Kerry lied to get purple heart?

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-17-2004
Kerry lied to get purple heart?
221
Tue, 08-10-2004 - 5:33pm

The records should be able to shed some light on this if Kerry chooses to open them to the public.


http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/28856.htm


'Larry Thurlow, the skipper of a boat trailing Kerry's, says in the book that he saw Kerry suffer a buttocks wound earlier that day in 1969 when he was hit by fragments from his own grenade while trying to destroy a Viet Cong rice cache.


"He dishonestly transferred the time and cause of the injury to coincide with the action later in the day and claimed that the cause of the injury was the mine exploding during the action," the book claims.

In Kerry's version of the incident, he says a mine struck his swift boat - wounding him in the buttocks and arm.

Kerry maintains he braved enemy fire from both shores to race to the bow of the boat and pluck Rassman, who had fallen overboard, out of the water.


But, the book says, "Many participants in the incident state that neither weapons fire nor a mine explosion occurred near Kerry during the incident.

"Unless one believes in the amazing coincidence that Kerry got two wounds in the same place on the same day, he lied to get the Purple Heart," the authors say.

Rassman is backing Kerry's presidential candidacy and he supports Kerry's version of the rescue.

Renee ~~~

Renee ~~~

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iVillage Member
Registered: 07-05-2003
Fri, 08-13-2004 - 11:24am
ashley51 wrote - "This just proves how desperate the Shrub and his merry gang of liars are to win in 2004. If the Shrub and his gang had a good record, then wouldn't have to attempt to smear Kerry. Most of these guys weren't even on the swiftboats with Kerry. There's only one that was on another swiftboat. I'm sure these are being funded by the Republicans and Bush."

Are you kidding, the desperate Dem's have been in nonstop smear mode since before their loss in 2000!

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-05-2003
Fri, 08-13-2004 - 11:26am
No, NOT JohnKerry links.... get me links to newspapers who have used the FOIA to obtain the records Kerry opened up to the public... I do NOT wish to read the redacted, stuff Kerry puts out. I wish ALL the source candled... Kerry has not released his files, Bush has... time for Kerry to pony up.
Avatar for schifferle
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Fri, 08-13-2004 - 12:25pm
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20040810-100236-4377r.htm

Unfit for command?


By Tony Blankley

I stayed up late last night and read from cover to cover the book "Unfit for Command — Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry." An impartial reader (if there is still such a beast in this election season) would have to conclude that either the book is a pack of lies or John Kerry is in fact a reckless, lying man who misrepresented the facts in order to receive medals he didn't deserve, and is indeed unfit to command even a tug boat, let alone the United States military as president.

The book appears to be meticulously researched and reported. It is replete with copious footnotes, a detailed index and two appendices. First-hand witnesses are named and quoted verbatim to support each specific, shocking charge. Each charge of false heroics is logically presented. Theauthors quote the official Navy citation and then present the purported eyewitnesstestimony that refutes the official finding. The witnesses who are summoned forth are officers and men who served simultaneously with Mr. Kerry in Coastal Division 11 and purport to be eyewitnesses to the events in question.

And yet, there is another group of men, the sailors who served directly under John Kerry on the same boat with him — his band of brothers. They have traveled around the country with Mr. Kerry and have vouched for his description of his heroic, able and selfless service to our country.

One of these groups of men are lying through their teeth. This is not a case of failed memories. In a few instances, it could be a case of honest differences of perception of events. But considering all the testimony and evidence, John Kerry is either Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde. As of this moment there is about a 50-50 chance that we will elect, in the person of John Kerry, either a very fine man or a truly despicable man president of the United States.

Either group of men, if we knew nothing else, would seem to be credible, reliable witnesses. Both groups of men served honorably in Vietnam, gained many medals and have apparently lived respectable lives since then. Few if any of them have been politically active in the last 30 years.

