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washingtonpost.com Swift Boat Sniping WEN WE FIRST wrote about the ads slamming Democratic nominee John F. Kerry's service in Vietnam, we said that Mr. Kerry's emphasis on his Vietnam experience had made questions about his war record fair game. But we said that ads by the group calling itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth had crossed the line in smearing the service that earned Mr. Kerry three Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star and a Silver Star. Nothing we've seen in the two weeks since has changed that view. snip Mr. Kerry's conflicting statements about where and when he was in...

But now some anti-Kerry veterans are saying he was never in Cambodia. John O'Neill, who has been dogging Kerry more than 30 years, told Matt Drudge that the senator's Christmas-in-Cambodia stories "are complete lies." As evidence, he cites Kerry's own wartime diary, as quoted in Douglas Brinkley's Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War. That book—according to Drudge's account of it—places Kerry in Sa Dec, 50 miles away from Cambodia, on Christmas Eve, and seemingly at peace. "Visions of sugarplums really do dance through your head," Kerry wrote in his diary that night, "and you think of stockings...

How can we FReep Kerry's "Christmas in Cambodia" lies......without offending the tradition of Santa Claus? image from www.amazon.com I need your advice.A friend of mine whose political opinions I respect is concerned that our using the image of Santa Claus to attack John Kerry is a REALLY BAD idea.I, on the other had, think that this could be a GREAT idea.Here's the deal...Until now, we HAVE been FReeping John Kerry at his appearances all across the USA with the images of "flip flops" and "Flipper" the dolphin - to force the mainstream media to talk about the ease with which...

[Excerpt from full transcript. Russert is speaking with Tad Devine, Senior Adviser, Kerry-Edwards '04. -- ajf]http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5772535/ MR. RUSSERT: He didn't take office until January '69. Does Senator Kerry stand by that statement that on Christmas Eve of '68 he was physically in Cambodia? MR. DEVINE: Right. Well, his memory, Tim, is being there, around there. And I'll tell you what happened on December 25th... MR. RUSSERT: No--being there or around there? MR. DEVINE: No, being right at the Cambodian border, over the Cambodian border. That's what he remembers. That's his clear memory. Now, Tim... [end excerpt] So according to Devine,...

Nation & World By Michael Barone Winter in Cambodia? This month the Kerry Campaign abandoned one claim that John Kerry had made for years about his Vietnam War service and put another into question. The claim that has been dropped: that Kerry was in Cambodia at Christmastime in 1968. In a 1979 review of the movie Apocalypse Now in the Boston Herald, Kerry wrote, "I remember spending Christmas Eve of 1968 5 miles across the Cambodian border being shot at by our Vietnamese allies." In a 1986 speech on the Senate floor, Kerry said, "I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting...

[concluding paragraph] Character counts. On the Christmas story (which even the pro-Kerry New York Times admits Kerry has not "put to rest"), perhaps Kerry was just confused about dates, or perhaps he convinced himself that an untrue story was true, as people sometimes do, and had no intent to mislead. A more unsettling possibility is that he consciously leapt the bounds of truth to make his experience seem more spectacular or to score political points. Those are not the sort of things most people want in a president. Will Kerry's evidently untrue statements about Christmas in Cambodia raise doubts about...

Some people wondered how long the major media would be willing to ignore the Christmas-in-Cambodia story. Well, the answer is in: at least 10 or 11 days. I first noticed the story August 6 on Glenn Reynolds's Instapundit blog. Soon it was all over the Internet, the conservative press, talk radio, and some cable shows. But the networks, the New York Time s , the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and other major media didn't run the story. Some papers, like the Kansas City Star, got protests from readers on what appeared to be a news blackout. Finally, after...

Where was John Kerry December 24, 1968? Not in Cambodia.JOHN KERRY, fresh from a three-day vacation at his retreat in Ketchum, Idaho, addressed the annual convention of the International Association of Fire Fighters in Boston last week, and it was quite a speech--combative, fiery, personal. The firefighters' union was one of the first to endorse Kerry during the Democratic primaries last year, as the candidate barnstormed among the snowy drifts of New Hampshire and Iowa, and on Thursday Kerry spoke to them plainly but forcefully, as one would to old friends. "Over the last week or so," Kerry began, "a...

August 20, 2004 -- THERE'S now some real angst in Dem ocratic circles be cause of the growing evidence that Democrat John Kerry's claim to have a memory "seared in me" of spending Christmas 1968 in Cambodia was false — and just didn't happen. But what worries some pro-Kerry Democrats is the fear that Kerry has, as one put it, "an Al Gore problem" — that he's a serial exaggerator. (Remember how Gore claimed to have invented the Internet and inspired the novel "Love Story"?) Remember Kerry's claim that "I've met foreign leaders" who told him he had to beat...

