know that that's an absolute pipe-dream on his part. Oh, and you're right. They don't talk about what happened over there. At least not to me. And I don't ask, either.

(steely)

[Stashiu]

Invariably, stories like Kerry's get exposed for what they are. Wannabe's can never seem to keep their stories straight.

[oyez]

Kerry is a horrible lier. The should call him Me Cellophane, because you see right through him. Bill Clinton mus have really laughed down his sleeve at him, thinking, "What a piker.".

[cpdiii]

This is the same battle one more time. The Swifties sunk him in the last election. Kerry knows they will sink him again unless they can be discredited. As in the last election many of us donated to the Swifties, we will need to do it again if Kerry is the DEMONICrat candidate. The 300 dollars the Swifties received from me was the best election investment I ever made.

[Steely Tom]

Wannabe's can never seem to keep their stories straight.

That's what he is, isn't he? A wannabe. He was against the war in '68, but he enlisted anyway in order to position himself for a political career. Now that the worm has turned, and being in the military is "cool" again, he remembers what a big, bad, killin' machine he was back in the day. Reporting for duty, my left... never mind.

As bad as the MSM is making things look for Bush and for our efforts in Iraq, I wouldn't trade places with the Democrats for all the tea in China. Their first string is wholly populated by whackjob nitwits that are kept inflated by a continuous mojo transfusion from the MSM, and the whole lot of them are living in la-la land. Their second string is a bunch of crooks and fourth-raters like Barak Obama and William Jefferson, Democrat, Lousiana. Unbelievable.

(steely)

[Stashiu]

Correctamundo, Tom.

I know several heros. They don't talk about it to outsiders at all.

Kerry running on his war record was one of the most atrocious self-serving behaviors I have ever witnessed. You won't see him hanging out at a VFW.

He sells out his own brothers, time and time again, for selfish motives. Imagine what he would do to his country. (If you can't imagine, check out his trip to Paris).

[Signalman]

I've heard a number of liberal pundits claim that all of the Swiftie's "lies' about Kerry have been disproven.

Other than this general assertion, I have not seen any facts to disprove them.

[geezerwheezer]

Nobody was as good at telling lies than Bill Clinton! I even liked it when he would get a tear in his eyes as he told his pitiful stories....I DID NOT HAVE SEX WITH THAT WOMAN....and other assorted b.s. lies!