Too obvious?
Posted on 08/08/2004 5:09:55 PM PDT by Steven W.
XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN AUG 08, 2004 19:04:35 ET XXXXX
SWIFT OFFICERS AND VETS: KERRY LIED ABOUT SPENDING CHRISTMAS IN CAMBODIA
Since the early 1970s, Kerry has spoken and written of how he was illegally ordered to enter Cambodia. Kerry mentioned it in the floor of the Senate in 1986 when he charged that President Reagan’s actions in Central America were leading the U.S. in another Vietnam. Here’s what he said as excerpted from the new book, UNFIT FOR COMMAND:
I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by the Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and have the president of the United States telling the American people that I was not there; the troops were not in Cambodia. I have that memory which is seared--seared--in me.
DRUDGE has learned from the accounts of Swift Boat officers and Kerry’s crewmembers that Kerry was never in Cambodia. UNFIT FOR COMMAND authors charge that Kerry made it all up.
“Despite the dramatic memories of his Christmas in Cambodia, Kerry’s statements are complete lies,” according to John O’Neil, co-author and the Swift Boat commander who took over Kerry’s boat. “Kerry was never in Cambodia during Christmas 1968, or at all during the Vietnam War. . . . he was more than fifty miles away from Cambodia.”
Kerry was stationed at Coastal Division 13 in Cat Lo. Coastal Division 13’s patrol areas extended to Sa Dec, about 55 miles from the Cambodian border. . . . Tom Anderson, Commander of River Division 531, who was in charge of PBRs (small river patrol crafts] confirmed that there were no Swifts anywhere in the area and they would have been stopped had they appeared.
All the living commanders in Kerry’s chain of command . . . deny that Kerry was ever ordered to Cambodia. They indicate that Kerry would have been seriously disciplined or court-martialed had he gone there. At least three of the five crewmen on Kerry’s boat, Bill Zaldonis, Steven Hatch, and Steve Gardner, deny that they or their boat were ever in Cambodia.
O’Neill observed that the Cambodia incursion story is not included in Tour of Duty (Kerry’s recent biography). Instead, Kerry replaced the story with a report about a mortar attack that occurred on Christmas Eve 1968 “near the Cambodian border” in a town called Sa Dec and Christmas day was spent at the base writing entries in his journal.
After conducting interviews and research, authors of Unfit for Command conclude, “The truth is that Kerry made up his secret mission into Cambodia.... the lie about the illegal Cambodian incursion painted his superiors up the chain of command. . . . as villains faced down by John Kerry, a solitary hero in grave and exotic danger and forced illegally against his will into harm’s way.”
Developing...
Too bad Mr. Kerry didn't see it your way.
He decided to stake his candidacy on what he claims he did. These men, over two hundred strong who served with him, have decided it is indeed unseemly and they are out to give their version.
Those of us who like President Bush should know better.
I know better than to suggest that men of honor and decency who went to Vietnam and now want to speak should just sit down and shut up. I won't do it.
I was looking that up ... Hugh Hewett has a lengthy piece, you may want to peek at it ...
http://www.hughhewitt.com/ <-- Mash Here
His bottom line conclusion is the same as mine. Kerry makes things up to suit his own ambition.
Watching the Swiftboat Vets commercial after seeing "Manchurian Candidate" is pure Orwell.
In a TV interview conducted by Greta Van Susteren with Michael Kranish and Nina Eason of the Boston Globe the following interchange occurred, which mentioned Kerry's oft stated contention that he spent XMAS Eve in Cambodia in 1968:
VAN SUSTEREN: Michael, did he cooperate at all with this or participate or sit down for interviews?
MICHAEL KRANISH, KERRY BIOGRAPHER: Well, sure. We did a series last year. It was a seven part series that ran 14 pages in the newspaper and he sat down for about ten hours of interviews for this series.
The book was written during the time when he was still running for the nomination right at the height of the Super Tuesday primaries and so forth, so our material for interviews was from the series.
To go back to your question you asked Nina, you know, he's also a skeptic of government. So, you ask why does he go, some people say flip- flop, other people would say why does he question things the way that he does?
A very short anecdote, he was in Vietnam and he was in Cambodia as part of a mission. I don't know if he intended to go but that's where he was but the government that was running the war knew that troops were in Cambodia but Nixon, President Nixon at the time was telling the American public, "We're not in Cambodia."
So, from a very early time, John Kerry is skeptical of government and he came back to protest the war that he participated in, so this is where some of this inner belief comes from. He does -- he did serve but he also questioned.
O'Neill's book shoots this out the water. Besides the fact that Nixon wasn't President at the time (Dec 1968), which is an obvious misstatement, O'Neill points out that:
"During Christmas 1968, Kerry was stationed at Coastal Division 13 in Cat Lo. Coastal Division 13’s patrol areas extended to Sa Dec, about fifty-five miles from the Cambodian border. Areas closer than fifty-five miles to the Cambodian border in the area of the Mekong River were patrolled by PBRs, a small river patrol craft, and not by Swift Boats. Preventing border crossings was considered so important at the time that an LCU (a large, mechanized landing craft) and several PBRs were stationed to ensure that no one could cross the border. A large sign at the border prohibited entry. Tom Anderson, Commander of River Division 531, who was in charge of the PBRs, confirmed that there were no Swifts anywhere in the area and that they would have been stopped had they appeared.
