SwiftVets.com

[Me#1You#10]

John O’Neill
Houston, Texas

Dear Friend,

The November election is long past, but I want to tell you about some unfinished and urgent business with which I would like your help.

When my fellow Swift Boat veterans and I made our ads to expose John Kerry’s record with respect to Vietnam during the presidential campaign, we were not alone in our mission. A number of veterans who had spent time in North Vietnam prison camps were eager to tell the American people about how John Kerry’s anti-war activities had affected their treatment.

The two groups of veterans worked together as the Swift Boat Veterans and POWs For Truth. A very important separate effort was “Stolen Honor,” a hard-hitting documentary film made by Carlton Sherwood.

Carlton served in Vietnam as a Marine sniper and won three Purple Hearts for his wounds. He came home to become an award-winning journalist. In “Stolen Honor,” Carlton filmed POWs and their wives talking about how John Kerry’s anti-war activities affected the POWs' treatment.

Carlton also showed some footage of anti-war leftists who worked with John Kerry. Now one of these radicals is suing Carlton for defamation. Carlton needs our help.

I got to know Carlton during the campaign. He put so much of himself into making and distributing “Stolen Honor” that both his health and his finances suffered greatly. But he was so passionate about the cause that he kept on going, and I for one am grateful for the important role that Carlton played in exposing John Kerry’s true role in the anti-war movement.

Carlton will shortly send you an email to tell you the story of the legal attack on him. Please be sure to open his email and read it. Then please help Carlton with a generous contribution to his legal defense fund. Or you can help him right now.

Thanks in advance for your support, and thank you, too, for all that you have already done.

Sincerely,

John O’Neill

[Me#1You#10]

Please consider contributing to this effort to assist Carlton Sherwood. Almost as important, circulate it as widely as you can.

Thanks

[Me#1You#10]

John Kerry's pals sue maker of Stolen Honor

by Carlton Sherwood, Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation

(7/15/2005) -

Carlton Sherwood

Dear Friend:

Last year, when John Kerry was running for the Presidency, I wrote and produced the documentary, Stolen Honor: Wounds that Never Heal.

I am proud to say I was one of many Vietnam combat veterans who stood up to expose Kerry's betrayal of all those who served in Vietnam -- particularly our POWs still being held by the Communists in 1971. That's when Kerry testified before the U.S. Senate that American troops were murdering hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese civilians, and that such atrocities were authorized and approved by the entire U.S. military chain of command.

The election is long past, but Kerry's assault on Vietnam combat veterans rages on. I am being sued for millions of dollars by some of his closest friends, and I desperately need your help.

Stolen Honor was the story that America didn't know and that the media wouldn't tell you, the story Sen. Kerry didn't want you to hear. In fact, he was so alarmed by Stolen Honor that he sent out squads of lawyers to intimidate any TV network that might consider airing the documentary. Kerry's own campaign manager even went on national TV to openly threaten Sinclair Broadcasting with having its license revoked if they showed Stolen Honor.

Despite these efforts to shut it down, Stolen Honor was still seen by millions of Americans who bought the documentary or viewed it on my website. You are one of those Americans who saw the film, and that's why I've sent you this email.

I will not be silenced or intimidated by Kerry's lawyers. Nor will the POWs and other Vietnam combat veterans.

But I urgently need your help if I am to succeed in fighting this lawsuit.

Defending against these lawsuits will be costly, far beyond my means. But I need to defend myself as aggressively as possible. My honor is at stake -- and the honor of every American who fought in Vietnam.

I'm not alone in this important mission. A number of POWs, Vietnam veterans and other patriots involved in Stolen Honor have set up a non-profit organization -- The Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation -- dedicated to debunking Vietnam myths and setting the record straight concerning the true history of the Vietnam War and those who fought there. As part of their mission, the VVLF is also assisting in my legal defense.

I served in Vietnam, a Marine grunt, an infantryman, wounded three times and I never asked to come home, even when my battalion was decimated, forced to "stand down" because of casualties. Those who were able fought on and we?re still fighting today. But, this time the "enemy" wants to take something even more precious than our lives. It wants to strip us of our history, our sacrifice, our dignity and our honor.

We cannot let that happen and with your support it won't.

