SwiftVets.com

[MiltonThrasher]

Navy dismissal of Kerry probe appealed
Ignored Lehman's insistence he didn't sign Silver Star citation

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Posted: September 23, 2004
2:05 p.m. Eastern

By Art Moore
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com

Judicial Watch is appealing the U.S. Navy secretary's unwillingness to probe allegations of fraud thoroughly in the awarding of John Kerry's war medals, charging that the limited examination dismissed obvious evidence and that the senator's presidential campaign was tipped off.

Chris Farrell, Judicial Watch's director of investigations and research, told WorldNetDaily if the Navy does not respond within the required 10 days to a Freedom of Information Act request for documentation to back its decision, a lawsuit will follow.

"We are not at all shy about going to court over FOIA matters," said Farrell. "So if they don't comply with the law, we will sue them; it's that simple."

Judicial Watch filed the initial complaint Aug. 18 after news reports revealed Kerry's campaign website displays a document listing a "Silver Star with combat 'V'" even though the combat "V" device, for valor, is never given with the nation's third highest award for heroism.

One of the most glaring problems with the Navy's brief examination, Farrell contended, is its unwillingness to probe the unorthodox issuance of three citations for Kerry's Silver Star award. The third, issued more than a decade after the event, bears the signature of former Navy Secretary John Lehman, who recently told the Chicago Sun-Times he had nothing to do with it.

'Properly approved'

Last Friday, the Navy's inspector general, Vice Admiral Ronald Route, faxed a letter to Judicial Watch saying Kerry's medals were properly approved.

Farrell told WND a "reliable source" has informed Judicial Watch that the Kerry campaign got a hold of the letter hours before the watchdog group received it at 5:12 p.m.

"It's not clear to us how Kerry's political campaign could become aware of the letter," Farrell said. "It would be highly irregular for a third party that is not involved in the request to be the first to be told of any outcome."

Route said in his letter Friday that the Navy's "examination found that existing documentation regarding the Silver Star, Bronze Star and Purple Heart medals indicates the awards approval process was properly followed.

"In particular," Route said, "the senior officers who awarded the medals were properly delegated authority to do so. In addition we found that they correctly followed the procedures in place at the time for approving these awards."

But Judicial Watch says no specific documentary examples were cited or offered as exhibits to Route's letter.

The Navy inspector, Judicial Watch asserts, "dismissed an investigation into the eyewitness accounts -- some sworn -- of officers, sailors and one medical doctor by writing: 'Conducting any additional review regarding events that took place over thirty years ago would not be productive.'"

A leading figure in the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign to expose Kerry's war record, Jerome Corsi, has been assisting Judicial Watch in its case.

Corsi, co-author of the group's New York Times No. 1 best-seller "Unfit for Command," says that whether or not Judicial Watch's request ultimately succeeds, it already has exposed the fact that Kerry has not authorized release of all of his Navy records as he has insisted.

In response to the request, the Navy said it had 31 pages of documents it was not authorized to release under the Freedom of Information Act.

Kerry needs to fill out a Standard Form 180 in order for the records to be released.

Corsi believes the Judicial Watch request could help answer questions raised in the swiftboat vets' book.

"We're trying to determine whether political influence was used by Sen. Kerry to embellish the heroic nature of his exploits," Corsi said. "We think that the three different citations on the Silver Star give reason for suspicion."
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I have a great distrust of John Kerry and
want him to answer the Swift Boat Vets for
Truth's challenge to his statements appearing
in his books and speeches. Vote for Bush/Cheney '04. Korean War vet.