SwiftVets.com

[LewWaters]

Lately, I've heard commentators stating that Kerry's testimony before the Fulbright commission in 1971 wasn't him accusing veterans of any war crimes, it was his relating what "other decorated Vietnam vets" had to say.

However, they fail to mention that Congress had an investigation by Naval Investigative Service. Of that investigation, B.G. Burkett, in his book, Stolen Valor wrote;

"

[ccr]

Great post, Lew.

I would really love to see this site have a talking points section -- just like what they have @ johnkerry.com, du, moveon.
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[arjr111]

[Chuck54]

I thought that Kerry admitted to committing the alleged war crimes himself.

The "I was young" excuse is crap. If that was the case he would have soundly renounced what he had done and apologized. If he had done that, most reasoanble people would forgive. But he has not, as General Brady has pointed out.
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"And no pair has been more wrong, more loudly, more often, than the two Senators from Massachusetts, Ted Kennedy and John Kerry"

Zell Miller

[integritycounts]

“That was part of the Torture, was to sign a statement you had committed war crimes.”

[7rrfs]

Kerry's 'testimony before Congress.

http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/pacepa200402260828.asp

February 26, 2004, 8:28 a.m.
Kerry’s Soviet Rhetoric
The Vietnam-era antiwar movement got its spin from the Kremlin.

By Ion Mihai Pacepa

Part of Senator John Kerry's appeal to a certain segment of Americans is his Vietnam-veteran status coupled with his antiwar activism during that period. On April 12, 1971, Kerry told the U.S. Congress that American soldiers claimed to him that they had, "raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned on the power, cut off limbs, blew up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan."

The exact sources of that assertion should be tracked down. Kerry also ought to be asked who, exactly, told him any such thing, and what it was, exactly, that they said they did in Vietnam. Statutes of limitation now protect these individuals from prosecution for any such admissions. Or did Senator Kerry merely hear allegations of that sort as hearsay bandied about by members of antiwar groups (much of which has since been discredited)? To me, this assertion sounds exactly like the disinformation line that the Soviets were sowing worldwide throughout the Vietnam era. KGB priority number one at that time was to damage American power, judgment, and credibility. One of its favorite tools was the fabrication of such evidence as photographs and "news reports" about invented American war atrocities. These tales were purveyed in KGB-operated magazines that would then flack them to reputable news organizations. Often enough, they would be picked up. News organizations are notoriously sloppy about verifying their sources. All in all, it was amazingly easy for Soviet-bloc spy organizations to fake many such reports and spread them around the free world.

As a spy chief and a general in the former Soviet satellite of Romania, I produced the very same vitriol Kerry repeated to the U.S. Congress almost word for word and planted it in leftist movements throughout Europe. KGB chairman Yuri Andropov managed our anti-Vietnam War operation. He often bragged about having damaged the U.S. foreign-policy consensus, poisoned domestic debate in the U.S., and built a credibility gap between America and European public opinion through our disinformation operations. Vietnam was, he once told me, "our most significant success."



NOT exactly what he heard from 150 Vets at Winter Soldier, eh?
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"I served admirably in Vietnam" John Kerry
"Yes, I committed atrocities in Vietnam" John Kerry

[stealthy]

How can he say after he served he was stupid and young and when he was younger a hero of monumental proportion?

Pahleze.
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American Conservative

[LewWaters]

Excellent point, Stealthy
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Clark County Conservative

[lrb111]

Well, he was old enough to ask the navy for an early out, so he could run for office.
So, on one hand he was old enough and mature enough to hold public office, but was immature when he went before congress.

These events also beg us to overlook the fact that he became active in anti-war activities AFTER he lost this first election.

It begs us to assume that he came back "disillusioned and immediately started up with the VVAW, Panthers, and Communist Party." Which is not the way it happened.
He joined those groups after he figured out they were a means to an end, and a way to gain publicity.
Although, he held communist ideals before the Navy, after joining the VVAW, and remains the most far left in the senate today.
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said Democratic Chairman Terry McAuliffe. "It is inexcusable to mock service and sacrifice."
well, when even the DNC can see it,,,,, then kerry is toast.

[You Bic?]

While a lot of attention has rightly been put on his descriptions of attrocities, Kerry in later testimony before the Senate committee said that the USA(armed forces) MURDERED 200,000 Vietnamese every year.

Note he did not say "killed" He said MURDERED.

He slimed millions of Veterans who were trying their best in a difficult situation by calling them mass murderers.

[You Bic?]

The excuse that Kerry was just repeating others testimony is no excuse at all.

He was the spokesman for those making these slanders. Just as every group or politican usually has a spokes(person) when they talk to the press, Kerry slimed millions of Vietnam Vets before the cameras in this role, accusing them of mass attrocities.

He did so in times of war, with troops still fighting and dying in the field and with American Prisoners of War in Hanoi.

He did it when the war was winding down, when the protest was redundant to ending the war. He stabbed us in the back and then twisted the knife. .

He should be forever known as Hanoi John.

[goswiftsgo]

The official testimony is as follows. Note this is a link to the winter soldier.

http://ice.he.net/~freepnet/kerry/index.php?topic=Testimony

I would like to talk, representing all those veterans, and say that several months ago in Detroit, we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged and many very highly decorated veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia, not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command.

It is impossible to describe to you exactly what did happen in Detroit, the emotions in the room, the feelings of the men who were reliving their experiences in Vietnam, but they did. They relived the absolute horror of what this country, in a sense, made them do.

They told the stories at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country.

[Beldar]

My lengthy take on the "out of context" claim is at http://www.beldar.org/beldarblog/2004/08/do_you_agree_wi.html ... as always, I'm grateful for feedback from readers here.

[BC]

The spin that is coming from John Kerry about his 1971 testimony, is bogus and full of B***S***, and only goes to strengthen my resolve to see this man not only defeated this November but to show how much of a liar and coward he really is.

The spin that he was only reporting what was told to him is an out right lie and a desperate spin on his testimony.

“I would like to talk, representing all those veterans, and say that several months ago in Detroit, we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged and many very highly decorated veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia, not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command.”

Those are Kerry’s own words from his testimony. He says WE HAD an investigation, those words show me that he is the one who, along with others, took the initiative to seek out and find testimony about crimes committed by the military. He not only took it upon himself to find this information but to say it, under oath before congress. I can only come to two conclusion from this, that Kerry either knew that his testimony was an outright lie, or that he truly believed in what he was testifying to.

From his investigation he took the testimony from what he says was 150 honorably discharged veterans. He, as the investigator, uses these testimonies to show the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, that not only was the committed on a day-to-day basis but was done with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command

“We who have come here to Washington have come here because we feel we have to be winter soldiers now. We could come back to this country; we could be quiet; we could hold our silence; we could not tell what went on in Vietnam, but we feel because of what threatens this country, the fact that the crimes threaten it, no reds, and not redcoats but the crimes which we are committing that threaten it, that we have to speak out.”

In this part of his statement he uses the word WE ten times nowhere does he say they, as in…They who have come, or that they have to speak out. The use of the word WE so many times clearly shows that he, John Kerry is part of that group that he now tries to say he was only relaying what they said. All through his testimony he uses the word WE instead of they.

Let’s move on…………….

“The war will continue. So what I am saying is that yes, there will be some recrimination but far, far less than the 200,000 a year who are murdered by the United States of America”

Spin that you S.O.B.
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Remember United Flight 93, "Are you guys ready? Let's roll."
Duty Honor Country

[goswiftsgo]

WE WE WE, just like John French Kerry likes it !