Witness breaks silence - backs Kerry's story

Houston Chronicle -AP ^ | Some AP Hack

[Jalapeno]

Aug. 21, 2004, 4:49PM

Witness breaks silence - backs Kerry's story Associated Press

Associated Press

William B. Rood, a night city editor for the Chicago Tribune, and who served with John Kerry during the Vietnam War, talks Friday about his time as a Swift Boat commander.

CHICAGO -- A Chicago Tribune editor who was on the Vietnam mission for which John Kerry received the Silver Star is backing up Kerry's account of the incident.

William Rood, 61, said he decided to break his silence about the Feb. 28, 1969, mission because reports by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are incorrect and darken the reputations of veterans who served with Kerry, according to a report in the Tribune's Sunday editions.

Rood, an editor on the Tribune's metropolitan desk, said the allegations that Kerry's accomplishments were overblown are untrue. Kerry came up with an attack strategy that was praised by their superiors, Rood said.

"The critics have taken pains to say they're not trying to cast doubts on the merit of what others did, but their version of events has splashed doubt on all of us," Rood said in a 1,700-word first-person account published in the newspaper. "It's gotten harder and harder for those of us who were there to listen to accounts we know to be untrue, especially when they come from people who were not there."

According to the Tribune, Rood's recollection of what happened that day in South Vietnam was backed by military documents, including his citation for a Bronze Star and a report written by then-Capt. Roy Hoffmann, who commanded his and Kerry's task force and is now a critic of the Democratic candidate.

The mission has become a focal point of a political and media firestorm fueled by the Swift Boat Veterans.

One of the group's leaders, John O'Neill, succeeded Kerry in command of a swift boat. O'Neill is co-author of the book "Unfit for Command," which accuses Kerry of lying about his wartime record and betraying comrades when he returned from Vietnam by alleging widespread atrocities by U.S. troops. The Swift Boat Veterans have repeated the accusations in TV ads.

The Kerry campaign filed a complaint Friday with the Federal Election Commission, alleging the Swift Boat Veterans are coordinating their ads with the Bush campaign. The Bush campaign has denied the claim but refused to condemn the book or the group's TV ads.

Rood wrote that Kerry recently contacted him and other crew members, requesting that they go public with their accounts of what happened that February day.

"I can't pretend those calls (from Kerry) had no effect on me, but that is not why I am writing this," Rood said. "What matters most to me is that this is hurting crewmen who are not public figures and who deserved to be honored for what they did. My intent is to tell the story here and to never again talk publicly about it."

Rood declined requests from a Tribune reporter to be interviewed. The Tribune's deputy managing editor for news, George de Lama, told The Associated Press on Saturday that Rood would not publicly discuss the issue.

When the Tribune asked O'Neill for his response to Rood's account, O'Neill argued that the former swift boat skipper's version of events is not substantially different from what appeared in his book.

A message left with Swift Boat Veterans for Truth was not immediately returned today.

[Jalapeno]

It is interesting that only now Kerry's campaign is trying to chip away at this story from the sides, when he is being nailed by a full frontal assault. He does not have a smoking gun, though, and this has definitely hurt him.

[sarasota]

This guy is looking for his 15 minutes, and with the Chicago Trib behind him (liberals) he might get a little traction. This ties in nicely with Keyes' run for the Senate, stacking the deck against Republicans.

[blanknoone]

Headline should be:

Witness Breaks silence--Backs Kerry's story, refuses to answer questions.

[Alissa]

Why is it no surprise that this "defender" is a member or the media?

[4MORE-YEARS]

So is he telling a lie?

[schaketo]

Contribute to and support the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth at http://swift1.he.net/~swiftvet/index.php

Also, if you would like to see the traitorous Kerry spouting his poison on the 1971 Dick Cavett Show, go to:

http://www.c-span.org/homepage.asp?Cat=Series&Code=RWH&ShowVidNum=6&Rot_Cat_CD=RWH&Rot_HT=206&Rot_WD=&ShowVidDays=60&ShowVidDesc=&ArchiveDays=30

It should say 'RWH Kerry 1971 Appearance on the Dick Cavett Show.

Pass it on.

[Radix]

Perhaps Kerry will someday be proved to actually be a genuine Viet Nam hero. It seems to me that at this point the word of a Chicago Tribune journalist will not convince many people who are inclined to doubt that about Kerry, myself included.

Kerry could release his records and make all of this go away. He seems unwilling to do that and so he continues to entrench himself in a position that is not very defensible.

Meanwhile there are probably many people who will get up and say whatever Kerry wants. It has gone beyond he said he said. Kerry will have to open the records or sink.

[jimbo123]

William Rood
WRood@tribune.com

His handlers:

George de Lama
gdelama@tribune.com

Tim Jones
TXJones@tribune.com

E-mail the staff of the Chicago Tribune

http://www.chicagotribune.com/services/site/chi-newspaperemail.htmlstory

[faithincowboys]

So what is this moron saying, that Kerry did confront a numerically superior force?

Hasn't Kerry even acknowledged he offed a single, wounded, fleeing VC?

This is total lunacy!!1

[skaterboy]

I'd like to believe him but he didnt *serve* with Kerry so I cant

GOTTA LOVE IRONY

[Shermy]

So is he telling a lie?

It's a mix of distractions calculated to distract from the details of the Swities specific charges.

By the way, he got shot in the eye during the engagement. Kerry said he saw it bandaged later. If he was shot in the eye, how could he tell what happened?

[faithincowboys]

Any way to check this guy out for political leanings? Isn't that what Kerry is doing?

[faithincowboys]

Yup, no surprise at all.

[Shermy]

"So what is this moron saying, that Kerry did confront a numerically superior force?

Hasn't Kerry even acknowledged he offed a single, wounded, fleeing VC?

This is total lunacy!!"

No. It's a strawman argument. Kerry's folks are proving it happened, implying the Swifties deny it. They don't. Just that it deserved a medal.

Kerry has used this strategy on several of the Swifties points.

[cyncooper]

Notice he and the article don't say what he backs Kerry on and what he supposedly is contradicting the Swift Vets on...

(I've read several articles on this big "bombshell" and the nearest thing I've figured is Rood contradicts Kerry)

[Cboldt]

So is he telling a lie?

He is talking about an irrelevant point, regarding the age, condition or cloting of a single VC that Kerry dispatched on February 28, 1969.

The point of contention is whether Kerry beached his boat in the face of a score of VC, i.e. whether he attacked a numerically superior force while under withering fire (that is what Kerry's Silver Star citation says).

[oblomov]

Media libs would NEVER make political contributions. They sacrifice this freedom for far greater power, the power to shape public opinion.

Speaking for myself: I will shape their opinion before they shape mine.

[dwilli]

This horse has been begging to stop the beating for a while now. Now the backlash from the Sunday talk shows starts festering tomorrow.

[faithincowboys]

Does he have a byline? Might he have written articles that totally show who he is-- a Leftist hack??

[Henchman]

"Lib Media" damn the torpedoes, bullets or what ever the hell that brown stuff, Kerry is a hero. (Of course all he has to do is release his medical records to prove he got shrapnel. etc. -you know, like Bush's pay records etc.)