----------

I am being sued by Kenneth Campbell -- John Kerry's right hand man in the anti-war movement -- because I stood up against him and John Kerry.

In Stolen Honor I included some film footage showing part of the "Winter Soldier Investigation" of 1971. This was a highly publicized event put on by radical leftists who called themselves Vietnam Veterans Against the War -- a group dedicated to America's defeat in Vietnam. The event, financed by Jane Fonda, was supposed to prove by firsthand testimony that Americans were committing vile atrocities in Vietnam.

In the footage a man named Kenneth Campbell is shown apparently coaching another participant about his testimony on atrocities he supposedly committed. The man doesn't seem too certain about what he is supposed to have done, and jokes that he had forgotten about the massacre of an entire village that he had supposedly participated in.

Now Campbell is claiming I damaged his reputation by showing this film clip. He claims that John Kerry's portrayal of Vietnam veterans as war criminals, a barbarian horde akin to Genghis Khan's, is true and accurate. Stolen Honor defamed him, he says, because it characterizes him, John Kerry, and the other anti-war veterans as frauds and liars.

So, in one of the lawsuits against me, Kenneth Campbell is suing me for defamation. You can help with my defense here.

----------

Will you help me raise the $750,000 or more I need for my defense -- which includes the VVLF's efforts to unearth the rest of the story long missing from the history of the Vietnam war?

We need contributions of any amount -- $25, $50, $100, $1,000 -- less if that's all you can give, more if you are able. Your contributions are tax-deductible. You can contribute here. Or you can mail a check made out to VVLF to:

Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation P.O. Box 95000-1655 Philadelphia, PA 19195-1655

----------

If you give $50 or more, you'll receive a copy of Whitewash/Blackwash, a riveting new 52-page booklet exposing long-held myths about the Vietnam War.

If you give $100 or more, in addition to the book you'll receive a special director's edition DVD of Stolen Honor that includes the story of how the film was made and scenes that didn?t make the final cut.

Whatever you can give, you will have my undying gratitude. If the lawsuit against me is successful, it will send a frightening message to journalists, scholars and opinion makers: "Keep your hands off the Left! Don't even attempt to question their lies and myths. Let their version stand as the true story in the media, in textbooks and in the popular culture. Let Vietnam veterans go down in history as 'baby-killers' -- or we will come after you."

We can't let that happen. We have to fight back, uncover the whole truth, and defend our honor.

----------

Please make your donation here. And please forward this message to anyone you know who might be interested in helping out.

We can unmask John Kerry, Jane Fonda, and the anti-war movement!

We anticipate uncovering a large volume of previously undisclosed or classified documents in the legal "discovery" process, records Sen. Kerry and his allies have arduously attempted to cover up for decades.

We can unearth details of Jane Fonda's involvement in the anti-war movement, her admitted but never detailed financial support for the Vietnam Veterans Against the War organization and the entire anti-war movement. We can also learn more about how the Soviet Union and the North Vietnamese communists directed anti-war activities.

It was Kerry and his fellow protestors who were directly responsible for creating the false image of Vietnam veterans as a "barbarian horde" which raped and murdered innocent civilians daily as a matter of policy.

It's that mythology, first popularized in the testimony of Lt. Kerry and repeated for more than three decades by the media and the popular culture, that continues to haunt our young men and women serving in the military today, propaganda that threatens current U.S. foreign policy and our national security. It was those lies that Stolen Honor exposed. And it's those lies that Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation is dedicated to exposing and correcting. Help me expose John Kerry, Jane Fonda, and the anti-war movement as part of my legal defense.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support.

Sincerely yours,

Carlton Sherwood

[Navy_Navy_Navy]

We can easily fund the support of Mr. Sherwood just like we did when we supported the Swifts - $10 & $20 at a time!

Swifts raised millions with these "little bits" - Stolen Honor's producer needs less than a million to defend himself!

Please help get the word out to your email buds and to your local VFW and American Legion.

This isn't "just politics."

This is defending a truth-teller from a nuisance lawsuit intended to intimidate people into keeping their truth to themselves.

How often have we noted the strong-arm tactics of the left? This is just the latest example. They couldn't keep Unfit for Command from being distributed, they couldn't keep the Swifts from telling their truth and they couldn't keep the POW's from telling theirs.

