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After watching The Beltway Boys and News Watch on FNC, I think maybe we should be glad that the Main Stream Media is ignoring the Swift Boat story. Both shows pointed out that by the MSM refusing to acknowledge the charges against Kerry, word is being passed on the Internet and by word of mouth.

John Edwards is supposed to be a great lawyer but at the recent Democratic convention he made a rookie mistake: He raised a question without knowing the answer. "If you have any questions about what John Kerry's made of, just spend three minutes with the men who served with him," he said. Edwards meant Kerry's "band of brothers" - the small entourage of vets who served under him in Vietnam and now strongly support him for President. Evidently, Edwards did not know at the time that almost every officer who commanded Kerry or served alongside him opposes his candidacy. Worse,...

KNIGHT RIDDER NEWS SERVICE A group of Vietnam veterans that is challenging Sen. John Kerry's claims of heroic war service says it received a flood of donations in recent days after advertising its contentions on television in three states. The group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, said it hoped to use the money to monitor Kerry's campaign travels and run ads in cities where he appears. "That's our goal," said John E. O'Neill, a Houston attorney who's one of the group's leaders and co-author of Unfit to Command, a 251-page book being distributed by Regnery Publishing house. The book quotes...

On kerry's own website he has the article that talks about that "secret mission" in Cambodia: http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/news/news_2003_0601.html Paragraph close to the bottom

TOM MAGUIRE has already posted John Kerry's speech claiming to have been in Cambodia on Christmas day, 1968. But because this is a question of importance, and because some people might doubt the veracity of quotations pasted in from NEXIS, I thought I'd go to the law library and check it myself in hardcopy. (The law library was closed and the copiers were off, but I have a key, and -- let this be another lesson to bloggers everywhere -- a digital camera). Here's a link to a larger version showing the exact page citation and context. The evidence...

"I'm John Kerry, and I'm reporting for duty." It was the most memorable line from John Kerry's acceptance speech last week at the Democratic National Convention. But Kerry's insistence on making his four-month tour of duty in Vietnam the centerpiece of his campaign could backfire as Americans learn more about what he did in that country and, more importantly, what he did when he returned home. To hear the Kerry campaign tell it, the men who served with Kerry universally consider him a genuine war hero who would make a fine commander in chief. The campaign trumpets testimonials from a...

The character of John Kerry gets more and more and more curious with each passing day.  Defined as an indecisive Northeastern liberal by many, Kerry continually tries to shake the image of a left-wing flip-flopper by touting his Viet Nam service.  At the Democratic National Convention he strolled to the podium gave a salute and proudly declared “I’m John Kerry and I’m reporting for duty.”  He also had his “band of brothers” from Viet Nam trot out to stand on stage on that same evening.

A Swiftboat veteran who was a member of Sen. John Kerry's crew when their boat was targeted in Feb. 1969 by an enemy rocket launcher has refuted Kerry's claim that he single-handedly saved his crew from the attack - an account that earned the top Democrat the Silver Star. Interviewed during Kerry's 1996 Senate reelection battle, Kerry crew member Tom Bellodeau told the Boston Globe that he - not Kerry - fired the shot the brought down the enemy fighter, who had aimed a loaded rocket launcher at their boat just after Kerry beached it on the Ca Mau peninsula....

POLITICS Kerry's Teleportation Revelation Shocks WorldIn stunning announcement, candidate blows lid off top secret Pentagon projectBy V.K. Bestertester, Staff WriterFRESNO, CA — In a shocking revelation, John Kerry exposed a decades-old Department of Defense secret: Matter teleportation devices have been in use by the US Navy since at least 1968.  Above: Kerry Shown Entering Teleporter "The Navy sent me on a top-secret mission into Cambodia using one of these thingys." Kerry revealed. "They wanted to slip me and some Special Forces guys across the border without anyone, even my shipmates, knowing about it. So, they brought this device out...

Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry has waffled again, this time on his own recollections of a supposed mission to Cambodia on Christmas of 1968. On the Senate floor on March 27, 1986 (Congressional Record, page S3594), Sen. Kerry said: I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what is was like to be shot at by Vietnamese and Khme Rouge and Cambodians, and have the President of the United States telling the American people that I was not there; The troops were not in Cambodia…I have that memory which is seared--seared--in me.... In an...

