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"During this scene, Butler includes a photograph of Kerry shoving his ribbons through the fence"

RELATED STORY: Third shocking chapter recounts medal trashing ceremony; reveals Kerry’s antiwar secrets The #1 New York Times bestseller UNFIT FOR COMMAND is creating a firestorm this campaign season with its detailed investigation of Kerry’s actions in Vietnam and his anti-war activities when he returned home. The Swift Boat Vets expose the false accounts that led to Kerry's medals, and how POWs suffered in the hands of their captors because of his antiwar rhetoric. The book reveals other Kerry secrets, including his flip-flopping story about his disgraceful act of trashing war medals. First he claimed that he threw his medals....

Windows Media http://swift3.he.net/~swift3/dazed.wmv

The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are launching another television ad attacking John Kerry. The new ad features John Kerry in the 1970s renouncing the medals he won during the Vietnam war. The Swift Boat group is spending $400,000 to put this ad on in Florida. The group is also spending another $800,000 on nationwide cable TV featuring their previous ad that had former POWs accusing Kerry of betraying the United States. Here are the details of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth 30-second ad: Images: American flag, Washington Monument, soldiers marching, veterans saluting. Then a scraggly, bearded and...

(CNSNews.com) - The latest Swift Boat Veterans for Truth advertisement doesn't feature anti-Kerry veterans. Instead, it uses John Kerry's own words - spoken as a young anti-war protestor -- against him. "How can the man who renounced his country's symbols now be trusted?" the new Swift Boat veterans' ad asks. The ad makes the point that symbols "represent the best things about America - freedom, valor sacrifice" -- and should therefore be respected. Some didn't share that respect, the announcer says - leading into a sound bite of John Kerry talking about helping a veteran "renounce his medals," which Kerry...

It only shows Kerry for a second (at around 1:15) but you can get a feel for the radical nature of the event and organization. Listen carefully near the end and you will hear a VVAW member state that the next time he fights will be to take these steps. Referring to the steps at the US Capitol or the WH.

  In a videotape from 1971, obtained exclusively by ABCNEWS, Vietnam veteran John Kerry said he gave back his medals in order to "wake the country."ABCNEWS.com Discarded Decorations Videotape Contradicts John Kerry’s Own Statements Over Vietnam Medals By Brian Ross and Chris Vlasto ABCNEWS.com April 26— Contradicting his statements as a candidate for president, Sen. John Kerry claimed in a 1971 television interview that he threw away as many as nine of his combat medals to protest the war in Vietnam. "I gave back, I can't remember, six, seven, eight, nine medals," Kerry said in an interview on a...

This is an image of the infamous "Medal Returning Ceremony" as the Kerry Campaign refers to it. When I saw this picture, I realized something about this event that I don't ever remember hearing discussed. If you look at the fence, there is a make-shift sign right where the medals where thrown. It says "Trash". There can be no mistake as to what is being referred to as "Trash".

THE LOGIC OF RIBBONS AND MEDALS - PART II: Be warned, this is an extremely long post. But it's time to finish off the thought I started last Tuesday: why did John Kerry throw his ribbons in protest in 1971 but not his medals? Kerry's answer to this question - at least since 1984 - is that he didn't have time to go home and get them. That answer strikes me as two things: impossible to disprove and less than convincing. We know that from 1971 to 1984 Kerry clearly wanted people to believe he'd thrown his own medals. We...

WASHINGTON - Former Sen. Bob Dole isn't making much of the controversy over whether decorated Vietnam veteran John Kerry (news - web sites) threw away his medals or ribbons during a 1971 anti-war protest. When it comes to choosing a president, "I don't think it matters," Dole, the Republican candidate for president in 1996 and a veteran whose arm was badly injured in World War II, told Fox New Sunday. Kerry returned from Vietnam an outspoken critic of the war. For years, he has said he threw away his ribbons, not his three Purple Hearts, Bronze Star and Silver Star...

