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John Kerry History Page
In no way is this the views of 25th Aviation.org, It is strictly a research page of My Own , on one man,by one man.
It is not a Republican Page, A Democrat page, a Dog Catcher Page, or anything else.
If someone can pass me along something positive about John Kerry that he has done for vets, or the military I will promptly post that also , So send it in, I am all ears. Days with no positive John Kerry news=102
This is America, built on Dissent, right John?
Aaaah the smell of Napalm In The Morning.....Bring It On!
CW2 Richard Worthington 6 July 1970/Laos
UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION Amendment XIV Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
Is it time now to vote on Kerry's suitability to be President/Senator/Dog Catcher... under the Constitution ?
A MESSAGE TO KERRY ABOUT A TEXAS PROVERB: Life is NOT like a box of chocolates. Life is like a jar of jalapeños. What you do today May burn your ass tomorrow.
Need a bumper sticker? $3.59 includes shipping. Quantity discounts for 100 or more Contact webmaster@25thaviation.org Proceeds Go to Support 2/25th Aviation Deployed In Afghanistan Care Package Program. "In order to get to where he is today, to run for president, John Kerry had to wade through the blood of American servicemen still on the battlefield in 1971,"
John Kerry e-mail info@johnkerry.com
10,708 So Far!
Bush's War Record (Got To Give Equal Time to be fair) The People Kerry Betrayed-(The POW's and their families, meet them) "John Kerry betrayed our Prisoners of War and Missing In Action. (POW/MIAs). He betrayed our husbands, our sons, our brothers, our fathers and extended family members."
The Latest Polls Should a man who falsely accused American troops of atrocities serve as Commander-in-Chief?
Winter Soldier Poll Sure 1629(4.16%) No 3934 (10.05%) Hell No! 33583 (85.79%) 39146 votes On June 15
Heli-Vets Poll Vietnam Vets against Kerry 161 (97%) Vietnam Vets For Kerry 6 (3%)
There is good news and bad news. The good news is that there is a new anti-Kerry website. You can see it at wintersoldier.com. In an ongoing poll they are conducting, now up to 7786 veterans, to the question "Should a man who falsely accused American troops of atrocities serve as Commander-in-Chief ?", 98% have responded with a loud NO. This fits with the same response percentage found by "The Wall Street Journal" to an article by a Vietnam vet attacking Kerry. Also with an article just out by a San Diego editor saying the ratio in his veteran community is running 100 to 1 against Kerry. The bad news is that the national TV news, of course, is not mentioning any of this. They are campaigning for Kerry in another betrayal like the Tet Offensive type cover-up. And while attacking the Mel Gibson movie for anti-Semitism, they are not mentioning how left-liberal faculty are threatening chaos on campus by creating a tidal wave of anti-Semitism, standing by, as they did at San Francisco State Univ.,while Muslim students physically attack Jewish students. They are also not questioning the sugary nonsense that faculty is using to hide from students the truth about the lethal danger built into Islam. There is even more scary news in another poll. This one reports, on the question of what is most important in their vote for a president, 29% - economy, 16% - health care, 6%- terrorism. The media and our professors are disarming the nation. Leonard Magruder How Kerry harmed Vietnam vets
By Uwe Siemon-Netto UPI Religion Editor
Washington, DC, (UPI) -- Don Bendell of Canon City, Colo., who fought as a Special Forces officer in Vietnam, summed up what many veterans say when they talk about Sen. John Kerry:
"The old hurts are surfacing, and the feelings of betrayal by fellow citizens ... are breaking my heart again. ... How did we who served in Vietnam suddenly become cold-blooded killers, torturers and rapists of the ilk of the Nazi SS or the Taliban?"
What Bendell expressed used to be called the "baby-killer syndrome" two or three decades ago. It was -- and is -- a condition I observed first hand when working with these former soldiers as a chaplain intern in a Veterans Administration Medical Center in Minnesota.
This condition, a sense of dereliction that led to many suicides, was caused by reckless claims that American warriors committed unspeakable atrocities in Indochina, charges like this one:
"They (U.S. military men) 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, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside in Vietnam."
John Kerry, now a U.S. senator and presumptive presidential candidate of the Democratic Party, said this in a testimony before Congress in 1971.
Kerry, a Navy lieutenant junior grade, had served for four months in the Riverine Force, a unit whose boats patrolled the waterways in the jungles of South Vietnam.
I covered this war over a period of five years as a correspondent for German newspapers. I accompanied all kinds of units, including the Riverine Force. I was with them in heavy combat and on seemingly futile patrols lasting many days. And I have had endless frank talks with the troops over meals of C-rations in the field or drinks on some God-forsaken base.
Never in all these years have I witnessed atrocities such as the ones related by Kerry, nor have I heard a soldier describe such actions to me. I observed one single genuine war crime -- a sergeant shooting to death a blindfolded Viet Cong; he was duly court-martialed for it. And I covered the trial of Lt. William L. Calley, whose platoon massacred 567 unarmed civilians in the central Vietnamese village of My Lai. Like other foreign correspondents, I frequently came across evidences of acts of terror committed by Viet Cong partisans against fellow Vietnamese who happened to support the Saigon government.
At one point, I accompanied a South Vietnamese battalion entering a village that had been "visited" by the VC the night before. There, dangling from trees were the village chief, his wife and their 12 children, all disemboweled and then hanged before the eyes of the assembled residents. This was not an aberration, such as the misbehavior of Calley's men. Rather, it was part of Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap's three-phase strategy for guerrilla warfare. Giap was North Vietnam's defense minister.
Phase II of his plan involved terror tactics such as the one whose results I observed in that village. By being forced to watch the slaughter of their mayor and his family, the villagers were to be dissuaded from supporting Saigon any further. The antiwar movement, which I also covered, liberally used rhetoric cooked by the Soviet KGB, as Ion Mihai Pacepa, the former acting chief of Romania's espionage service, recently revealed in a National Review Online article.
The human wrecks in three pastoral care and therapy groups I directed together with V.A. psychologists in Minnesota were living testimony to the unspeakable suffering these lies caused.
Virtually all of these veterans had been called "baby-killers" in their face within 24 hours of their return from the war. Some told us that when they entered their hometown churches with their then-unfashionable crew cuts or perhaps still in uniform, the pastor told them from the pulpit not to come back -- at least not in this attire.
Families, girlfriends and neighbors turned against these young men, mostly draftees. Marriages collapsed, engagements were broken -- all because of the general perception that America's soldiers were war criminals.
From my research in the 1980s, including interviews with VA psychiatrists, I know that many suicides and other less than natural deaths were linked to the vets' experience of "spiritual darkness," as William P. Mahedy, a former army chaplain in Vietnam, called this. This darkness has two dimensions: the rejection by the vets' fellow citizens, and the false perception that God has turned his back on them. For decades after the Vietnam War, thousands of veterans have lived in self-imposed isolation in the woods of northern Minnesota, Washington or Oregon states, surrounded by concertina wire. One former Marine in my groups spent even the winters in a truck hundreds of miles from the nearest human settlement.