NEW YORK -- Winston Churchill often repeated Stalin's observation that "in wartime truth is so precious that she should always be attended to be a bodyguard of lies." And now that the Democratic National Convention has ended with Kerry's acceptance speech concentrating on his four month service in the Vietnam War 35 years ago, rather than his service during the past 35 years, it appears particularly appropriate. One of the pesky IRS Code 527 organizations that now buzz through the campaign atmosphere like insatiable horseflies in the aftermath of McCain-Finegold reforms has had the presumption to raise some serious questions...

  Posted by MeekOneGop:John Kerry wrote his Review for "Apocalypse Now" on Oct 14, 1979 in the Boston Herald.The key words in this scan are on page two--->JOHN KERRY: "On more than one occasion, I like Martin Sheen in "Apocalypse Now," took my patrol boat into Cambodia. In fact I remember spending Christmas Eve of 1968 five miles across the Cambodian border being shot at by our South Vietnamese allies who were drunk and celebrating Christmas. The absurdity of almost being killed by our own allies in a country in which President Nixon claimed there were no American troops...

Some explaining is definitely dueMore and more loose ends are unraveling in the Kerry-Cambodia issue In all the brouhaha over John Kerry's Vietnam service, I have never taken much note about the validity of his decorations, although I have noted a few times that news stories were being printed or broadcast about them. And truth is, I really don't too much care whether Army Special Forces Capt. Jim Rassman got blown out his boat by enemy fire and then was rescued by Kerry, or had one beer to many and fell out. I understand why these issues matter to others....

John Kerry and about a dozen of his guys say that young Lt. Kerry earned all of his medals in Vietnam, performed heroically, and is a battle-tested leader who deserves to be the next president. John O'Neill and about 250 of his guys say Kerry is a liar and a fraud, who received a Purple Heart for a self-inflicted wound, spent much of his time in Vietnam filming himself in scenarios carefully designed to look dangerous, and is thoroughly unfit to be the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces. Both accounts can't be right. Somebody's lying. Those of us...

I very rarely post vanities but, I was looking over Kerry's Military Records and I noticed something interesting. Where it says: "Wounds received as a result of Action with Enemy" Not Applicable is put in the box. Here is the link in PDF Format. DD214.

I've been receiving a lot of queries lately about things that did or did not happen during the time John Kerry and I served together in the Navy. I've also received large quantities of reading material, mostly e-mail and mostly unpersuasive, from people attempting to trash, for political purposes, his relatively brief combat service in Swift Boats. I have also declined offers to join groups attempting to discredit him on the basis of his naval service. Kerry and I served together on the Gridley in 1967 and 1968. The Gridley was a new guided missile frigate, later reclassified with the...

From Senator John Kerry's Official Senate Website: As a Vietnam veteran, I have experienced firsthand the horrors of war. I served two tours of duty, commanding a swift boat in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta as a member of the U.S. Navy. I have witnessed the sacrifices our men and women have made and the courage they have displayed in faithfully serving our country. Every day I carry with me lessons from being in combat that help me to recognize the needs of our nation’s veterans and the problems they confront. I only hope that my devotion to the veterans of this...

"In our opinion, and from our experience, there is nothing in South Vietnam which could happen that realistically threatens the United States of America. And to attempt to justify the loss of one American life in Vietnam, Cambodia, or Laos by linking such loss to the preservation of freedom, which those misfits supposedly abuse, is to us the height of criminal hypocrisy."

The most striking image from John Kerry's campaign for the presidency is him offering a beguiling, if rather hesitant, military salute to the Democratic convention, accompanied by the message that he was "reporting for duty". This reference to his record as a decorated war hero was a signal that he would exploit what was thought to be his strongest card in a contest with George W Bush, whose own youth was noted for a notoriously unheroic evasion of active duty in Vietnam. Perhaps carried away by this favoured theme of personal bravery, Mr Kerry has offered up anecdotes from his...

The biographer of John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate, said yesterday there was no basis for one of the senator's favourite Vietnam War anecdotes - that he spent Christmas 1968 in Cambodia, a neutral nation which US leaders vowed was off limits for American forces. "On Christmas Eve he was near Cambodia; he was around 50 miles from the Cambodian border. There's no indictment of Kerry to be made, but he was mistaken about Christmas in Cambodia," said Douglas Brinkley, who has unique access to the candidate's wartime journals. But Mr Brinkley rejected accusations that the senator had never been...

