SwiftVets.com

[BigJimO]

Sep 3: Galveston Daily News

News story here:
http://www.galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?wcd=23632

photo here:
http://www.galvnews.com/photos/2004.September/09-03-Perry-Protest.jpg (caption: "Dog for Kerry -- Gwynne Pierce and her Old English Mastiff dog, Babau, walk up and down the street in front of Bob Perry’s house. Protesters gathered in front of Perry’s house because he contributed money to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads.")

Excerpt: "Rine and fellow members of the San Jacinto Democratic Veterans Brigade were among 25 protesters who derided the ads in front of the house of Clear Lake homebuilder Bob Perry Thursday night. Perry has contributed $200,000 toward the $2.8 million the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth say they have raised. The group is backing President Bush and other Republican candidates. Doug Peterson, a Democrat and Clear Lake resident, helped to organize the protest."

[wally626]

I know Swiftboats campaign certainly helps Bush, but what candidates to the swiftboats support? Cheney? That reporter really needs to do some fact checking.

[jrsdad]

The SBVFT are not "backing" anyone. They are seeking to have Kerry quit.

Another article that is full of crap. Another letter to the editor time...

[jrsdad]

Here is my letter to the editor on this one (I know it's too long to publish, but I'm always interested in seeing if they will respond).

Mr. Taylor,

There is a major inaccuracy I'm sure you want to address in Nathan Smith's piece on the picketing of Bob Perry's house.

"Perry has contributed $200,000 toward the $2.8 million the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth say they have raised. The group is backing President Bush and other Republican candidates."

The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth is not backing President Bush or any other Republican candidates. They are working to keep John Kerry from becoming President, or at least appologizing for what he said about Vietnam veterans and admitting to many of the falsehoods his campaign has already admitted to. They are not endorsing any other candidate, nor are they urging people vote for any other candidate. John O'Neill has stated repeatedly that he was supporting John Edwards (hardly surprising, given they are both high-profile litigators) in the primary, and that if John Kerry dropped out of the race he would vote for Mr. Edwards.

It is also poor journalism, in my opinion, to quote the uninformed and understandably biased opinions of protestors about the veracity of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth claims without any attempt to look into them. For example, Mr. Peterson is quoted in the article as saying, "He’s willing to show his military record, unlike George W. Bush." The facts contradict this. Mr. Kerry has posted some 134 pages of documentation on his site covering his service. Mr. Bush, who never saw combat, foreign service or earned any medals, provided over 300 pages of documentation regarding his National Guard service, including his medical records.

If you examine Mr. Kerry's records with some background, you are struck by what is missing - essentially everything that could disprove the Swift vets' claims, or prove them. He has refused to release his medical records, posting a summary by a physician instead. He has refused to post the after action spot report from the 2 December 1968 incident for which he received his first Purple Heart. Such a report would only have been prepared had there been enemy fire. Its absence is evidence that there was no enemy fire, and Mr. Kerry's first wound was self-inflicted and did not conform to the requirements for meriting a Purple Heart. There is no damage assessment from the first incident indicating the boat had received enemy fire. There is no application for the Purple Heart (or most of his awards), so we do not know who recommended him. We do know who did not - his commander at the time of the incident, Grant Hibbard, or the officer in charge of the patrol, William Schachte. He received that first Purple heart after getting the second, almost 3 months after the incident when everyone involved in the action had rotated out of the theater.

While Mr. Kerry (and James Rassmann, along with others) claims the Swift boats were taking heavy enemy fire on 13 March 1969 when Mr. Kerry was awarded his Bronze Star, there are no damage reports describing bullet holes in any of the 5 boats from that action. Mr. Kerry's biography, "Tour of Duty" (p. 301-302), explains that the damage to his PCF-94 boat reported on a 14 March 1969 damage assessment came from an ambush the day before the Bronze Star incident. Mr. Kerry's spot report for the incident claims the boats went through 3.1 miles of heavy enemy fire from both banks of a 75-yard-wide river but none of the 5 50-foot boats were hit during the 1 1/2 hours it took to stabilize the damaged PCF-3 boat, render first aid to the injured, and rescue the other men who had gone into the river in the mine attack and subsequent rescue. The Washington Post has acknowledged that only Mr. Kerry's boat left the scene when the other three boats went to the aid of the PCF-3.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/graphics/swiftboat_082104.html

As you may be aware, Mr. Kerry's web site has posted 3 separate and wildly divergent citations for his Silver Star spanning almost 20 years. The Kerry campaign explanation for this is that he lost two of them and applied for new versions, and that the Navy "required" that the wording be changed. This is contrary to Navy regulations, which state that a citation may only be changed to correct an error or remove an injustice. Such a change requires an application within three years of discover of the problem. (See 11 U.S.C. § 1552, subs. a and b.) Mr. Kerry has failed to provide the applications for the changes or requests for the new citations. Again, one is left with the question of "Why?"

There is much more, but either you recognize that your reporter should have done a little more homework (this is all available from national news sources) or your editorial intent is to ignore the facts that weigh against Mr. Kerry.

A responsible news outlet would publish a retraction at least as prominently as the story.

Please note that I am not a representative of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, nor am I a member of this or any other political organization outside the Democratic party.

Thank you for your consideration.

Randy ****
El Cerrito, CA

[BigJimO]

(Deleted by Admin)

Admin note:

We don't really need to provide this activity billboard space in our forum.

Thanks