SwiftVets.com

[bach04]

more cracks! the link is provided via hugh hewitt's site ( hugh has been vicious on the cambodia stories )

http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/4933509.html

[Me#1You#10]

So much to read...so little time...

[bach04]

sorry about the title. it's is supposed to be star "tribune." :lol:

The article is as follow;


John H. Hinderaker and Scott W. Johnson: Unwrapping Kerry's story of Christmas in Cambodia
John H. Hinderaker and Scott W. Johnson
August 18, 2004 HINDERACKER0818
On March 27, 1986, John Kerry took the floor of the U.S. Senate and delivered a dramatic oration indicting the foreign policy of the Reagan administration. As is his habit, Kerry drew on his Vietnam experience in explaining his opposition to the policy.

"I remember Christmas of 1968, sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and having the president of the United States telling the American people that I was not there."

To emphasize the importance of this incident to his subsequent political development, Kerry asserted: "I have that memory which is seared --seared -- in me, that says to me, before we send another generation into harm's way we have a responsibility in the U.S. Senate to go the last step, to make the best effort possible to avoid that kind of conflict."

The story of his 1968 Christmas in Cambodia is one that Kerry has told on many occasions over the years. He invoked the story in 1979 in the course of his review of the movie "Apocalypse Now" for the Boston Herald. Most recently, Kerry told the story -- with remarkable embellishments involving a CIA man who gave him his favorite hat -- last year on separate occasions to reporters Laura Blumenfeld of the Washington Post and Michael Kranish of the Boston Globe.

Certain elements of Kerry's Christmas in Cambodia story were incredible on their face. Kerry attributed responsibility for his illegal 1968 mission to Richard Nixon, despite the fact that Lyndon Johnson was president at the time. The Khmer Rouge who allegedly shot at Kerry during his "secret" mission did not take the field until 1972.

Moreover, there is no record that Swift boats -- the kind of boat under Kerry's command -- were ever used for secret missions in Cambodia. Their size and noise make them unlikely candidates for such missions. Indeed, the authorized biographer of Kerry's Vietnam service -- historian Douglas Brinkley -- omits from his book, "Tour of Duty," any mention of a covert cross-border mission to Cambodia during Kerry's service.

Over the past few weeks, the Christmas in Cambodia tale, a keystone of John Kerry's Vietnam autobiography, has been revealed to be fraudulent. On Christmas 1968, Kerry was docked at Sa Dec, 50 miles from Cambodia, in an area from which the Cambodian border was inaccessible.

Last week, after the falsity of Kerry's Christmas in Cambodia account became public, the Kerry campaign issued a statement "correcting" the story. According to the Kerry campaign, the mission referred to took place in January 1969, when Kerry "inadvertently or responsibly" crossed the border into Cambodia. However, three of Kerry's Swift boat crewmates have denied entering Cambodia at any time, and no one has corroborated Kerry's claim.

The suggestion that Kerry may have "inadvertently" strayed into Cambodia -- leaving aside whether that was even possible -- constitutes a complete retreat from the point of Kerry's original story: that he lost his faith in government because the president lied about having sent American troops into Cambodia. And, of course, it contradicts his story about ferrying a CIA man to Cambodia.

Given the attention lavished on President Bush's service in the Air National Guard earlier this year, we thought that newspapers such as the Washington Post and the New York Times would want to devote comparable attention to John Kerry's Christmas in Cambodia story. We also thought they would want to consider what the falsity of Kerry's story might have to tell us about the uses to which Kerry is putting his Vietnam service in the current presidential campaign.

To date, however, we have been wrong. Neither the influential mainstream newspapers nor the broadcast television networks have reported the meltdown of Kerry's Christmas in Cambodia story. Only readers of Internet blogs such as ours have kept current on the exposure of Kerry's tall tale. Or on the Kerry campaign's lame efforts to resurrect a version of the story that contradicts what Kerry has said for the past 25 years, but allows Kerry to continue using his Vietnam experiences, real and imagined, for his own political purposes.

Whatever the reason -- and we have our suspicions -- when it comes to scrutiny of Sen. Kerry's veracity, the mainstream media are saluting, but they are decidedly not reporting for duty.

John H. Hinderaker and Scott W. Johnson are Minneapolis attorneys and proprietors of the Web log "Power Line" ( www.powerlineblog.com ), one of 13 Web sites given credentials to cover the Republican convention in New York later this month.

[MJB]

As a local reader of the Star Tribune I would like to point out that this is not a news report. I believe it would have appeared on the editorial page (I get the paper Thurs - Sun) as a local contribution.

