[antimedia] John Kerry raised the issue of his Vietnam service again....

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RE: Antimedia's post--John Kerry raised the issue of his Vietnam service
again....
Someone (you and or Bruce?) should make sure that Thomas Lipscomb sees Bruce
Kesler's superb, almost point by point rebuttal of the claims of Kerry and
his acolytes in Bruce's article below.
Phil
 
May 27, 2006


NYT <http://www.democracy-project.com/archives/002565.html> 's Is Full Of
Kerry 




The New York Times is past being the paper of record and is now again
recorder for John Kerry's crap. In another of the New York Times' pattern of
weekend raids, this one ironically if not purposely on Memorial Day weekend
when honorable service and sacrifice is remembered, it instead cooperates
with John Kerry's pathetic attempt to redeem his record of exaggerations and
lies, and his dishonor of those who served honorably. 

Kate Zernike spent all of two hours interviewing John Kerry, writing a long
piece headlined
<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/28/washington/28kerry.html?ei=5088&en=7158a8
002070ee5a&ex=1306468800&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=all> "Kerry
Pressing Swift Boat Case Long After Loss" in which Kerry says, "They lied
and lied and lied about everything." Zernike, obviously, failed to research
the facts of Kerry's assertions, but continues the New York Times' role as
willing mouthpiece for Kerry. As the Newsweek reporters who had inside
access to Kerry's 2004 campaign
<http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6421295/site/newsweek/> revealed after,



The Kerry campaign did work closely with the major dailies, feeding
documents to The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Boston Globe to
debunk the Swift Boat vets. The articles were mostly (though not entirely)
supportive of Kerry, but it was too late.

An example of Zernike's ignorant credulity:



The veterans group, led by Mr. O'Neill, a former Swift boat commander who
was recruited by the Nixon administration to debate Mr. Kerry on "The Dick
Cavett Show" in 1971, began his campaign in early 2004 by criticizing Mr.
Kerry's protests against the Vietnam War.

In fact, and well investigated and documented, including by a televised
interview with Dick Cavett - a supporter of Kerry -- in 2004, it was I who
independently founded and led the Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace in 1971,
it was I who challenged Kerry to debate at our press conference on June 1,
1971, O'Neill was released from active duty in the Navy only a few days
before and asked me if he could join us, Cavett says he had no contact from
Nixon's administration, and it wasn't until well after we received national
publicity for challenging Kerry's band of real and fraudulent Vietnam vets
that Nixon invited O'Neill to meet.

So, now, John Kerry complains that during the 2004 campaign the Swiftees
"spent something like $30 million, and we didn't. That's just a terrible
imbalance when somebody's lying about you." It seems that John Kerry is very
willing to spend the millions of dollars left from his 2004 campaign and
Theresa's hundreds of millions of dollars and to fundraise to mount a new
campaign to rescue his discredited record of exaggerations and lies.

Make no mistake about it, this is a full-bore campaign by Kerry. Aside from
again enlisting the New York Times, he may have directly or indirectly
enlisted liberal former newsman Marvin Kalb, who together with his daughter
is writing a book on these issues. 

I suggest two things:
1. Go to the website of the  <http://vvlf.org/default.php?page_id=32>
Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation to familiarize yourself with what may
turn into today's version of the Alger Hiss trials. I don't know whether the
"pumpkin papers" will be discovered, or transcripts of Kerry's meetings with
North Vietnamese and Viet Cong negotiators in Paris documenting the
remarkable subsequent parallelism between his positions and theirs. However,
if these former star officers and POW's can financially sustain their legal
challenge to Kerry's veracity and deep legal pockets, their legal discovery
may judicially put many matters to rest.

2. Go to the  <http://www.augustafreepress.com/stories/storyReader$25995>
"30 Questions" that I published September 10, 2004, and see whether Kerry
has resolved these matters of fact and evidence. Compare them to the pap
served up by Kerry to the New York Times transmission belt. 

Sorry Kerry, you're still full of it. Stick that in your phony hat from
Cambodia.

For convenience, the "30 Questions" are below:

30 questions 

Guest View:
Bruce Kesler

Special to The Augusta Free Press



I am partisan, opposed to John Kerry in 1971 and 2004.

Below, I will also try my hardest to be fair. Judge for yourself.


1. Did Kerry want to go to Vietnam?

He first sought deferment from military service.


2. Did Kerry exaggerate his service on the USS Gridley, offshore Vietnam,
for Douglas Brinkley's book Tour Of Duty?

His two-levels up commander and a shipmate say he did.


3. Did Kerry want to be in combat?

The Swift Boats were an offshore patrol unit at the time Kerry volunteered
for it.


4. Was Kerry's first Purple Heart merited?

The senior officer there on the boat at the incident says there was no
hostile fire, and Kerry would not have been out on his own at that point in
his early tour.
A sailor says the officer, (now Admiral) Schachte (a senior JAG officer),
was not there. The wound was probably self-inflicted from an American M-79
grenade.
Nine days later, Kerry wrote, "We hadn't been shot at yet ..."
The wound was a paper matchstick piece of likely M-79 grenade treated with a
band-aid.
It may not rise to the qualifications for a Purple Heart, and Kerry's
request for it was denied by his superior.
Mysteriously, three months later, after those who knew the facts were gone
from Vietnam, the Purple Heart was issued from Saigon.
No documents have been released as to who was on the boat.


5. What is the significance of this first Purple Heart incident?

It, along with two others, permitted Kerry to leave Vietnam eight months
early. Without it, Kerry left Vietnam before he should have.