There are of course also memories of combat only the war is responsible for. One ex-Marine I counseled once shot an 8-year-old Vietnamese boy who was about to lob a hand grenade against a truck carrying the young American's platoon to combat. Years later, he saw the dying child's face in his dreams night after night. And when the ex-Marine became a father of twin boys, and they reached the age of 8, it was their contorted faces he saw in his nightmares every day.
That wasn't Kerry's fault, or Jane Fonda's, or any antiwar protester's for that matter. That's what happens when you have spent a lot of time in combat and experience what Mahedy called "an overpowering awareness of the context of human sin." But the suffering of the Vietnam vets is of a different nature because they are the only returning soldiers in modern history to have been discarded by a major segment of their own people.
As Don Bendell wrote to Kerry in an open letter over the Internet, "My children and grandchildren could read your words, and think those horrendous things about me. ... You have dishonored me and all my fellow Vietnam veterans."
Recently Kerry pleaded with interviewers not to hold his 1971 testimony against him because it was spoken when he was only 27. But 27-year-old men are considered mature. They are of drinking age. Many of those spitefully called baby killers were not. They were 19 or 20 then -- and they simply couldn't understand.
They still can't. Go down to the black memorial wall in Washington, where some of them congregate every day. You'll spot them easily by the defiant look on their faces and the curious gear -- half military, half civilian -- on their mutilated bodies.
They'll tell you as Don Bendell told John Kerry over the Internet: They still hurt, they feel betrayed, especially now as all this is being stirred up again. http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20040428-035134-7149r.htm
No-Show Senator Kerry Takes Home Full Senate Paycheck Jonathan M. Stein Friday, June 18, 2004 John Kerry, the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee for President of the United States, has been taking advantage of American taxpayers – and he should be ashamed of himself.
Title 2, Section 39, of the United States Code clearly states that “[t]he Secretary of the Senate ... shall deduct from the [salary] of each Member ... the amount of his salary for each day that he has been absent from the Senate ... unless such Member ... assigns as the reason for such absence the sickness of himself or of some member of his family."
The plain and unambiguous meaning of this statute is that a Senator who misses work doesn’t get paid – just like ordinary Americans. Unfortunately, the Secretary of the Senate, Ms. Emily Reynolds, has improperly, and inappropriately, declined to carry out her statutory duty – i.e. to dock the pay of Senators who miss work. When pressed, Ms. Reynolds explained, in a response to a letter by David Keene of the Carmen Group, that since her predecessors in the position failed to carry out the law, she won’t either. This reasoning is absurd – and unlawful.
An officer of the Senate is bound by the law as it applies to that officer. When the law states that an officer of the Senate “shall” do something, that officer is bound to carry out the mandate of the law. If individuals were free to ignore the law as they pleased, our society would fall apart. The Secretary of the Senate is no exception – she is not above the law. Her failure to carry out the mandate of Title 2, Section 39 is a clear violation of federal law. However, ultimate culpability does not end with Ms. Reynolds. Ignorance of the law, in American society, is never a valid defense to the commission of an unlawful act – thus, all Americans are charged with knowledge of the law. Lawyers, who are, ideally, learned in the law, should be held to a higher standard; though it sounds like an oxymoron, they are indeed held to a standard of lawyers’ ethics. A United States Senator, charged with promulgating the law, and especially a Senator who is a lawyer, thus, must be held to the highest standard of legal and ethical conduct. John Kerry is both a Senator and a lawyer. As such, Senator Kerry is charged with knowledge of the law and must be held to the highest standard of legal and ethical conduct. In this respect, Kerry is a “miserable failure.”
John Kerry is charged with knowing that the Secretary of the Senate is to dock his pay when he fails to show up for work – and that there is no exception in the law for campaign activities. Thus, any payment made to a Senator in violation of Title 2, Section 39 is an illegal payment of funds from the U.S. Treasury and, legally speaking, theft of taxpayer money – John Kerry is presumed to know that these payments are illegal. Therefore, by knowingly accepting these illegal payments, Senator Kerry himself is breaking the law.
While, of course, this rationale applies to all Senators, John Kerry warrants special condemnation: Senator Kerry is running for President and he has the most dismal attendance record in the Senate; Kerry has been absent, without valid excuse, 87 percent of the time this session! Ergo, John Kerry is the most flagrant offender – and “everyone is doing it” is not a reasonable excuse. Further, an ordinary American who is absent from their job 87 percent of the time wouldn’t merely be docked pay – that person would be fired!
In the interest of restoring the rule of law, I have personally filed a formal ethics complaint against both Senator Kerry and the Secretary of the Senate with the Senate Select Committee on Ethics, which has jurisdiction over this matter. It is quite sad that it takes the efforts of a mere law student to force a candidate for the Presidency to obey the law that, if successful, he will be sworn to uphold himself.
This matter draws yet another bright line between Senator Kerry and President Bush. When then-Governor Bush ran for President, he declined to accept his salary, as Governor, when he needed to campaign full time – even though Texas law did not require him to do so. On the other hand, though Unites States law requires Kerry not to accept his salary when he campaigns full time and cannot be present in the Senate, Kerry has opted to accept his salary illegally.
Jonathan Stein is on staff at the Hofstra Law Review and has been published in the Washington Times, Brown Daily Herald, NewsMax.com and The Committee for Justice.
John Kerry On Israel: Second To Several Posted 6/16/2004 By Rick Richman Someone who read an abbreviated version of "Kerry, Carter and Israel" (myfront-page essay in the May 5 issue of The Jewish Press) wrote that he was unconcerned about Kerry, because his pro-Israel voting record was "second to none,"he had "fought" the attempt by the first President Bush in the early 1990`s to cut loan guarantees to Israel, and he had endorsed Israel`s recent actions against the leaders of Hamas.
I was intrigued by the suggestion that Kerry`s pro-Israel record was "secondto none," so I looked it up.
The Jewish Virtual Library lists Kerry`s vote on 60 Senate bills, resolutions and other matters: "Legislative Record of Senator John Kerry on Issues of Concern to the Pro-Israel Community" (www.us-israel.org/jsource/US-Israel/kerryrecord.html).
I disregarded the 17 measures that passed with 90 or more votes (out of a possible 100), on grounds that these were not exactly profile-in-courage moments.
(That includes Kerry`s "fight" for loan guarantees to Israel, which consisted of his joining 98 other senators in 1992 in voting for Sen. Lautenberg`s resolution of support).
Then I discounted the 18 measures that garnered between 82 and 89 votes.You don`t get a "second to none" rating by simply hanging around with the 80-plus percent crowd.
I decided the best indicator of the depth of Kerry`s support would be the instances where the pro-Israel position got 60 votes or less -- by definition the most controversial situations, the ones where Kerry`s vote mattered most.
There were 10 of those votes in the JVL list, and Kerry`s record there was . . .envelope please . . . six pro-Israel votes out of 10. So in the close-call category, Kerry was basically a 60-40 guy.
The JVL list notes that, in connection with the FY 2000 Foreign Aid Conference Report, Kerry opposed the pro-Israel position. In 2000, he failed to join 60 co-sponsors of the "Middle East Peace Process Support Act" — a bill calling on the president not to recognize a unilaterally declared Palestinian state. He also failed to co-sponsor the pro-Israel "Peace Through Negotiations Act," which attracted 60 co-sponsors. In 1993, Kerry failed to join 55 senators signing the Grassley/Lautenberg letter to the State Department, which demanded that it include Hamas in its annual report on terrorism.
Earlier this year, after the assassination of Hamas leader Sheikh Yassin,Kerry exasperated even the Forward -- the paper that, two weeks before the New York primary, had dutifully reported to the Jewish community Kerry`s assertion that the reason he had named Jimmy Carter as his prospective Middle East envoy was a "staff mistake."
The Forward repeatedly sought Kerry`s reaction to the assassination, but could not get a response. On March 30, 2004, it reported that “John Kerry`s campaign last week used the excuse that the senator was on vacation in Idaho to dodge repeated requests from the Forward for a statement from him on Israel`s assassination of Hamas head Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. It is still dodging the matter.”
On April 18, 2004 -- nearly one month after the Yassin assassination -- Kerry appeared on "Meet the Press" and was asked directly about his position:
MR. RUSSERT: Israel assassinated Hamas leader Rantisi. Do you support that assassination?
SEN. KERRY: I believe Israel has every right in the world to respond to any act of terror against it. Hamas is a terrorist, brutal organization. It has had years to make up its mind to take part in a peaceful process. They refuse to. Arafat refuses to. And I support Israel`s efforts to try to separate itself and to try to be secure. The moment Hamas says, “We`ve given up violence, we`re prepared to negotiate,” I am absolutely confident they will find an Israel that is thirsty to have that negotiation.
Notice that he did not answer the question. (If you think he did, re-read the answer and then take this short quiz: Would John Kerry (a) support or (b) oppose an Israeli assassination of Yasir Arafat?). And Kerry`s suggestion that Hamas need only say it has "given up" violence and is "prepared to negotiate" seems on a par with his statement that Israel should simply pick up where things left off at Taba and negotiate.
When you combine all this with Kerry`s untrue "staff mistake" statement to the Jewish community in February, his castigation in December of President Bush`s policy on the "peace process" as part of a foreign policy gone "radically wrong" --followed less than three months later by his announcement of "complete" support of President Bush in that area -- there is legitimate cause for concern about Kerry`s steadfastness in this area. Senate votes are easy. A consistent, candid position seems to be a little harder.
In any event, it is not a "second to none" record -- although Kerry is campaigning as if it were. In mid-April, campaigning in Florida, Kerry assured his audience, according to the Washington Post, that his record on Israel was perfect:
“For 20 years, Joe [Lieberman] will tell you, I have a 100 percent record -- not a 99, a 100 percent record -- of sustaining the special relationship, the friendship that we have with Israel.”
His actual record is more nuanced.
A Shameful Past
by Laura Bartholomew Armstrong
The Vietnamization of the 2004 presidential campaign has unfortunately begun, thanks to the likely Democratic nominee. But John Kerry's service--Vietnam, in case you haven't heard--doesn't exist in a vacuum. His 19-year Senate record is at long odds with that short naval career, just as his vote to send troops to liberate Iraq is at odds with his later vote not to fund the mission. His supporters ask us to note his heroism in combat. We have, ad nauseam. But more important, and the thing he doesn't want discussed, is the well-documented though less well-known hypocrisy of those who use his service to further their antimilitary agenda.
I'm the daughter of Lt. Col. Roger J. "Black Bart" Bartholomew, a First Air Cavalry rocket artillery helicopter pilot who was killed in Vietnam on Thanksgiving Day 1968, when I was eight years old. I'm a former journalist with a military newspaper, a U.S. Marine widow, and I am appalled at Mr. Kerry's latest assertions that our president "has reopened the wounds of Vietnam." For months, I've heard President Bush talking about the present, while Mr. Kerry and the media want to focus on the past. I think we need to see the whole picture.
Liberal critics of American foreign policy have claimed they "support the troops"--but they're obviously hoping we have short memories. Many of us will never forget the hundreds of lawyers they dispatched to Florida in 2000 to make sure military absentee ballots did not get counted (some sources say that two out of three military voices in Florida were never heard). That was after the Clinton administration initiated rules making it more difficult to vote on overseas military bases.
Mr. Kerry and his party overwhelmingly oppose Pentagon funding and equipment, and make life miserable for our services on Capitol Hill. The liberals who sneered at the concept of duct tape keeping us safe last year are the same congressmen who find it acceptable when our brave and resourceful Marines must use it to hold together 40-year-old helicopters in combat. My brother Jay, a CH-46 pilot, used it during the first Gulf War, and our guys are still flying those same helicopters a decade later.
Mr. Kerry has tried to distance himself from some anti-war activists and surround himself with veterans, yet his anti-military voting record speaks much louder and resonates with those of us who are affected by the results.
Kerry supporters are the ones who would applaud my high school social studies teacher, a draft dodger who in 1976 banished me to the library for the duration of our Vietnam unit because I questioned his one-sided presentation of our troops as baby killers. Dare I say, these are the same people who spat on our guys back in the 1960s and disdained them in the '70s.
These were the people who in 1992 mocked Ross Perot's running mate, Adm. James Stockdale, a true hero and former prisoner of war, after his hearing aid (legacy of Viet Cong torture masters) gave him trouble during a televised debate. They downplayed Bob Dole's military service in 1996. And these are the same people who just last year yelled antimilitary slurs at dependents driving vehicles with Defense Department stickers--even picked on military kids about what their daddies did for a living. These are the Americans who love to enjoy the liberties of our land, yet have little understanding about those who actually risk their lives to ensure they exist. Until, of course, their candidate can claim that service on his résumé, and then they know all about us.
As the kid of a real war hero who did not come back, I'd like to comment not on Kerry's service, but his postservice activities. Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Mr. Kerry's organization of choice when he returned from his shortened tour of duty in Vietnam (and his springboard to fame), was known to me even as a child. The organization, while providing a place for angst-ridden vets to land after coming home, had an awful effect on those of us who lost our fathers.
It was bad enough to hear our dads criticized by those who hated the military, but to hear vets allege rampant war crimes and call their fellow soldiers evil before all the world really twisted the knife. Mr. Kerry led the way, proud in the company of Jane Fonda and others we believed had caused the deaths of good men. This group's testimony tarnished honorable actions. After taking the oath to preserve and protect, they grandstanded, throwing service awards in a show of defiance that diminished each sacrifice. Their stories dominated while the stories of thousands of honorable vets went untold. I don't hold it against them after so many years, but I'm dead sure I don't want their darling Kerry, the man who voted against funding our guys in Operation Iraqi Freedom, to be our next commander in chief.
In 2004, nothing is more important than continuing to protect America and fight terrorism. President Bush has led, not perfectly but earnestly. He has put much on the line to do what he believes is right. And he needs our continued support in the months to come.
Ms. Armstrong is a freelance writer in Atlanta and mother of two.
John Kerry Wants Taxpayers to Fund Research That Destroys Lives by Steven Ertelt LifeNews.com Editor June 13, 2004
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Continuing to violate the pro-life legacy of Ronald Reagan that millions celebrated last week, likely Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry cited the death of the former president in challenging President Bush to lift restrictions on taxpayer funding of embryonic stem cell research.
Saying that it could lead to cures for patients suffering from Alzheimer's as Reagan did, Kerry said researchers can only find a cure "if only they are allowed to look." Ethical questions regarding the research, which destroys the lives of unborn children to obtain their stem cells, can be resolved with "good will and good sense," Kerry said in a radio address.
Kerry said Nancy Reagan "told the world that Alzheimer's had taken her own husband to a distant place, and then she stood up to help find a breakthrough that someday will spare other husbands, wives, children and parents from the same kind of heartache."
However, two leading researchers on Friday, including a Johns Hopkins University scientist, said less controversial approaches are more likely to find a cure or reduce the effects of Alzheimer's in the coming years. Using embryonic stem cells may not yield progress for decades, the researchers said.
Scott Stanzel, a Bush re-election campaign spokesman, told the Associated Press that the president favors aggressive research as long as it is conducted "in ways that respect human dignity and help build the culture of life." including through ethical stem cell research, yet we must do so in ways that respect human dignity and help build a culture of life," spokeswoman Alison Harden added. In August 2001, President Bush signed an executive order prohibiting taxpayer funding of any new embryonic stem cell research conducted after that point. Scientists have complained because almost all embryonic stem cells were disqualified from funding.
Kerry said stem cells "have the power to slow the loss of a grandmother's memory, calm the hand of an uncle with Parkinson's, save a child from a lifetime of daily insulin shots or permanently lift a best friend from his wheelchair."
But that's not the case say leading observers. They point to the convulsions patients receiving injections of embryonic stem cells have gone into and say that the use of adult stem cells have shown far greater progress -- already curing some diseases and lessening the effects of others.
No patients have yet shown any benefits as a result of the use of embryonic stem cells.
Paperlessarchives.com Publishes 20,000 Pages Of John Kerry - VVAW FBI Files
Paperless Archives (www.paperlessarvchives.com) has announced the publishing of 20,000 pages of FBI Files related to Senator John Kerry. These FBI files include coverage of John Kerry's activity as a leader of the anti-Vietnam War group, Vietnam Veterans Against the War. These FBI files have been the subject of great discussion and news coverage recently, yet few have actually ever seen a single page of the documents. Paperless Archives (www.paperlessarcives.com) has now made it possible for everyone to obtain and review copies of these files.
LOS ANGELES, CA (PRWEB) June 9, 2004 -- Paperless Archives (www.paperlessarvchives.com) has announced the publishing of 20,000 pages of FBI Files related to Senator John Kerry. These FBI files include coverage of John Kerry's activity as a leader of the anti-Vietnam War group, Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
These FBI files have been the subject of great discussion and news coverage recently, yet few have actually ever seen a single page of the documents. Paperless Archives (www.paperlessarcives.com) has now made it possible for everyone to obtain and review copies of these files.
Most of this material was originally released in 1999 to author and historian Gerald Nicosia, after seeking their release under the Freedom of Information Act in 1988. This set released in June 2004, contains pages of documents not released to Nicosia in 1999.
The documents date from 1967 to 1976. They are composed of memos, reports, investigation summaries, confidential informant accounts, newspaper and wire service articles, and Vietnam Veterans Against the War bulletins and flyers. The files give broad coverage to activities of VVAW members such as Scott Camil, Al Hubbard, and the person who has become its most well known member, John Kerry
Although there were many anti-war groups at the time, The Vietnam Veterans Against the War seems to have gathered more attention from the FBI than most others. The sight of uniforms, medals, and missing limbs caused a greater stir along all sectors of the ideological spectrum of opinion about the Vietnam War. There also may have been a feeling in the FBI, that members of the VVAW were more dangerous than hippies, because VVAW members had military training and had seen combat. The files show the United States domestic intelligence infrastructure's level of concern about the possibility of subversion and sedition, among those who were strongly critical of American Vietnam policy.
John Kerry first became familiar with the VVAW through his sister Peggy, in 1969. After deciding not to run for Congress in 1970, Kerry went to Paris, site of the Vietnam War peace negotiations, and met with Viet Cong representatives. After his return, he began speaking at VVAW events. John Kerry became one the Vietnam Veteran's Against the War's most publicly recognizable figures. Especially after his appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in April 1971. As a veteran who was decorated with a Silver Star, Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts, Kerry garnered attention and consideration, that other anti-Vietnam War protestors could not achieve. Kerry went on to become one of the members of VVAW's national steering committee.
The coverage of Kerry is mostly intermittently spread across memos dating from 1971. Much of the clandestine surveillance is composed of reporting made by unnamed confidential informants. The files chronicle: John Kerry's rise in status as a member of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, A growing ideological conflict with the more militant direction the VVAW was heading in, Travel to Paris for talks with the North Vietnamese peace negotiation delegation, the "Kansas City" meeting, Kerry's pitched battle with VVAW leader Al Hubbard, and Kerry's dissolution as a leader of the VVAW in 1971.
Heavy surveillance of the group continues after Kerry leaves the group. The files document FBI accusations of a conspiracy to riot during the 1972 Republican National Convention and the passing of classified information to a Japanese communist leader. A member of the Connecticut chapter of the VVAW was arrested with an explosive device en route to a speech given by Vice President Spiro Agnew.
The listing for the complete set of Vietnam Veterans Against the War FBI Files can be found at http://www.paperlessarchives.com/vvaw.html
The listing for a set of selected VVAW FBI files highlighting the time John Kerry was a member, along with copies of Kerry's military records and correspondences from the CIA, can be found at http://www.paperlessarchives.com/john_kerry.html
About Paperless Archives Paperless Archives, www.paperlessarchives.com, provides access to thousands of pages of once secret historical documents, photos, and recordings.
Materials cover Presidencies, Historical Figures, Historical Events, Celebrities, Organized Crime, Politics, Military Operations, Famous Crimes, Intelligence Gathering, Espionage, Civil Rights, Serial Killers, World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, and more.
Source material from Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), National Security Agency (NSA), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Secret Service, National Security Council, Department of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Department of Justice, National Archive Records and Administration, and Presidential Libraries.
Sample Pages From John Kerry - VVAW FBI Files Sample pages from the 20,000 pages of John Kerry - Vietnam Veterns Against The WAR FBI Files available from paperlessarchives.com Uploaded: Jun 8, 2004 File Name: JohnKerryFBIFiles.pdf
CONTACT INFORMATION Brion Clayton Paperless Archives 310-289-2320 http://www.paperlessarchives.com
John Kerry
February 7, 2004 Hal Cranmer writes…
I would like to add my two cents about my John Kerry experience. During my career as an Air Force pilot, I spent two years flying a small twin-engine prop plane around the Pacific from my base in Okinawa, Japan.
On one trip we had to fly Senator Kerry, his congressional aide, and a Navy Captain (Vietnam, A-4 fighter pilot) who was also in Kerry's party to various locations in Vietnam and Cambodia as part of the MIA/POW talks.
When I met him, he was wearing a shirt with a picture of his sailboat on it. I told him I had a small 27 foot sailboat in Okinawa, he remarked "I never sail on anything less than 135 feet." I laughed to myself and realized this guy was no sailor.
When we first flew him into Phnom Penh, he went to the back of the airplane and grabbed the pizza that was put aside for the crew and passed it around to his staff. He was never offered any pizza because they were supposed to have lunch with the Cambodian government once we landed. The pizza would have been our only meal that day. He just never cared to ask.
Then when we picked him up in Cambodia, he was an hour late getting to the airport. We could not start the engines, and therefore the air conditioning, until he arrived. Phnom Penh at that time was over 100 degrees with 95% humidity and we were basically sitting in a greenhouse behind the cockpit windows. When he finally did arrive, we were wringing out our clothes from the perspiration. He walks out of the air-conditioned car, into the airplane and asks us "Could you guys get the air conditioning running, I'm a little warm." The other pilot had to physically restrain me from going back there and picking a fight.
Then we took him into Noi Bai airfield in Hanoi. After we picked him up the next day (he stayed the night in Vietnam, we stayed in Bangkok) we taxied out, ran up the engines for takeoff, and noticed that our prop rpm was vibrating all over the place. We taxied off to the side to look at it, but there was a good possibility that there was an engine malfunction and the engine may fail if we took off with it. Well, Mr. Senator sticks his head up in the cockpit and says 'this plane WILL take - off, I have a press conference in Bangkok in three hours!" (Maybe this is an indication of how he will run the FAA.) We ran the engines again, and did not have the problem, so we took off and made it back During the flight, he told everyone how he had taken a Cessna (a small General aviation plane) up with a fighter pilot, and the fighter pilot remarked that Kerry was one of the best pilots he had ever seen. I don't know about other pilots out there, but it's hard to imagine a little, single-engine prop plane pilot being able to show the 'right stuff.'
After Kerry left the plane, the Navy Captain came up to us, apologized and said he knows Kerry is a jerk and that we should be glad we don't have to deal with him every day... Or will we? YOU BETTER GET OUT AND VOTE!
Origins: This piece about Senator John Kerry appeared in mid-February 2004, just as the Massachusetts senator was beginning to emerge as the front-runner in the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. Although several names have been attached to the text, it is most frequently attributed to Hal Cranmer. Independently verifying whether some informal conversations, which took place at an indeterminate time in the past, possibly several years ago, are accurate as reported is a rather difficult task. We asked the putative author if he could provide additional details or identify others who may have witnessed the events he reported, but we have yet to receive a response. If such an interaction occurred, it would have had to take place in April 1992 during Senator Kerry's visit to Southeast Asia as a member of the Senate Select Committee on POW-MIA Affairs.
One aspect of the account isn't holding up to scrutiny. Senator Kerry's purported remark of "Oh I never sail on anything less than 135 feet" is at odds with his history. In 1992 he was the skipper of 68-foot yacht American Eagle in the Opera House Cup, a race held annually off Nantucket Island, Massachusetts.
Whatever the probity of the e-mailed account, the larger issue isn't whether this specific piece is true, but whether the sentiment it expresses; that Senator Kerry goes through life with his nose in the air, oblivious to the hoi polloi who inhabit his immediate surrounding; is accurate. In regards to that issue, we can confirm that others have reported experiencing similar encounters with Senator Kerry.
For example, humorist Dave Barry (a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist whose work is carried by more than 500 newspapers in the U.S. and abroad) concluded a 2003 article about potential presidential candidates with the following observation:
“In conclusion, I want to extend my sincere best wishes to all of my opponents, Republican and Democrat, and to state that, in the unlikely event I am not elected, I will support whoever is, even if it is Sen. John Kerry, who once came, with his entourage, into a ski-rental shop in Ketchum, Idaho, where I was waiting patiently with my family to rent snowboards, and Sen. Kerry used one of his lackeys to flagrantly barge in line ahead of us and everybody else, as if he had some urgent senatorial need for a snowboard, like there was about to be an emergency meeting, out on the slopes, of the Joint Halfpipe Committee. I say it's time for us, as a nation, to put this unpleasant incident behind us. I know that I, for one, have forgotten all about it. That is how fair and balanced I am.”
Is Senator Kerry a man who cannot be trusted around a pizza or a snowboard? In reading about him, one encounters the labels "aloof" and "arrogant" applied to him at a number of turns, certainly often enough to conclude that no matter who John Kerry really is, a great many people see him as possessing those attributes. However, the e-mail quoted above and the Dave Barry's snippet spotlights a different fault: that of the Senator's acting upon a sense of entitlement, presumably one fueled by his wealth and social position. Is that who he is, or whom we should believe he is on the basis of these two tales?
Such an assessment is hard to get to the bottom of because to do so requires knowledge of what was going through the man's head at the time of the incidents described. And, barring his telling us, we're left in the dark.
Once when I was out with my sister, she marched directly to the first taxi parked in front of a hotel, completely oblivious to the lengthy line of folks waiting patiently to one side of the entranceway. It took my stopping her in mid-stride and pointing out the queue for her to perceive others were also waiting for cabs, but as soon as she came to that realization she immediately (and shamefacedly) headed for the back of the line. Her sin was not one of entitlement (that is, she was not feeling she was a far more worthy person than those lesser beings whose duty it was to uncomplainingly forebear while she absconded with the first taxi) but of being sorely unaware of her surroundings. Yet to an uninvolved onlooker who had seen her hoof straight to the first cab, it would have appeared she was deliberately placing herself ahead of others.
While inhabiting a similar state of unawareness, my husband's best friend once helped himself to the contents of a plastic-wrapped platter of cookies I had intended as a gift for someone else. His faux pas was in presuming the home baked goodies were free for the taking and confidently acting on that assumption. In this I see a potential echo to the "John Kerry ate my pizza" story; did Senator Kerry chow down on the pizza knowing it was meant for the pilots, or did he operate under the belief that it had been thoughtfully supplied as a snack for him, a visiting dignitary? Either, of course, would be a transgression worthy of sending Miss Manners into a fit of the vapors, but the underlying message about the character of the person involved would be different. "Fails to realize there are other people in this world" is a different shortcoming from "Knows there are others, but considers himself a higher class of critter."
Whatever the veracity of various stories about Senator Kerry or what they could potentially tell us about him, character has a way of displaying itself provided sufficient time is allotted for the viewing, and November is still a long ways off.
Barbara "time will tell" Mikkelson
Last updated: 17 March 2004 The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/politics/kerry/pizza.asp
John Kerry: He will say whatever it takes to win
By George Will
THE WASHINGTON POST
John Kerry recently stopped in Las Vegas to say: "Rest assured, Nevada. If I'm president, Yucca Mountain will not be a depository." Back to mind comes Chic Hecht, a one-term Republican senator elected in 1982, who said he opposed using Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as a nuclear waste "suppository." Also to mind comes the French sovereign known as Henry of Navarre (1553-1610). More about him anon.
The problem of nuclear waste has been studied for 50 years. Twenty-two years ago Washington took responsibility for that waste - there are 49,000 metric tons of it - stored in 131 sites in the 39 states with nuclear power plants. Seventeen years ago Congress selected Nevada - the federal government owns 86 percent of the state - for the repository. Beginning in 2010, the waste is to be put 1,000 feet underground, on 1,000 feet of rock, in steel containers in 100 miles of storage tunnels within the mountain. But in 1996 President Bill Clinton promised to veto any attempt to make Nevada even a temporary repository. That promise helped him beat Bob Dole there by just 4,730 votes, the smallest state margin that year
In 2000 George W. Bush promised not to make Nevada a temporary repository, but said "sound science" would guide him regarding establishing a permanent repository there. He beat Al Gore 50-46 (301,575 to 279,978). A switch of 10,799 votes would have made Gore president.
In 2002 Bush approved Yucca Mountain as the permanent site. Congress said Nevada's governor could veto the selection, but that his veto could be overridden by majorities in both houses. He vetoed it; Congress overrode him.
By this protracted dance of democracy the interests of an American majority - 161 million live within 75 miles of today's storage sites - prevailed, respectfully, over the objections of an intense minority, the approximately 2 million people who live in southern Nevada. Kerry's willingness to overturn this accommodation reflects a cold, and factually correct, calculation having nothing to do with the national interest: for the intense and compact Nevada minority, unlike for the diffuse American majority, this is a vote-determining issue.
Kerry's message to Nevadans - essentially, "I feel your hypothetical pain" - testifies to his readiness to do whatever it takes to win. As does his vow last week that, if elected, he would renegotiate the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).
He would try to force signatory nations (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and, soon, the Dominican Republic) to adopt labor and environmental standards more pleasing to him. The ostensible purpose of this would be to improve the lot of labor in those nations. But the primary purpose of the renegotiation would be to raise production costs in those countries, thereby making imports from them less competitive with American products.
Time was, Kerry was a free trader. Now he favors "fair trade," as defined by his labor allies. But he still is a critic of what he and likeminded people consider the Bush administration's obnoxious tendency to tell other nations how to behave.
The Wall Street Journal reports that "it would be unprecedented for a newly elected president to turn his back on a major trade deal negotiated by his predecessor." Unprecedented and, in Kerry's case, inconsistent.
When Kerry and kindred spirits criticize what they consider the Bush administration's hubris and bad diplomatic manners, they often cite its withdrawal from the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on climate change. It is understandable that they do not dwell on the fact that the Clinton administration refused to submit it for Senate ratification, or that the Senate voted 95-0 for a resolution against proceeding with the protocol as negotiated. The junior senator from Massachusetts said "no one in their (sic) right mind" would favor it as it is.
Regarding Yucca Mountain and CAFTA, Kerry's comportment reflects toughness - call it Navarrean toughness - about subordinating all considerations of principle to the exigencies of winning power. Someone in the White House has naughtily said that Kerry "looks French." The scalding truth is that he wears Hermes neckties, which are French, and, worse still, he speaks French. But his real French connection is his spiritual kinship with Henry of Navarre.
Henry was raised a Protestant but converted to Catholicism - twice - for political reasons. His explanation still resonates with those politicians - a large tribe - who believe, as Kerry does, in doing whatever is necessary: "Paris is well worth a Mass."
FBI Files Show Kerry Met With Communists More Than Once Marc Morano, CNSNews.com Saturday, June 5, 2004 Newly released FBI files reveal that presumed Democrat presidential nominee John Kerry attended a second meeting with North Vietnamese communists in Paris in the early 1970s. Kerry has previously admitted to meeting only once with the North Vietnamese delegations in 1970.
According to the FBI files, Kerry met with representatives from the North Vietnamese government in Paris in 1971 in an effort to secure the release of captured American prisoners of war. Kerry has previously acknowledged meeting "both delegations" of Vietnamese communists in Paris in 1970, but has said nothing of the 1971 meeting. Researcher and author Jerry Corsi, who began studying the anti-war movement in the early 1970s, believes Kerry is hiding key aspects about his anti-war past from the public as he seeks the presidency.
"Kerry has admitted to one meeting with Madam Binh. Now we have reason to believe there was a second, so let's press them to admit the second," Corsi told CNSNews.com.
"Kerry needs to explain to the American people why he directly went into negotiations with communists." Corsi has written an essay on Kerry's dealings with the Vietemese communists on the Internet site WinterSoldier.com.
According to Gerald Nicosia, a Kerry supporter and the author of the book "Home to War: A History of the Vietnam Veterans' Movement," Kerry's second visit to Paris to meet with emissaries of the North Vietnamese communist government is documented in redacted FBI files from the era. "The files record that Kerry made a second trip to Paris that summer to learn how the North Vietnamese might release prisoners," Nicosia wrote in an essay in the Los Angeles Times on May 23.
"After deciding not to run [for Congress] in 1970, he and his new wife, Julia Thorne, traveled to France in May to meet Madame Nguyen Thi Binh and other Viet Cong and Communist Vietnamese representatives to the Paris peace talks, a trip he now calls a 'fact-finding mission,'" Nicosia wrote.
Nicosia noted, "Kerry had tried to distinguish between his own trips to meet with the Vietnamese in Paris, which he considered necessary to fight through the lies of his own government, and actual negotiations with the enemy, which Kerry knew were illegal."
Kerry told the New York Times on April 24 that his first meeting with the Vietnamese communists in 1970 was "not a big deal."
"People were dropping in [at the Paris Peace Talks]. It was a regular sort of deal," Kerry explained to the New York Times. But Corsi believes it was a very big deal.
"You had Henry Kissinger there trying to negotiate formally with the Paris peace delegation, and then these guys [from Vietnam Veterans Against the War] are off on their own side show, establishing back channels to the Vietnamese communists; all of this is against the law," Corsi said, referring to U.S. code 18 U.S.C. 953, which declares it illegal for a U.S. citizen to go abroad and negotiate with a foreign power.
"Exactly who was Kerry ... to have arranged these trips? He had to be in discussion with some link with the communist party of Vietnam in order to establish these trips and meetings," Corsi explained.
'What Is Really Happening' Indeed Kerry also might have had plans to go to South Vietnam in 1971, according to a June 16, 1971 article in the communist Daily World newspaper. "Former Navy Lt. John Kerry is planning a three-week trip to South Vietnam in July to report on 'what is really happening' to the GI's there, he told newsmen here," read the article, written by the Daily World's Ted Pearson. Kerry was attending an event in Chicago with Jesse Jackson, who at the time was head of the organization Operation Bread Basket. It is unclear whether Kerry ever made the trip to South Vietnam in 1971. Kerry's campaign did not return several phone calls seeking comment for this article. Nicosia has criticized Kerry in the past for not being more open about his anti-war past. "I am in kind of an awkward position here. I am a Kerry supporter, and I certainly don't want to do anything that hurts him. On the other hand, my number one allegiance is to truth. So I am going to go with where the facts are, and John is going to have to deal with that," Nicosia told CNSNews.com back in March when the contents of the FBI files became public and caused Kerry to revise his past statements on a series of issues dealing with his past. "I am having some problems with the things he is saying right now, which are not matching up with accuracy," Nicosia said in March. "I think [Kerry] may be worried or the people around him may be worried that his association with VVAW is a very negative thing and they want John to back away from it," he added.
