Kerry backs off on medal claim spokesman says no enemy fire 'possible'

World Net Daily ^ | 8-24-04

[hope]

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AUGUST 24
2004

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ELECTION 2004

Kerry backs off
on medal claim

After WND story on journal discrepancy spokesman says no enemy fire 'possible'

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Posted: August 24, 2004
3:43 p.m. Eastern

By Art Moore
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com

After WorldNetDaily's report last week of a discrepancy in John Kerry's personal account of his first Purple Heart, his presidential campaign has backed off on claims that he was wounded from enemy fire.

WND reported that nine days after Kerry claims he was hit by hostile fire in 1968, he wrote in his journal as he set out on a subsequent mission, "A cocky feeling of invincibility accompanied us up the Long Tau shipping channel because we hadn't been shot at yet, and Americans at war who haven't been shot at are allowed to be cocky."

The Kerry campaign has not responded to repeated requests from WND for a response, including a call this morning. But yesterday, Fox News host Major Garrett confronted John Hurley, national coordinator of Veterans for John Kerry, asking him on camera if it is possible the first Purple Heart did not result from an incident involving enemy fire.

Hurley replied, "Anything is possible ... ."

With three Purple Hearts, Kerry was allowed according to Navy regulations to leave Vietnam after only four months of his 12-month tour.

The Kerry campaign's admission to charges in "Unfit for Command," the newly published book by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, is not the first.

Two weeks ago, Kerry was forced to revise his decades-long contention he was on a secret mission in Cambodia on Christmas Eve 1968. And last week, the Kerry campaign admitted a key contention of a story supporting the Democratic National Convention theme of "No Man Left Behind" was wrong. Kerry closed the convention with a story in which he claimed that five swiftboats fled on March 13, 1969, after a mine explosion and only he came back to rescue Lt. James Rassman. His campaign now is admitting that he fled and the rest stayed, before he later returned for Rassman.

Responding to Hurley's admission, "Unfit for Command" co-author Jerome Corsi told WND the swiftboat vets "remain interested in a solidly documented and researched examination which allows the truth to come out."

"As we do that, the Kerry campaign is having to reconstruct stories and admit to lies," Corsi said.

Conflicting account

Kerry, who served as commander of a Navy swiftboat, has insisted he was wounded by enemy fire Dec. 2, 1968, when he and two other men took a smaller vessel, a Boston Whaler, on a patrol north of his base at Cam Ranh Bay. The conflicting journal entry is cited in Douglas Brinkley's book about Kerry's Vietnam service, "Tour of Duty."

While the date of Kerry's subsequent four-day excursion on PCF-44 [Patrol Craft Fast] is not specified, Brinkley notes it commenced when Kerry "had just turned 25, on Dec. 11, 1968," which was nine days after the incident in which he claimed he had been wounded by enemy fire.

In "Unfit for Command," Corsi and co-author John O'Neill, who took over command of Kerry's boat, assert the wound for which Kerry received his first of three Purple Hearts actually was caused by him firing an M-79 grenade launcher too close, "causing a tiny piece of shrapnel (one to two centimeters) to barely stick in his arm."

The authors, who rely on the eyewitness accounts of more than 60 men who served with Kerry, say Kerry's initial requests to receive a Purple Heart for the wound were flatly rejected.

In "Tour of Duty," Brinkley quotes Kerry as saying he and his comrades were "scared s---less" that night, thinking fishermen in sampans might be Viet Cong.

When some of the sampan occupants began unloading something on the beach, Kerry lit a flare, causing the startled men on shore to run for cover. That's when Kerry says he and the other Americans began firing.

Said Kerry in "Tour of Duty":

My M-16 jammed, and as I bent down in the boat to grab another gun, a stinging piece of heat socked into my arm and just seemed to burn like hell. By this time one of the sailors had started the engine and we ran by the beach, strafing it. Then it was quiet.

O'Neill and Corsi, however, claim there is no evidence whatsoever Kerry took any enemy fire that night.

