Viet Vets Charge: Kerry Killed Lone, Fleeing Teenage Foe; Lied To Superiors To Gain Medal

Drudge Report ^ | 8/5/04 | Matt Drudge

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

Slaughters Animals, Burns Down Tiny Village

**Exclusive**

A veterans group seeking to deeply discredit Democrat John Kerry's military service will charge in the new bombshell book UNFIT FOR COMMAND: "Kerry earned his Silver Star by killing a lone, fleeing, teenage Viet Cong in a loincloth."

"And if Kerry's superiors had known the truth at the time, they would never have recommended him for the medal."

The book also claims to detail how Kerry personally ordered the slaughter of small animals at a small hamlet along the Song Bo De River.

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The book, set for release next week, hit #1 on the AMAZON hitparade after the DRUDGE REPORT revealed details of the book -- a book the Kerry camapign believes is the"the dirtiest of all dirty tricks ever played on a candidate for the presidency."

The Kerry campaign is planning to vigorously counter the charges and will accuse the veteran's groups of being well-financed by a top Bush donor from Texas.

The vets have launched a blistering new TV commercial questioning Kerry's honor and calling him a liar.

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George Bates, an officer in Coastal Division 11, participated in numerous operations with Kerry. In UNFIT FOR COMMAND, Bates recalls a particular patrol with Kerry on the Song Bo De River. He is still "haunted" by the incident:

With Kerry in the lead, the boats approached a small hamlet with three or four grass huts. Pigs and chickens were milling around peacefully. As the boats drew closer, the villagers fled. There were no political symbols or flags in evidence in the tiny village. It was obvious to Bates that existing policies, decency, and good sense required the boats to simply move on.

Instead, Kerry beached his boat directly in the small settlement. Upon his command, the numerous small animals were slaughtered by heavy-caliber machine guns. Acting more like a pirate than a naval officer, Kerry disembarked and ran around with a Zippo lighter, burning up the entire hamlet.

Bates has never forgotten Kerry's actions.

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UNFIT FOR COMMAND, DRUDGE has learned, claims Kerry "earned his Silver Star by killing a lone, fleeing, teenage Viet Cong in a loincloth."

ARE THE VETS TELLING THE TRUTH?

"They hired a goddamn private investigator to dig up trash!" charged a top Kerry adviser traveling with the senator late Tuesday. "This is pay for play... How low can they go?"

Kerry supporters are comparing the effort by the veterans to the Arkansas State troopers tell-all against Bill Clinton.

MORE

John O'Neill, co-author of UNFIT FOR COMMAND, believes that "Kerry's Star would never have been awarded had his actions been reviewed through normal channels. In his case, he was awarded the medal two days after the incident with no review. The medal was arranged to boost the morale of Coastal Division 11, but it was based on false and incomplete information provided by Kerry himself."

According to Kerry's Silver Star citation, Kerry was in command of a three-boat mission on the Dong Cung River. As the boats approached the target area, they came under intense enemy fire. Kerry ordered his boat to attack and all boats opened fire.

He then beached directly in front of the enemy ambushers. In the battle that followed, the crews captured enemy weapons. His boat then moved further up the river to suppress more enemy fire. A rocket exploded near Kerry's boat, and he ordered to charge the enemy. Kerry beached his boat 10 feet from the rocket position and led a landing party ashore to pursue the enemy.

Kerry' citation reads: "The extraordinary daring and personal courage of Lt. Kerry in attacking a numerically superior force in the face of intense fire were responsible for the highly successful mission."

Here's what O'Neill and the Swiftees say: "According to Kerry's crewman Michael Madeiros, Kerry had an agreement with him to turn the boat in and onto the beach if fired upon. Each of the three boats involved in the operation was involved in the agreement." O'Neill writes that one crewman even recalls a discussion of probable medals.

Doug Reese, a pro Kerry Army veteran, recounted what happened that day to O'Neill, "Far from being alone, the boats were loaded with many soldiers commanded by Reese and two other advisors. When fired at, Reese's boat--not Kerry's--was the first to beach in the ambush zone. Then Reese and other troops and advisors (not Kerry) disembarked, killing a number of Viet Cong and capturing a number of weapons. None of the participants from Reese's boat received Silver Stars.

O'Neill continues: "Kerry's boat moved slightly downstream and was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade. . . .A young Viet Cong in a loincloth popped out of a hole, clutching a grenade launcher, which may or may not have been loaded. . . Tom Belodeau, a forward gunner, shot the Viet Cong with an M-60 machine gun in the leg as he fled. . . . Kerry and Medeiros (who had many troops in their boat) took off, perhaps with others, and followed the young Viet Cong and shot him in the back, behind a lean to."