Kerry and Fonda in the Communists' Hall of Fame Kerry's anti-war activism and his meetings with the communists had a big impact, according to Corsi. "Vietnamese communists would not have won the war without John Kerry. They were cultivating his protest activity with the VVAW," Corsi said. Corsi said the Vietnamese communists have shown their gratitude to Kerry by displaying a photo of him at Ho Chi Minh City's Protestors Hall of the War Remnants Museum. The photo of fellow anti-war activist and actress Jane Fonda also appears in the Women's Museum in Saigon. "As soon as [Kerry] came onto the seen, [the Vietnamese communists] latched on to him like bees on to honey. [The communists] said, 'This is a guy who tells our story, it will undermine the sympathy for the war in America,'" Corsi added
Angry Veterans Demand Kerry Stop Exploiting Them Attempts by Sen. John Kerry to pander to Latinos and veterans have blown up in his face.
"Kerry's presidential campaign appears to have violated copyright laws by broadcasting several photos from the Caller-Times book 'South Texas Heroes,'" the Corpus Christi Caller-Times reported today.
"Two World War II veterans and relatives of four others say they want to know how photos of their relatives came to be included in the ad, and say the campaign could only have retrieved the photos from 'South Texas Heroes,' a book published by the Caller-Times last year."
Mel G. Lemos, one of three brothers whose photos the campaign is exploiting, told the newspaper: "I'm really upset. I never tell anybody who I'm going to vote for. I never gave any picture to anybody."
His brother Frank Lemos, who is now dead, voted for President Bush in 2000, said son Frank Lemos Jr. "My father was a strong Bush supporter. If he was alive today, he wouldn't have done this."
Another of the WWII veterans from Corpus Christi whose picture was misappropriated, Alberto T. Vasquez Sr., said: "How in the world did they get that? Without personal approval, I don't think that's legal."
Yet another, David De La Cruz, said he would not have given permission to use his photo because he supported the president.
Caller-Times president and publisher Larry L. Rose said: "If John Kerry allows this commercial to run, it will show the kind of person John Kerry is. That he allows his campaign team to lift Hispanic faces from a Caller-Times book, to violate copyright, and to violate the individual rights of those Hispanic veterans, is appalling. If Kerry wants to do the honest and ethical thing, let's see if he has his staff get permission from the veterans, from the Caller-Times, or, if he doesn't do that, let's see how fast he cancels his commercial."
The paper's editor, Libby Averyt, said: "It's a shame that the Kerry campaign underestimated South Texas veterans and the Caller-Times and apparently assumed no one would ever notice the use of the copyrighted material published by us with the permission of the veterans' families. It is truly disappointing that a presidential campaign would operate in this manner."
The TV commercial’s producer, Armando Gutierrez, an associate of Clintonista New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, insisted he borrowed the photos from relatives and friends of relatives who gave oral permission to use them.
The ad, targeting Latino voters in six states, might be yanked, said Kerry's "director of Hispanic media,” Fabiola Rodriguez-Ciampoli. Swift Boat Veterans: 'Cease and Desist'
Meanwhile, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has stepped up its efforts to get Kerry to stop a different photo exploitation. Eleven of the 20 Vietnam War veterans included in a 1969 photo the Democrat candidate is using demand in a letter sent to the campaign that Kerry "cease and desist from all uses" of the picture.
"By letters delivered to the campaign on May 17 and on May 4, 2004, their objections to the use of the photograph in his campaign and their belief that he is unfit to serve as the Commander-in-Chief were made very clear. In fact, as has long been evident to Senator Kerry, all of these gentlemen have felt anything but comradeship with him at any time since his slanderous testimony before Congress in 1971 and other pronouncements that he and they committed war crimes and atrocities," says the latest letter, dated Wednesday.
As in the case from Corpus Christi, "no prior consent was sought or obtained from any of these eleven boat officers before the release by Mr. Kerry or his associates of that photograph to Newsweek, or later to those who crafted his Lifetime ad, a calculated invasion of their privacy rights for personal political gain. None of these officers, at the time of the unauthorized release or any subsequent use of the photograph by the campaign of their images were public figures, as that term is understood within the law. We all know of the aspiring politician who seeks to be photographed with whomever they think is the 'Great One' of the time. In this case Mr. Kerry has reversed the ploy to suggest a favorable relationship different than the truth. In no way do these gentlemen seek any limelight not now required by the Senator's distortion of the past and his wrongful claim to the American public that these men are his band of brothers."
"The Deck of Weasels"
Exclusively from NewsMax.com
View a poster showing the full deck
Chirac Frets That Kerry Is a Toasted Baguette Chief French quisling Jacques Chirac and fellow Saddamite weasel Gerhard Schroeder of Germany are in a dither that President Bush will defeat Sen. John Kerry in November.
The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto today noted several signs of the president's strength. Among them:
A Rasmussen poll shows that 54 percent of voters would consider voting for Bush, compared to 49 percent for Kerry.
The Iowa Electronic Markets is trading futures on the election. "As of yesterday's close, a contract paying $1 in the event of a Republican victory was selling for 55.4 cents." A Democrat contract was cheap: 44.9 cents.
Best of all ... "If the New York Times is to be believed, the Bush-loathing leaders of France and Germany seem to be banking on Bush: 'Officials in both countries say that their leaders have come to conclude that Senator John Kerry's campaign to defeat Mr. Bush has not caught fire and that they may have to coexist with Mr. Bush for another four years,' the paper reported Monday from Paris."
Is Kerry’s Rhetoric Better Off Than It Was 4 Years Ago?
“If I’m President we’re going to repeal that phony [prescription drug] bill." (Sen. John Kerry, “Ending The Era Of Special Interests,” Remarks In Nashua, NH, 1/21/04)
4 YEARS AGO, KERRY SAID MEDICARE PRESCRIPTION DRUG BENEFIT WAS URGENT PRIORITY (TODAY, KERRY OPPOSES BIPARTISAN MEDICARE LAW) In 2000, Kerry Criticized Senate For “Missing A Historic Opportunity” To Provide Prescription Drug Benefit For Seniors. “We are missing a historic opportunity in the Senate in terms of our legislating process. The fact is, we have an opportunity to provide 14 million senior citizens, who lack prescription drug coverage, with that coverage. … Increasing costs coupled with the lack of coverage force 1 out of 8 seniors in our country to choose between buying food and medicine. Unless we act, we can only expect these numbers to increase. … We cannot afford to allow this problem to continue.” (Sen. John Kerry, Congressional Record, 4/5/00, p. S2148)
4 YEARS AGO, KERRY OPPOSED LETTING MEDICARE NEGOTIATE DRUG PRICES (TODAY, KERRY SAYS HE’LL ALLOW MEDICARE PRICE NEGOTIATION) In 2000, Kerry Co-Sponsored Democrat Legislation That Prohibited Medicare From Negotiating Drug Prices. The bill, which was introduced by Senator Daschle and co-sponsored by Senator Kerry, included this provision: “NONINTERFERENCE.--In administering the prescription drug benefit program established under this part, the Secretary may not-- (1) require a particular formulary or institute a price structure for benefits; (2) interfere in any way with negotiations between private entities and drug manufacturers, or wholesalers; or (3) otherwise interfere with the competitive nature of providing a prescription drug benefit through private entities.” (S.2541, Introduced 3/10/00; S.2541, Thomas Bill Summary, Introduced 5/10/00; Julie Rovner, “GOP, Dems Spar Over Negotiating Language In Drug Law,” National Journal’s CongressDaily, 2/10/04)
Kerry honored at communist museum Photograph hangs in section devoted to war protesters
Posted: June 1, 2004 12:14 p.m. Eastern
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com A Ho Chi Minh City museum that honors Vietnam war protesters features a photograph of Sen. John Kerry being greeted by the general secretary of the Communist Party, Comrade Do Muoi. A snapshot of the display in the Vietnamese Communist War Remnants Museum – formerly known as the "War Crimes Museum" – was acquired over the weekend by Jeffrey M. Epstein of Vietnam Vets for the Truth, a group opposing Kerry's campaign for the presidency.
