FBI Shadowed Kerry During Activist Era

Los Angeles Times ^ | March 22, 2004 | John M. Gilonna

[jrlc]

Breaking now on the Internet. John Gilonna, staff writer of the Los Angeles Times, confirms that FBI File on John Kerry contain confirmation that he did not resign from the Vietnam Veterans Against the War until after the November 1971 VVAW Meeting in Kansas City where the Assassination Plot to kill US Senators who opposed the Vietnam War was discussed. This admission of the Kerry Campaign confirms news reports first broke by Tom Lipscomb in the NY Sun, who has reported over the past week that John Kerry attended the Kansas City meetings, despite the initial denials of the Kerry Campaign. Extensive FBI files on Kerry's VVAW activities exist and should be made public, in the same spirit that the DNC Chairman (and Tim Russett of NBC News) requested President Bush to release files regarding his service in the National Guard.

[Mo1]

Those, who didn't live through that era, or were children, have absolutely NO idea how bad it was.

True .. but I'm learning from the stories that have been told here on FR

[ottothedog]

"I'm surprised by [the] extent of it," he said in an interview. "I'm offended by the intrusiveness of it. And I'm disturbed that it was all conducted absent of some showing of any legitimate probable cause. It's an offense to the Constitution. It's out of order."

The question that needs to be asked of Kerry (and won't by the mainstream media -- we need another Republican at one of those townhalls) is whether that means he does not want the FBI, today, to trail organizations that are planning terror killings of politicians. Given all the furor of pre 9/11 intelligence I can't imagine what his answer would. Well, I guess it would be "I would vote for that before I vote against it."

[Bernard Marx]

And exactly where did the LA Times get these 'intelligence documents?'

The story is one of the most astonishingly biased pieces of political propaganda I've ever read. They say they were given copies (50 pages if I recall right) of FBI files secured by San Francisco area author Gerald Nicosia. Here's a pull quote:

"When Nicosia began researching his book 'Home to War,' a history of the Vietnam veterans movement, he sent a Freedom of Information Act request in 1988 to the FBI seeking its VVAW surveillance files.' He says that 11 years later, in 1999, he received 14 boxes of largely redacted files.

He called the Times, claiming he hadn't read the files before allowing the Times to see them. Kerry aides also arrived to pick up the same 50 pages.

It was amazing to me that in the nearly 5 full columns devoted to the story (jumped from page one) it never once mentions why the date of Kerry's resignation is important. The article is pure partisan propaganda to immunize Kerry from this scandal.

[nopardons]

Anything you want to know about it, just ask me. I was in one of THE places to actually see,hear, smell( not that I wanted to ),and fight with thed traitors, up close and personal.It was a scary time and far worse than the Clinton years.

[Mo1]

It was a scary time and far worse than the Clinton years.

I was 6/7 yrs old at the time and I don't have alot of memories of the news at that time .. what I learned in school is nothing like the stories I've heard from the people that were actually there.

[nopardons]

Not only was I an adult in '65,but I lived in Greenwich Village.

The summer of '66 saw the beginnings of the lefties takeover of Central Park,driving out families, children,and young couples.It was the last peaceful summer in that park.Washington Square was also taken over at that time.Open air sex, dope taking, haranguing, filthy,foul mouthed poddy talkers, led by people well over THIRTY ( older than I was!) telling kids " DON'T TRUST ANYONE OVER THIRTY ", was everywhere.

I was there...I didn't need to read a newspaper,though I read several, nor watch the news, though I did that too, to know what was going on. I remember when the RED DIAPER BABY led SDS took over Columbia, when the RICH WEATHERMEN RED DIAPER BABIES blew up a beautiful brownstone,whilst trying to make bombs.

There WERE riots. There WERE people trying to kill innocents and they did, right here, in the USA and the murdering thugs were home grown AMERICANS funded by the KGB!

[jwalsh07]

I am not sure failure to report, if one is not part of the conspiracy, is a crime.

Well, I don't know if he can be convicted but Bo Dietl, a NY cop for twenty years, is certainly of a mind that he would arrest Kerry for conspiracy.

Now, I know Dietl plays the fool but he's a sharp tack and a tough sob.

He's also reputedly a friend of Kerry's.

[Torie]

he would arrest Kerry for conspiracy. Cops don't equal DA's, much less lawyers or judges or statutes. And that is how it should be.

[Torie]

he would arrest Kerry for conspiracy.

Cops don't equal DA's, much less lawyers or judges or statutes. And that is how it should be.

That "looks" better at least. I will leave the matter of the substance to others.

[jwalsh07]

Oh yeah, I know all about that. Remember, I wasn't always the wise old peace loving Grandpa I am now.:-}

[Eva]

Oh, please, I told you all that the FBI would have had someone inside the VVAW. The FBI had people inside all the communist funded anti-war groups and this one was a biggie.
Kerry had to know that this was in his FBI file, but I guess Hillary assured him that it would be kept confidential, only released to those with a need to know.

[wai-ming]

...to make sure no Dem wins in 04, leaving Hillary the chance to run in 08

I don't think Hillary can wait that long. If she begins to think George Bush is vulnerable, she will have the Dems dispose of Kerry before the convention, then step in and "save" the party at the last minute. Or she will get herself on the ticket as VP, then release the incriminating FBI information just after the election/inauguration forcing Kerry to step down, leaving her in power.