THE MORE John Kerry is asked about his Vietnam War medals, the more he resembles Bill Clinton answering questions about Monica Lewinsky. During a 1971 anti-war protest, Kerry famously threw something over the fence at the U.S. Capitol. Other veterans tossed their medals over the fence, and Kerry presumably did the same. Back then, he led people to believe just that. Here is a transcript of a 1971 television interview with Kerry, reproduced last week by The New York Times and CNN: Interviewer: “How many did you give back, John?” Kerry: “I gave back, I can’t remember, six, seven, eight,...

One after another came in over the radio on the subject of Senator Kerry and his medals, and then we heard the blessed voice of Senator John McCain. He pleaded that the whole controversy should be dropped. What we need, he said, is bipartisan action on what to do now in Iraq. Senator Kerry has agreed that we can't just bail out, and of course that is the position of the president. So why don't the two sides get together on a common strategy? "The other stuff is just politics," McCain said. Well yes, it is just politics, but politics...

On an April night in Washington 33 years ago, a tall, slender man in navy combat fatigues tapped me on the shoulder I was sitting in a large army tent pitched on the Mall, in the company of a couple of dozen Vietnam vets, one of whom—a bearded, wiry little guy with a terrific sense of humor and an inexhaustible supply of mescaline—was temporarily using my other shoulder as a resting place for the stump that had been his left leg. He’d just asked how come I was wearing a South Vietnamese officer’s jacket with the word "TIME" embroidered over...

<p>Sen. John Kerry has a problem with saying what he means and meaning what he says. This is hardly news, but it's surprising that Mr. Kerry has not amended this peculiar trait since becoming the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate.</p> <p>On April 23, 1971, after tossing a handful of ribbons and medals over the Capitol fence, Mr. Kerry spoke to a gathering of veterans. "This [Nixon] administration forced us to return our medals," he said. Later that year, he told a Washington television interviewer: "I gave back ... six, seven, eight, nine medals," including, he added, his Bronze and Silver Stars, as well as his Purple Hearts. Except that he didn't.</p>

If I was on one of my adventures around the world, I am about positive I would love to meet Senator John Kerry and his interesting, outspoken, alternate wife. They are fluent in worldly matters and could partake in lively conversations on global issues. As an Australian, I am filled with interest meeting people from every walk of life. Always. That’s the essence of my culture. But, there are some people you would love to have a beer with but would never do business with. That’s the savvy, yet kind, heart of Australia… you can welcome everyone, but never give...

Funny what a difference a week makes in the world of the political press. Our friends at the Washington Post write breathlessly this morning about leaks that led to the latest controversy over John Kerry's Vietnam War medals. As you no doubt recall, ABC and The New York Times reported Monday on an old videotape unearthed which shows Kerry saying decisively that he tossed his "medals" over the wall at Congress in protest with his anti-war brothers in arms. Of course, it later turned out Kerry tossed only the ribbons, not his medals. There were no doubts the story was...

I am sure that many of you out there are aware of the whole Kerry throwing away his ribbons, medals, both, someone elses medals (I think you get what I am saying)controversy. Well, I know that since Kerry is such a great war hero and since he was "forced"(notice the sarcasm) to throw over his medals(last week) or his ribbons (this week), we should do our duty by replacing them. (Keep in mind, we don't know what he will claim he threw when we ask him next week...he might change his mind again!) This is why we all should send...

If John Kerry hadn't already clinched the Democratic presidential nomination, his medals meltdown on "Good Morning America" this week would have sunk his campaign. Much as Howard Dean's crazed "I Have A Scream" speech jolted voters into wondering whether someone so hotheaded should be allowed anywhere near the nuclear trigger, Kerry's abusive tirade on ABC gave millions of viewers a foretaste of how far presidential discourse will sink if Kerry becomes president. Not one voter in 100 would vote against Kerry for trashing his Vietnam War medals at a Capitol Hill demonstration when he was 27 years old. What he...

April 26, 2004 Lost your password? Have it emailed to you. Hotmail & Yahoo users: If you have trouble logging in, copy & paste the link below in a new browser. http://www.gopteamleader.com/email_forward.asp?name=gma042604tm.txt RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie Statement Regarding Senator John Kerrys Comments on Good Morning America Washington, DC-On an appearance this morning on Good Morning America, Senator John Kerry denied that there is any contradiction in conflicting statements he's made over the last 30 years regarding whether or not he threw away medals he received in Vietnam. RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie made the following statement in response to Kerry's comments...

