Posted on 10/14/2004 1:55:15 PM PDT by areafiftyone
The Swift Boat Controversy: New Witnesses
October 14, 2004
John Kerry's service in Vietnam has become a campaign issue. The group calling itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth alleges that Kerry has distorted the truth about what happened during the war and questions whether he deserved the medals he received. Tonight, you'll hear from eyewitnesses who have not spoken before: the Vietnamese who fought against him.
We've had the debates and the race is a virtual dead-heat. This is the part of a campaign when there are daily fires--issues that rise, flare, and then go away, only to be replaced by a new one the next day. But for a while, this campaign was dominated by Vietnam, a war that ended, at least the fighting, thirty years ago. John Kerry made his service in Vietnam a major part of his campaign. The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth fired back. They have alleged that Kerry was not truthful about his actions in Vietnam. Then questions were raised about the group's connections to people linked to the GOP. And so the story just kept spiraling in different directions. But the polls clearly showed that Kerry was hurt by allegations that he was not candid about his actions in Vietnam.
Which brings us to an old expression: the fog of war. People, in general, are not always great eyewitnesses. Memories fade, especially as the years go by. Two people standing next to each other may have very different recollections of something that happened right in front of them. But in the whole Swift Boat controversy, there is one group that hasn't been heard from at length: the Vietnamese. Producer Andrew Morse went to Vietnam, to the coordinates taken from the U.S. military after-action report from Kerry's battle for which he won the Silver Star. And there Andrew found several people who had either witnessed the events of that day, or in some cases, had actually fought against the swift boats. And it is their accounts that you will hear tonight. Do their accounts favor one version or the other? Can these questions be definitively settled? You'll have to judge. One of the surprising stories we were told? One of the Vietnamese men in the area says he was visited by a man claiming to be a swift boat veteran and a cameraman. He says the veteran was disparaging towards Kerry's conduct in the war, and asked him in an interview about the events of that day. We do not know who that man is, or whatever happened to that tape.
Ted will be anchoring tonight, and he will be joined by John O'Neill, a leader of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and the author of Unfit for Command, a book critical of Kerry. I hope you'll join us.
Leroy Sievers and the Nightline Staff,br> Washington D.C.
Why were numbers used for the date he died and something different except for the year to date his birth...or at least I assume that is what that is.
Also, does anyone know what that symbol that is like a
7 H stuck together means?
Inre: The date on the headstone.
Three words...
"Baby Milk Factory"
* * * PLEASE READ * * *
As others have said, the date on the headstone may be correct and before we cry foul on something that can prove to be legitimate, we should focus on the fact that of course the date is correct because the entire episode was produced and directed by the Communist party.
Remember, ABCNews asks for permission to (a) enter their country to do a report about Senator Kerry (b) at precise coordinates outlined in this report (c) about an incident that is detailed in a book (d) that took place on such and such date. The Government turned them away ...Three months later, with a little research and prep time, ABCNews was let back in to do their report.
The Communist regime remembers that Kerry has been sympathetic to them and that he is also a declared hero in their country, so they have an opportunity to get in good with him and pander to their people.
A generation ago, a foreign country trying to influence an election in our country, would have been an act of war. On October 14, 2004, the biases of ABCNews and Ted Koppel were used against them, as their blind search for evidence to disprove the Swift Vet claims allowed the Communist Government of Vietnam to plant a story in order to buy off John Kerry.
ABCNews and Nightline probably didn't realize what was happening, but because they set out to find a story to fit their agenda, it was an open invitation to the Vietnamese Government to influence November's election.
Focus on the big picture!!
Vietnam would forever hold this over John Kerry. They would threaten the exposure of the truth unless they are given certain concesions. Communists just tried to buy John Kerry and used Ted Koppel as their salesman. Bias has become a weapon. This goes way beyond the Swift Vets.
It was as I said earlier - "a 'reverse set-up'"
Ted used the first 25 minutes setting it all up figuring on a "Super Ted" quick and easy kill.
O'Neill nailed him coming in the door with references tagged, tabbed and ready to go (though maybe he did flash them once to often) and he was just waitin'!
Ted was stuck on his stool with a handful of scripted notes -- only no one gave O'Neill the script and there was Ted stuck with the "deer in the headlights" look and absolutely no out as O'Neill just poured it on. Talk about a one-man wrecking crew!
O'Neill was only half right when he said "you've been had"
More correctly it should be "Ted, you were had and now you've been caught!"
Once again I say: In the swirl of s*** in the bottom of the cosmic crapper of MSM "journalism" is that Ted I hear hollering: "Don't worry Dan, I've got your back..."
same reason bump
I tended to be a little more blunt in my e-mail:
just watched Nightline, thanks...
