Posted on 03/22/2004 8:28:31 AM PST by Hon
KERRYS CAMPAIGN ASKED A VETERAN TO CHANGE STORY
KANSAS MEETING AT ISSUE
By THOMAS H. LIPSCOMB Special to the Sun
A Vietnam veteran who said he remembers John Kerry participating in a 1971 Kansas City meeting at which an assassination plot was discussed says an official with the Kerry presidential campaign called him this month and pressured him to change his story.
The veteran, John Musgrave, says he was called twice by the head of Veterans for Kerry, John Hurley, while a reporter for the Kansas City Star worked on a follow-up piece to a New York Sun article about the November 1971 meeting of Vietnam Veterans Against the War at which a plot to kill U.S. senators was voted down. Asked by The New York Sun if he felt pressured, Mr. Musgrave said, In the second call I did. Mr. Musgrave said Mr. Hurley said Mr. Kerry had told him he was definitely not in Kansas City.
According to Mr. Musgrave, Mr. Hurley said, Why dont you refresh your memory and call that reporter back?
A spokesman for Mr. Kerrys presidential campaign, David Wade, last week issued a statement to the Sun, following a week of denials, that said we accept Mr. Kerrys presence in Kansas City as a historical footnote.
By then, the recollections of six witnesses, along with minutes and FBI records, placed Mr. Kerry at the Kansas City meeting.
But the news of the calls from the campaign to Mr. Musgrave may move the episode from what the campaign is describing as a historical footnote to a matter that involves the contemporary behavior of Mr. Kerry and his campaign.
Mr. Musgrave said he received three Purple Hearts in Vietnam. After the third Purple Heart for wounds by three 7.62 rounds, one to the jaw and two to the left chest, Mr. Musgrave refused the standard release from further service in the combat zone offered Marines with three Purple Hearts and tried to return to his unit, he said.
But because of the extent of his injuries he was retired from the Marines with full disability and sent home, he said.
Mr. Musgrave said, I told Hurley it was my first meeting as a state officer of the VVAW, and I remember John being there. I remember what I remember.
When asked whom he is supporting in the presidential election, Mr. Musgrave replied, I am undecided. But I am sure not voting for some guy who called me a liar.
Mr. Hurley did not return calls for comment for this article.
Another related episode in which the Kerry campaign had to handle questions about Vietnam Veterans Against the War involves a statement by Mr. Kerry himself.
At a Capitol Hill press conference on March 11, 2004, Mr. Kerry was asked by a reporter if he thought his credibility had been affected by his close association with Al Hubbard, a key VVAW colleague of Mr. Kerrys who had appointed him to the leadership of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
Mr. Hubbard claimed to be a wounded Air Force officer who had served at Danang during the Vietnam War. He appeared with Mr. Kerry many times, including the Meet the Press interview after Mr.Kerrys Senate testimony about American war crimes in Vietnam.
But Mr. Hubbard was never in Vietnam, was never wounded, and was not an officer, as subsequent research and Mr. Kerry himself have pointed out.
Mr. Kerry answered this month that he had not spoken to Mr.Hubbard since the week of April 19, 1971.
Yet the Kerry campaign now apparently accepts that Mr. Kerry was at the November 12 to 15, 1971,VVAW meeting. Mr. Musgrave said he remembers that at that meeting, Mr. Kerry challenged Mr. Hubbards continuing to maintain his false claims to being an Air Force officer wounded at Danang.
Hubbard sort of sat there with his eyes downcast and Mike Oliver really did all the arguing for him, Mr. Musgrave said. And suddenly Hubbard got up and said he was having an ulcer attack and had to get to New York immediately to see his doctor and ran out of the room.You would think we didnt have any doctors or hospitals in Kansas City.
In addition, the New York Times reported on an August 29, 1971, fundraising party for the Vietnam Veterans Against the War at which Mr. Kerry and Al Hubbard, another veteran, explained some of the aims of the organization.
It's mid November nineteen seventy one
A major confrontation, friends, was said to have begun
Some vets had done some planning...they were getting really sore
They would move to the next level in attempts to stop the war
The FBI had been watchin' 'em in action
They're gettin' real scary...what's the next thing they would do?
In Kansas City would the plot gain traction
Would senators see pearly gates before the year was through?
A young John F. Kerry had been telling great big lies
U.S. troops pulled off mass murder, that should come as no surprise
They're killing for pleasure and were zapping testicles
Before the U.S. Congress he was spreading all that bull
The FBI had been watchin' 'em in action
They're gettin' real scary...what's the next thing they would do?
In Kansas City would the plot gain traction
Would senators see pearly gates before the year was through?
Back in Vietnam there were some men held by the Cong
They were undergoing torture...that side thought it wasn't wrong
They used John's words...and for the men it's really rough
John F. Kerry, you're a traitor...we have really had enough
The FBI had been watchin' 'em in action
They're gettin' real scary...what's the next thing they would do?
In Kansas City would the plot gain traction
Would senators see pearly gates before the year was through?
Scott Camil had been screamin' "It's time we were votin'!
Are you with or against us...we must know where you all stand"
John told them no and gave his resignation
'Cause after all, you know, that a career had been well-planned
He's hidden the record and hoped we would not find out
But Tom Lipscomb found the story...we know what John's all about
A lesson Kerry learned is now becoming evident
If you are whacking senators, you can't be president
The FBI had been watchin' 'em in action
They're gettin' real scary...what's the next thing they would do?
In Kansas City would the plot gain traction
Would senators see pearly gates before the year was through?
Scott Camil had been screamin' "It's time we were votin'!
Are you with or against us...we must know where you all stand"
John told them no and gave his resignation
'Cause after all, you know, that a career had been well-planned
Senator Kerry, why won't you release your military records? Bush did.
The irrational hatred of Bush that the democratic party and their propaganda organ, the media, have instilled in liberals will override anything Kerry does with those voters. He could spit-roast infants at a fundraising picnic, serve them up with potato salad, and they wouldn't bat an eye. All they care about is defeating the President's re-election.
I can only make a brief but pained comment.
The motto of Kerry's "Band of Brothers".
Not unless he was an FBI informant/mole. If he was and is forced to admit that, he will suffer just as much as he would if it turned out that he didn't report it. The only difference is that he will be hurt with his own voter base rather than with swing voters.
Dunno about you, Balata, but I'm really looking forward to post-convention time. :-)
Snarf, snarf, snarf! :-)
Which government?
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