Kerry....Swift Boats....Xmas in Cambodia

[JustRalph]

This crap is going to get down right dirty..............

Snippet from Drudge Report, directly from the Book that is coming

Begin cut and paste:

SWIFT OFFICERS AND VETS: KERRY LIED ABOUT SPENDING CHRISTMAS IN CAMBODIA

**Exclusive**

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...

[JustMissed]

It will be interesting to see how the media will cover the swift boat book and it's author when it comes out.

My guess is it will very little mention, if any.

What really chaps me is if some guys wrote a book about Bush missing a few Air Guard drills back in Alabama one summer, you can bet the media would be all over it 24-7.

JM

[schweitz]

Originally posted by JustMissed
It will be interesting to see how the media will cover the swift boat book and it's author when it comes out.

My guess is it will very little mention, if any.

What really chaps me is if some guys wrote a book about Bush missing a few Air Guard drills back in Alabama one summer, you can bet the media would be all over it 24-7.

JM

I doubt it will be featured on 60 minutes.

[Tom]

Read what other vets have to say about Kerry.
Is this the guy you want leading our nation in the new world?
I think he needs to be courts-martialed and tried as a war criminal. TOTT.


http://www.homestead.com/prosites-prs/swiftvets.html

[JustRalph]

Tom

Great page..... I had not read the details of these guys statements yet. Very interesting..........

[kenwoodallpromos]

In an Oct. 14, 1979, letter to the editor of the Boston Herald, Kerry wrote: "I remember spending Christmas Eve of 1968 five miles across the Cambodian border being shot at by our South Vietnamese allies who were drunk and celebrating Christmas. The absurdity of almost being killed by our own allies in a country in which President Nixon claimed there were no American troops was very real."

Guess what- Johnson was president, not Nixon.
Kerry was a Lt. and did not even know the 1st thing navymen are taught- who is in your chain of command.
Kerry was obeying illegal orders from Nixon and Nixon was not authorized to give any military orders in 1968. Nixon was a civiloian and not in public office.

[Tom]

Ken,
There you go again....details, facts.....stop that! Kerry won't like it!
:rolleyes:

[Tom]

Anyone surprised that this is gettong next to no coverage compared to outright lies of MM? Theses guys were there, the authors have documented evidence and statements the support every single claim, yet the liberal news media is playing dumb on this and Kerry is doing everything he can to literaly censor these vets. Was' t it the liberal left who were screaming censorship when Bush did absolutely nothing to stop MM and his lying liars from the lies they were telling?
Hipocrites.

[Secretariat]

I'm disgusted with this Swift Boat crap.

Here's what one man said who was misquoted by these dimwits:

"Yesterday, the gunner, Tom Belodeau of Dracut, stood beside Sen. Kerry and said he had been misquoted.

"This man was not lying on the ground. This man was more than capable of destroying that boat and everybody on it. Sen. Kerry did not give him that opportunity," Mr. Belodeau said.
Mr. Belodeau did concede that he may have wounded the Viet Cong soldier with a burst from his own gun, but he said Sen. Kerry did more than just finish him off. The columnist, an economics writer David Warsh for a Boston newspaper, noted that such a "coup de grace" would have been considered a war crime.

"The soldier that Sen. John Kerry shot was standing on both feet with a loaded rocket launcher, about to fire it on the boat from which (Mr. Kerry) had just left, which still had four men aboard," Mr. Belodeau said.

The Democrat also describes it as a defining period in his life, since he came home opposed to the war and began his public life as co-founder of Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

The most celebrated moment came on Feb. 28, 1969. A three-boat flotilla Mr. Kerry was commanding on a river in South Vietnam came under fire and Sen. Kerry took his boat directly into it. By the end, a Viet Cong soldier was dead and Sen. Kerry was carrying an enemy rocket launcher with a rocket still loaded in the chamber.

In the column, Mr. Warsh quotes Mr. Belodeau as saying in the course of their interview, "You know, I shot that guy. ... When I hit him, he went down and got up again. When Kerry hit him, he stayed down."

Gov. Weld received educational and medical deferments from serving in Vietnam, something Sen. Kerry has never directly challenged. But Mr. Kerry was clearly insulted over having a segment of his service questioned.

Sen. Kerry's staff arranged a news conference at the Courageous Sailing Center in the Charlestown Navy Yard. It also flew in several people who attested to Sen. Kerry's character and his version of events.

They were retired Admiral E.R. Zumwalt Jr., who commanded U.S. naval forces in Vietnam; retired Capt. George Elliott, Kerry's commander at the time of the shooting; retired Cmdr. Adrian Longsdale, who commanded shoreline operations at the time; and Mr. Belodeau, an electrician who is currently working in Michigan.

