Da Plane!, Da Plane!
Posted on 08/22/2004 4:24:55 PM PDT by Pikamax
Vietnam Vet Says Has No Proof for Claim Kerry Lied Sun Aug 22, 2004 07:08 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A veteran who disputed Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's Vietnam war record acknowledged on Sunday he had no proof to back his charge that Kerry fabricated the reports of enemy fire that won him two medals. Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," Van Odell, a member of the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that has spearheaded a campaign against Kerry's service record, said his was one of seven eyewitness accounts and he was not being directed by President Bush's campaign.
He has charged that then Navy Lt. Kerry, a Swift boat commander, fabricated the "after-action" report saying he faced enemy fire on March 13, 1969, for which he was awarded the Bronze Star and his third Purple Heart for being wounded while pulling a fellow soldier to safety.
"I do not have a single document," Odell said. "I have the fact that I wasn't wounded in that 5,000 meters of fire that he wrote about."
"There was no enemy fire from either bank," he added.
The assertion was another broadside in a debate that has been raging for weeks, and with at least one CBS poll showing the issue cutting into Kerry's support among veterans, the Massachusetts senator has accused the group of collaborating with the Bush campaign and demanded Bush repudiate the ads.
Odell said he had met with Republican strategist Merrie Spaeth, a public relations consultant to his group, and once bought a home from Bob Perry, a large Republican donor from Texas and close associate of Karl Rove, the president's chief political adviser.
DOLE JOINS KERRY CRITICS
Former Republican Sen. Bob Dole joined critics of Kerry, telling CNN's "Late Edition" Kerry should apologize for his testimony to Congress more than 30 years ago in which he quoted other veterans talking about alleged atrocities in Vietnam.
Dole also said Kerry had received only "superficial wounds" in Vietnam and had been taken out of combat as a result.
"I respect his record. But three Purple Hearts and he never bled, that I know of. I mean, they're all superficial wounds. Three Purple Hearts and you're out," said Dole who himself was badly wounded in World War II.
"Maybe he should apologize to the other 2.5 million veterans who served," said Dole. "He wasn't the only one who was in Vietnam."
Kerry still carries shrapnel in his thigh from one of his wounds in Vietnam.
Republican Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, said while the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth group had "every right" to express their opinion, "we ought to get out of the character assassination business."
Kerry took a day off campaigning on Sunday, but his running mate, John Edwards, tied the attacks "directly to President Bush and his friends."
Campaigning in North Carolina, Edwards said: "Senator Kerry had a moment of truth in 1968 when he decided to volunteer and serve his country and put his life on the line for his country. This is a moment of truth for President Bush."
Kerry's Vietnam service has been central to his challenge to Bush. The two candidates have been running neck and neck in key polls.
The Bush campaign has denied any collaboration with Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and other such groups. Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman, on NBC's "Meet the Press," played down the connection between the group and the campaign, or Rove. "Karl Rove is friends with lots of different people," he said.
The Bush campaign has acknowledged that Ken Cordier, a Vietnam veteran who appeared in a Swift Boat Veterans for Truth commercial, had been working with the campaign but said he had resigned. (Additional reporting by Carol Giacomo and Adam Entous)
He didn't say he had no "proof", he said he had no "document". Reuters lost the concept of accuracy in reporting many years ago.
They try to make old news into a story by taking one of the guys out of context.. What a bunch of crooks at Reuters.
Their evidence is their 250x2=500 eyes that watched what happened, with signed affidavits subject to charges of perjury.
Da Plane!, Da Plane!
He does have eye witnesses, however.
> Vietnam Vet Says Has No Proof for Claim Kerry Lied
The headline is false. Odell has his own testimony,
which is often sufficient "proof" to direct the outcome
of court cases.
Typical Reuters propagandist spin, and certainly no
"news" here.
I would say the headline is unbelievable, but this is Reuters after all, and nothing they do shocks me.
But still, they are forced to talk about the Dole assault on Kerry's Vietnam record even if they try to bury it under an inflammatory headline.
Typical liberal media. They want o'dell to produce the bullets in order to prove they weren't fired upon. They're completely shilling for Kerry.
So that's who the new troll on FR today is.
"Anyone who wants to know more about John Kerry, spend just three minutes with him"..
and you'll have a coronary, dyspepsia, impotence, echolalia, and narcolepsy...in that order.
BUMP FOR THE SUPPORT OF SWIFT VETS HERE... http://www.swiftvets.com/
This is SOOO Reuters...
A lot of people would bet their careers that an MRI scan would reveal Kerry's Shrapnel to be a fragment of an American grenade. If not a piece of rice.
Kerry could release the documents that would shed truth on the issue.
Until he does, it's a he said/she said scenario and Kerry is losing the battle there.
He has no document, and the prosecutor has no video tape of Scott Peterson murdering Lacy and throwing her lifeless body into the Pacific, but the lack of a smoking gun doesn't automatically make either one innocent.
No proof? Other than the firsthand accounts from the vets who were actually at the scene and they all agree there was no hostile fire. The way I understand it, the gunfire that Kerry heard was from our own guns, not the enemy's. I don't know about 5,000 yards, but I have no doubt that Kerry probably did hear it from a long distance away as he was fleeing for his cowardly life. It was only after the firing stopped that he decided to turn his boat around to look for his lost shipmate.
Release Kerry's military and medical records!
| Vietnam Vet Says Has No Proof for Claim Kerry Lied
Nope. Their boy Kerry is toast. They might as well all just burst into flames themselves. Their little Ministry of Truth game is over. |
Reuters in on the prowl.
And, let's not be too hard on Reuters, some of their reporters are providing the Mossad with great information! Actually, "there is no proof that Reuters' reporters are working for the Mossad!"
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It's to the point now that you have to laugh out loud when you see these headlines. These guys in the press think they still control what people hear... that they can peddle this stuff without being laughed at.