6. Was there political influence or other explanation for the issuance of
the first Purple Heart?

Kerry refuses to release his full military records or his journal. No
witnesses have emerged as to how the first Purple Heart came to be issued.


7. Has the merit of Kerry's second Purple Heart been challenged?

No. It has not been seriously challenged.


8. Did Kerry's account of his second Purple Heart vary from facts?

Yes. The Kerry campaign Web site's display of partial documents contained
that Kerry was the commander of the boat that day. When the actual skipper
challenged that, the Kerry campaign removed a 20-page batch of documents
from its Web site.


9. Did Kerry merit the Silver Star?

A Kerry supporter who commanded another boat involved in the incident writes
that it was the members of other boats that first and primarily mopped up
from the encounter with Viet Cong. Kerry went ashore and killed a fleeing,
wounded, armed VC. Kerry's actions do not rise to the standards of the
Silver Star. The other sailors and officers on the three boats involved did
not receive the Silver Star.


10. Did Kerry merit the Bronze Star?

Difficult to say. The standards of the Bronze Star are lower than for the
Silver. The timeline of differing witnesses of whether there was enemy fire,
and most particularly whether Kerry was under fire when he picked up
Rassmann, have not been clearly delineated. Similarly, the facts of how
Kerry came to go a half-mile to a mile downriver from the mine explosion
under another boat, later returning to the other boats that did not leave
the scene, are unclear.


11. Did Kerry merit the third Purple Heart for the Bronze Star incident?

It is proven that "shrapnel" to Kerry's buttocks came from his earlier being
hit when blowing up some VC rice. The "contusion" to Kerry's arm during the
Bronze Star episode may not rise to Purple Heart standards. There is
confusion as to whether and when in the timeline Kerry fell and hit his arm
against his own boat. The Purple Heart standard says, "A wound is defined as
an injury to any part of the body from an outside force or agent ..."


12. Did Kerry display physical courage in Vietnam?

Indisputably. In all cases, maybe. 


13. Does the Kerry Website displayed documents show a "V" on the Silver
Star, which is not practice?

Yes.


14. Do the three citations for the Silver Star contain varying accounts of
its merits?

Yes.


15. Why do the three Silver Star citations contain differing accounts?

Not answered yet. The Secretary of the Navy, John Lehman, says he did not do
the third citation - the signature may be an autopen - nor does he know why
it was issued in the '80s.


16. Was Kerry in Cambodia on Christmas 1968?

All evidence is to the contrary to Kerry's up to 50 times repeating this
story.


17. Was Kerry in Cambodia at another time?

All evidence is to the contrary. No evidence has been presented to say that
he was. Brinkley now says Kerry's statement about being in Cambodia at
Christmas "is obviously wrong."


18. Did Kerry write up some of the reports at dispute in the medals?

Unclear without further documents being released. At his April 22, 1971,
testimony to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Kerry did say:
"... I can recall often sending in the spot reports which we made after each
mission ..." Not conclusive. Others recall Kerry often sending in reports,
including when they did not. The "Market Time Spot Report 13/1/TE
194.5.4.4/1" that was the primary document relied upon for the Bronze
Star/third Purple Heart was from Kerry's designator.


19. Did Kerry accuse the U.S. and Vietnam veterans of committing pervasive,
sanctioned atrocities?

Yes. Read the words and accounts of the time in 1971.


20. Did Kerry attend a meeting of Vietnam Veterans Against the War in
November 1971 at which it was proposed to assassinate several pro-Vietnam
war U.S. senators?

Yes.

21. Did Kerry deny he was there?

Yes. Until a New York Sun reporter showed that FBI records proved otherwise.


22. Did Kerry report the danger to any authorities?

No.


23. Did Kerry break the Logan Act by going to the Paris Peace Talks to talk
with the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong delegations, or other laws related
to his deserve obligations in his protest activities?

That's for judicial decision. Others have not been convicted for similar
deeds.


24. Did Kerry mislead that he tossed his medals during a protest
demonstration?

Yes. Confronted, Kerry now says they were ribbons.


25. Were Kerry's words used against POWs in North Vietnam?

Words like his were. Also, at least four of the POWs say publicly that John
Kerry's words were used to try to break them down, so probably more were so
subjected.


26. Did Kerry push normalization of U.S. relations with Vietnam, and for a
relative's profit?

Kerry and others pushed for normalization. His cousin soon after obtained a
large contract with Vietnam, but no direct link has yet been proven.


27. Has Kerry ever apologized or recanted for any of his above actions and
words?

No.


28. Has John Kerry released his full military records and journals?

He refuses. Kerry has claimed he can't release his journals due to
contractual obligations to Douglas Brinkley, author of Tour Of Duty.
Brinkley says, however, according to The Washington Post: "... the papers
are the property of the senator and in his full control." Brinkley says, "I
don't mind if John Kerry shows anybody anything."


29. Has the mainstream press requested the release of Kerry's full military
records?

Only one says so, the Washington Post, which only received about six of 100
pages of records.


30. Has there been more smoke than wood in much of this public debate?

Yes, in my opinion. That is why I wrote the above.

- Bruce Kesler  <mailto:Bnksd1 at aol.com> Right-click here to download
pictures. To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download
of this picture from the Internet. | May. 27, 2006 | 10:48 PM 

 


Bruce N. Kesler ChFC REBC RHU CLU
BNKSD1 at aol.com
760-942-1759

 
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