Posted on 08/21/2004 5:35:37 AM PDT by buzzyboop
The second in a series of anti-Kerry ads was released today by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. In the new ad, Vietnam-era POWs critically denounce John Kerry for his anti-war activities.
Despite today's allegations in the New York Times that the group is a front for Bush political operatives, the harshest words for Kerry in the ad come from Paul Galanti, a former POW who served as Virginia campaign chairman for Bush rival Sen. John McCain (R.) and who was also an active member of Veterans for Mark Warner (the Democratic governor of Virginia) during Warner's 2001 gubernatorial race.
"John Kerry gave the enemy, for free, what I and many of my comrades in North Vietnam, in the prison camps, took torture to avoid saying,"; says Galanti, who was held prisoner for seven years in the prison camps of North Vietnam.
Referring to John Kerry's Senate testimony of April 22, 1971, Galanti continues: "It demoralized us. He dishonored his country and, more importantly, the people he served with. He sold them out."
In the ad [which can be seen on HumanEventsOnline.com], one wounded Swift Boat veteran and two former POWs comment on Kerry's testimony, in which Kerry accused U.S. troops of murdering 200,000 Vietnamese civilians per year, and gave a litany of gruesome atrocities that he claimed were commonplace in Vietnam -- "not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command."
The new newsbreaking book, "Unfit for Command,"
(Regnery) documents the offenses Kerry cited in his sworn testimony. Many were allegations set forth in an anti-war meeting in Detroit earlier that year. Kerry related to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that "veterans" -- many of whom were later revealed to be frauds -- said at that meeting "they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam."
Kerry also said that the United States was the world's most egregious violator of the Geneva Convention, even as hundreds of captured Americans were tortured and languished in sub-human conditions as POWs in North Vietnam.
Ken Cordier, a POW from 1966 to 1973, appears in the Swift Boat Ad to explain how Kerry's testimony was particularly devastating to POWs suffering in captivity. "That was part of the torture -- to sign a statement that you had committed war crimes,"
Cordier says in the ad. "He betrayed us in the past--how could we be loyal to him now?"
Yeah, but the group recieved money from a Texas Republican, hence all their claims are lies.
Plus, this proves a connection with Bush.
I knew Gilante was connected to McCain 2000 campaign,
and I think his role might have been larger than noted
in this article. I remember getting e-mail from him
on the behalf of John McCain.
When JF'nK was talking about the SBV ads he even looked like he knew was beaten.
I keep waiting for Kerry to say he was "brainwashed" by the anti war movement and believed their lies and parroted them. Was it McGovern who was brainwashed by the VC? I forget.
We need to keep that so, giving Kerry a taste of his own medicine. He is reaping what he sowed. When he hurt the Vietnam War soldiers with his testimony, he opened wounds that have never healed. Payback time for him!
And, Kitty Kelly is coming out with a new book, which is supposed to have all sorts of negatives about the Bush family, and I've read that Neil Bush's ex-wife is also coming out with a tell all book, negative also to the Bush family.
The Democrats are not going to just sit and take all this stuff about Kerry. They are going to get even meaner and nastier. We can all count on that. We better tighten our seat belts. It's going to be a bumpy ride.
The brainwashed guy was not McGovern, it was George Romney. Hubby just creeped out of bed and answered my query. Nice thing about growing old together is that two memories are better than one!
Yeah, but the guy knew a man, that worked with a friend of his, who dated a woamn that saw Bush on TV. So with that close of a tie this story cannot be trusted.
I mean get real.
I've been thinking the same thing...why run Johnfonda Kerry in the first place - and we saw what the Clinton machine did with Howard Dean - it ain't over till the Fat Lady Sings..........and the "fat lady" has been mighty quite these last few weeks...better start reminding people about Mrs. Clinton's past....before she takes center stage.....
Listening to Kerry's words testifying before Congress should be enough to open anyone's eyes about him. He is running for President and it really seems he should be charged with war crimes. But, he is the one who taunted his vietnam service.
John McCain is used in every Democratic set of talking points as the focal point for rejecting these veterans' denouncement of Kerry's claims. If McCain truly supports Bush for President, then he should immediately check out all the points the veterans have made from the records, state that he has done so, and retract his earlier statement, if he finds their claims to have validity.
That is the only honorable thing for McCain to do, since he has handed them their strongest debate point to date.
I agree - it burns me up how much mileage GWB's enemies have gotten from McPain's words against the Swifties. It's sweet though that one of McPain's own is in the new ad.
I have spoken with Paul on the phone. He is a powerful voice in the exposure of Kerry. A man turns on his comrades and his traitorous words used against comrades being tortured ---- that man thinks he is going to become commander in chief?
Former POW at the Hanoi Hilton and holder of the Congressional Medal of Honor statement on hanoi john
You seem to hate Kerry. Most people on this forum seem to. I don't hate him. This is why. What he did was wrong, but the intentions of a person matter. I believe his intention was to turn the public against the war because he didn't think it was winnable. He was very young when he gave that testimony and he likely believed the stories the other anti-war vets were telling him. In his mind he was helping get the others home by encouraging the end of the war. The possibility that his testimony in the U.S. was somehow going to be incorporated into the torture of POW's in Vietnam was not something he would have thought of.
His intention was to ride the contemporary hatred of the Vietnam war to a political career. Dont fool yourself. He´s slime. What Massachusetts decides to have as a senator is their business, but saddling a military at war with this traitor as our CIC is unthinkable.
I agree that he was thinking about his future career in political office even as he was testifying. He seems to have a psychological need for admiration. But, I also believe he wanted to stop the war. One of his friends from childhood was killed. He was too immature to understand the consequences of what he was saying.
Interesting, your choice of words, "You seem to hate kerry (sic)." No, I don't hate him. It is hard to respect a man when he KNEW what he was doing was wrong. He went to Paris and met with the Communists BEFORE he appeared at that Congressional hearing. HE KNEW WHAT HE WAS DOING! He has not apologized for anything he has done, meeting with the communists or for the false testimony he gave at the Congressional hearing. He is simply get back the evil that he inflicted on his countrymen.
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