Kerry's Anti-American Rhetoric Used in Torture of POWs

Human Events Online ^ | August 26, 2004 | David Freddoso

[hinterlander]

Former POW Jim Warner today told HUMAN EVENTS that he first learned about Lt. John Kerry in a North Vietnamese prison camp. When his captors brought him out of solitary confinement in the infamous Skid Row punishment camp for an interrogation, they made him read the typewritten transcript of a statement by Kerry, speaking in the United States. His interrogator kept pointing at Kerry's words, saying, 'See? This officer from your Navy says you deserve to be punished.'"

"All I could think of was that this must be a really contemptible human being," said Warner, although We can't expect the rest of the country to share our disgust at Kerry for turning on us. A lot of people are too young to remember that."

But the Kerry campaign has worked tirelessly to remind all voters of Vietnam, focusing almost entirely on his experience as a Vietnam veteran.

Since then, when speaking in nearly every forum and on nearly every issue, Kerry has emphasized the fact that he is fit to be president because he knows what war was like--he was there. At the Democratic convention, he even began his acceptance speech with a salute, telling the crowd of loyal Democrats that he was "reporting for duty."

"It wasn't a very good salute," remarked Warner, his voice strained with a decades-old bitterness. "If you're going to run as a war hero, somebody at least ought to teach you to salute."

Warner said his first experienced Kerry's anti-American rhetoric in 1971 when he was a Marine first lieutenant suffering in solitary confinement in the Skid Row punishment camp. His F-4 fighter had been shot down three and a half years earlier, and since that time he had been tortured and interrogated regularly. He was in a special punishment camp at the time with 35 other POWs who had been uncooperative when their captors tried to prohibit religious observances in their cells.

One morning--Warner thinks it was a Saturday--his captors brought him out for an unusually long three-hour interrogation, during which they made him read the transcript of a statement by a U.S. Navy officer and Vietnam Veteran speaking in the United States. The speech included a litany of war crimes American soldiers were committing in Vietnam.

However, Warner acknowledges that the statement could have come from of a number of speeches Kerry gave during his career as an anti-war protester.

Tom Collins, another Vietnam POW whose plane was shot down in 1965, was made to listen to Kerry's testimony on tape during his captivity. He explained that the North Vietnamese were constantly trying to elicit confessions of war crimes from Americans, promising them better treatment.

"What they wanted to do was get us to make statements that they could use for propaganda, no matter what it took to get it" he said. "They would torture us, some were even killed for it...For over seven years, their goal was to get propaganda out of me. And then I see somebody like John Kerry and the Vietnam Veterans [Against the War] giving them the same propaganda they want me to give them, free of charge, on American television."

"He knew he was putting us at risk," Warner went on. "And he was demanding unilateral withdrawal, which means our value as bargaining chips would be gone. And what do you think would have happened to us then?"

"We can forgive and forget," said Collins. "But then when he decides to bring it up and run for the highest office in the land based upon outright lies, we're not going to stand for that."

These charges by POWs and more questions about John Kerry's "war hero" status have been generated by the release of the blockbuster new book Unfit for Command (Regnery, a HUMAN EVENTS sister company) and two TV ads produced by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. The book and the ads deal not only with the dubious claims of heroics surrounding the various medals Kerry received during his four-month tour in Vietnam, but also with his virulent anti-war and anti-American actions upon his return from the war.

Human Events Online was the first to post the full transcript from Kerry's April 22, 1971, testimony and the Q&A before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the war in Vietnam online. The full document can still be read, in its original format, here.

[ez]

His interrogator kept pointing at Kerry's words, saying, 'See? This officer from your Navy says you deserve to be punished.'"

Despicable. Unforgiveable.

[rocksblues]

"He knew he was putting us at risk," Warner went on.

Didn't care then, doesn't care now!

[Williams]

The leftists were and are fools who get people killed. Kerry is one of the worst. He not only got our POW's tortured (something anyone could have foreseen) he met with the N Vietnamese torturers (in Paris) during the war and encouraged them. Kerry rushed to Paris to meet the communists, but claims he can't remember what they discussed.

[The Old Hoosier]

Kerry is a traitor and a commie apologist. Someone needs to go dig up what McCain was writing about him back in the 70s-80s, before they became good buddies.

[ClaireSolt]

And yesterday he refused to apologize, saying he was acting on what he believed. I thought it was very interesting to read the Nixon tapes. President Nixon had him pegged as a phony oportunist. Apparently he was wining and dining in the best restaurants in Georgetown while the 1200 Vietnam vets were camped on the dusty mall. Then, when it no longer got him the spotlight hed left the Vietnam Vets Against the war to run for Congress.

[azcap]

I can't wait to see his commercial. Not to sound sick or perverse but I really think these commercial should picture some photos of the abuse these POWS took, scars, wounds, their emaciated state on return, even dramatic reenactment of the beatings/torture. Logical and informed people listening to these POWs know what they mean when they say "I took torture" but these commercials would have a more powerful effect on women and non-veterans if they spelled it out and made it visually emotional.

