Swiftboating the New York Times

Powerline ^ | June 5 2006 | Scott Johnson

[Tirian]

That's "Swiftboating" -- as John Hinderaker defines it: "when a veteran says somehthing that liberals disagree with." Kate Zernike is John Kerry's latest mainstream media stenographer regarding his service in Vietnam. I wrote briefly about her New York Times article in "Return of the magic hat" and called on Tom Lipscomb to rise to the bait:

Preparing for another grab at the brass ring, John Kerry seeks to engage the claims of the Swift Boat veterans. In today's New York Times, the "magic hat" -- the hat that Kerry claims was tossed to him by the "special forces" (apparently Navy SEALS) he dropped off on his journey to Cambodia (formerly dated to Christmas Eve 1968, now to February 1969) -- magically reappears. The story by Kate Zernike is 'Kerry pressing Swift Boat case long after loss'."

The "magic hat" made its last appearance in Laura Blumenfeld's June 2003 Washington Post profile of Kerry. In Blumenfeld's piece, Kerry stated it was his "good luck hat" and that it had been given to him by "a CIA guy as we went in for a special mission to Cambodia." Does Kerry save it to impress the lady reporters? I'd like to see him pull it on Tom Lipscomb...

Today Lipscomb -- a real journalist who served as New York chairman of the Vietnam Veterans Leadership Program -- reports for duty with a fine column: "The truth, John Kerry and the New York Times." Here's the beauty part:

Zernike appears to have made no effort to look at any record besides listing Kerry's latest assertions with obligatory quotes from the usual Swiftie suspects to provide "balance." She doesn't appear to be aware of the hilarious inconsistency of the Kerry hat story she recites dutifully as if this was the very first time the hat had appeared in print. As the clips should have shown her, Kerry first pulled the famous hat out of a "secret compartment" for Washington Post reporter Laura Blumenfeld's feature story in 2003. "My good luck hat," Kerry told Blumenfeld, "given to me by a CIA guy." Now he tells Zernike a "special operations team" member gave it to him on a secret "mission that records say was to insert Navy Seals" in February.

Once again Zernike cites a Kerry claim as fact, this time directly conflicting with the Washington Post account on the record. But the facts on this are already on the record and no matter what Kerry "researchers" may come up with they should be addressed by any reporter attempting a review of the dispute. Admiral Roy Hoffman may have been head of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, but he was also in command of all the Swift Boat operations in Vietnam, directly under the commander of all sea operations in Vietnam, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt.

Any tasking for insertions of special operations troops across borders by sea, whether Seals, CIA, Army Special Forces or Vietnamese troops like CIDG had to come through his command. Hoffman stated he was never asked to handle missions for the CIA. "They had their own teams for that. And none of my Coastal Commands ever inserted any troops of this kind into Cambodia. We had some operations we ran north that I am not at liberty to discuss."

Orders for sensitive incursion operations like this don't appear by magic. And an individual boat commander, whether it is Kerry or anyone else, doesn't simply head across a border with a boatful of Seals on his own. Kerry's direct commander at An Thoi, George Elliott, has denied ever being asked to run such a mission out of his base and three of Kerry's PCF 44 crewmen have denied ever being in Cambodia with Kerry.

Tedd Peck, accompanied Kerry's PCF 44 on his PCF 57 from Cam Ranh down to their new assignment at An Thoi where they arrived on December 8, 1968. Peck served there with Kerry until he was wounded and med-evaced out on January 29, 1969. Douglas Brinkley states that "Kerry liked Peck." So what does Peck have to say about secret missions out of An Thoi to Cambodia? "There never was one. And I never saw a Navy Seal at An Thoi the whole time I served there with Kerry"

What does it take to wake up a good reporter that there are some issues here besides one junior lieutenant's latest assertions on the basis, once again, of totally undisclosed records? It isn't simply a matter of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth "lies." The facts recited by Kerry make no military sense, fly in direct opposition to authoritative testimony, and are yet to be backed by any records anyone has seen. And Kerry keeps changing his story.

The mission Kerry described to Laura Blumenfeld was the famous "Christmas in Cambodia" trip since disproved by Kerry's own log. Zernike ledes with "showing the entry in a log he kept from 1969: 'Feb 12: 0800 run to Cambodia'" and swallows it unquestioningly. The only authority that "Kerry log" has ever had is that it has been in the sole possession of John Kerry and carefully kept away from objective research that may or not have disclosed changes or heavy editing over time.

Everything that Tom Lipscomb writes about Zernike applies even more so to hacks such as Star Tribune deputy editorial page editor Jim "Boydot" Boyd, who castigated John and me as smear artists after the Star Tribune published an August 2004 op-ed column we wrote on Kerry's bogus journey to Cambodia. Over the weekend Boydot seems to have rejoined the fray with a typically fact-free and inaccurate Star Tribune editorial that would be an embarassment to a serious newspaper ("No candidate should have to endure what Kerry got"). Our own close encounter with Boydot in August 2004 gave rise to an extended series of posts providing a glimpse into the wacky world of the fellow we dubbed the cowardly lion of Portland Avenue...

[Tirian]

From the guys at Powerline. There is a hard core out that that will continue believe at all costs that the Swifties were all liars (and that Air National Guard typewriters in the Vietnam era really did use proportional fonts ...)

[Always Right]

his journey to Cambodia (formerly dated to Christmas Eve 1968, now to February 1969)

Kerry:  "I have that memory which is seared -- seared -- in me.""