On the other hand, there was an article in the Strib last week the day after the Veterans for Bush rally was held on the state capitol grounds. It was actually quite a long and detailed article, and I wrote to the reporter to commend him for taking up the topic.

It was an interesting mix of Scott O'Gady's calling Kerry a traitor, and an introduction to the Swifties and their claims.

I read it in the print edition, and interestingly...when I went to post it to this forum, couldn't find it on the Strib's web site....

MJB

[Beatrice1000]

[MJB]

Here is alink that appeared on their web site tonight - it seems to be a link to the LA Times article. Reading it over, it's not exactly a "win" for the Swifties.....

http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/4933842.html

[Polaris]

MJB,

I am getting a busted link.
_________________
-Polaris

Truth is Beauty

[MJB]

Not a web expert, so I have no idea how to "fix" the link. I get the same result, yet I have that exact same web page open in another browser window... Copy and paste?

The story is currently on their main web page, startribune.com. Be aware that the Strib requires registration to view more than one article. Go to their main web page, scroll half way down and click the last link in the section of political stories.

Hope that helps...

MJB

[Polaris]

MJB,

Sorry, no dice. I get asked for registration...and their registration questions seem suspiciously nosey to me.
_________________
-Polaris

Truth is Beauty

[Navy_Navy_Navy]

There ya go.

For a plain URL, just paste in your link, then highlight the whole thing and click on the URL button and the BB will enclose your link in the proper tags.
_________________
~ Echo Juliet ~
Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
Navy woman, Navy wife, Navy mother

[Navy_Navy_Navy]

Just do what I do - LIE.

Except for your email address - make sure that's correct. I use mail.com for a few throwaway addresses that I use for just such situations.
_________________
~ Echo Juliet ~
Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
Navy woman, Navy wife, Navy mother

[Polaris]

People,

I knew it. You moderaters need to kick this up to the swift vets so they can demolish this article because it is extremely damaging. Basically what the LA Times is doing is saying that they did research and while errors were made, the SBVT has not case. Because of the claim of research, this is particularly damaging.

It is worse than not a win...it is a very subtle attempt at smear.

P.S. Wake them up if you have to, but the Swift Vets need to be able to answer this article by tomorrow morning BEFORE it hits the street.
_________________
-Polaris

Truth is Beauty

[Navy_Navy_Navy]

They're going to look pretty silly in a week or so with their pants down and their butts hanging in the breeze.

The truth will come out. It's coming out now at a rate that the Kerry campaign can't even begin to keep up with - a snit avalanche.

Keep the faith.

Write to debunk the article if you want, but be positive, factual and brief. Hit on two points and cut yourself off. Somene else will cover other facts.

Positive attitude - the founders have not yet done one thing that I'm ashamed of. They've made me overwhelmingly proud of their truth and their honor and their courage.

They have all their ducks in a row, so even if they're not accustomed to acting like career politicians, they're holding their own.
_________________
~ Echo Juliet ~
Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
Navy woman, Navy wife, Navy mother

[Polaris]

Navy_Navy_Navy,

This is not a matter of faith to me. Remember that I was raised in a highly political family. I have seen this type of defense before. It is called a "whitewash" and it can be very damaging......and only Kerry's shipmates can really debunk it. They need not do so directly, but they need to be made aware of the article and they need to be able to counter it when it comes up tomorrow (and it will).

To wit, the MSM will say, "See, we looked into this and a few mistakes were made but nothing major." At that point they will kill the story (or try to) and they will look more credible doing so.

I don't wish to sound harsh, but I have seen just how political coverups work.....it needs to be nipped in the bud and that means that talking points need to be ready to counter the article's conclusions.
_________________
-Polaris

Truth is Beauty

[Navy_Navy_Navy]

No, I'm not saying it's ALL faith - I've typed my fingers to the bone over the last few months, beginning when the first press conference got deplorable coverage that it got.

All I'm saying is that to be most effective, don't go high and right, dont' try to hit them with every possible refutation all at once and be civil, of course.

Hit them with one or two points and ask them "If _________is true, then isn't it possible that ____ is also true?" The ball is in their hands.

But, really - look at the condemnations coming out of even mainstream papers for the deplorable jobs that the MSM have done in vetting Kerry's story.

They've spent YEARS trying to track down the tiniest discrepancies in Bush's record and yet here's this war here that they've just accepted at face value.

The Non-MSM is not going to let them get away with it.

Bloggers and internet sites - more than half the people in the country get at least some of their news from those sources. The alphabet networks' ratings are in freefall against Fox's.

This isn't 2000 - the blogosphere alone is firing up the dissent and the protests against the MSM's failure to do its job.

It's not going to stop!
_________________
~ Echo Juliet ~
Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
Navy woman, Navy wife, Navy mother