Christmas In Cambo’ja The jungle’s green, fatigues are green The scariest picture you've ever seen Is Christmas in Cambo’ja In four months he’ll be back home It's nice, my friend, the truth to bend Political means justify the end His after-action false reports And “swift”-ly he’s right back home Our military’s honor Is hurt by stories tall And Liar John before he's gone Will slander our vets and all How grand it feels to click your heels And leave the war to the low-class heels These lies that he has told ‘ja The likes you've never known ’bout Christmas in...

TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS (CAMBODIAN VERSION)Twas the night before Christmas and we were afloat Somewhere in Cambodia in our little boat. While the river was lightened by rockets red glare No one but the President knew we were there. The crew was all nestled deep down in their bunks, While the Spook and I watched the sampans and junks. Our mission was secret, so secret in fact, No one else would remember it when we got back. When out on the water there arose such a clatter I leaped down from the bridge to see what was the matter....

On March 27, 1986, John Kerry took the floor of the U.S. Senate and delivered a dramatic oration indicting the foreign policy of the Reagan administration. As is his habit, Kerry drew on his Vietnam experience in explaining his opposition to the policy. "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 having the president of the United States telling the American people that I was not there." To emphasize the importance of this incident to his subsequent political development,...

"KERRY WENT into Cambodian waters three or four times in January and February 1969 on clandestine missions," historian Douglas Brinkley told the London Telegraph last week. "He had a run dropping off U.S. Navy Seals, Green Berets, and CIA guys. . . . He was a ferry master, a drop-off guy, but it was dangerous as hell. Kerry carries a hat he was given by one CIA operative. In a part of his journals which I didn't use he writes about discussions with CIA guys he was dropping off." John Kerry was obliged last week to recant a number of...

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For Immediate Release August 18, 2004 Kerry In Cambodia Debunked By Kerry Crewmate What's Next? Kerry Crew Member and Supporter Does Not "Recall" Senator In Cambodia Washington, DC - Swift Boat Veterans for Truth today, again, called on Democratic presidential candidate Senator John Kerry to set the record straight on whether he was, or was not, in Cambodia. In today's Boston Globe, an article by Michael Kranish further calls into question whether Kerry was ever in Cambodia. "Michael Medeiros, who served aboard the No. 94 with Kerry and appeared with him at the Democratic National Convention, vividly recalled an occasion...

Michael Medeiros, who served on Swift Boat No. 94 with Kerry and appeared with him at the Democratic National Convention, told the Globe that Kerry and his crew chased an enemy to the Cambodian border -- but stopped there. He could not recall dropping off special forces in Cambodia or going inside Cambodia with Kerry. James Wasser, who accompanied Kerry on the Christmas mission aboard Swift Boat No. 44, said that while he believes they were "very, very close" to Cambodia, they did not enter the country. A third crewmate, who opposes Kerry, flatly accuses him of lying about Cambodia....

LOMBARD -- James R. Wasser, second in command under Democrat Presidential candidate John Kerry on PCF-44 in Vietnam, will speak at the August 25 meeting of the Democrat Party of DuPage County at their campaign office at 1000 Rohlwing, Lombard. Wasser was one of the 13 men who fought with Kerry in Vietnam who were on the podium at the Democrat National Convention to help introduce the nominee before he gave his speech accepting the his Party's nomination for President. Among the 13 were the boatswain, gunnery mates, and petty officers who crewed the boat skippered by Kerry when he...

John Kerry's presidential campaign claimed on Tuesday that his Christmas 1968 mission into Cambodia was top, top secret - and that's why there are no documents that verify the implausible claim. "During John Kerry's service in Vietnam, many times he was on or near the Cambodian border and on one occasion crossed into Cambodia at the request of members of a special operations group operating out of Ha Tien," Kerry spokesman Michael Meehan said in a statement. But Meehan told the Boston Globe that there was no paperwork to confirm the claim and he could not supply a date...

Fresh off his 'Christmas in Cambodia' fairy tale, The Poodle has been caught in another whopper, this time regarding one of his Purple Hearts. This is separate from the questions surrounding his being awarded the Purple Heart in the first place. It looks like Kerry has contradicted himself in his own diary. In Douglas Brinkley's "Tour of Duty," which is Kerry's official, approved war biography, The Poodle writes an entry after a mission. In that entry he says that after several missions he has not yet taken any enemy fire. Ok .. big deal. Big whoop, right? Sorry .. but...