[DJ Taylor]

Sometimes I think The New York Times readership has declined to the point where the only people who read it are conservatives, and we only read it for a good laugh.

[geezerwheezer]

They also believe the Earth is flat.....and the Easter Bunny and Santa. For some reason these idiots don't want to grow up and accept the fact that Kerry is a skillful liar and a fraud. Their problem, not mine!

[Steely Tom]

Admiral Roy Hoffman may have been head of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, but he was also in command of all the Swift Boat operations in Vietnam, directly under the commander of all sea operations in Vietnam, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt.

Any tasking for insertions of special operations troops across borders by sea, whether Seals, CIA, Army Special Forces or Vietnamese troops like CIDG had to come through his command.

Hoffman stated he was never asked to handle missions for the CIA. "They had their own teams for that. And none of my Coastal Commands ever inserted any troops of this kind into Cambodia. We had some operations we ran north that I am not at liberty to discuss."

I take a back seat to no one in my belief that Kerry is a grade-A liar, fake, and fraud. But the above statements by Admiral Hoffman appear to leave a loophole, at least to my non-military eyes. Couldn't the CIA teams have included thier own insertion capabilities?

[Jameison]

"Our own close encounter with Boydot in August 2004 gave rise to an extended series of posts providing a glimpse into the wacky world of the fellow we dubbed the cowardly lion of Portland Avenue..."

Jim "Boydot" Boyd is as loopy as they come.
Fittingly , he is an editor of an MSM "newspaper".
Like any MSM gunslinger, Jim "Boydot" Boyd is regularly factually challenged, lacks any objectivity whatsoever, and hardly ever tells the truth, is biased as they come, and is a rabid Bush-hater to boot.
The public have accordingly been voting with their wallets by sharply reducing the copies of this BS rag they buy.
Needless to say The Star Tribune is one of the rags that have been forced to let some of their people go, due to falling circulation.
Ain't life just sweet? :)

[Smedley]

So what does Peck have to say about secret missions out of An Thoi to Cambodia? "There never was one. And I never saw a Navy Seal at An Thoi the whole time I served there with Kerry"

Well, DUH!

They were super-secret SEALs that only Kerry could see.

[AkronConservative]

"Skilled liar"....I dare say you are wrong! He has no skill.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

and that Air National Guard typewriters in the Vietnam era really did use proportional fonts ...

. . . and that closely held real documents which would embarass their author get zeroxed, and the copy gets zeroxed, and that copy gets zeroxed . . . a dozen or so times but the Democrats couldn't find a copy in two gubernatorial campaigns and one presidential campaign against Bush - then suddenly, in the '04 election year of all times, Shazam!

Humorist Herb Shriner gave it out that

"A man came up to my sister in a hotel lobby and handed her a note. It said, 'You are the only woman I ever loved. Please come to me in Room 217.'

She wasn't sure it was sincere, though - it was mimeographed!"

[jmaroneps37]

To the scumbags in the left there are certain false "truths" that they will NEVER admit are lies.
To these swine, the rosenbergs were innocent, hiss was innocent, stalin did NOT starve millions of people to death in the Ukraine, algore won, and frenchie is a war hero. There is nothing anyone can write or say that will change these false "truths" to recognized lies for these bottom feeders.

[sofaman]

"No candidate should have to endure what Kerry got"

But Bush deserved what HE got regarding the FAKE CBS docs, huh, Mr Boydot? You schmuck.

[Al Gator]

Rule One:
Whenever some turd is inventing a story, the first thing said turd says, when pressed for details,"well, it was a super secret, hush, hush kind of thing". Your BS detector should start barking, loudly.

CIA didn't need no stinking pt boat to put guys up a river that was off limits.

If they really needed to do that, they would have used indigenous.

[D-Chivas]

There is a hard core out that that will continue believe at all costs that the Swifties were all liars (and that Air National Guard typewriters in the Vietnam era really did use proportional fonts ...)

Yeah, and most of them are "respected" journalists..... who always appear to be off their meds. Ha ha ha!

[massgopguy]

John Kerry's autobiography will be called How I Won the War. Go down to a Legion Hall or a DAV. You will never EVER hear the men talk about themselves the way that John F'ing Kerry embellishes the 90 days he spent in country.

[JerseyHighlander]

"And then we liaisoned with the manbearseal team. We were stoked to finally cross the border. Excellent."

[DJtex]

Kerry is a skillful liar and a fraud.

Not as skillful as Slick Willie but on a par with Hillary. Kerry wants to run for POTUS again in 2008 and is working hard on it, harder by far than Al Gore.

So Kerry is trying to rewrite the Swiftboat story with a number of sympathetic reporters.

[facedown]

Kerry: "I have that memory which is seared -- seared -- in me."

I've also got the hat, dammit.

[Steely Tom]

Sorry. I wasn't thinking straight. Kerry said he took the double-super-secret guys on their mission. His chain-of-command says "no way that happened," and there's no way the CIA could have commandeered assets under the control of this chain-of-command without its knowledge.

Have I got that right?

(steely)

[D-fendr]

I think Kerry got the idea for this bogus story from Apocalypse Now. He reviewed the film for some publication and even used it as a comparision for this Magic Hat Episode.

I think this is where the who scam started.

[sd-joe]

You are so correct.

Also Swift boats were terrible boats to do that job. They were relatively big and very noisy. There were other boats available that worked better.