Posted on 08/15/2004 1:23:00 PM PDT by stockpirate
LOS ANGELES, CA (PRWEB) June 10, 2004 -- Paperless Archives (www.paperlessarchives.com) has announced the publishing of 20,000 pages of FBI Files related to Senator John Kerry. These FBI files include coverage of John Kerry's activity as a leader of the anti-Vietnam War group, Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
These FBI files have been the subject of great discussion and news coverage recently, yet few have actually ever seen a single page of the documents. Paperless Archives (www.paperlessarchives.com) has now made it possible for everyone to obtain and review copies of these files.
Most of this material was originally released in 1999 to author and historian Gerald Nicosia, after seeking their release under the Freedom of Information Act in 1988. This set released in June 2004, contains pages of documents not released to Nicosia in 1999.
(Excerpt) Read more at paperlessarchives.com ...
Not all of it, no. Wintersoldier only has the FBI files on the VVAW. The paperless.com CD also contains "148 pages of Senator John F. Kerry's military records" and "62 pages of Coastal Division 11 After-Action Combat reports".
On the other hand, Wintersoldier seems to have a lot more FBI files on the VVAW, they claim 21,477 pages of VVAW files, paperless.com claims 2,701.
Well don't get too excited -- it seems that their "Search" function only searches paperless.com's own short descriptions of the document sets, and NOT the contents of the documents themselves.
Try to pay attention! Message #34 on this thread had the URL for a site where you can download all of the FBI files in PDF format and search them on your own computer.
http://ice.he.net/~freepnet/kerry/index.php?topic=VVAWFBI
Yes you can download them and read them, no you can't "search" them. They're PDF files containing *images* of the FBI documents. Text search won't work on them, at least not without doing a really industrial-strength OCR conversion on them, then cleaning up the results by hand.
Who's to say a US citizen is not involved, a la Johnny Walker Lindh? Potentially true, I suppose, but I have no firt-hand knowledge of such.
That will only search the VVAW's own press releases about themselves, not the FBI files on them.
Thanks. Bump for later.
L.A. Times Overlooks Details of Kerry's FBI Record
Posted March 23, 2004
By Scott Stanley Jr.
News management may have reached an embarrassing low in the Los Angeles Times for March 23 where an article by staff writer John M. Glionna purports to offer selections from the FBI file on soon-to-be Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry, who was under surveillance by the G-Men as a member of the executive board of the pro-Viet Cong Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW).
Presenting items from 50 documents carefully selected from what it reported were 14 boxes of related government papers 12 feet high, the Times confirmed from the FBI and other witnesses that Kerry had resigned from the VVAW leadership in November 1971 at a Kansas City board meeting to run for Congress. For years Kerry claimed that he had resigned after a July 1971 meeting in St. Louis and had not been present for the Kansas City meeting that was moved from venue to venue to try to avoid FBI surveillance of the group's most secret plans.
The reason official confirmation that he did not leave the group until after the Kansas City meeting is important, say specialists on radical activities during the Vietnam era, is that the FBI documents confirm earlier reports by those present that Kerry participated in a closed-door discussion of a proposal to assassinate seven U.S. senators who were special targets of Hanoi, with whose agents selected leaders of VVAW had been meeting. The Los Angeles Times made no mention of this part of the story, broken 10 days earlier in the New York Sun by founding New York Times books editor Tom Lipscomb and since spiked by editors coast to coast. The early articles by Lipscomb may be reviewed at www.nysun.com (registration required), and the astonishing Times article without the contextual importance of the FBI confirmation that Kerry took part in the formal discussion of a plan to murder the leading senators at www.latimes.com (free registration required). Kerry reportedly voted against the killings but did not leave the meeting and call a cop. Until the FBI surveillance report surfaced to put him in the middle of the assassination discussion, Kerry claimed to have resigned before the meeting at which VVAW discussed the murder plan.
After Kerry left the board of VVAW, with which he had made his national reputation, the FBI ceased surveillance of his activities according to a bureau memo in early 1972.
To its credit, NBC News reported on the evening of March 22 a controversy concerning Kerry's presence at a closed VVAW meeting where the assassination of the senators was discussed and concluded that records show Kerry was indeed present at that meeting.
Scott Stanley is the deputy managing editor of Insight magazine.
Good question. Good luck getting a straight answer.
We know this much, he was there and he stayed.
November 12 - 15, 1971 -- the VVAW leadership meets in Kansas City. Fearing surveillance by authorities, the group relocates the meeting to another building. They debate, then vote down a plan to assassinate several pro-war U.S. Senators. Despite John Kerry's claim to have left the VVAW before this event, several witnesses, meeting minutes and FBI records eventually place Kerry at the Kansas City meeting. WinterSoldierTimeline
paperlessarchives: John Kerry CIA files *Note: CIA, not FBI
I guess we are going to have to read 20,000 pages to find out.