On Wednesday, the Kerry campaign acknowledged that John Kerry probably was not in Cambodia on Christmas 1968, contrary to the senator's decades-old assertion. Speaking on Fox News' "Fox and Friends," Kerry campaign aide Jeh Johnson said, "John Kerry has said on the record that he had a mistaken recollection earlier. He talked about a combat situation on Christmas Eve 1968 which at one point he said occurred in Cambodia. He has since corrected the record to say it was some place on a river near Cambodia and he is certain that at some point subsequent to that he was in...

August 13, 2004 -- What I want to know is why Bush's stint in the National Guard merited intense scrutiny from the mainstream media four years ago and again during this election cycle, but the many confusing issues regarding Kerry's Vietnam experience are completely ignored ("Kerry's Attempt To Squelch Vets," Editorial, Aug. 10)? This is a serious character issue that needs to be explored. John NerzAndover, Mass. Kerry spent his convention wrapping himself in his war record.[snip] Now we have a new book that seriously challenges the truthfulness of how Kerry has depicted his time in the military. The public...

'I also went into Cambodia' I served as Officer-in-Charge of a Swift Boat (PCF-71) in Vietnam and my tour overlapped with that of John Kerry. With regard to your editorial ("Kerry's 'Christmas in Cambodia'," Tuesday), I can tell you that my crew and I also went into Cambodia (without orders). As units assigned to Coastal Division 11, we patrolled the Ha Tien River and an adjacent canal that ran along the Vietnam-Cambodian border and, on occasion, crossed into Cambodia. Mr. Kerry was assigned to Coastal Division 11 in December 1968, and, while I don't recall who was where on Christmas...

Kerry's confusion over Cambodia By David Rennie in Washington (Filed: 13/08/2004) The biographer of John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate, said yesterday there was no basis for one of the senator's favourite Vietnam War anecdotes - that he spent Christmas 1968 in Cambodia, a neutral nation which US leaders vowed was off limits for American forces. John Kerry catches a baseball at Long Beach Airport "On Christmas Eve he was near Cambodia; he was around 50 miles from the Cambodian border. There's no indictment of Kerry to be made, but he was mistaken about Christmas in Cambodia," said Douglas Brinkley,...

President Bush is no fan of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. "I haven't seen the ad, but what I do condemn is these regulated, soft-money expenditures," he said last night on CNN's "Larry King Live." He hailed Kerry's stint in Vietnam and said nothing about the Massachusetts Democrat's admission on "Meet the Press" in 1971 that he had committed "atrocities" there. "He views it as honorable service, and so do I," the president said. He said the question was who could lead the country in time of war. "I think it's me. Because I understand the stakes." Alluding to Iraq,...

...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 have the president of the United States telling the American people that I was not there; the troops were not in Cambodia ...

Major General George S. Patton, the son and namesake of the World War II armored commander was a veteran of combat in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. He was wounded in one of his three Vietnam tours and was awarded a Purple Heart. He was twice awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the second-highest decoration for bravery in combat. General Patton charged that he had experienced proof in the field that John F. Kerry's anti-war actions had given aid and comfort to the enemy, just as had those of Ramsey Clark and Jane Fonda. Mr. Kerry, said George Patton, probably...

I thought it might be useful to get some basics down from Brinkley's book; the people, the boats, the timelines. This time I was able to get a non-large print version of Tour of Duty, so I will be able to highlight the pages where the information is located. I'm starting with Chapter 10, since that concerns the events of Christmas Eve, 1968) Kerry's boat at Christmas 1968 was the PCF-44 (Page 209). Men on board the PCF-44 are as follows: Drew Whitlow (209), James Wasser, Radarman (213) also second in command (228); Stephen Hatch, Bosun's Mate (214), Stephen Gardner,...

Fox news just reported there are questions now about where Rassmann actually was. He said he was on Kerry's boat when it got ambushed, but Kerry's web site says Rassmann was on the boat behind his. Just more questions about kerry's seemingly faulty memory.

