Posted on 04/26/2004 2:29:05 PM PDT by annyokie
Senator Kerry - I Am Not An Assassin Just in from my friend and author, Larry J. O'Daniel. This was faxed to Sen. Kerry's office five days ago with no reply thus far. The Senator did not reply to O'Daniel's earlier fax either. No surprise there.
Senator Kerry, I am not an assassin and you are no leader: (The accused asks the accuser questions)
Senator Kerry, we have never met, but many of your actions have touched and marred my life for over 30 years. It would be different if what you said had been true, but truth has not been one of your strong points.
On May 6, 2001, you asserted on Meet the Press that Phoenix was an assassination program, amplifying this way: "the government of our country, ran an assassination program. I mean, Bill Colby has acknowledged it. We had the Phoenix Program, where they actually went into villages to eliminate the civilian infrastructure of the Vietcong. Now, you couldn't tell the difference in many cases who they were. And countless veterans testified 30 years ago to that reality. And I think--look, there's no excusing shooting children in cold blood, or women, and killing them in cold blood." Your VVAW, with you apparently present, even named an alleged assassination plot against sitting Senators and Representatives the Phoenix Project.
Enough is Enough! It is time to set you and the record straight. You are fabricating the truth! I am a veteran of that program as were about 2000 other men. Phoenix stands as the forerunner to our present day efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan which lead to the capture of Saddam Hussein and the hunt for Bin Laden. To persist in your lies about my program is dishonoring those who serve today. Phoenix was further designed to cure ills in the intelligence gathering programs in Vietnam. It was right then and it's successor efforts are correct today.
In that May interview, you charged that we did not know who were VC or friendly when we entered a village. Senator, did you ever hear of a black list? We used the local Popular Forces or Regional Forces, or Kit Carson Scouts, who lived in the village to help search and identify Viet Cong. We were after specific people. That is how we were trained. You further charged on that show: "the men who designed the free fire zone, the men who ordered us, the men who signed off the air raid strike areas, I think these men, by the letter of the law, the same letter of the law that tried Lieutenant Calley, are war criminals."
I not only enforced free fire zones in both Provinces I served in, but I actively participated in the designing of them and the rules concerning their access. Before any targets were engaged by the pilots with whom I flew, they had to have my permission as I represented the Vietnamese government in their eyes. That meant I decided IF the targets were military, even if it was free fire. This job I did not take lightly. Even though I was only a 2 LT or 1 LT, I was legally the counterpart to the District Chief in this capacity. If I was wrong, the CID came looking for me and I was not politically connected nor well off financially. I utilized the best intelligence possible, plus split second analyzation of the scene on the ground versus what my intelligence told me to expect. On several occasions, I gave the order to fire. Sometimes, the other side cooperated and fired first, making my job a lot easier. On each occasion, the intelligence returned saying they were VC soldiers.
In your public statements about Vietnam, you cooked your intelligence books. You utilized phonies, wannabes, and people with active imaginations to bring out this specific charge against Phoenix. In the Winter Soldier Investigation you used as a basis for your 1971 statement, Phoenix was not mentioned that I could find. However, The Winter Soldier Investigation (WSI) grew out of the previous Citizens Commission of Inquiry of US War Crimes (CCI), organized as an offshoot of the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation. Further, CCI staff organized the early chapters of Vietnam Veterans Against War (VVAW) in 1970-71. Thus, you have your own self - feeding set of information.
The WSI said, during that period, men who had taken part in the CIA's Phoenix Program--including former U.S. Army intelligence agents Michael Uhl, Edward Murphy, and Robert Stemme--disclosed its record of terror, torture, and assassination. The need to demonstrate a broader pattern became clear.
Michael Uhl was not Phoenix. He lists himself as leading a military intelligence team with the 11th Infantry Bde in 1968-69. Once he is listed as a military intelligence operative. One posting listed him in Vietnam (11/68 - 5/69) working with Counter Intelligence receving information about suspected members of the VCI through Phoenix sources. Further, Uhl is listed as a contributor to CCI's successor, Citizen Soldier, along with Tod Ensign, who later organized the International War Crimes Conference, in Oslo, Norway. None was Phoenix. Edward Murphy and Robert Stemme, have apparently disappeared as the Winter Soldier listing is about all I can find on either one.
Another star witness against Phoenix was K. Barton Osborn. He testified before Congress in August, 1971. Previously, he testified in Oslo, Norway, as a representative of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. However, he was not Phoenix either. He was with the 525th MI group from September 1967 to December, 1968, apparently as an enlisted man. Except for possibly exchanging information, there were no ties.
Continue reading "Senator Kerry - I Am Not An Assassin"
It is only recently that we've come to see any other kind of characterization of our best men and women.
Kerry and the rest of the Left can never make amends for what they've done.
1/1 CAV Americal I Corps RVN 68-69.
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