The men making the charges are almost all of his fellow officers and the higher chain of command in Kerry's coastal Division 11. The book points out that on John Kerry's Web site he has a photo of himself and 19 fellow swift boat officers, taken while they were simultaneously serving in that unit. Of those 19 fellow officers, 11 have asked him to stop using their image with him. Of the remaining eight, two are deceased, four don't wish to be involved and one is not a supporter of Kerry but didn't have the opportunity to sign the letter calling for the photo to be taken off the Web site. Only one of the 19, Skip Barker, supports Mr. Kerry.

There has been some confusion about whether the witnesses against Kerry had an adequate view of his conduct, compared with the view of his supporters who were on his boat. The book explains that the swift boats usually moved in a pack of three or four on the same mission. They operated within yards of each other. Moreover, they all docked, bunked, ate and lived in the same camp.

If one compared their relations to an army company of men, the fellow junior officers who captained the tiny swift boats were the functional equivalent of squad leaders, each with their own handful of men under them. Squad leaders, operating on the same mission together, are in excellent positions to assess the performance of their fellow squad leaders. They are covering each other's flanks. The book is filled with testimony of these men, describing what they claim they clearly saw John Kerry doing and not doing.

Of course, almost every presidential campaign has an outcropping of scandal charges. Usually it is by one or two people — a woman who claimed she met the candidate in a bar, some political opponent from a long forgotten campaign reprieving his shopworn, uncorroborated calumny. If a book is involved in such charges, the opposing party usually finds a hack ghost-writer.

But this scandal charge is by more than 200 respectable former naval officers and men. The primary author, John O'Neill, first started publicly challenging Mr. Kerry more than 30 years ago on the Dick Cavett Show. The co-author, Jerome Corsi, is not a political hack, but a college friend of Mr. O'Neill, with a Ph.D. from Harvard and a distinguished writing career.

The book has the ring of sincerity to it, and the mark of careful research and writing. If they are not telling the truth, all these men have exposed themselves to financially ruinous libel actions by Mr. Kerry — who has the private resources to prosecute such actions. Even as a public figure, he might well win such an action, if this book is the pack of lies the Kerry camp says it is.

If it is not a pack of lies, the nation needs to know that, too. I would encourage some of the major voices of the non-conservative mainline media — Tim Russert, Dan Rather, Leonard Downie Jr. of The Washington Post — to do as I did. Spend an evening reading the book. If they are not struck by the damning picture it paints of John Kerry and the credibility of the presentation, forget about it. But if they judge it as I did, then let their consciences be their guide.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.crushkerry.com/article227.html

The Democrat National Committee has prepared a full-scale assault against the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth to draw their character and veracity into question, according to one anonymous source inside the DNC. The campaign of character assassination is scheduled to coincide with the release of the book Unfit for Command which reveals inconvenient facts for the Kerry campaign.

“We have prepared what we call ‘Brown Books’ that contain damaging military records, personal credit histories, medical histories, psychiatric histories, divorce records, you name it,” our source told us. "We've got the goods on the Veterans who oppose Kerry."

The “Brown Books” are so called because of their distinctive plain brown covers, which contain no words. Some books have already been delivered to Kerry-friendly reporters. Others are on their way, our source told us. When asked if we could have a copy, our source declined, saying there is a limited number of “Brown Books” and they have been carefully inventoried to control in whose hands the books ended up.

Ultimately the “Brown Books” will end up in the hands of pro-Kerry news agencies and reporters. According to our source, who demanded to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, The New York Times is already on the hook to run a negative series on the Vets, as is the Boston Globe, which is owned by the Times. (Editor’s Note: The Globe has already been caught attempting to attack the veracity of George Elliott, Kerry’s commanding officer in Vietnam.)

In addition, the DNC has deployed a six member team from their press shop whose sole responsibility will be to spin and counter-spin stories about the members of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth with pro-Kerry media entities, like the Times.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.drudgereport.com/dnc89.htm

BOSTON GLOBE 'REPORTER' COMMISSIONED TO WRITE CAMPAIGN BOOK FOREWORD -- WHILE COVERING KERRY

BOSTON GLOBE journalist Mike Kranish has been commissioned to write the foreword of the Kerry-Edwards campaign book -- just as he is covering the campaign in an official capacity as a journalist for the BOSTON GLOBE!