[snip]Well, as it turns out, Kerry wasn't in Cambodia (at least not then), and the president wasn't lying (at least not then)/ Depending on whom you believe, Kerry was in a boat either five miles away or 50. In Douglas Brinkley's biography, "Tour of Duty," based in part on Kerry's diary, Kerry was at Sa Dec, 58 miles from Cambodia. A few days ago, Kerry campaign adviser Jeh Johnson tried to clarify for Fox News, "... I believe he (Kerry) has corrected the record to say it was some place near Cambodia. He is not certain whether it was in...

Kerry's Cambodian links questioned Did he see action there? Candidate's staff, critics disagree By SCOTT CANON The Kansas City Star Kerry John Kerry's “reporting for duty” salute at the Democratic National Convention last month emphasized the key biographical boast of his campaign — decorated combat service in Vietnam. Now his repeated claim that he also weathered combat upriver in Cambodia has drawn harsh skepticism — driven by anti-Kerry veterans who star in a political commercial and book financed by Texas Republicans. Roy Hoffmann, a retired admiral who was a Navy captain in command of Kerry's unit at the time, said...

I began this as a reply to JohnHuang2, and it morphed into something more appropriate as a start to a thread. Please help to flesh this out with more facts pointing to inconsistencies in the Kerry claims. Official John Kerry Time-Line from the JohnKerry.com site: November 17, 1968 Upon completion of his training, Kerry reports for duty to Coastal Squadron 1, Coastal Division 14, Cam Ranh Bay, South Vietnam. December 1968 through January 1969 Kerry commands PCF-44 December 2, 1968 Kerry experiences first intense combat; receives first combat related injury.(Was this the "band-aid" wound?) December 6, 1968 Kerry moved to...

According to Newsweek's assistant managing editor Evan Thomas, "There's one other base here, the media. Let's talk a little media bias here. The media, I think, wants Kerry to win and I think they're going to portray Kerry and Edwards . . . as being young and dynamic and optimistic and there's going to be this glow about them . . ." (Inside Washington television show, July 10). Thomas' prediction is amply supported by the (non)coverage which the Denver dailies, like most of the rest of the media, have given to this week's meltdown of the Kerry campaign. As reported...

'My truth is that I am a gay American,'' announced Gov. James McGreevey to the people of New Jersey last Thursday. That's such an exquisitely contemporary formulation: ''my'' truth. Once upon a time, there was only ''the'' truth. Now everyone gets his own -- or, as the governor put it, ''One has to look deeply into the mirror of one's soul and decide one's unique truth in the world.'' For Jim McGreevey, his truth is that he's a gay American; for others in the Garden State, the truth about McGreevey is that he's a corrupt sexual harasser who put his...

<p>Friday, August 13, 2004 - WHAT if the single pivotal event of one's life the moment that altered one's entire course, illuminating the path ahead, providing that critical psychological turning point turned out to have been an invention of one's very own?</p>

snipMedeiros is on active duty in the U.S. Army as a staff sergeant -- he's helping to train National Guard units on their way to Iraq at Ft. Bliss, Texas -- and cannot directly endorse any candidates. But he and his crew mates showed up on stage with Kerry last month at the Democratic Convention in Boston.snipKerry's boat happened to hit the shore right in front of an enemy soldier holding a grenade launcher. The soldier started running, maybe to get enough distance to be able to fire his weapon at the boat, Medeiros said. Kerry's forward gunner managed to...

O'Grady: Kerry's actions after Vietnam constituted treason ASHLEY H. GRANT Associated Press ST. PAUL - Scott O'Grady, the Air Force pilot who captured headlines in 1995 when he survived being shot down over Bosnia, on Friday said Sen. John Kerry committed "treason" during the Vietnam War. O'Grady, in an appearance with other military veterans coordinated by President Bush's re-election campaign, said Kerry helped push North Vietnam's proposals for the United States to withdraw at a time when the two countries were still officially at war. "I see that as treason," said O'Grady, who lives in Texas and has been speaking...

A reader recently complained that I had written seven columns in a row about John Kerry. This will be my eighth. Just consider me John Kerry's other biographer--the one who doesn't change his story. The Kerry campaign accidentally gave the Swift Boat Veterans a good deal of credibility by admitting that at least one of their accounts of Kerry's Vietnam service is accurate. Now, the Kerry camp concedes that he never was in Cambodia on Christmas Eve, as the Swift boaters claimed, despite Kerry having stated in the Congressional Record that it was a moment that was ''seared -- seared...