John Kerry—the most decorated of those who called each other "brother"—was going to be walking point. "So?" I said, as we stood under the stars, hugging ourselves against the chill. He smiled. "I got a better place for you to sleep." I trailed after him to a parking lot where half a dozen former junior officers in fatigues were leaning against a Mercedes sedan. John made introductions, assuring them that though not a vet, and in the employ of a publication that had declared Vietnam "the right war in the right place at the right time," I had spent a...

John Kerry didn't throw his own medals over the wall in that 1971 antiwar protest and he didn't sleep on the Mall with his Viet Vet buddies either. He snuck off and slept in a Georgetown townhouse. ... You can't accuse Robert Sam Anson of burying the lede! ... Assignment for ABC producer Chris Vlasto: As I recall, whether Kerry actually slept on the Mall has been a controversial issue over the years. Why do I think that if you go through the clips you'll find Kerry denying that he didn't sleep on the Mall? Just a guess. Anson, as...

IF JOHN KERRY hadn't already clinched the Democratic presidential nomination, his medals meltdown on "Good Morning America" this week would have sunk his campaign. Much as Howard Dean's crazed "I Have A Scream" speech jolted voters into wondering whether someone so hotheaded should be allowed anywhere near the nuclear trigger, Kerry's abusive tirade on ABC gave millions of viewers a foretaste of how far presidential discourse will sink if Kerry becomes president.

John Kerry likes to shine the spotlight away from one of the larger issues in this presidential campaign, whether or not he has a problem with credibility. The credibility flap-de-jour (sorry, that was French wasn’t it) is whether or not he tossed his medals over the White House fence back in 1971. But the real problem isn’t as mundane as what he did or didn’t toss over a fence, at issue is whether he possesses credibility, integrity. So far, I’m not sure I have seen any. The Kerry campaign has gone to great lengths to slap the “there’s a question...

"Stop diggin'" John Kerry, Bill Clinton political cartoon.  Apr. 28, 2004... "When practical people find  themselves in a hole, they stop digging. When ideological people find themselves in a hole, they ask for a bigger shovel."Bill Clinton  

Where Kerry Slept: John Kerry didn't throw his own medals over the wall in that 1971 antiwar protest and he didn't sleep on the Mall with his Viet Vet buddies either. He snuck off and slept in a Georgetown townhouse. ... You can't accuse Robert Sam Anson of burying the lede! ... Assignment for ABC producer Chris Vlasto: As I recall, whether Kerry actually slept on the Mall has been a controversial issue over the years. Why do I think that if you go through the clips you'll find Kerry denying that he didn't sleep on the Mall? Just a guess. Anson, as an eyewitness sympathetic...

Good Morning America has released part 2 of the interview with Senator John Kerry over the controversy concerning Kerry's medals over the White House fence. Here is the transcript of the second part of that interview. GIBSON: It is clear that there is no argument that something was thrown, can we assume this? KERRY: That is correct. GIBSON: When you threw, how far do you think they went? KERRY: Probably thirty or forty feet. When I stood at that fence, I wanted to make my stance clear, my message understood. I was in Vietnam. GIBSON: How bout 3-4 feet off...

"Medalgate" — the inevitable name for the flap over Kerry's flip-floppery about what he did and what he said about his medals — is an amusing spectacle to behold and a story worth investigating. It's amusing because Kerry has forced himself to offer explanations that make pretzels look straight. It's worth investigating because Kerry has made his service in Vietnam a central qualification for his presidency. The superficial details of "Medalgate" are fairly easy to explain for anybody not determined to make Kerry sound consistent. From 1971 until about a decade later, Kerry wanted people to think he threw...

"Medalgate" - the inevitable name for the flap over Kerry's flip-floppery about what he did and what he said about his medals - is an amusing spectacle to behold and a story worth investigating. It's amusing because Kerry has forced himself to offer explanations that make pretzels look straight. It's worth investigating because Kerry has made his service in Vietnam a central qualification for his presidency. The superficial details of "Medalgate" are fairly easy to explain for anybody not determined to make Kerry sound consistent. From 1971 until about a decade later, Kerry wanted people to think he threw his...

