Kerry's Campaign Asked A [Disabled] Veteran To Change Story - KC Meeting At Issue

New York Sun | March 22, 2004 | Thomas H. Lipscomb

[Hon]

KERRY’S 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 don’t you refresh your memory and call that reporter back?”

    A spokesman for Mr. Kerry’s presidential campaign, David Wade, last week issued a statement to the Sun, following a week of denials, that said “we accept” Mr. Kerry’s 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. Kerry’s 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.Kerry’s 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. Hubbard’s 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 didn’t 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.”

[rwfromkansas]

Very interesting that somebody tried to get him to change his story.

[rwfromkansas]

Has this hit Rush at all yet?

[rwfromkansas]

Wow.

[rwfromkansas]

Note that the FBI document says he quit because of personal reasons....no mention of the assassination plot.

[rwfromkansas]

bump to self for a question to ask Nicosia....

[rwfromkansas]

I know. Honestly, there are some stories that surpass bias....this I thought would be one of them. The story is incredible and even if I was a Democrat reporter, I would hunt this one down like crazy because it screams "career advancement" if you can really nail it down good. Well, I guess I was wrong that this would surpass liberal bias and go mainstream.

[fuzzthatwuz]

"A spokesman for Mr. Kerry’s presidential campaign, David Wade, last week issued a statement to the Sun, following a week of denials, that said “we accept” Mr. Kerry’s presence in Kansas City as a “historical footnote.”

The only historical footnote that I observe is the admission to the lie after repeated denial. For Kerry and his crew that IS historical. Yet is Wade's statement, "we accept Mr. Kerry's presense in Kansas City" a clear admission? No, just continued deniability from the Dems. This story has a good chance to get legs.

[OldFriend]

We KNOW his relative is profiting from Viet Nam business.

Have no doubt Kerry get's a finder's fee but I was wondering if he collects disability payments from the military.

[Katya]

"Not unless he was an FBI informant/mole"

That would be too delicious for words...

But if he did quit at the meeting, it means he quit because the threats were serious....serious enough he should have reported them to someone.
Which is why they reported he had resigned formally before this meeting.

[Jim_Curtis]

If anyone gets a chance to publicly ask Kerry a question it should be this:

"Does the revelation that you were the leader of an organization that considered assassinating senators require you to release your FBI files if you want to be seriously considered for the presidency of the United States?"

[Mr. K]

This guy is lucky Kerry isn't Klintoon... or an arkancide would have followed

by the way - WHAT WERE J EFFIN' KERRY'S 'WAR WOUNDS' - 3 PURPLE HEARTS IN 3 MONTHS AND NEVER MISSES A DAY OF DUTY?

[Bonaparte]

It's not the first lie he's been caught at and it won't be the last.

[maica]

    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.

*****


I am waiting to hear how someone who was the spokesman for VVAW can stay in the Naval Reserve until 1978. That sounds like stupidity in the military vetting process to me.

[XHogPilot]

There is so much obfuscation on "the Kansas City meeting". For me it comes down to this: If Kerry was there, he participated in a conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to treason.
Granted, a meeting where a lone individual raises the prospect of an illegal act might be dismissed. But the KC meeting was intentionally set up to provide full consideration of heinous criminal acts. That the murders never took place because of a "democratic vote" is meaningless. A "democratic vote" in that respect is simply the rule of a treasonous mob. If John Kerry attended such a meeting, he has far more to answer than how he voted. < /rant>

(Any district attorneys out there, I'd appreciate clarification on conspiracy.)

[mtbopfuyn]

To be entirely truthful, one of those boo-boos could be classified as an owie and required a Snoopy bandaid and a kiss before it felt better

I haven't heard exactly what his wounds were. Would you explain, please?

[jojodamofo]

The Democratic candidate wants to continue and intensify liberalism’s war against today’s America. He will attempt to fight America until it bends to his will or is forced to its knees.

He will stop at nothing. He will lie and slander, and continually attempt to incite the whole world against America. Every means his liberal brain can think of will be used. The Democrats know that a Republican victory in its November will mean the end for liberalism.

[jrlc]

Great post, Hon. Looks like the Kerry COVER-UP is well underway. As with past cover-ups, the lies Kerry's aides are telling now bring the entire controversy into the present. LETS DEMAND THAT THE FBI RELEASE THE KERRY INTELLIGENCE FILES. We need to see what's there.

[onedoug]

By this time Kerry had admittedly committed war crimes and likely murder. Here, he was extending that expertise to the other side.

[cavtrooper21]

I don't think that the Kerry crony realizes what kind of damage he may have done.
Gunny Musgrave's word carries wieght in the vet community.

Calling him a liar wasn't the best move.
I may not agree with some of John's politics, but his word is worth gold.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I'd appreciate clarification on conspiracy

If he took part in a meeting where a plan to murder Senators was discussed...he is guilty of conspiracy to commit murder. Period.