[Congressman Billybob]

Please note these two sentences from the KRV (Kerry Revised Version) of the Cambodia escapade. "There, Kerry and his crew along with two other boats were ambushed, taking fire from both sides of the river, and after the firefight were fired upon again. Later that evening during their night patrol they came under friendly fire."

"It is an acknowledged fact that Swift Boat crews regularly operated along the Cambodian border from Ha Tien on the Gulf of Thailand to the rivers of the Mekong south and west of Saigon. Boats often received fire from enemy taking sanctuary across the border."

What the Kerry Campaign said could conceivably be true, IF and only IF the river ran along the border. But that's not the way the river runs. It is PERPENDICULAR to the Cambodian border.

Then there is a second blatant falsehood in this revision. PBRs, not Swift Boats, were the ones that the US Navy used close to the border (and perhaps across the river in special ops). Kerry never set foot on a PBR.

The corrected dog also will not hunt.

Congressman Billybob

Latest column, "Says the Wuss: Ma, He's Touching Me"

If you haven't already joined the anti-CFR effort, please click here.

[kabar]

Kerry was not an independent agent. His boat could not have been tasked for a "secret mission" without the knowledge and approval of his superiors. It would be interesting to learn if his crew will also testify that they participated in these missions in Cambodia. Let's see how far they will go to lie for this scoundrel.

[Bonaparte]

"It is PERPENDICULAR to the Cambodian border."

This has been brought up before, John. I think caution is advised unless one of us can produce a detail map showing, say, a 10-mile square patch at the point where the Mekong passes over the border. I'm not familiar with that particular geography, but until I am, I'm willing to concede that a zoom-in may show that the Mekong takes a short wind right along the border itself before it crosses into Cambodia. We need that map.

[Bonaparte]

Ok. I think we have at least a start. Here's a map of the Mekong at the crossing.

If you place the cursor right at the point where the Mekong (highlighted yellow) crosses the border (about 1/4" above "Ho Chi Minh" City), and click with each successive zoom-in map down to the 12-mile scale (lower left), it appears that the river on your right is strictly perpendicular to the border. In larger scale zooms that river is clearly identified as the Mekong. However, in those larger scale zooms, the river that crosses the border on the left (in the 12-mile scale map) branches off from the Mekong and has no name displayed.

We are getting closer...

[encm(ss)]

"Sa Dec and then headed north to the Cambodian border"

Sa Dec is on the Mekong river just South and West of Saigon and the river does run North from Sa Dec to the border. There is a small run of the river that seems to run with the VN / Cambodia border. See this map: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/middle_east_and_asia/vietnam_pol92.jpg

I studied this for a time and have come to the conclusion that there is a VN / Cambodia border with a Mekong river between them North of Sa Dec.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

"There, Kerry and his crew along with two other boats were ambushed . . .

Well, this should be a piece of cake to clear up. Just identify the other two boats and get their crews to support or refute the statement.

[conservative in nyc]

You're confusing Kerry's "Christmas in Cambodia" story with his new, improved "January or February in Cambodia" story. That's what Kerry wants us to do. We shouldn't let him:

I'm repeating this from my post on another thread:

There is absolutely no evidence Kerry spent Christmas in Cambodia. Even Kerry has admitted that. He was 55 miles away from the border at Sa Dec.

There is some evidence in the February after-action reports that PCF 94 (likely Kerry's boat at that time) was based at Ha Tien in mid-February. There is also evidence that PCF 94 patrolled the Rach Giang Thanh, NEAR the border with Cambodia, at that time.

You can see the Rach Giang Thanh on this map. The Cambodian border is in purple. Note that the Rach Giang Thanh doesn't cross Cambodia until the town of Giang Thanh, where it significantly narrows. Note also that there aren't many major tributaries of the Rach Giang Thanh that cross into Cambodia.

As far as I can tell, there is nothing in the after-action reports to indicate that PCF 94 had orders to enter Cambodia in February. From the coordinates listed in the reports, I can tell that PCF 94 or 50's patrols stretched up to the town of Giang Thanh (near VS 563639), near the Cambodian border. On February 13, PCF 94 noted some "tax" extortion action at the first "S" curve in the Rach Giang Thanh (VS 518565) near the Cambodian border and the town of Ap Tra Pho), involving a chase of a V.C., but according to the after-action report, the chase stopped at the "boarder". There also were SEAL insertions by "M/T RAIDERS" on February 13 and 14 and extractions by PCF's on February 13.

Read Kerry stooge Meehan's statement carefully: he never said Kerry's formal Navy chain of command ordered him into Cambodia:

Many times he was on or near the Cambodian border and on one occasion crossed into Cambodia at the request of members of a special operations group operating out of Ha Tien

In other words, Kerry's defense is he was near Cambodia, and at one time crossed into Cambodia -- not on orders of any of the Swift Boat Veterans, but on orders of Special Forces. So Kerry was not following orders before he was following orders when he went on his Cambodian excursion.

Although it often sounds like Lanny Davis has been doing nothing but screaming, Kerry's strategy has been to try to meander the Kerry's stories back to what was published in the after-action reports (some of which were written by Kerry) and award citations. (I think we saw that Rassman has been coached to do this, which has made it look like he was flip-floping a little.) Then, the Kerry camp will point to the after-action reports as proof the Swift Vets were lying. Lanny Davis has been trying to do this in between screams.

The problem is that Kerry's stories have been so inconsistent that meandering back to the after-action reports makes him look like Flipper to anyone who is watching.

[xkaydet65]

Good catch about the PBRs, but weren't they too small to accomodate passengers? But I think the big deal in Brinkley's revise is the fact that Kerry went with two other Swift boats. Who captained those boats? It is not believable that Kerry does not remember the names of the two officers who joined him in Cambodia, any more that the pilots of Doolittle's Raid forgot the names of their fellow squadron mates.

That being said, I really don't see this going anywhere. The chant of "let's just move on" is already beginning to form, and the MSM is not going to make an issue of this, and without the MSM it will be Hewitt, Rush, Hannity, et. al. preaching to the choir.