Kerry, in 1971, Admitted Writing Combat Reports

CNSNEWS.com ^ | 8/26/04 | Marc Morano

[prairiebreeze]

Swift boat captain O'Neill was on a local radio show yesterday. He mentioned that all the stories in 'Unfit for Command' are based on what at least TWO people witnessed. If one individual had an account, without anyone else having the same account, that story was left out of the book. O'Neill said there was PLENTY of other stories that never made it into the book.

Bump, ping

[Samwise]

According to O'Neill, the people around Kerry figured him out pretty fast. They just wanted him gone.

The people who processed the paperwork were the ones who never expected a naval officer to lie.

[Lyford]

bump for finding later

[Sloth]

I don't see any such admission in Kerry's statements here.

[Bahbah]

Again I say, God bless John O'Neill, Van Odell and the rest of the vets whose courage in defense of our country has not diminished in over 35 years.

[mylife]

Ping!

Nice find!

[Just mythoughts]

Thanks.

Appears to be at least one honest statement documented.

[Neville72]

Question to anyone who might know. If Kerry had filed the after action reports of the incidents in question, wouldn't those then be the property of the unit and contained in the unit archives and not under his control? Wouldn't an investigator be able to access those reports and verify who signed off on them without Kerry filing form 180?

[Bahbah]

I just heard Bill Samman on Fox say C-Span rerun of testimony is at 8, which I assume is Eastern.

[cantfindagoodscreenname]

"Kerry thought that he could make a grand presentation of his combat record, and there would be no response, obviously, from the Republicans, considering the lack of military experience on that side of the aisle," Burkett said.

Does anyone know what this means? I'm not old enough to remember the Vietnam war. Why is he saying that the Republicans lacked military experience?

[AFPhys]

your speculation sounds right to me. should be followed up.

[Neville72]

It just seems to me that in the 5 or 6 years the Swift Boat Division was in existence there must have been thousands of after action reports filed. Are all of these only available if the signatories of each report signs off on releasing them? That doesn't make much sense to me. If any are available to researchers, all should be available. Correct?

What if some author decided to do a history of the division in Viet Nam? Would he have to ask for permission to see the reports from each surviving person who authored one or would he have unfettered access to all reports to be able to write a complete history.

If these reports are available through a FOIA request might this be the next shoe to drop on Kerry.

[philman_36]

Kerry and Rassmann and others say there was enemy fire, while Thurlow and other swift boat veterans insist there was not.
Shame on the Swift Boat Veterans for Bush BY JIM RASSMANN
Fearing that the other boats would run me over, I swam to the bottom of the river and stayed there as long as I could hold my breath.
Snip...To avoid the incoming fire, I repeatedly swam under water as long as I could hold my breath, attempting to make it to the north bank of the river.
Every time I hear Rassmann talk all I hear is...
"blub, blub, blub"

[xzins]

Yes, those are official government documents and should be accessible via the freedom on information act.

[pt17]

With one month or less of employment, perhaps he got a paper cut, opted out and continued spending the rest of his life protesting work.

[reformedliberal]

I heard Cowan yesterday (IIRC) say that they have all been declassified and are in the National Archives. Like anything else in research, it might depend on knowing keywords and where they might be filed. He said it would be time-consuming, but they could be found.

[snooker]

Kerry responded, "I had direct experience with that. Senator, I had direct experience with that and I can recall often sending in the spot reports which we made after each mission; and including the GDA, gunfire damage assessments, in which we would say, maybe 15 sampans sunk or whatever it was. And I often read about my own missions in the Stars and Stripes and the very mission we had been on had been doubled in figures and tripled in figures.

Well now isn't this useful.

CSPAN is supposed to run his entire Senate testimony tonight at 8PM.

[airborne]

I just heard on FNC that C-SPAN is going to air Kerrys' 1971 testimony before Congress!!! IIHC, it will be on tonight at 8 PM!

[pepperhead]

FYI..C-span is running the entire tape of Kerry's testimony to the Senate tonite...set the VCR..

Bet Kerry is about to blow a gasket.

[Flint]

How to get this in Sean Hannity's hands, Bill O'Reilly's hands, Rush's hands and so on?