Kerry Still Backpedaling on Presence at 1971 Anti-War Meetings

CNS News.com ^ | March 24th, 2004 | Mark Morano

[Sabertooth]

(CNSNews.com) - Five days after CNSNews.com reported that Democrat John Kerry had attended a 1971 anti-war meeting at which the possible assassination of U.S. senators was discussed, the presidential hopeful is still backpedaling on statements regarding his whereabouts during that meeting.

Kerry at first denied attending the November 1971 meeting of Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) in Kansas City, Mo. According to FBI files obtained by CNSNews.com, that 1971 meeting included talk of possibly assassinating U.S. senators. VVAW members discussed targeting then-Senators Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, John Tower of Texas and John Stennis of Mississippi because of their continuing support for the Vietnam war.

Early last week, Kerry's presidential campaign spokesman David Wade told the New York Sun, "Kerry was not at the Kansas City meeting." Wade added that Kerry had resigned from the VVAW "sometime in the summer of 1971."

But following the March 18 publication of the CNSNews.com report, in which the FBI files were used to corroborate Kerry''s attendance at the meeting, Wade reversed himself.

"If there are valid FBI surveillance reports from credible sources that place some of those disagreements in Kansas City, we accept that historical footnote in the account of his work to end the difficult and divisive war," Wade said in a statement late last week.

Kerry also retreated from an earlier comment he made in response to a CNSNews.com question about former VVAW executive director Al Hubbard. Kerry and Hubbard appeared together on an April 18, 1971 broadcast of the news show Meet the Press to discuss their anti-war efforts.

But Hubbard, who had passed himself off as a decorated Air Force captain, was later shown to have lied about his military record. An investigation in 1971 by a CBS News reporter revealed that there were no military records showing that Hubbard had either served in Vietnam or was injured there.

When asked about his relationship with Hubbard, Kerry told CNSNews.com at a televised press conference two weeks ago, "I haven't talked to Al Hubbard since that week" of the April 1971 Meet the Press appearance.

But after CNSNews.com reported that FBI files and eyewitness accounts from former VVAW members had placed Kerry and Hubbard in the same place on several occasions after the Meet the Press appearance, the Kerry campaign conceded that the senator was also incorrect on that point.

Other news outlets, including the New York Times, the Washington Post and ABC News picked up on aspects of the stories this week, reporting on the FBI surveillance of Kerry and his group and Kerry's inaccurate assertions regarding when he resigned the VVAW and the last time he saw Hubbard.

Gerald Nicosia, author of the book Home to War: A History of the Vietnam Veterans' Movement and a Kerry supporter, told CNSNews.com last week that Kerry was being less than truthful about his anti-war activities.

"I am having some problems with the things he is saying right now, which are not matching up with accuracy," Nicosia told CNSNews.com.

"I am in kind of an awkward position here. I am a Kerry supporter and I certainly don't want to do anything that hurts him. On the other hand, my number one allegiance is to truth. So I am going to go with where the facts are, and John is going to have to deal with that," Nicosia said.

Kerry hosted a reception in Nicosia''s honor in 2001 when the book was released and praised it as an "important new book [that] ties together the many threads of a difficult period in our history every American should take the time to understand in its totality."

Kerry is set to host another reception for Nicosia on April 19 on Capitol Hill.

Nicosia offered some advice for Kerry.

"The chickens are coming home to roost, and unfortunately he is starting to backtrack and I personally don't think backtracking is going to work because people are going to go at him and find the discrepancies," Nicosia said.

[Izzy Dunne]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I think Nicosia got the files using the "Freedom of Information" act.

But it's still going to sound like this on your TV news channel:

Kerry advocated assassinations but Republicans use legal tricks and loopholes to obtain secret FBI documents in unprecendented negative attack campaign.

[A CA Guy]

LOL, yep that would be the liberal playbook all the way.

#1 "The bad issue never happened, that was never said or never existed"

#2 Oh, you have proof, well sure, it happened, we said that and always admitted it. But, so what, we had the best of intentions and were doing "whatever" for the good of all and especially ***FOR THE CHILDREN***

You don't have to be a psychic to predict liberals Art.

[A CA Guy]

You would not prefer the old fashioned boiling water enema, followed by the body shaved raw by an old dull raiser, and then the release of hungry rats on the bleeding body for a day before the hanging?

You are "such" an easy touch!!!!

[Noumenon]

I'm going to toast the memory of Harpseal with the first bottle. I think he'd like that.

Roger that. Let's do a phone call so's we can simultaneously raise a glass to Matt's memory. Better still, why not invite everyone to do so at the same time?

Apricot ale, huh? Sounds mighty good. You're getting me to thinking about dusting off my brewing gear.