Posted on 08/08/2004 5:09:55 PM PDT by Steven W.
XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN AUG 08, 2004 19:04:35 ET XXXXX
SWIFT OFFICERS AND VETS: KERRY LIED ABOUT SPENDING CHRISTMAS IN CAMBODIA
Since the early 1970s, Kerry has spoken and written of how he was illegally ordered to enter Cambodia. Kerry mentioned it in the floor of the Senate in 1986 when he charged that President Reagan’s actions in Central America were leading the U.S. in another Vietnam. Here’s what he said as excerpted from the new book, UNFIT FOR COMMAND:
I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by the Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and have the president of the United States telling the American people that I was not there; the troops were not in Cambodia. I have that memory which is seared--seared--in me.
DRUDGE has learned from the accounts of Swift Boat officers and Kerry’s crewmembers that Kerry was never in Cambodia. UNFIT FOR COMMAND authors charge that Kerry made it all up.
“Despite the dramatic memories of his Christmas in Cambodia, Kerry’s statements are complete lies,” according to John O’Neil, co-author and the Swift Boat commander who took over Kerry’s boat. “Kerry was never in Cambodia during Christmas 1968, or at all during the Vietnam War. . . . he was more than fifty miles away from Cambodia.”
Kerry was stationed at Coastal Division 13 in Cat Lo. Coastal Division 13’s patrol areas extended to Sa Dec, about 55 miles from the Cambodian border. . . . Tom Anderson, Commander of River Division 531, who was in charge of PBRs (small river patrol crafts] confirmed that there were no Swifts anywhere in the area and they would have been stopped had they appeared.
All the living commanders in Kerry’s chain of command . . . deny that Kerry was ever ordered to Cambodia. They indicate that Kerry would have been seriously disciplined or court-martialed had he gone there. At least three of the five crewmen on Kerry’s boat, Bill Zaldonis, Steven Hatch, and Steve Gardner, deny that they or their boat were ever in Cambodia.
O’Neill observed that the Cambodia incursion story is not included in Tour of Duty (Kerry’s recent biography). Instead, Kerry replaced the story with a report about a mortar attack that occurred on Christmas Eve 1968 “near the Cambodian border” in a town called Sa Dec and Christmas day was spent at the base writing entries in his journal.
After conducting interviews and research, authors of Unfit for Command conclude, “The truth is that Kerry made up his secret mission into Cambodia.... the lie about the illegal Cambodian incursion painted his superiors up the chain of command. . . . as villains faced down by John Kerry, a solitary hero in grave and exotic danger and forced illegally against his will into harm’s way.”
Developing...
bttt
I agree, I think he is a lunatic spinning his own reality and anyone who supports him is also a lunatic or incredibly stupid.
now you're start'n to see my point of view...g'nite, time to put this dead horse to rest.
Good night........pleasant dreams.
OK, thanks. Let's say we convince the country that he made the story up. Then what?
"I didn't really want to get involved in the war," Kerry said in a little-noticed contribution to a book of Vietnam reminiscences published in 1986. "When I signed up for the swift boats, they had very little to do with the war. They were engaged in coastal patrolling and that's what I thought I was going to be doing."
Then at the end of the same article:
Six months earlier, Kerry had been a gung-ho skipper eager to lead his men and be a hero. Now he felt the mission had changed. He replaced his dream of a life in politics with a path of protest.
Is it just me or is there some discrepancy in these statements?
His CO or O'Neill (can't remember which) during the initial swift boat vet press conference said that Kerry was not in favor of the war going in. It is at the beginning of the press conference.
If they want to get their story out, they need an add.
How about pathological liar then ?
Wonder if the press is going to treat this like they did the swift boat ad-- with criticism of the veterans and no review of the facts about Kerry's performance? Four months is more than alot of people served in Vietnam, but it's less than the average stint. Are we going to have to hold this liar in "highest regard" because of 120 days of active service?
Thank you for this record.
A young man who worked for my father, got drafted and sent to Vietnam. He was a very sweet young man. His name was Pat Pompella. Pat was shot and killed by the enemy while he cleared Lz's.
I heard from Pat's army buddy a couple years ago. His buddy is now a doctor who teaches at a university and conducts research. This doctor told me that Pat had saved his life many times, and recalled one story where a tree was about to fall on him, and Pat covered him with his body. Pat was hurt, and saved his friend from injury.
Pat recieved NO medals for his trouble.
I DEEPLY resent the metals that Kerry received for minor injuries and pulling a man out of the water. I am sickened by his disdain for the metals which led him to "pretend" to throw them away.
It is an insult to all service men and women that he is even running for the highest office in the land.
It has to do with credibility. Like a sweater coming unraveled, a lot more of his assertions will come under scrutiny and the SBVFT will become more believable to the public. Kerry has lied about his service in Vietnam, lied before Congress about his fellow sailors and soldiers, lied about his throwing his medals away, etc. Maybe the MSM will start pressing him to authorize the release of his military records and Teresa's tax returns; to explain what transpired at his meetings with the Communist Vietnamese in Paris; about the destroyed MIA records while he was Chairman of the select Senate committee looking into the MIA/POW issue, and a host of other areas that anyone running for President should be asked about.
It might just vanish. So the entire article has been posted.
Then the ace indexers like you have been pinged.
You left out MaMa T Rex.
A lot of freepers jumped all over Drudge that he erred. Well, when you look the stuff this liberal has written about his buddy al Kerri the past decade, Drudge was right with that one mistake due to Amazon.com.
Kerri is a mentally ill pathological liar, who has been protected re his lies by the Boston media and the DNC.
If a Republican had made 1/10 of the lies that Kerri has made, the mediots would be all over him/her like they were on Nixon and still are on Nixon.
Correction, he is the Franchurian Dork Candidate.
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