But, they CAN try to make life miserable for the producer of the documentary that helped expose the leftist lies about the Vietnam era.

Please use the link above to donate with your credit card or pop a few bucks in an envelope and send it to Carlton Sherwood's Defense Fund:

Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation
P.O. Box 95000-1655
Philadelphia, PA 19195-1655

Those $10 & $20 add up quickly, as any Swiftie will tell you! We can do this!

Thank you for all you do to help!
_________________
~ Echo Juliet ~
Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
Navy woman, Navy wife, Navy mother

[AZVet61]

I have emailed Carlton Sherwood requesting information concerning the lawsuit filed against him. I have asked where the lawsuit has been filed, the name of the plaintiff[s] and caption [court and case no.], the lawyers representing him and how the $750,000 defense cost was arrived at. I need this info in order to solicit my friends and vets, many of whom are lawyers. I haven't received a response from him. If anyone has this info, I would appreciate having it. Thanks.

Brent Moody
Capt. USAR 1964-1968

[Bill Faith]

[J. Toy]

Both Campbell and Camil were members of an artillery unit, Alpha Battery First Battalion 11th Marines, in Vietnam.

He said his and his fellow Marines' job in Vietnam was "to walk around in the jungle and hunt for people to kill." His company measured success through body counts, the killing of everyone within "free-fire zones" on search-and-destroy missions where no one could be trusted, including women and children.
"We went into an area, in a free-fire zone, searched for the enemy and destroyed them, and that included the people, the crops, we poisoned the wells that were the source of their water. Those were things I did, and I did them because that was my job."



Excerpts above are from the article attached in Bill Faith's attachment.

I was a Corpsman with the 11th Marines, 1st Div. Camp Pendelton, from '71 to '73.

If this is the same unit, I never heard any of the Marines who were in country talking about ground pounding work. Everybody had jobs within the batteries to support the guns.

The 105's had a range of 7 miles. Why would they be in the "jungle"?

I may be wrong, and perhaps an artillery vet could help here, but this could be another of the many embellishments and fabrications of the Winter Soldier freak parade.
_________________
Corpsman, 1969-1973

[Bill Faith]

Apparently Campbell claims he was a forward observer feeding information to an artillery unit. See http://members.aol.com/warlibrary/vwch7.htm

Some other links to follow for background information and to help get in the right frame of mind:
http://www.classicalvalues.com/archives/001640.html
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE2D9103AF932A15753C1A9629C8B63
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1086255/posts

If Campbell wins his lawsuit it's going to undo a lot of good that was done last fall and convince a lot of people that "See, they really were babykillers after all." We. can. not. let. that. happen.
_________________
Bill Faith
bill.faith@gmail.com
http://smalltownveteran.typepad.com/
USAF 1970-1974
Viet Nam 1971-1972

[Bill Faith]

I've posted some thoughts on this matter at http://smalltownveteran.typepad.com/posts/2005/07/kerry_crony_sue.html. It's late and I'm too lazy tonight to copy the post to the forum and recreate all the hyperlinks. Please just read it at my place if you're interested.
_________________
Bill Faith
bill.faith@gmail.com
http://smalltownveteran.typepad.com/
USAF 1970-1974
Viet Nam 1971-1972

[Me#1You#10]

From a local publication...hope we'll see more...

[Bill Faith]

Great find, #1.

In case there are any other bloggers following this situation, the URL for that article is http://www.pennlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news/1121764881165840.xml?pennnwest&coll=1
_________________
Bill Faith
bill.faith@gmail.com
http://smalltownveteran.typepad.com/
USAF 1970-1974
Viet Nam 1971-1972

[Me#1You#10]

An Update from VVLF....

Kenneth Campbell v. Carlton Sherwood and
Red, White and Blue Productions, Inc.

Carlton Sherwood addresses veterans, early 2005

__________________________________________________

A libel lawsuit was filed in Philadelphia by a Vietnam veteran and antiwar activist a few weeks before the 2004 Presidential election in an attempt to prevent the public from seeing Sherwood's documentary film Stolen Honor . Stolen Honor addressed John Kerry’s antiwar activities and showed how Kerry's Senate testimony alleging war crimes and atrocities by U.S. troops resulted in the additional mistreatment of U.S. POWs by their North Vietnamese captors.