Also participating by phone from San Francisco was Michael Medeiros, who was the rear gunner on the Swift boat. Tom Vallely, a former Marine and Sen. Kerry's close friend, introduced each speaker.

Mr. Zumwalt, with two Navy ships and the USS Constitution anchored over his shoulder, said he remembered only two such incidents from Vietnam and one of them was Sen. Kerry's.
Mr. Zumwalt also said he wanted to recommend Sen. Kerry for an even higher medal, the Navy Cross, but approval would have taken too long. Instead, he personally approved a Silver Star and sped along the award to improve morale at a time his sailors were taking heavy casualties."

http://www.s-t.com/daily/10-96/10-28-96/a03sr015.htm

I think this Swiff boat crap is about the lowest episode brought out yet in the campaign. To think 100,000 of dollars were spent on this smut is disgusting. And any vet who fought in Nam should be nauseated by it.

[JustMissed]

Hey, none of us were there in Kerry's patrol group.

There's enough guys that were there and enough documents so the truth will definitely come out.

For example, they have already nailed him on the Cambodia at Christmas lie and I'm sure if there are more lies, they will come out also.

No need for us to argue among ourselves, let the facts speak.

JM:)

[schweitz]

[i]Originally posted by Secretariat And any vet who fought in Nam should be nauseated by it. [/B]

What nauseates this vet is his actions after he got back from his FOUR MONTHS in Nam and that the main basis for his campaign is his FOUR MONTHS in Nam 35 years ago---as if its relevant.:rolleyes:

[so.cal.fan]

http://www.johnkerry.com/about/john_kerry/service_timeline.html

Late January through
Early March, 1969 Starting in late January 1969, this crew completed 18 missions over an intense and dangerous 48 days, almost all of them in the dense jungles of the Mekong Delta. Kerry's crew included engineman Eugene Thorson, later an Iowa cement mason; David Alston, then the crew's only African-American and today a minister in South Carolina; petty officer Del Sandusky of Illinois; rear gunner and quartermaster Michael Medeiros of California; and the late Tom Belodeau, who joined the crew fresh out of Chelmsford High School in Massachusetts.


This man Tom Belodeau is deceased.

[Secretariat]

Originally posted by so.cal.fan
http://www.johnkerry.com/about/john_kerry/service_timeline.html

Late January through
Early March, 1969 Starting in late January 1969, this crew completed 18 missions over an intense and dangerous 48 days, almost all of them in the dense jungles of the Mekong Delta. Kerry's crew included engineman Eugene Thorson, later an Iowa cement mason; David Alston, then the crew's only African-American and today a minister in South Carolina; petty officer Del Sandusky of Illinois; rear gunner and quartermaster Michael Medeiros of California; and the late Tom Belodeau, who joined the crew fresh out of Chelmsford High School in Massachusetts.


This man Tom Belodeau is deceased.

Yes, Belodeau died in 1997. These guys have been going after Kerry his whole carrer. You're only hearing about since he is runnign for President.

The article was from 1996 when Belodeau was alive.

http://www.s-t.com/daily/10-96/10-28-96/a03sr015.htm

I guess they figure if they can misquote a dead man, he can't correct them, but unfortunately he already has corrected them in 96.

[JustRalph]

Originally posted by Secretariat
Yes, Belodeau died in 1997. These guys have been going after Kerry his whole carrer. You're only hearing about since he is runnign for President.

The article was from 1996 when Belodeau was alive.

http://www.s-t.com/daily/10-96/10-28-96/a03sr015.htm

I guess they figure if they can misquote a dead man, he can't correct them, but unfortunately he already has corrected them in 96.

Amazing how you left that part out. He has been dead a long time. I can only say that I have respect for the Service Mr. Kerry performed. But, this Swift Boat group that is against Kerry is made up of 300 men! Do you think all of them are lying?

[Secretariat]

Originally posted by JustRalph
Amazing how you left that part out. He has been dead a long time. I can only say that I have respect for the Service Mr. Kerry performed. But, this Swift Boat group that is against Kerry is made up of 300 men! Do you think all of them are lying?

I think 300 guys who did not like Kerry protesting after the war have a grudge against Kerry. But not one of them was on that boat and saw what happened. And one of these SBV's complaining is the same person who recommended Kerry for the Silver Star. I guess after he protested the war, he then felt he shouldn't get the same medal he had originally submitted him for.