[Mo1]

Look what I found .. came out about 2 hours ago


Aides Fault F.B.I. Scrutiny of Kerry in 1970's
By DAVID M. HALBFINGER

Published: March 23, 2004


ETCHUM, Idaho, March 22 — A yearlong F.B.I. surveillance of John Kerry's antiwar activities in the early 1970's was "a badge of honor" and an encroachment on civil liberties that has echoes in the presidential race, a Kerry spokesman said on Monday.

Newly disclosed F.B.I. files reveal that the bureau's agents and informants closely followed Mr. Kerry and other leaders of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, infiltrating meetings, recording speeches and filing reports to Director J. Edgar Hoover and President Richard M. Nixon.

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Mr. Kerry, who joined the antiwar group's leadership in late 1970 — months after leaving the Navy as a decorated lieutenant — was tracked by the F.B.I. beginning in early 1971, around the time he drew national attention with his statements about war atrocities at a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"The Nixon White House set out to destroy him because he was a credible voice speaking up for veterans," said David Wade, a spokesman for Mr. Kerry, who is vacationing here. "And now we learn that J. Edgar Hoover's F.B.I. was following his every move."

The extent of the F.B.I.'s surveillance was first reported Monday by The Los Angeles Times, which reviewed copies of files obtained from the bureau by a historian and author, Gerald Nicosia, who also provided copies to the Kerry campaign.

"Revealed in F.B.I. reports," Mr. Wade said, "is the portrait of John Kerry at age 27 speaking with courage and conviction, leading veterans to Washington for peaceful protest, advocating nonviolence and moderation. That the Hoover-era F.B.I. and Nixon White House paid such attention to John Kerry is a badge of honor and a reminder of the tumultuous pre-Watergate era before the F.B.I. was reformed in the early 1970's."

Mr. Kerry resigned from Vietnam Veterans Against the War in November 1971, the reports indicate, several months later than he has previously recollected. He quit to run for Congress from Massachusetts after feuding with more radical leaders within the group, among them Al Hubbard, a national co-director who had met in Paris with representatives of North Vietnam.

A Nov. 19, 1971, F.B.I. teletype marked "urgent" quoted an informant describing a group meeting six days earlier in Kansas City, Mo., at which many delegates wanted the group to take the initiative in peace efforts with North Vietnam. "John Kerry, V.V.A.W. national chairman, considered conservative by most V.V.A.W. members resigned for `personal reasons,' " the report said.

Another informant said Mr. Kerry had repeatedly tried to get Mr. Hubbard kicked out of the group's leadership and questioned whether he had ever served in Vietnam. After leaving the group, Mr. Kerry ran for Congress in suburban Boston in 1972, winning a crowded Democratic primary but losing the general election.

The Kerry campaign released documents from his own F.B.I. file, including memorandums dated May 24 and July 31, 1972, stating that Mr. Kerry had severed ties with the antiwar group, was pursuing a career in politics and warranted no further surveillance.

"A review of subject's file indicated there is nothing to associate him with any violence or any violent-prone group or organization," said the memorandum, from the Boston F.B.I. office. "It is being recommended that no further investigation be conducted re the subject."

On the campaign trail, Mr. Kerry has often compared the Bush administration to the Nixon White House, particularly in criticizing Attorney General John Ashcroft's use of the antiterrorism law. "I know what it's like to be spied on by the government, because that's what they did to me when I came back and stood up against the war," Mr. Kerry said in a speech in October.

In a statement on Monday, Mr. Kerry called "surreal" the extent to which he had been followed by the F.B.I. But he hastened to add that "today's F.B.I. isn't the F.B.I. of J. Edgar Hoover," which "spied on everyone from President Kennedy to Martin Luther King."

"The F.B.I. of today is on the front lines of the war on terror, and it's critical that they be effective with our full support," Mr. Kerry said. "But the experience of having been spied on for the act of engaging in peaceful patriotic protest makes you respect civil rights and the Constitution even more."

Mr. Kerry, again jabbing at Mr. Ashcroft, repeated in the statement that if elected he would appoint an attorney general "who respects rights" and "knows how to enforce laws in a way that balances law enforcement with our tradition of civil liberties."

[Mo1]

Ooops ... here is the link

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/23/politics/campaign/23KERR.html?ex=1080622800&en=b06d8490249f762a&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

[Howlin]

My god.....so many lies in one article.

[nopardons]

Great find!

Oh yeah, it was SUCH a "badge of honour", to be investigated by J.Edgar, for being a traitor, who was a member of a group that planned to MURDER Senators, who desecrated the Statue of Liberty, and held meeting with this nation's enemy, while we were fighting a war.

Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesh!

If John KETCHUPBOY-TOY Kerry wants a re=enactment of '60s-'70s street theatre, he's gonna be sooooooooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry!

[cyborg]

Mrs.Bucket I was watching tv last night and learned how the FBI started... verrrrry interesting stuff! Kerry is becoming a bit unhinged don't you think?

[Mo1]

You got that right ...

[nopardons]

Funny you should ask that...yes, he is becoming quite the hysteric.I don't know what'll trigger it (but my guess is the debates),but I do expect him to implode as badly, if not worse than Dean and the YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELL.

[Mo1]

I get the feeling there is a whole lot more in that FBI File they libs are scare to death will come out

This is such a Clinton Spin that it ain't funny