(I figure that subject line will at least get opened)
...ABC. That. along with the Halperin memo confirms to me you're all about equal to the scumbag known as Dan Rather...
but since you're all trying to install a traitor as CIC it's not like it wasn't expected
keep watching Fox ratings going up while your's keeps dropping, you just lost yet another viewer-needless to say your advertisers and the FCC will hear my complaints...
I didn't bother to sign it and I do plan to e-mail the FCC and complain-FWIW...
does anybody have the advertiser list compiled yet?
I listened to the audio of the Nightline story on the Swiftees website. I think this grave is not of the VC Kerry allegedly shot, but of the husband of "Huyan Tee Sung" (phonetic spelling), one of 7 VC that Koppel claims was killed that day. Is this correct? It should be about 6-8 minutes into the story, if you have it saved.
The side by sides with the citations is great. I hadn't seen it presented this way before. Thanks.
I'm curious about the independent producer who has spent the past 25 years in and out of vietnam. He speaks fluent vietnamese. He approached ABC offering his help. Very suspicious if you ask me. I think his name is Kyle Harris or Hurst?
No question about it. Koppel constantly and derisively objected, in his snooty tone, that why would a bunch of peasants want to verify part of Kerry's story? Well, they didn't. Kerry spoke of a lone gunman. They spoke of a pitched battle. No one else spoke of a pitched battle. But apparently they were in one, and never knew it, until now. Kerry was particularly oblivious to all this. And he's the reason it's important, one of their own national heroes, and why the Vietnamese put these folks up to this. Funny - the 'fogawar'. Or is that just the fog above Ted's brainstem?
O'Neill had it just right. Koppel should be ashamed. he's not a 'journalist', whatever that even means, these days. He's a propagandist, eager to believe personal reports from those living in a controlled, terrorized Communist society, with minders from the government looking over these people's shoulders as they speak on camera. Never mind, that their principal 'witnesses', were former VC themselves. That's why they claim to have been there. They were the ones shooting at the Americans and South Vietnamese. Koppel has unapologetically and even condescendingly become a mouthpiece for Vietnamese Communist propaganda. THAT . . is a fair assessment. That is EXACTLY what happened last night.
What a piece of crap. My email congratulated Koppel on living up to the Mark Halperin memo.
So when the Left-wing trashes a genuine war hero...Koppel swallows it whole without a single word given in Bush's defense.
I thought you might be interested in this. I missed the show, but the thread is worth a read. Soon," professional journalism" will have all the credibility of "professional wrestling".
Remember McCain backed Kerry up all the way on the POWs and MIAs. The families and Senator Bob Smith would furious.
THAT is news to me!
Both the Sy Hersh smear and Koppel's report.
So this hit piece is NOTHING new for Ted.
Figgers.
Thank God for John O'Neill.
He trounced Ted.
I'll just bet the dems are emialing fast and furiously for Koppel to stop it, with an autoresponder to make it more efficient.
Soooo .. lets see if I have this straight ..??
Kerry wanted to verify that he really earned his Silver Star .. since the Swift Vets have called into question Kerry's integrity, and have exposed the false stories Kerry has previously told to earn the purple heart medals.
Did ABC agree to MAKE IT HAPPEN? ABC goes to a communist country; the NV will not let them into the country. However, suddenly .. without explanation .. they finally give their approval. ABC finds North Vietnamese villagers who (even with a minder) are able to tell some fantastic story about Kerry's heroism (in great detail - after 35 years). And .. they have a grave to prove it .. except the grave marker says January 12, 1969, and the incident for the Silver Star happened in February 1968.
It's no wonder Ted Koppel was so mad at John O'Neill because John would not capitulate to Koppel's demands to accept the new information regarding the Silver Star. O'Neill wouldn't accept it because there were 3 other pieces of documentation (2 of them from Kerry) stating a different story than the one on the after action report.
The new information is that the young person Kerry was forced to kill was not a teen, but was a 26 year old soldier from NV, and he was the leader of a group of about 12 other officers who were firing at the Kerry boat. There may be other issues, but the age of the person and whether or not he was alone seem to be the main issues of contention between the different accounts of the incident.
The problem: Kerry's after action report is the only documentation for the story on niteline. The Boston Globe and Tour of Duty books both have the original story that there was only a wounded teen, and according to John O'Neill, that is the story Steve Gardner (Kerry's gunner) also tells.
O'Neill was justified in being angry that Koppel had not interviewed any of the other American Swift Boat veterans who were there during the incident, but that ABC had relied instead on former enemies of America to use to fabricate Kerry's after action report.
This illegal activity is collusion between a media group and a presidential campaign. Collusion and deceit perpetrated upon the American people in order to affect an election. There is no difference between this and what CBS did. CBS used forged documents and ABC used FAKE witnesses.
JUST HOW MUCH LOWER ARE THE DEMOCRATS GOING TO STOOP BEFORE THEY FALL OFF THE CLIFF INTO THE ABYSS?
Check the blog stopdemocrats.com tomorrow and read my expanded story about this.
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