Kranish made waves on Friday by reporting in the GLOBE how a key figure in the anti-Kerry vet ad campaign, Kerry's former commanding officer, "backed off one of the key contentions."

But Captain George Elliott claims the Kranish article is "extremely inaccurate" and highly misstated his actual views.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-22-2003
Fri, 08-13-2004 - 3:04pm
It doesnot answer my question. Why should Kerry's lawyers not file a lawsuit against the people who are defaming Kerry. His navy records show that he deserved the medals and hearts. Now after 30 years you all are trying to disprove what was written in the Navy's record. What is more reliable, a book written recently funded by a rich right wing extremist or the official Navy report at the time the even actually happened?

Your post doesnot convince me at all.

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-05-2003
Fri, 08-13-2004 - 3:33pm
palak wrote - "It does not answer my question. Why should Kerry's lawyers not file a lawsuit against the people who are defaming Kerry. His navy records show that he deserved the medals and hearts. "

1) The statements would have to be untrue. The truth would likely be determined by a court as the result of a trial, also discovery would have to be permitted which could open Kerry's record this is the LAST thing Kerry wants.

2) We do NOT have Kerry's military records necessary to determine the truth, the supporting documents, witness statements, referrals are all not covered in Kerry's online pile of junk.

3) One of Kerry's medals was "rewritten" by a friendly undersecretary for the Navy in the 1990's, thus what you read isn't what was written at the time, but what Kerry was able to get some friend to write years after the fact.

4) Public figures have a very hard time getting such suits to work, the many lies of Mr. Moore for example are generally not actionable in court.

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-07-2004
Fri, 08-13-2004 - 6:03pm
First you say you want the records Kerry opened up, then you say he has not released his files???




< No, NOT JohnKerry links.... get me links to newspapers who have used the FOIA to obtain the records Kerry opened up to the public... I do NOT wish to read the redacted, stuff Kerry puts out. I wish ALL the source candled... Kerry has not released his files, Bush has... time for Kerry to pony up. >

Avatar for schifferle
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Fri, 08-13-2004 - 6:09pm
Palak also wrote << Why are you saying the vets are being attacked by lawyers? I don't get it. >>

Just last week, Kerry's lawyers attacked various members of SBVT with the following...


-Letters were sent to television stations in battleground states threatening their licenses if they ran the SBVT ads.

http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=41961

"...when Kerry’s record was questioned, his campaign and the Democratic National Committee attempted to silence the critics. Lawyers for the DNC and the campaign last week intimidated television stations into not running anti-Kerry ads, produced by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which question Kerry’s heroism.

This is the same tactic Michael Moore employed to silence critics of “Fahrenheit 9/11.” Meanwhile, Moore, Howard Dean and other left-wing conspiracy theorists spread lies, rumors and innuendo about President Bush every day — while claiming to stand for honest, open debate."

-The horrible treatment of Dr. Louis Letson, the physician who treated Kerry for wounds that lead to his 1st Purple Heart. This "phony" physician, as he was called in the letters, treated our wounded & saved lives. If it's beyond the pale to question Kerry's medals, why is it ok to call the Dr. a "phony"?

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-13-2004
Fri, 08-13-2004 - 7:32pm
I saw an interview with one of the veterans and he said that they were not afraid of Kerry's or the Democrats threats of lawsuits because they knew they were telling the truth. He said that he personally welcomes any lawsuits against them.
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2004
Fri, 08-13-2004 - 8:35pm
I would agree with what you say with the exception of one thing...Kerry is making not only his service in VietNam a major part of his campaign, but also his medals, including his purple hearts.

Kerry himself has made this an issue that he has to deal with.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2004
Fri, 08-13-2004 - 8:41pm
No medical records pertaining to his purple hearts........

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