O'Neill concludes "Whether Kerry's dispatching of a fleeing, wounded, armed or unarmed teenage enemy was in accordance with the customs of war, it is very clear that many Vietnam veterans and most Swiftees do not consider this action to be the stuff of which medals of any kind are awarded; nor would it even be a good story if told in the cold details of reality. There is no indication that Kerry ever reported that the Viet Cong was wounded and fleeing when dispatched. Likewise, the citation simply ignores the presence of the soldiers and advisors who actually 'captured the enemy weapons' and routed the Viet Cong. . . . [and] that Kerry attacked a 'numerically superior force in the face of intense fire' is simply false. There was little or no fire after Kerry followed the plan. . . . The lone, wounded, fleeing young Viet Cong in a loincloth was hardly a force superior to the heavily armed Swift Boat and its crew and the soldiers carried aboard."

DRUDGE learns from UNFIT FOR COMMAND that if Kerry's superior officers knew the truth, they would never have recommended the award:

"Admiral Roy Hoffmann, who sent a Bravo Zulu (meaning "good work"), to Kerry upon learning of the incident, was very surprised to discover in 2004 what had actually occurred. Hoffmann had been told that Kerry had spontaneously beached next to the bunker and almost single-handedly routed a bunkered force in Viet Cong. He was shocked to find out that Kerry had beached his boat second in a preplanned operation, and that he had killed a single, wounded teenage foe as he fled."

"Commander Geoge Elliott, who wrote up the initial draft of Kerry's Silver Star citation, confirms that neither he, nor anyone else in the Silver Star process that he knows, realized before 1996 that Kerry was facing a single, wounded young Viet Cong fleeing in a loincloth. While Commander Elliott and many other Swiftees believe that Kerry committed no crime in killing the fleeing, wounded enemy (with a loaded or empty launcher), others feel differently. Commander Elliott indicates that a Silver Star recommendation would not have been made by him had he been aware of the actual facts."

Developing....

[olde north church]

Thanks. I believe it could use an edit, however.
John F. Kerry won't cross a picket line, how can we expect him to protect America?
Something along those lines.

[BSunday]

well-financed by a top Bush donor from Texas.

Not that it't true, but even if it were - "And this would be different from liberal tactics how ?"

[Tribune7]

The Bush folks have to keep their distance from this ad, as well as from the group.

Very true, but it's still a good ad.

[ridesthemiles]

Kerry has always said that he committed attrocities. This isn't news.


Since when does the military award Purple Hearts for committing atrocities?????

News to me, and probably to millions of men and women in uniform.
Kerry is a fraud. The lying layers are being peeled back by people who were there and in the middle, there isn't any "there" there. Run for public office, put your entire life of lies on the line.
Kerry is as bad a liar as Marc Hackley (sp) or Scott Peterson. His lies are just catching up with him. He put his head up and tried to pretend he was something he isn't. He asked for this information to come out. It is coming out loud and clear, from the men in the boats at the time.
Probably other medals were awarded in times of war without clear information about the circumstances. But all those other medal holders aren't trying to pretend they are presidential material, leader of the free world material, etc.

[Go Gordon]

HEY...it just occured to me...aren't you SUPPOSE to take in wounded enemy INTO custody so they can be questions...shouldn't this kid have become a POW????

What he did sure was more offensive than what was done at Ahbu Grab. Where's the 6 weeks of media coverage?

[Gritty]

Is that faint rustling I hear out there in the treetops the sound of a gathering "Lautenberg Option"?

[lonevoice]

Here's the kind of question slimeball lawyers like John Edwards just love to ask:

"Senator Kerry, in Congressional testimony you told us you committed atrocities and war crimes. Now you tell us these swiftboat veterans who agree with you are lying. Which is it Senator Kerry? Were you lying then, or are you lying now?"

[ridesthemiles]

McCAIN plays from the SAME DAMNED CLINTON PLAYBOOK in how to deal with nasty charges of something evil in one's past.

I admire and respect McCain for his military service and his unbearably awful time as a POW.

However, I have to wonder just how far the cancer on his face has spread into his head. Seems his brain is short-circuiting time and time again with his comments in the last 4 years. Sad to see someone fail like that as he gets older.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

What you say regarding the connection is very interesting. Ted and John are certainly in the Hunt together.

Back to Kerry:

Max Boot , author of The Savage Wars of Peace has a piece in the LA Times Commentary section this morning titled:
Kerry's Three-Faced Foreign Policy
subtitle:
His past raises a question: Is he driven by a solid worldview or just politics?

Well after much good discussion of where the DemonicRats and Kerry were over the recent decades relative to the three mainschools of American foreign policy~~ isolationism, idealism and realism ~~~he states that Kerry at various points in his career---sometimes at various points in the same speech ~~~ Kerry has championed all of them!!!

Boot says there is no way to know what this guy would do in the White House....John doesn't seem to know himself what he would do....