[GarySpFc]

Ping - Kerrys' war statements affected POWs

[Ramius]

I think this is by far the most important of the parts of the fight against Kerry.

I have thought from the start that questioning the medals was not the main issue. Even though it seems that the medals do have some tarnish on them after all, I was initially loathe to question the valor of any soldier or sailor, even Kerry. It is a most uncomfortable charge to make.

The most damaging thing on Kerry and the thing about which almost nobody can argue is his reprehensible conduct when he got back from Vietnam. This should be made to stick to him like tar and feathers. He betrayed his shipmates and all who served there.

I am very glad to see that focus of the Swiftvets and other veterans start to shift onto this part of the record. I think it is even more damaging and there is no element of backlash from it that can work at all.

[Conservative4Ever]

Interesting comment you had. As a female and non-military background I can only get a small idea of what these men are talking about, but I get it. Now if there was an ad to notch it up a level with what you suggest of something a little 'more graphic'..maybe with the comments like...this could have been your son or your husband, brother..family memmber. WOW...with that personal touch..especially with the ads addressed to females...it just might have a profound effect. The hard core Bush haters probably not, but some fence sitters...maybe.

Red

[pbear8]

I would love to see this commercial - "I was tortured for what John Kerry said. Relentlessly, brutally tortured." That's the text, just show some images.

[schu]

They have him setup, the first punch was the medals and war record, he has clearly made a fool and a liar of himself on that one. Now the public is watching and interested. The first “traitor” ad was very powerful, Kerry’s own words. There are others coming, the VVAW, the trips to Paris, the association with the NV, Winter Soldiers lies, that is why he is in such a panic, he knows what is next. There is nothing he can do to stop it either.

Unfit for Command has it all right there for anyone to see.

[Tailgunner Joe]

bttt

[TASMANIANRED]

"I was tortured for what John Kerry said. Relentlessly, brutally tortured." That's the text, just show some images."


Very impactful.

The Swifties have handled this wonderfully. Each blow causes Kerry's credibility to drop a little bit and each blow is harder.

[pbear8]

Yes, I thought it was going to be one ad, I am so pleased to see that there are now three. First person accounts are always so powerful.

[doug from upland]

Congratulations, DemocRATic Party. You bring this piece of human debris as your candidate and expect America to welcome him as commander in chief? You sick bastards.

[ducks1944]

It was on news max web site and I read it and tell the dems. when they bring up McCain.

[Angry Enough]

I believe this evidence will be the most damaging of all to Kerry.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

TRANSCRIPT: 8/26/04
Steve Gardner, Foregunner, PCF44:
http://swift2.he.net/~swift2/gardner2.mpg

"I spent more time on John Kerry's boat than any other crewmember.

John Kerry hasn't been honest - he has been deceitful.

John Kerry claims that he spent Christmas, in 1968, in Cambodia.

And that is catagorically a lie. Not in December. Not in January.

We were never in Cambodia on a secret mission. Ever."

Ramsey Clark to Join Panel for Saddam’s Defense

arabnews press release 25 August 2004

NOTE :
Ramsey Clark is pictured below with Kerry and
Vietnam phony vet Al Hubbard
Who was head of the
Vietnam Veterans Against the War movement.


Al Hubbard Sgt., 22 Troop Carrier Squadron Aug. ’65-June ’66
- Al Hubbard, proven fraud who never set foot in Viet Nam.
The only Vietnamese he ever met was
when he was collaborating with the North Vietnamese in Paris
on the American Communist Party's nickel.

John Kerry's explanation:
"He (Hubbard) simply exaggarated his particular position.
But nobody knew it at the time. And those things happen."

NEW:
FReeper smith288 has an online version of
Kerry's "The New Soldier"
You can read it without downloading pdf files!
CLICK HERE

The New Soldier, (46 pages)
By John Kerry
and Vietnam Veterans
Against the War
PART I (pdf file)
PART II (pdf file)
PART III (pdf file)

Kerry hopes everyone
in the USA gets this book!

NEW:
“Without question,
we were held captive longer
because of the anti-war people,
the Kerrys, the Fondas and Haydens,
the names we knew over there -
they encouraged the enemy to hang on.”
Excerpt from “Stolen Honor” website
- Leo Thorsness
Former Vietnam POW
CLICK HERE

Jane Fonda tells the student audience at the Michigan State University in 1969;
"I would think that if you understood what communism was, you would hope,
you would pray on your knees, that we would someday become communist."

Joe Moore, Can Tho Airfield 550th Signal Company

Copy and paste the links to everyone you know.

Send this url for the Steve Gardner video

http://swift2.he.net/~swift2/gardner2.mpg

Send this url for the online version

http://ejsmithweb.com/fr/newsoldier/

Send this url for the Stolen Honor website

http://www.stolenhonor.com/

Print this out (46 pages) and disribute it,
especially to the liberals you know.

http://nomayo.mu.nu/archives/New%20Soldier%20Inro.pdf

http://nomayo.mu.nu/archives/New%20Soldier.pdf

http://nomayo.mu.nu/archives/New%20Soldier%20Epilogue.pdf