I chew nails every time I read garbage like that.
AOK.
Thanks I have read that and several others.
Here is one:
One might ask what would lead the VVAW to even consider such drastic actions in the first place. The following from a
"US Department of Justice, FBI document dated November 16, 1971, with the heading, “Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Incorporated (VVAW).
Reference is made to a memorandum at Washington D.C. (WDC), dated September 15, 1971, concerning the VVAW.
On October 10,1971, a confidential source, who has provided reliable information in the past, advised that at WDC the VVAW, an anti-war veterans organization incorporated in New York, lacks cohesiveness and direction. The source advised this condition has resulted from/the disenchantment of local VVAW supporters, mainly ABOUT TWO SENTANCES REDACTED HERE and John Kerry, a leading VVAW spokesman.
The source advised that local supporters became dissatisfied with the VVAW following a speech by John Kerry on September 27,1971, at George Washington University (GWU), WDC.
A second confidential source, who has provided reliable information in the past, advised that on September 27, 1971, that John Kerry addressed a capacity crowd at Gaston Hall, GWU. Kerry related his impression of national frustration resulting from an apparent powerlessness to bring about a change of United States policy toward Vietnam. Kerry stated that America’s socio-economic condition has been adversely affected by this sense of frustration. The source advised that Kerry emphasized the need to utilize the political process to bring an end to the war in Vietnam.
On October 10, 1971, the first source advised that Kerry’s speech was received by local VVAW supporters as a clear indication that Kerry was an opportunist with personal political aspirations. Therefore, support has been withdrawn from the New York office in general and from John Kerry in particular.”
It's mid November nineteen seventy one
A major confrontation, friends, was said to have begun
Some vets had done some planning...they were getting really sore
They would move to the next level in attempts to stop the war
The FBI had been watchin' 'em in action
They're gettin' real scary...what's the next thing they would do?
In Kansas City would the plot gain traction
Would senators see pearly gates before the year was through?
A young John F. Kerry had been telling great big lies
U.S. troops pulled off mass murder, that should come as no surprise
They're killing for pleasure and were zapping testicles
Before the U.S. Congress he was spreading all that bull
The FBI had been watchin' 'em in action
They're gettin' real scary...what's the next thing they would do?
In Kansas City would the plot gain traction
Would senators see pearly gates before the year was through?
Back in Vietnam there were some men held by the Cong
They were undergoing torture...that side thought it wasn't wrong
They used John's words...and for the men it's really rough
John F. Kerry, you're a traitor...we have really had enough
The FBI had been watchin' 'em in action
They're gettin' real scary...what's the next thing they would do?
In Kansas City would the plot gain traction
Would senators see pearly gates before the year was through?
Scott Camil had been screamin' "It's time we were votin'!
Are you with or against us...we must know where you all stand"
John told them no and gave his resignation
'Cause after all, you know, that a career had been well-planned
He's hidden the record and hoped we would not find out
But Tom Lipscomb found the story...we know what John's all about
A lesson Kerry learned is now becoming evident
If you are whacking senators, you can't be president
The FBI had been watchin' 'em in action
They're gettin' real scary...what's the next thing they would do?
In Kansas City would the plot gain traction
Would senators see pearly gates before the year was through?
Scott Camil had been screamin' "It's time we were votin'!
Are you with or against us...we must know where you all stand"
John told them no and gave his resignation
'Cause after all, you know, that a career had been well-planned
It never seems like more than 10 people appear in any of the VVAW pics. Not very representative of the 500,000 vets that Kerry claims to speak for???
Seems like I read that VVAW consisted of about 1500 scatered over several chapters.
Interesting.......thank you
John Kerry first became familiar with the VVAW through his sister Peggy, in 1969. After deciding not to run for Congress in 1970, Kerry went to Paris, site of Vietnam War peace negotiations, and met with Viet Cong representatives. After his return, he began participating in VVAW events. John Kerry became one the Vietnam Veteran's Against the War's most publicly recognizable figures. Especially after his appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in April 1971. As a veteran who was decorated with a Silver Star, Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts, Kerry garnered attention and consideration that other anti-Vietnam War protestors could not achieve. Kerry went on to become one of the members of VVAW's national steering committee.
The coverage of Kerry is mostly intermittently spread across memos dating from 1971. Much of the clandestine surveillance is composed of reporting made by confidential informants. The files chronicle: John Kerry's rise in status as a member of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, A growing ideological conflict with the more militant direction the VVAW was heading in, Travel to Paris for talks with North Vietnamese peace talk delegation, Kerry's pitched battle with VVAW leader Al Hubbard, and Kerry's dissolution as a leader of the VVAW
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