Vietnam POW: Hanoi Hilton Torturers Cited Kerry's Speech

Newsmax ^ | 2/19/04

[areafiftyone]

A former Vietnam POW is alleging that his Hanoi captors specifically cited Sen. John Kerry's 1971 anti-war testimony to Congress as they brutally tortured him to get him to turn on his fellow GIs.

One-time Navy pilot Paul Galanti was shot down over North Vietnam in 1966 and spent seven years in the infamous Hanoi Hilton.

He told the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday that he learned of Kerry's April 1971 testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee while being tortured by his Hanoi Hilton guards.

According to the Times, "during torture sessions, [Galanti] said, his captors cited the antiwar speeches as 'an example of why we should cross over to [their] side.'"

In his account to the Senate, Kerry accused U.S. soldiers of routinely committing rapes, beheadings, mutilations and all manner of atrocities against the Vietnamese people.

Galanti told the Times that Kerry's decision to publicly allege that U.S. soldiers were war criminals "jeopardize[d] those still in battle or in the hands of the enemy."

Because he did, Galanti said, "John Kerry was a traitor to the men he served with."

"The Viet Cong didn't think they had to win the war on the battlefield," the ex-POW said, "because thanks to these protesters they were going to win it on the streets of San Francisco and Washington."

Although Galanti's fellow POW, Sen. John McCain, has been silent in recent years about the damage Sen. Kerry caused as a leader of the radical group Vietnam Veterans Against the War, in 1973 McCain told U.S. News & World Report that throughout his imprisonment, his North Vietnamese captors were "bombarding us with anti-war quotes from people in high places back in Washington."

"This was the most effective propaganda they had to use against us," the Arizona Republican explained.

But Galanti is the first POW to say that his Hanoi Hilton guards expressly invoked Sen. Kerry's words during their brutal torture sessions.

In his comments to the Times, he accused said the Democratic presidential front-runner of having blood on his hands, contending, "The Vietnam memorial has thousands of additional names due to John Kerry and others like him."

In a follow-up interview with Fox News Channel's John Gibson, Galanti said he'll take his story directly to the American people if the press fails to expose the truth about candidate Kerry.

"Let me tell you one thing, it looks like John Kerry is going to get the nomination," he told Gibson. "If he does, I'm going to come out of the woodwork, and there's a whole bunch of us [who feel] the same way."

[Ron in Acreage]

Sounds like Kerry was aiding and abetting the enemy.

[Servant of the 9]

"The Vietnam memorial has thousands of additional names due to John Kerry and others like him."

What else is there to say?

So9

[PISANO]

This report will NEVER see the light of day in the major NEWS MEDIA or PRESS.

[Salvey]

Once Ketchup Boy's antics gain wider circulation as the campaign intensifies, I think it's gonna be a blowout: Bush in a landslide.

[GOPyouth]

Kerry served in Vietnam?

[backhoe]

Cross-link:

-John Kerry- some selected, informative links...--

[Travis McGee]

I have read that in General Giap's memoirs, he specifically cites the VVAW as being his greatest allies in his victory. He is supposed to have said that the north could not have won without their psychological warfare assistance in the USA. We should find the exact quotes, and hang them around Kerry's neck like a rotting albatross.

[Keith in Iowa]

>>Sounds like Kerry was aiding and abetting the enemy. We need to use the terms that most people are familiar with: Kerry's actions provided aid and comfort to the enemy.

[Steely Tom]

Which candidate's political world view more closely resembles Ho Chi Minh's: George Bush, or John Kerry?

(steely)

[Swede Girl]

"In a follow-up interview with Fox News Channel's John Gibson, Galanti said he'll take his story directly to the American people if the press fails to expose the truth about candidate Kerry."

BRAVO! Mr. Galanti knows that the press will not willingly expose the truth about Kerry. I hope that more of these brave and truly heroic men will step forward to talk about this. Kerry was not fit to wear the uniform, and is certainly not fit or deserving of the title of President of the United States.

[savedbygrace]

Yeah, I never considered the LA Times as major news media or press. ;-)

[kahoutek]

You won't get this in the mainstream media......

Kerry is media annointed.

[Former Proud Canadian]

EXCELLENT

[areafiftyone]

I hate to say this, but you are correct. Even if we e-mailed this to every newssite in the U.S. they would never pick it up because Kerry is their man!

[Steely Tom]

Sorry, I just can't get over this.

Imagine what it would have been like, to be tortured and interrogated for hours by these... members, and being told about important politicians back home who were making your assailant's case for him. What would it take not to give in, to tell them what they wanted?

What sort of lonliness and helplessness would that make you feel?

Awesome disgust. Awesome injustice that this man Kerry is anything but a stain on someone's shoe.

(steely)

[areafiftyone]

I know if makes me sooo angry inside. And to think that this man can get so far ahead in his political career. Makes you sick!

[The Mayor]

Bump!

[joesnuffy]

Kerry was aiding and abetting...but then how many presidents and senators and congressmen and others...made sure the POW MIAs were never found, or information about them ever brought before the American people our POW MIAs were never repatriated because the bosses had other fish to fry...

All they had to do was keep the whole issue on hold and hidden from Americans short attention spans ....and they would all just fade away...as did the POWs from WWII the Russians held as slaves...these were the men we sent to help them fight the Germans...then there were the Korean MIA POWs held in China sent to Russia...and our own Vietnam POW MIAs

As our own George Washington put it :

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional as to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation"