On the mixed-up files of John Kerry

http://powerlineblog.com ^ | 6-82005 07:54 AM | Scott Johnson

[Deetes]

Reader John Boyle writes:

I have been yelling since last year that the Navy does not have Kerry's records, nor does DoD.

The Navy has always been Kerry's hide-out. The Navy is covered by the Privacy Laws. You're a lawyer, right? The SF 180 is generically addressed to the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis. These records are 30 to 40 years old. They are history! They do not stay at Navy Personnel Command forever.

It seems to me that all of Kerry's tortured rhetoric on this subject attests to the fact that he was having his records vetted, in spite of the public claim to openness. How to accomplish this? Tell the NPRC, on the SF 180, that the designated recipient of the records is to be a federal Agency (subject to the Privacy Laws) - the Navy!

Then, Kerry or his people get to vet the records at the Navy's offices, allow release of what they want by another required waiver separate from the SF 180, withhold what they don't want out there, and the Navy cannot comment on the process, their holdings - or their withholdings!

The trick is in whom he designated to receive the outflow from NPRC. Read the opening of Kranish's article again:"The records, which the Navy Personnel Command provided to the Globe..."

This is not rocket science, yet no one seems to understand what was done here.

Boyle followed up with the following message:

I want to give you another shot on this, just to be sure you understand. It is crystal clear obvious to me, yet very few people seem to get it...is it how I 'splain it?

The SF 180 is actually a request for "Report of Separation" and all such documents are in the sole custody of the National Personnel Records Center, in St. Louis - not the branch in which the veteran served (in this case the Navy). And the character of Kerry's "separation" (discharge) from the Navy is obviously the document(s) that are hot.

The SF 180 directs the National Personnel Records Center to release records, at the request of the documented veteran, and send them to whomever he designates (usually himself) - period. What is the Navy doing in the middle of this? The Navy must have been the designated recipient, on this specific SF 180 (not the Boston Globe, as Kranish explicitly admits). As a Federal entity, the Navy is then subject to Privacy Laws and any release by them had to be additionally waived by Kerry - or not. He could then easily not waive specific documents for release that he found damaging. What the Boston Globe got was the remainder of whatever the Navy received from NPRC, less what Kerry wished to withhold.

It may be that the Globe is unaware of this game; although I wrote about this at length last week to their reporter Joan Vennochi, who had written that Kerry's 180 was in the pipeline, in order to alert the Globe to what was afoot.

A real shell game.

We have it on good authority that ace reporter Thomas Lipscomb is working the story of the Globe and Kerry's records as well. Until Lipscomb's stories surface, we'll try mull over Boyle's explanations.

UPDATE: Reader John Gershwin has directed us to the succinct explanation posted here, and reader Randy Moss (if that's his real name, I'm pretty sure he's not the former Vikings wide receiver) refers us to the Spectator's "Mission accomplished."

[MarineBrat]

Tin hat time.

Wha?!?!? Why? He hasn't released his records. He's a lying POS, and to say "Tin hat time" is to pretend that Hanoi John has done what was asked of him.

Bush released his. Bush senior did. Bob Dole did. Even our least favorite RINO McCain did. But here's effin Hanoi John pretending he is someting more than a lying lawyereese speaking POS.

He's still a teenage boy trying to pretend he's smart. The conversation goes something like this...

FATHER: Son, did you bathe?

SON: Yes, I did!

FATHER: (After taking a whiff) I want you to go upstairs into the bathroom. REMOVE your clothes. Put them INTO the hamper. CLOSE the lid on the hamper. Step INTO the shower. TURN ON the shower. DO NOT avoid the stream of water! Get completely wet. Use SOAP! Wash your body with soap! Scrub your private areas well! Get your hair wet! The hair on your head! Wash your hair (the hair on your head) with shampoo! Completely RINSE the shampoo molecules from the hair on your head. Place conditioner in your freshly rinsed hair on your head! Massage it into the hair on your HEAD! Wait one minute of TIME, equal to sixty seconds on MY WATCH! Completely rinse the conditioner molecules from the hair on your head! Turn off the water! Use a TOWEL! A CLEAN TOWEL! Dry your body all over with a clean towel, including the hair on your head. DO NOT remove your dirty clothes from the clothes hamper. Put on clean underwear, socks, pants and shirt, where "clean" is defined as living up to the standards previously set forth by YOUR MOTHER in document 234.56.78.