John Medal-Tossing Kerry gets nailed with a first-hand account of his 1971 medals throwing act by Good Morning America's Charlie Gibson, prompting Kerry to declare it was Karen Hughes' fault...

Good Morning America has released part 2 of the interview with Senator John Kerry over the controversy concerning Kerry's medals over the White House fence. Here is the transcript of the second part of that interview. GIBSON: It is clear that there is no argument that something was thrown, can we assume this? KERRY: That is correct. GIBSON: When you threw, how far do you think they went? KERRY: Probably thirty or forty feet. When I stood at that fence, I wanted to make my stance clear, my message understood. I was in Vietnam. GIBSON: How bout 3-4 feet...

Kerry: Up in Smoke? A look at the second-day coverage of John Kerry's "Good Morning America" interview about his shifting Vietnam medal stories bolsters our view that the Kerry campaign is in very deep trouble. "Kerry Questions Bush Attendance in Guard in 70's" reads a front-page headline in today's New York Times. The Times gives top billing to Kerry's attempt to change the subject: In a day of piercing and personal exchanges, John Kerry questioned on Monday whether President Bush skipped National Guard duty 30 years ago, while Vice President Dick Cheney disparaged Mr. Kerry as an opportunist unfit to...

The John Kerry medals story is a weird one. It does not, in the end, demonstrate beyond question that Kerry is untruthful, as some have suggested, but in a sense it is worse — it shows once again that Kerry tries to have it both ways, and thus lacks an essential element of leadership that is necessary to qualify him for the presidency. The basic story is relatively simple. In 1971, Kerry and a group of veterans — in a demonstration against the Vietnam War — said they threw their medals over a fence around the Capitol. Later, in a...

CNSNews.com) - It pays to keep the microphone open after interviewing Sen. John F. Kerry. "God, they're doing the work of the Republican National Committee," Kerry said about ABC News on Monday morning, as he removed a microphone from his clothing at the end of his interview with ABC's "Good Morning America." Kerry had just defended his conduct at a 1971 anti-war protest in Washington. Last month in an unguarded moment, Kerry - his back to the camera - was overheard bashing Republicans after giving a speech in Chicago. "Let me tell you, we've just begun to fight. We're going...

An angry-sounding John Kerry denied Monday morning that he ever claimed to have thrown away his three Purple Hearts and two medals for combat valor during an April 1971 anti-war demonstration, blaming Republicans for the new controversy and blasting President Bush's National Guard record. "This comes from a president and a Republican Party that can't even answer whether or not he showed up for duty in the National Guard," a seething Kerry told "Good Morning America's" Charlie Gibson. Kerry was responding to a 1971 interview unearthed by ABC News in which he told WRC-TV that he "gave back" somewhere between...

A reader writes us as follows: The linked screenshots show significant editing of the DBunker post on Kerry’s medals that was featured on Good Morning America. The phrase, “he has been consistent about the facts and the symbolism of the medal-returning ceremony” was removed in between the two screenshots enclosed. The first was taken at 9:50 am, the second at 10:26 am, as indicated on the timestamp in the filename. Here are the two screenshots, the first taken at 9:50 a.m. And the second taken at 10:26 a.m.

Kerry Demands Bush Prove Guard ServiceBy NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press WriterJohn%20Kerry">web sites), a decorated Navy veteran criticized by Republicans for his anti-war activities during the Vietnam era, lashed out at President Bush (news - web sites) on Monday for failing to prove whether he fulfilled his commitment to the National Guard during the same period. Conservative critics have questioned whether Kerry deserved his three Purple Hearts for battle wounds, an issue the Democratic presidential candidate sought to put to rest last week by releasing his military records. On Sunday, a top Bush adviser criticized Kerry for leading anti-war protests after...