Kerry's Cambodia account challenged by ex-commander By Scott Canon Knight Ridder Newspapers KANSAS CITY, Mo. — John Kerry's repeated claim that he spent Christmas Eve of 1968 upriver in Cambodia — against official United States policy — has drawn harsh criticism from anti-Kerry veterans. Roy Hoffmann, a retired admiral who was a Navy captain in command of Kerry's unit at the time, said the candidate's Cambodia statements can't be true. "I think he just outright lied," said Hoffman, a founder of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. "He never was there." Over the years, Kerry has referred to spending Christmas...

____: Our executive editor, Susan Goldberg, asked me to respond to your recent e-mail about Sen. Kerry's wartime claims. This is a topic we have devoted several stories to during this presidential campaign. As early as January 2004, we wrote a story that touched on how Kerry's wartime experience shaped him. In February, Mercury News Washington Bureau reporter Jim Puzzanghera wrote a profile of Kerry that detailed the actions that led to his military honors. In April, after the Boston Globe began questioning the circumstances of Kerry's first Purple Heart, we ran a New York Times article saying the campaign...

Book, ads assail Kerry's military record By The Dallas Morning News and St. Louis Post-Dispatch DALLAS — Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's much-vaunted military record is under attack in a controversial television ad and a newly released book. The group behind the television attacks, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, has accused Kerry of exaggerating claims in order to earn medals and Purple Hearts during his tour in Vietnam almost 35 years ago. Many members date their anger at Kerry to his anti-war activities after he returned from Vietnam, saying he slandered veterans. The group has come under fierce counterattack...

MIDI - GREEN BERET John had served in Vietnam...he sent letters home to mom What was real is hard to say...from SwiftVets, help is on the way Scratches get a Purple Heart...his report was a work of art What had been real is hard to say...from the SwiftVets, help is on the way Where was he on Christmas Eve...what he says, we can't believe What was real is hard to say...from SwiftVets, help is on the way Vietnam's his centerpiece...it looks like we've all been fleeced 'Cause what was real is hard to say...from the SwiftVets, help is on...

It was hard not to chuckle at the piece of pantomime as John Kerry appeared on stage at the Democratic National Convention, gave a mock salute, and said, "My name is John Kerry, and I am reporting for duty." This, I thought, is the start of the man's undoing. It was all just too theatrical. Something of a charade. Kerry has painted himself both as a Vietnam war hero and as an anti-Vietnam war demonstrator. Well, you can likely be one of the two, but hardly both. Now a sensational new book is hitting the bookshelves and it paints a...

I was just told by someone who heard a blurb on KRLA 870 in Los Angeles, that the station will have 3 hours today about the SwiftVets from 4-8 pm Pacific. Listen live on the Internet -- KRLA.

'Twas the night before Christmas and we were afloat Somewhere in Cambodia in our little boat. While the river was lightened by rockets red glare No one but the President knew we were there...

We know that the Dems are planning to continue to politically attack the president. They are using their 527's to spend in excess of $400 million dollars to attack the President. They are also vigorously attacking the SwiftVets using Legal Terrorism This is the Big Time, Freepers. This is the time when WE must step up and support. This is not yet the march in the streets we did in Florida and outside of Dick Cheney's house in 2000. This is a battle where the mainstream media are taking their marching orders directly from the DNC. They are going to...

"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." --Samuel Johnson Whoever could have imagined that four months spent as officer-in-charge of a Navy Swift boat in Vietnam would figure so largely, 36 years later, in Sen. John F. Kerry's campaign for president of the United States? The Lord does indeed move in mysterious ways. Kerry chose to make his Vietnam service, for which he was awarded a Silver Star, a Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts, an issue in the campaign. On the night he accepted the Democratic Party's nomination at its convention in Boston, he welcomed to the podium...

John Kerry abandoned our husbands, sons, fathers, and brothers in favor of trade and normalization of relations with Vietnam. His actions paved the way for the further abandonment of POWs and MIAs from World War II, the Korean War, and the Cold War. John Kerry, as chairman of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, ordered the destruction of committee documents, blocked avenues of investigation, and misrepresented progress on the POW/MIA issue to justify lifting of the trade embargo against Vietnam.

This is my first post, so bear with me.....long time reader. I just tried to access the Swift Vets site and it appears to be hacked.