A spokesman with Kerry's national campaign did not return a call from WND seeking comment. The snapshot of the display, which depicts a July 1993 meeting, was forwarded to Epstein by Bob Shirley, one of more than 200 members of Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth who signed an open letter questioning Kerry's fitness to serve as commander in chief.
Epstein said the picture of the display was taken by Bill Lupetti, a Swift Boat Veteran who currently is visiting Vietnam.
Epstein said the display photograph's "unquestionable significance lies in its placement in the American protesters' section of the War Crimes Museum" in Ho Chi Minh City, the former Saigon.
"The Vietnamese communists clearly recognize John Kerry's contributions to their victory," he said. "This find can be compared to the discovery of a painting of Neville Chamberlain hanging in a place of honor in Hitler's Eagle's Nest in 1945."
Below the display photograph are explanatory placards in English, French, Vietnamese and Chinese.
The English placard reads: "Mr. Do Muoi, Secretary General of the Vietnamese Communist Party met with Congressman and Veterans Delegation in Vietnam (July 15-18, 1993)."
Epstein's group says the exhibit refutes Kerry's insistence his anti-war protests did not render support to the enemy in time of war.
"The Vietnamese communists clearly feel that the American anti-war protesters were a very important force in undermining support in the United States for American war efforts, a force that contributed materially to ultimate communist victory in 1975," the group said in a statement.
Vietnam Vets for the Truth says it was established to organize a rally publicizing "Kerry's lies" during the "Winter Soldier" hearings in the U.S. Senate in 1971. The rally, called "Kerry Lied," will be held on Capitol Hill Sept. 12.
The Swift Boat Veterans also have called on Kerry to stop unauthorized use of their images in national campaign advertising.The group says only two of the 20 officers in one photo support him and 11 have signed the letter condemning the candidate.
One veteran in the photo, William Shumadine, said Kerry's use of the photo "is a complete misrepresentation to the public and a total fraud."
Important Related stories: 'Kerry lied while good men died' Vets to Kerry: Stop using photos Vet: Officers told Kerry to leave Vietnam Kerry 'loose cannon,' says ex-commander Kerry unrepentant for pro-Hanoi activism
Monday, May 31, 2004 10:53 p.m. EDT FOREIGN LEADERS FOR KERRY
Diplomat Hans Blix - the United Nation’s version of the hapless Inspector Clouseau, who did his damnedest to keep the U.S. out of Iraq and Saddam in power - issued his endorsement this week in the presidential contest. “I place my trust in the multilaterism of Democratic candidate John Kerry,” the Swedish meatball said, adding that he thought the whole world should be able to vote on November 2 in the U.S. election. Responded the Wall Street Journal, “Mr. Kerry remarked in March that foreign leaders were privately supporting his candidacy. Mr. Blix has now revealed the kind of foreigners he was referring to.”
Kerry 'Flips Off' Vietnam Vet Former Congressman John Leboutillier reports on a Memorial Day confrontation between Sen. John Kerry and a fellow Vietnam veteran:
Democratic senator - and certain presidential nominee - John F. Kerry gave the middle finger to a Vietnam veteran at the Vietnam Memorial Wall on Memorial Day morning, NewsMax.com has learned.
Ted Sampley, a former Green Beret who served two full tours in Vietnam, spotted Kerry and his Secret Service detail at about 9:00 a.m. Monday morning at the Wall. Sampley walked up to Kerry, extended his hand and said, "Senator, I am Ted Sampley, the head of Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry, and I am here to escort you away from the Wall because you do not belong here."
At that point a Secret Service officer told Sampley to back away from Kerry. Sampley moved about 6 feet away and opened his jacket to reveal a HANOI JOHN T-shirt. Kerry then began talking to a group of schoolchildren. Sampley then showed the T-shirt to the children and said, "Kerry does not belong at the Wall because he betrayed the brave soldiers who fought in Vietnam."
Just then Kerry - in front of the school children, other visitors and Secret Service agents - brazenly 'flashed the bird' at Sampley and then yelled out to everyone, "Sampley is a felon!"
Kerry was referring to an incident 12 years ago when Sampley confronted Sen. John McCain's chief aide, Mark Salter, in a Senate stairwell after McCain repeatedly offended POW families at a Senate POW hearing. Sampley, whose father-in-law at that time was MIA in Laos, followed Salter into the stairwell and, when they emerged, Salter had a bloody lip and a broken nose.
Sampley's group, Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry, has garnered huge national attention and has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post and on MSNBC's "Scarborough Country." Tens of thousands of Vietnam vets have registered their opposition to Kerry through Sampley's group.
Clearly Sampley has gotten under Kerry's skin once again.
McCain: Don't Probe Kerry's Atrocities Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who says the Bush administration needs to come clean about the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal as quickly as possible, said Monday that he didn't think it was a good idea to investigate Sen. John Kerry's admission that he committed war crimes in Vietnam.
"I just hate to keep going back and revisiting the Vietnam War over and over again," McCain told radio host Sean Hannity when asked if Kerry and his supporters weren't being hypocritical in calling for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's dismissal over the Iraq prison flap.
"The very people who are so up in arms who are calling for Don Rumsfeld's head are supporting a guy who admits to burning down villages of innocent civilians," Hannity pressed. "So, I mean, is there an inconsistency there?"
McCain responded meekly, "I'm sure that there is."
After listening to audio from a 1971 interview where Kerry admitted he violated the Geneva Convention in Vietnam, McCain said he didn't think the issue was worth investigating given the strife it would cause.
"There's still so many of our veterans who feel so emotional about this issue that it digs up all of this controversy," he explained.
The Arizona Republican was far less timid about questions on whether Secretary Rumsfeld knew that Iraqi detainees were being abused at the Abu Ghraib prison. Asked if he didn't agree that Rumsfeld had been a strong defense secretary, McCain equivocated.
"I agree with all of that but there is one strong caveat, OK?" he told Hannity.
"And that is let's find out what the chain of command was, who gave the orders, who, if anybody, instructed these guards, what was their relationship with the interrogators, what was the story with the private contractors - all of those things have to be cleared up."
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