Kerry is nothing but a LIAR
Look at how far behind,at this stage of the game,candidates who WON were.
Polls mean absolutely NOTHING,at this stage of the game.
Rasmusen is still being touted here,but his polls have never be right.
Just about ALL of the polls we've seen posted here,are blatantly inaccurate.
Reagan was NOT a STRICT CONSTRUCTIONIST at all.And President Bush has done MORE,to forward Conservative goals,in his first term,than Reagan did.Both presidents were/are Conservatives!
If you're yearning for some Constitutional UTOPIA,you're wasting your time and energy.Even the FFs,as president,were NOT strict constructionists. So,you want someone to be president,who not only has never existed,but who will never exist.
Please take reality as it is,rather than mythographized tautology.
BTW, why don't you post your proof of a recantation. Elliott signed a new affidavit, reaffirming his charge that Kerry is unfit to be president and swearing that the Boston Globe story was false.
There is zero evidence and no logic behind the assertion that "this...is not good for President Bush". Mixing apples and oranges and claiming these men should be silenced or George Bush will pay the price is the height of absurdity. And it's not gaining traction. Sorry.
"...He was in Cambodia at Christmas before he wasn't..."
Nah, he was aboard Apollo 8 orbiting the moon before he wasn't. Makes as much sence and is as equally true. What a POS. And to think that this dimwit liar could posibly be the POTUS. What a horrible thought.
"...He was in Cambodia at Christmas before he wasn't..."
Nah, he was aboard Apollo 8 orbiting the moon before he wasn't. Makes as much sence and is as equally true. What a POS. And to think that this dimwit liar could posibly be the POTUS. What a horrible thought.
LOL
Um, no, he's not.
He apparently never had a brain to begin with.No,wait...I take that back.His father brainwashed what little of it there was.
Right about now..........I'm even doubting his name is really John Kerry.
" Swift vets should go after VietName and the Bush team should go after Kerry's 20 years."
Exactly.
The WH, which has been slammed by the DNC and their reps for being decent and saying they respect Kerry's VN service
( the DNC talking points this week end have been that George Bush is responsible for the ads, George Bush is dishonest for not pulling these ads, George Bush is a draft dodger and George Bush never served his country )-should back off and just say-
"This is between the Swift Boat Veterans and John Kerry."
Which it is.
And if the Swift Boat veterans that served with Kerry say that he is a liar and a fraud-that raises a lot of red flags about Kerry's character.
And should be further investigated.
Because Kerry is not running for dog catcher, he's running to be Commander in Chief.
The issue of Kerry's character and history as raised by his fellow vets, deserves a fair hearing.
Which is why the Democrats and the media are so desperate to sweep it under the rug.
As far as Kerry going into Cambodia in 1968 to poke President Nixon in the eye.
He said it over and over and has never been challenged by the media-guess they were too busy on their knees.
We are the new media.
We challenge Kerry's veracity.
Page 83 " John F Kerry, the Official Biography By The Boston Globe Reporters Who Know Him Best "- Michael Kranish ( yeah, the same guy )
" On Christmas Eve of 1968, as Kerry's 50 ft aluminum boat floated in the waters of Cambodia.."
Page 84
" To top it off, Kerry said later he had gone inside Cambodia ,despite President Nixon's assurances to the American people that there was no combat action in this neutral territory."
Memo to Michael Kranish and John Kerry-you should get your stories straight.
Richard Nixon was not inaugurated until Jan 20, 1969.
If any members of the media had even bothered to fact check previous stories, they might have seen a pattern over the years, of constantly evolving stories about Kerry's time in Vietnam.
The same swift boat vets that Kerry trots out-have given different and conflicting versions of Kerry's activities, as has Kerry.
Timelines don't jibe, recollections don't jibe, geographical locations don't jibe and eyewitnesses don't jibe.
We may be partisan, but, we're not stupid.
"I remember spending Christmas Eve of 1968 five miles across the Cambodian border being shot at by our South Vietnamese allies who were drunk and celebrating Christmas. The absurdity of almost being killed by our own allies in a country in which President Nixon claimed there were no American troops was very real."
That's in the Hewitt page -- I haven't checked material at the GLobe, but both Hewitt and the Swift Boat Veterans have done a good job of providing citations for their assertions.
Too obvious?
Then it would be understandable how he could get the president wrong. Doesn't explain everyone saying he couldn't be in Cambodia anyway. But explains part of it. Not sure if this is a hill we want to die on though.
This is in the free chapter at human events that has been available online for days.
I agree that teh details of a fabricated story are not the place to get mired.
Kerry has asserted that he was in Cambodia, in 1968. That assertion appeared attractive in a political debate, and as a way to gain sympathy for his proposed policy positions. But he made up the whole story, that's the point. He's a phony, a charade, a shell, a huckster, a shyster. He'll tell you what he thinks you want to hear.
It's just like I always tell my kids...the truth will ALWAYS tell itself eventually.
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