Clarion call ....Don't let this Guy and his daffy bride near the place!!!!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

For more on Max Boot:

Max Boot Interview: Conversations with History; Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley

[ladtx]

The DU kool-aide drinkers are beside themselves over this. One poster over there states unequivocally that none of them served with Kerry and that it is a total lie even though the dolt obviously hasn't heard the ad where several state that they were there and did serve with him and are even shown in a picture with him. DU'ers == idiots all.

[ridesthemiles]

John Kerry would be a reprise of Jimmy Carter. Without even a comic relief brother like Billy.

Comic relief is being provided by Theresa, isn't it? Looks like it to me.

[Grampa Dave]

I wonder if the Clintoons are helping to expose the Kerry's not to just defeat him in 2004, but to drive a wooden stake into the heart of the Kennedy cult.

Teddy will be either dead or mentally dead by 2008. His heir apparent, Kerry, will be giving ski board lessons in Bermuda after he loses this election and Ma Ma T divorces him.

The remaining Kennedy's are true thugs and can't get by with what Robert did in the 1960's. The rest of the Camelot Liars are old or dead. We are seeing the Opus of the Kennedy era/saga/clan in this election.

[lonevoice]

Limbaugh just read a response to John McCain from Admiral Hoffman of swiftboat veterans for truth. The response was dignified and devastating. Something to the effect that the swiftboat veterans purchased with their blood and service the right to speak the truth about their unit. He said they knew John Kerry well, and McCain did not.

If anyone has a transcript to Adm. Hoffman's response, it would make a good topic for a separate thread.

[Credo]

The thing I really don't get about McCain in all this is why he backs Kerry when Kerry was selling him and the rest of his fellow POWs down the river after Kerry came back.

[North Coast Conservative]

My Fellow FReepers:

The KerryLied Rally in Washington on 12Sept04 has been planned for months, and has just recently been moved from the Capitol to:The Upper Senate Park.

I believe that is at Constitution and Delaware, between 2 and 4PM on Sunday afternoon.

I have no idea if there is any co-ordination between KerryLied.com and Swiftboats.com, but in the number of conversations that I have had with Larry Bailey, CAPT. USN (Ret.), the founder of KerryLied and Vietnam Vets for the Truth, LLC he has never said anything.

Perhaps it is just a fortuitous coincidence, I prefer to think of it as completely under the direction of God Almighty Himself.

Please follow the link below if you have never been to KerryLied and learn more about the rally, where Vietnam vets and their families and friends will come together and tell the world the John Kerry lied to the US people and the US Senate in 1972 when he categorized me and all of my fellow Vietnam Veterans as baby killers, war criminals, liars and torturers.

We will probably also be talking about the fact that as an Inactive Naval Reserve Officer John Kerry met with the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong in 1971, (aid and comfort to the enemy), and how he took Jane Fonda's money to help finance Vietnam Veterans Against the War. And on, and on, and on........But that's not why we will be there. We are there to talk about the lie to Congress.

Please join us on 12Sept04 and help drive this nail into the coffin of John Kerry's Presidential campaign.

Link to Kerry Lied Flier

In God We Trust…..Semper Fi!

[maryz]

Every Dem will scream "Karl Rove" at the top of his lungs.

Al Hunt already is, in today's WSJ: "This is being significantly funded and directed by Texas fat cats and political operatives who have more than a passing relationship with Bush political guru Karl Rove."

Also anticipating a response: "As was the case with the attacks on Sen. John McCain four years ago, Mr. Rove and his boss will claim they have nothing to do with these 'independent' efforts -- by virtue of the law and the politics."

I'll bet Hunt is close to the top of the list when the talking points are faxed! (I think there's a thread on Hunt's column, under the title "Sham Charges Against a War Hero.")

[R. Scott]

Is his first loyalty to a fellow senator or to his country?

The answer is kind of obvious.

[ridesthemiles]

But Kerry can be beat without this attack, warranted as it may be.

I believe it is warranted. Kerry invited this topic. He is surrounding himself with vets who are "supporting" him.

There are thousands of voters still alive who have served the USA honorable, whether in combat or not. They may or may not have earned medals. These vets have the right to know the truth about all the medals J F'N K "earned" in a VERY SHORT time in uniform. Kerry then came back to USA soil and lied to Congress about the things he did and saw. Then he "threw his medals away", but still has them???
WTF- If fellow vets vote against him just on the basis of his lies about his service and medals, I think Bush picks up ALOT of votes.
Kerry has to be perceived as FIT TO SERVE as Commander in Chief as well as President. A CHRONIC LIAR is what we got rid of in the 2000 election. We don't need another one.

[R. Scott]

She says if they had something similar to how the Olympics does background info. on people it would have been more interesting to see.

OH YEA!
People would see just what kind of a lying, backstabbing seditious traitor the democrats are running for President!