Patrick Runyon was operating the engine on the Boston whaler during the incident.

"I can't say for sure that we got return fire or how [Kerry] got nicked," Runyon is quoted as saying in "Unfit for Command." "I couldn't say one way or the other. I know he did get nicked, a scrape on the arm."

Wrote O'Neill: "In a separate conversation, Runyon related that he never knew Kerry was wounded. So even in the [Boston] Globe biography accounting, it was not clear that there was any enemy fire, just a question about how Kerry might have been hit with shrapnel."

The book also asserts another one of Kerry's Purple Hearts resulte from a self-inflicted wound.

Related offer:

"Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry"

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Art Moore is a news editor with WorldNetDaily.com.

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[Ethyl]

That first Purple Heart needs to be pulled, and probably the third, when he got rice in his stupid butt by throwing a grenade in a rice barrel??? However, politically, it whould not be a good thing for the DOD to do, but it needs to be DONE. He didn't deserve the metal, and now appears to admit it.

[U S Army EOD]

Well he might have been there before he wasn't but I am getting confused on if it was in North Vietnam or South Vietnam and I still can't figure out which side he was on.

Which reminds me of the movie, "Triple Cross" , when Chris Plumber is asked at the last just whose side was he really on. He look into the mirror and smiled.

He probably was the guy in the home movies, who do you know that they could pay enough to look like him?

[demkicker]

This post was my dessert and it was delicious! Now, I can't wait for Ann Coulter's next article. It should be a doosey...

[AppyPappy]

Actually, you should. The ads come with the paste. It's best for the host site

[Libloather]

...his presidential campaign has backed off on claims that he was wounded from enemy fire.

Usually, when ANYTHING hits the fan, it isn't pretty...

[dalebert]

Not Kerry. A Kerry spokesperson. Kerry never corrects a lie himself. He always has someone else do it.

[Howlin]

Boy, I bet Chris Matthews feels like a fool.

[Calamari]

Hmmmmmm, the plot thickens. Not only do I wonder if Kerry was in Cambodia, I'm getting a feeling he may not have been in Vietnam.

Depends on what the definition of Cambodia is.

He needs to produce the guy who gave him the hat he keeps in his brief case!

[Uncle Vlad]

If he keeps "backing" away from things at this rate, by the end of next week, we might find out his real name is Izzy Yiskowitz.

[hope]

I turned on Scarbrow Country for the first time ever. Now I know why I gave up that bs a long time ago. Lawerence O'Donnell must be related to Rosie...He's definately a liberal boot licker. The claims he made that all the major news papers in the country have completely discredited the swifties book was disgusting..no facts to back it up at all...How the hell do these people do this with a straight face?

[Uncle Vlad]

Paging Mr. Baghdad Bob. Mr. Baghdad Bob, please pick up the white courtesy phone.

[hope]

I had to break out the Nerf gun for that sob...

[U S Army EOD]

Remember, he said it was a CIA guy, I think he said the CIA guy was hiding in the briefcase.

And this guy wants to be President of the United States!!!!!

[bray]

So he never had 3 PHs and never went into Cambodia!! Now about those War Crime Claims??? Unfit for Command!

Pray for W and Our Troops

[dc-zoo]

Looks like the kerry team is backing away from the no hostile fire claim. There's nothing about it on the tv news networks tonight either.

[sonofatpatcher2]

Print out and wear as a Campaign Button or go HERE to print.

[goldstategop]

Now he admits his version doesn't square with the truth. John F*ckin's now launching his own attempt at Chinese water torture... drip, drip, drip. He seems to think if he releases damaging details a day at a time, it will hurt less than if it came out all at once. He's a certifiable liar so just who the heck is he kidding?

[Calamari]

The thing that causes one to pause is that even if there is a Bush land slide, 40% to 45% or so of the people will still vote for Kerry.

[U S Army EOD]

Yep, you got to remember this country put Bill Clinton in for two terms.

[Calamari]

Ross Perot helped with the first one IIRC Clinton only polled 43% of the popular vote.