And that is what needs to happen to Hanoi John! Someone needs to spell out every single eventuality or else he'll weasel until the cows come home.

I wonder how many hundreds of gallons of urine that has been saved for Hanoi Jane's grave will now be divvied up for the both of them?

[mj1234]

your taking Dan and See B.S. to literally-

they actually have been attacking Bush since he ran for
Governor-

Remember always--( Dan did fundraising for the Demonrats !)

Dan's daughter is a PAID consultant of the Demonrat party.

The rather "Clan" hates America

[metesky]

Sounds fishy.

Agreed. A real tightrope walker...

[Darksheare]

Yeah, he does quite a balancing act there.
I like his defense of Kerry.
That alone is distasteful enough.

[Deetes]

LOL

[Deetes]

YOU MOVE ON! I AM STAYING RIGHT ON KERRY'S TAIL!

Right on!!! He need to be in PRISON !!!!

[Deetes]

Tin hat time

Put my zotter detector hat on !!!??? :-)))

[Darksheare]

Yeah, he can keep the lightning rod on his head.
;-)

[lorris]

Move on??? That's nuts. Not a day goes by that I don't think about JFnK (and Kennedy for that matter) getting voted out of office! Kerry might have quite a senate race on his hands in 2006, and I'm hoping he has to be on the defensive at every turn of that race, (which we all know he can't handle).

That man makes my stomach turn. Him getting into office in the first place was a crime. This man (monster) has a hand in federal laws. His records have not been released and moving on is not an option!

[OESY]

The Sound of One Hand Clapping

Our item yesterday on John Kerry*, his military records and his Yale transcript prompted this criticism from a reader:

Your failure to acknowledge that John Kerry's Navy records contained praise from (future) members of the Swift Boats outfit demonstrates your lack of integrity and your fundamental dishonesty. You are a shill. Congratulations.

"The Swift Boats outfit," of course, is the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, and sure enough, yesterday's Boston Globe did say this:

The records, which the Navy Personnel Command provided to the Globe, are mostly a duplication of what Kerry released during his 2004 campaign for president, including numerous commendations from commanding officers who later criticized Kerry's Vietnam service. . . . An earlier release of the full record might have helped his campaign because it contains a number of reports lauding his service.

OK, so we goofed. We should have noted this yesterday. The reason we didn't is that we remembered reading in the paper that the Swift Boat guys were a bunch of liars, so we assumed their praise was not to be trusted.

Now that their credibility has been re-established, let's check in on what they're saying about the release of Kerry's records. Blogger Matt Margolis has the following comment (scroll down to "Update III") from Swift Boat honcho John O'Neill:

We called for Kerry to execute a form which would permit anyone to examine his full and unexpulgated [sic] military records at the Navy Department and the National Personnel Records Center. Instead he executed a form permitting his hometown paper to obtain the records currently at the Navy Department. The Navy Department previously indicated its records did not include various materials. This is hardly what we called for.

If he did execute a complete release of all records we could then answer questions such as (1) Did he ever receive orders to Cambodia or file any report of such a mission (whether at Christmas or otherwise); (2) What was his discharge status between 1970 and 1978 (when he received a discharge) and was it affected by his meetings in 1970 and 1971 with the North Vietnamese? (3) why did he receive much later citations for medals purportedly signed by Secretary Lehman who said he did not know of them; (4) Are there Hostile Fire and Personnel Injured by Hostile Fire Reports for Kerry's Dec. 1968 Purple Heart (when the officer in charge of the boat Admiral Schacte, the treating Surgeon Louis Letson, and Kerry's Division Commander deny there was hostile fire causing a scratch) awarded three months later under unknown circumstances.

Remember, O'Neill heads a group whose members praised Kerry, so he can hardly be dismissed as an anti-Kerry partisan.

* No, actually the asterisk isn't part of his name.