So in answer to your question, I have no doubt that 300 people out of the armed forces would resent Kerry's protest of the war, and do anything to discredit including lie, which even men such as McCain, and Clark have said is despicable. Your partisanship wants to beleive these SMV's, but it is the lowest of the low and has no place in a discussion about this man's service in the field.

I can undnerstand Isbet's comments, but not the other ones including the SMV's.

Here's an interesting quote from Clark today:

"Today, Dick Cheney took the lowest road in politics -- it was a cheap shot unworthy of the office of Vice President.

"The truth is that this administration has over-relied on the military in the war against terror - if we are to win, we must use all the means at our disposal - diplomacy, international law, economic development, law enforcement, and only as a last resort, military force.

"But then, maybe that's to be expected. Neither George Bush nor Dick Cheney has ever heard a shot fired in anger. Never worried whether he'd ever see his family again or seen the destruction caused by the weapons he's wielded. The losses of war are permanent. The consequences are unpredictable. That's why John Kerry has always said force should be a last resort.

"John Kerry understands the risk and sacrifice that American soldiers undertake every day, in a personal way that neither George Bush nor Dick Cheney ever will. John Kerry has the physical courage, tested in combat, to hunt down and kill our enemies. He also has the moral courage and humility to avoid the arrogance, which has doomed this administration. John Kerry will make us safer at home and restore our credibility around the world."

btw..I am not back..just an occassional post....got to get back to SAR.

[Tom]

Let's see now, what have we got this week?
*A secret plan to end the war, (Nixon?)
*Unknown foreign leaders who want Kerry elected (Bin Laden?)
A guy who says he can reconcile with Eurpope who can't even keep his wife in his own bed (is his face the only thing "long" about him?)
*A 300 vet conspiracy to lie aobut Kerry.

Hmm.Sec, this sounds more like the Wizzard of Oz.
When you get to the part about the flying monkeys, let me know. I know something about monkeys. I'll help you out with the details. :eek:

[kenwoodallpromos]

Clark is an asshole. And so is anybody who says you have to have been in combat to make military decisions. the vast majority of officers who were ever in the US Army never were in close combat. Kennedy was the only 20th century Democratic President who was in close combat. Ever heard of the Bay of Pigs?
Kerry was a joke as a Lt. in several ways. I will not vote for a war atrocities committer whose idea of a "senitive" war is to nurn innocent peoples villages or kill livestock, as he admitted he did.

[Lance]

Kenwood wrote:

"Kennedy was the only 20th century Democratic President who was in close combat."

I think Truman was, too. World War One.

[JustRalph]

http://www.anncoulter.org/columns/2004/081104p.htm

Brothers Band Together Against Kerry
August 11, 2004
Democrats haven't been this upset about an American engaging in free speech since Juanita Broaddrick opened her yap.

Two hundred fifty-four Swift Boat Veterans have signed a letter saying John Kerry is not fit to be commander in chief, a point developed in some detail in the blockbuster new book by John O'Neill, aptly titled "Unfit for Command." At the 2003 reunion of Swift Boat Veterans, about 300 men showed up: 85 percent of them think Kerry is unfit to be president. (On the bright side, Kerry was voted, in absentia, "Most Likely to Run for President on His Phony War Record.") Fewer than 10 percent of all Swift Boat Veterans contacted refused to sign the letter.

Kerry was in Vietnam for only four months, which, coincidentally, is less than the combined airtime he's spent talking about it. It takes a special kind of person to get that many people to hate your guts in so little time. The last time this many people hated one person after only four months was when Margaret Cho had her own sitcom.

But our young Eddie Haskell managed to annoy other servicemen even before he came home and called them war criminals. About 60 eyewitnesses to Kerry's service are cited in the book, describing Kerry fleeing comrades who were under attack, disregarding orders, putting others in danger, sucking up to his commanders, creating phony film footage of his exploits with a home-movie camera, and recommending himself for medals and Purple Hearts in vainglorious reports he wrote himself. (This was apparently before the concept of "fragging" put limits on such behavior.)

After three months of combat, Kerry had collected enough film footage for his political campaigns, so he went home. He even shot three different endings to the episode where he chases down a VC guy after test audiences thought Kerry shooting a wounded teenager in the back was too much of a "downer." After filming his last staged exploit, Kerry reportedly told a buddy, "That's a wrap. See you at the convention in about 35 years."

Kerry is demanding to be made president on the basis of spending four months in Vietnam 35 years ago. And yet the men who know what he did during those four months don't think he's fit to be dogcatcher. That seems newsworthy to me, but I must be wrong since the media have engineered a total blackout of the Swift Boat Veterans.