The plaintiff, Kenneth Campbell, claims that he was defamed by Stolen Honor, even though he is never identified by in the documentary. Campbell is allegedly shown for a few seconds as he appeared more than 30 years ago at the Vietnam Veterans Against the War's "Winter Soldier" hearings in Detroit, Michigan, about war crimes and atrocities that he said he personally committed or witnessed while in Vietnam. Campbell now alleges that Stolen Honor implies that he lied about those war crimes and atrocities.

The lawsuit is now in the discovery phase and trial is not expected until next year. We will provide regular updates on the progress of the lawsuit.
__________________________________________________

Legal Documents

10/19/2004: Libel and Slander Complaint, filed in the Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County, PA [PDF: 758K]

12/23/2004: Motion of Defendants to Determine Preliminary Objection to Plaintiffs' Complaint [PDF: 948K]

01/12/2005: Plaintiff's Response to Preliminary Objections of Defendants [PDF: 951K]

01/18/2005: Reply Memorandum of Law in Support of Defendants' Preliminary Objections [PDF: 250K]

02/28/2005: Order Overruling Preliminary Objections of Defendants [PDF: 44K]

03/18/2005: Answer and New Matter of Defendants to Plaintiff's Complaint [PDF: 962K]

03/29/2005: Plaintiff's Answer to New Matter of Defendants [PDF: 272K]

Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation

[fortdixlover]

http://www.phillymag.com/Archives/2001Sept/damages_3.html

The six-year lag between the filing of the suit and the beginning of the trial wasn't atypical for Philadelphia med-mal actions initiated in the backlogged early '90s. But it was an unusual delay that led to Jim Jr. working on the case. The Gaults nearly lost their chance to sue when the first lawyer representing them, Thomas Smith, had an alleged mental breakdown; he'd neglected to respond to key motions and filings, instead allegedly locking them away in a credenza as he declined psychologically over several months. The Gaults' case and several others were dismissed, and Smith's employer, Jim Beasley Sr., might well have found himself on the receiving end of some malpractice suits had the courts not reinstated the cases, in part out of fairness to the clients. It then fell to Jim Jr. to take over preparation of the case, which his father would try in court.

[Me#1You#10]

Here's a second lawsuit pending? that I just became aware of... (emphasis mine)

[JN173]

Update: John Kerry Surrogates File New Lawsuits Against Vietnam POWs and Carlton Sherwood

Jon Bjornson, M.D. v. Carlton Sherwood and Red, White and Blue Productions, Inc., Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation and NewsMax

Another "Winter Soldier" has brought a lawsuit claiming that he was libeled by Carlton Sherwood's documentary Stolen Honor. In a complaint filed August 25, 2005, nearly a year after Stolen Honor was released, a man named Jon Bjornson alleges that Stolen Honor implied he was a "fraud and a liar" who made up stories of atrocities by US soldiers in Vietnam in order to deceive the American people. Bjornson's name was never mentioned in Stolen Honor.

Represented by the same counsel representing Kenneth Campbell in his defamation lawsuit against Carlton Sherwood, Bjornson has sued not only Sherwood but also the VVLF and its board of directors. Four members of the VVLF's board are veterans who served more than five years each as POWs in North Vietnamese prisons. The VVLF did not yet exist when Stolen Honor was put together and released.

Like Kenneth Campbell, whose suit against the VVLF and Carlton Sherwood is described below, Bjornson testified at the Winter Soldier Investigation in 1971. John Kerry relied on Bjornson's and others' accounts of war crimes and atrocities when he testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that war crimes were authorized "at every level of command."

Legal Documents:

• 08/25/2005: Libel and Slander Complaint, filed in the Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County, PA [PDF: 523K]

Kenneth Campbell v. Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation and NewsMax

Also on August 25, 2005, Kenneth Campbell initiated a legal action against the VVLF and NewsMax for which the complaint is not yet available. (sic)

Legal Documents:

• 08/25/2005: Writ of Summons, issued by the Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County, PA [PDF: 54K]

note: I have reproduced the content of JN173's original post in Geedunk which appears to have been inadvertently deleted. Also included, another lawsuit by Mr. Campbell on the same date naming VVLF and Newsmax as co-respondents./me#1