-- BEST OF THE WEB TODAY

[TASMANIANRED]

bump

[bitt]

LT ping

[bitt]

John Kerry, Please Stop Calling Me

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/06/08/175154.php


"I gave money to John Kerry's campaign in the 2004 election. I still receive calls to this day asking for money. Either its kids needing healthcare or Kerry needing a tutor in foreign policy (see my post about Kerry's undergrad grades) - it seems like its always something my tax dollars, or Senator Kerry, can't fix without an additional $50 from me.

To Senator Kerry: With all do respect, we aren't stupid. We all know you are running again in 2008. When you have your people call us to ask for money, why don't you just have them say it's for that. At least then we can get a laugh out of it and don't have to think about impoverished children all day long.

Sincerely, An Independent thinker who was never impressed with you in the first place and is less impressed with you now.

P.S. Please stop calling me.

[Bernard]

As long as my idiotic neighbor keeps her Kerry/Edwards bumper sticker on her car

Does your neighbor keep her car in the garage. I have a neighbor who plans to keep his Kerry yard sign out until after the 2008 election.

And he didn't like it too much when I told him he could have his choice of either calendar - The RNC calendar with GWB on each page, or a Ronald Reagan calendar my daughter gave me, to mark down every day he had that loser sign in his yard. Some people just can't get over it.

[Mrs.Nooseman]

I agree!

[Morgan's Raider]

And he didn't like it too much when I told him he could have his choice of either calendar - The RNC calendar with GWB on each page, or a Ronald Reagan calendar my daughter gave me, to mark down every day he had that loser sign in his yard.

A really GOOD neighbor would give him 4 years of G. Gordon Liddy's "Stacked and Packed" calendars...

[REDWOOD99]

You don't REALLY believe what you just posted, do you? Where have you been? You don't want to see these doc's before you leap to the conclusion that they've been fully disclosed? You take Kerry's word for it that they have? What were you thinking?

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

"Tin hat time. The records have been released and people need to move on."



There is no need to impeach Hanoi Kerry from the US Senate

He is there illegally!

WAKEUP AMERICA!

For those who "forgot" what Hanoi Kerry
did in the past read on and learn the truth.

Hanoi Kerry was still a USNR officer while he:
gave false hearsay testimony to Congress
negotiated with the enemy
helped the US lose a war
abetted in the deaths of millions
created a hostile environment for all servicemen

Why is Kerry still in the US Senate?
This is in violation of
U.S. Constitution Amendment 14 Sec 3
http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.amendmentxiv.html

And the FBI has proof of his treason.

Hanoi Kerry Timeline of a traitor
includes FBI files

May 1970
Kerry and Julia traveled to Paris, France and met with Madame Nguyen Thi Binh, the Foreign Minister of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of Vietnam (PRG), the political wing of the Vietcong, and other Viet Cong and Communist Vietnamese representatives to the Paris peace talks, a trip he now calls a "fact-finding" mission.

(U.S. code 18 U.S.C. 953, declares it illegal for a U.S. citizen to go abroad and negotiate with a foreign power.)

http://www.archive-news.net/Kerry/JK_timeline.html

a) A person charged with absence without leave or missing movement in time of war,
or with any offense punishable by death,
may be tried at any time without limitation.

http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/ucmj.htm#*%20843.%20ART.%2043.%20STATUTE%20OF%20LIMITATIONS

Distribute these url's!

Links to Anti Kerry sites
212 LINKS
News reports,
Viper's Vietnam Veterans Page

http://members.aol.com/ga1449ga/links/links.html


EXPOSE HANOI KERRY!

MUST SEE WEBSITE!!!!

http://www.kerrystreason.com/index.html

Full details on these url's!

http://stophanoikerry.150m.com

There is a backup site
if the 1st url is unavailable.

http://tonkin.spymac.net/hanoikerry1.html

Did you see this...?
(The 'Kerry's Promise Counter')
http://polipundit.com/index.php?p=6628
Polipundit even tells you how to install it on your own page!

Swift Boat Veteran For Truth John O'Neill Comments on Kerry's 180 'Release'
6/7/05
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1418592/posts

[Diddle E. Squat]

Have ya'll seen this?

[Miss Marple]

No, I hadn't seen this. Thanks for pinging me!

I see that someone wants us to "move on." I wonder why?

Sooner or later those records are going to come out, one way or another. Someone will see them and blab, whether at the records center, the Pentagon, or the paper. Kerry can't keep dodging forever.