In May, the Swiftees held a spellbinding press conference in Washington, D.C. In front of a photo being used by the Kerry campaign to tout Kerry's war service, the officers stood up, one by one, pointed to their own faces in the campaign photo, and announced that they believed Kerry unfit for command. Only one officer in the photo supports Kerry for president. Seventeen say he is not fit to be president.

The press covered it much as they covered Paula Jones' first press conference.

With the media playing their usual role as Truth Commissar for the now-dead Soviet Union, the Swiftees are having to purchase ad time in order to be heard. No Tim Russert interviews, no "Today" show appearances, no New York Times editorials or Vanity Fair hagiographies for these heretics against the liberal religion. The only way Swift Boat Veterans for Truth could get less attention would be to go on "Air America" radio.

If the 254 veterans against Kerry got one-tenth as much media coverage for calling Kerry a liar as Clown Joe Wilson did for calling Bush a liar, the veterans wouldn't need to buy ad time to get their message out. (Wilson, you'll recall, was a media darling for six or seven months before being exposed as a fantasist by Senate investigators.)

With their commitment to free speech and a robust exchange of ideas (i.e., "child pornography" and "sedition"), the Democratic National Committee is threatening to sue TV stations that run the Swift Boat Veterans' paid ads. Sue? Can you tell already that there are two lawyers at the top of the Democratic ticket? These are the same people who accuse John Ashcroft of shredding the Bill of Rights. WHY ISN'T THE PRESS COVERING THIS??? Wait, now I remember. OK, never mind. (Contribute to the Swift Boat Veterans here.)

The threat to sue is absurd, but will allow the very same TV stations that are already censoring the Swiftees to have an excuse to censor even purchased airtime.

Leave aside the fact that Kerry is a presidential candidate and – judging by the ads being run against George Bush – I gather there's nothing you can't say about a presidential candidate, including calling him Hitler. After reading "Unfit for Command," I am pretty sure Kerry doesn't want a neutral tribunal deciding who's telling the truth here.

The Swift Boat Veterans provide detailed accounts from dozens and dozens of eyewitnesses to Kerry's Uriah Heep-like behavior – which "Unfit for Command" contrasts with Kerry's boastful descriptions of the exact same incidents.

By contrast, Kerry's supporters have their usual off-the-rack denunciations of any witness against a Democrat. The veterans are: liars, bigots, idiots, politically motivated, and I was never alone in a hotel with Paula Jones.

Ron Brownstein, Los Angeles Times reporter and Bill Clinton's favorite reporter, compared the Swift Boat Veterans' ad to a "snuff film." He claimed the veterans have "strong Republican ties."

Apparently, before being permitted to engage in free speech against Democrats in this country you have to: (1) prove that you are not a Republican, (2) take a vow of poverty, and (3) purchase the right to speak in a TV ad. On the basis of Clown Wilson, Michael Moore, George Soros, Moveon.org, etc., etc., etc., I gather the requirements for engaging in free speech against a Republican are somewhat less rigorous. Hey! Maybe John Edwards is right: There really are two Americas!

O'Neill, the author of "Unfit for Command" and founder of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, can be heard on the Nixon tapes – unaware that he was being taped – telling Nixon that he came from a family of Democrats and voted for Hubert Humphrey in the prior election. Unlike Joe Wilson, Anita Hill or Richard Clarke, Woodward and Bernstein, et al., O'Neill has said he will take no royalties on his book but will donate all his profits to the Navy. So I think even under liberals' rules, O'Neill is allowed to have an opinion.

Before the book was released and O'Neill could appear to defend it, liberals were on television denouncing the book. If memory serves, the last book Democrats tried this hard to suppress was the Bible. The DNC is threatening to sue to prevent the Swift Boat Veterans from buying ad time. When Democrats are this terrified of a book, it's not because they have a good answer. Howard Dean can accuse Ashcroft of book-burning all he wants, but it's the Democrats who are doing everything in their power to prevent you from reading "Unfit for Command." In bookstores beginning this week

[JustRalph]

More points on Kerry and his Silver Star....FYI

Sec stated that the officer that recommended kerry for the silver star is now against kerry....this is true, but Elliott put out a notarized statement (link below) and in paragraph #3 he reiterated that Kerry mislead him on HOW and what Kerry did to gain his medal in 1969...simply put, he now knows Kerry lied per Kerry's own book Tour of Duty (released this year)...

The sitrep Elliott looked at in 1969 does NOT match what is in Kerry's book. Kerry has given 2 diff accounts of that day's action.

http://humaneventsonline.com.edgesuite.net/unfit_aff.html