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Posted on 09/03/2004 6:38:18 PM PDT by NavySEAL F-16
I had always assumed that Sen. Kerry had himself provided his biographer Douglas Brinkley with Kerry's official military records that were already in Sen. Kerry's hands. But in reviewing Brinkley's citations and references for ToD, I came upon this statement at page 520 of his "Acknowledgements" section (boldface mine):
Also with Kerry's permission, I obtained his Navy records and have used them as a reliable source.
I don't know any other way to interpret this than to presume that Kerry signed, and gave to Brinkley for Brinkley's submission to the DoD, Standard Form 180. Brinkley's wording — "I obtained" — indicates that he submitted the form and that the results were sent directly to him by the DoD.
If so, I believe that a strong argument can be made that by authorizing the DoD to release these confidential materials directly at the request, and into the hands of, one historian, Kerry thereby waived any and all rights to insist that he has a privilege to prevent their release to other interested members of the press, the academic community of historians, and the public. Brinkley's not Kerry's lawyer, wife, priest, or otherwise in a position such that sharing privileged information with him might not constitute a waiver.
The public disclosure of these records via Standard Form 180 is precisely what the SwiftVets have been demanding since May 2004. WaPo's Michael Dobbs has pointed out Kerry's refusal to release these records — although he was too polite (or whatever) to use the perfectly apt phrases "cover-up" or "stonewall" — in the same August 22nd article that Kerry's sympathizers in the media claim to have "knocked down" the SwiftVets' claims:
Some of the mystery surrounding exactly what happened on the Bay Hap River in March 1969 could be resolved by the full release of all relevant records and personal diaries. Much information is available from the Web sites of the Kerry campaign and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, and the Navy archives. But both the Kerry and anti-Kerry camps continue to deny or ignore requests for other relevant documents, including Kerry's personal reminiscences (shared only with biographer Brinkley), the boat log of PCF-94 compiled by Medeiros (shared only with Brinkley) and the Chenoweth diary.
Although Kerry campaign officials insist that they have published Kerry's full military records on their Web site (with the exception of medical records shown briefly to reporters earlier this year), they have not permitted independent access to his original Navy records. A Freedom of Information Act request by The Post for Kerry's records produced six pages of information. A spokesman for the Navy Personnel Command, Mike McClellan, said he was not authorized to release the full file, which consists of at least a hundred pages.
Brinkley insists — both in ToD's Author's Note (at page xiii) and in its Acknowledgements (at page 520) — that Kerry "had no editorial control" over Brinkley's book manuscript or the entire biography project. Fine. If that's so, and if Brinkley didn't obtain Kerry's military records from Kerry as part of the personal archives subject to Kerry's exclusive control and subject to some sort of contractual restriction that would bind Brinkley, then nothing prevents Brinkley from handing them over to WaPo's Dobbs or any other reporter (or blogger, or SwiftVet).
Nothing, that is, except a partisan desire to help Kerry succeed in his cover-up.
Posted by Beldar at 07:30 PM in Politics, SwiftVets | Permalink | Comments (4)
I thought the federal deadline for registering a candidacy in this campaign was September 2, ie. yesterday.
Candidates can still be replaced after 9/2. In actuality, we are voting for electors and not Presidential candidates.
Tsk, tsk.
Brinkley by another name is Doris Kearns-Goodwin.
Bump
I picked up some additional detail from an analysis of the small part of Kerry's navy file on his sight. Iwas interested in whether he's eveer had a real job. His background forms shows he had a couple of summer jobs while at Yale.
Your time line shows 3 years of private practice. I'd never heard that before. Did he ave any real clients or was it just a practice that his family got him where he spent most of the time on the Cape?
Again, great job.
I do not believe it
Here is an interesting essay on the subject of mid-campaign candidate replacement.
I thought the 180 had to signed everytime a copy of the records is released?
I find it hard to believe he would take the chance of a biographer leaking the info.
you have it exactly right - Brinkley is lying AND was probably duped (by Kerry who told him he had everything). He's stating something which isn't true - he didn't get everything through a 180 (only what Kerry let him have) or else he did and he's lying. If he didn't he's lying. Brinkley is now, once again, proven to be a complete and total liar & fabricator for Hanoi John French Kerry.
Ir surely looks good on that first-class PONTIAC Chieftain.
The fact that he was on MSNBC with Terry McAwful the other night, showed me he's in Kerry's back pocket, not to mention the fact that he wrote the book without checking out anything Kerry had claimed in his journal. He obviously took JFK's word on things, didn't verify the Cambodia claim, didn't contact Steve Gardner, yada, yada, yada. I don't have the book, so I don't know if he even bothered to access the FBI records on the VVWA. But there's enough discrepancies in the book, to do Brinkley harm. His credibility as an author of books on history has been tarnished, and that's not good for someone who makes his living this way. I know I'll never buy any of his books now. Kerry used Brinkley to publicize himself, but Brinkley's actions can't be excused in all of this. He tried to pass off an historically accurate book based on only part of the story.
Thanks! I took the my Chieftain to the local Classic Car Cruise Night last weekend. There were mostly the same folks there who always come, but they seemed to all want to take pictures of my back window! I had lots and lots of people express their disdain for Hanoi John Kerry, one even gave me a Bush for President T-shirt!
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