<p>Sen. John Kerry yesterday denied charges that he lied about throwing his war medals away on the steps of the U.S. Capitol during a 1971 antiwar rally.</p> <p>For years, he's maintained that he threw away his ribbons and the medals of another soldier — while his medals were in safekeeping at home that day — to protest the Vietnam War. But in a newly unearthed 1971 television interview, Mr. Kerry said he threw his medals away.</p>

<p>April 27, 2004 -- WASHINGTON - An agitated and defensive John Kerry hit the roof yesterday trying to explain that he never lied about tossing away his Vietnam medals at a 1971 anti-war protest. "I'm not going to stand for this," Kerry huffed in a combative interview with ABC's "Good Morning America."</p>

<p>April 27, 2004 -- Did John Kerry throw away his combat medals during an anti-war demonstration at the U.S. Capitol in 1971? He says no - but that's not the story he's always told. Actually, it turns out that Kerry has been parsing words as carefully as President Bill Clinton talking about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.</p>

<p>April 27, 2004 -- THE conventional wisdom is that the presidential election will be close. It's a 50-50 country, so the CW goes, just as it was in the year 2000.</p> <p>Kerry is a terrible, terrible, terrible candidate.</p> <p>It's not so much the policies he proposes, although they don't add up to all that much. The problem is Kerry himself. He no sooner opens his mouth than he sticks first one foot and then the other right in there.</p>

<p>Look, Charlie, who are you gonna believe, John Kerry or your own eyes?</p> <p>The great white Democratic hope set out early yesterday to clear up the 33-year-old question of what did he do with his medals from Vietnam and when did he do it?</p>

OLIPHANT IN COMING BOSTON GLOBE: 'I was 4 or 5 feet behind John Kerry. I watched Kerry reach with his right hand into the breast pocket of his fatigue shirt. The hand emerged with several of the ribbons... There couldn't have been all that many decorations in his hand -- six or seven -- because he made a closed fist around his collection... From what I could observe firsthand about Friday, April 23, 1971, Kerry did not make even the slightest effort to pretend that he was throwing all of his military decorations over that fence.... Kerry had arrived here...

John Kerry stepped in it yet again -- and I have to tell you, as a prelude to this, I'm actually beginning to ask myself if he is going to be able to survive this. David Broder had a piece in the Washington Post yesterday, that is critical of Kerry and pretty full of doom. Walter Cronkite has a piece full of doom for Kerry, because he's not liberal enough. All of the support systems that would be there to support John Kerry are crumbling -- and perhaps the biggest one is the media. And the media today began the...

Peter Jennings just ran a piece on Kerry's Vietnam history. Included in the piece was a bit of video after this morning's interview with Charlie Gibson. Kerry (thinking he was off-camera) ripped out his earpiece, and said "I feel like they're doing the work of the Republican National Committee."

Let's see if I can kick this off. During the promo at the beginning of the show, where he was standing by live in West Virginia, and throughout the interview itself, Kerry tried hard to keep this huge "what me worry?" smile plastered on his face. He coupled it with numerous condescending head shakes that seemed to imply "these poor benighted fools who so miserably misunderstand the greatness that is John Kerry."

(CNSNews.com) - Did John F. Kerry throw away his Vietnam War medals or didn't he? In a newly surfaced 1971 interview with a Washington, D.C., television station, the young Kerry said he threw away "six, seven, eight, nine" medals. He said nothing about ribbons -- mentioning only "medals" in that 1971 interview. But on Monday morning, Kerry vehemently denied throwing away his medals -- contradicting what he said in the 1971 interview. He explained the contradiction by saying that back then, medals and ribbons were the same thing. "There was no distinction," he said on Monday. Medal, ribbons, even dogtags...

April 26, 2004 1971 Tape Adds to Debate Over Kerry's Medal ProtestBy JIM RUTENBERG and JAMES DAO hroughout much of his political career, Senator John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, has faced questions about a singular event that took place 33 years ago last week: he and fellow veterans discarded medals in Washington to protest the war in Vietnam.The Kerry campaign Web site says it is "right-wing fiction" that he "threw away his medals during a Vietnam War protest." Rather, the Web site says, "John Kerry threw away his ribbons and the medals of two veterans who could...

In a videotape from 1971, obtained exlcusively by ABCNEWS, Vietnam veteran John Kerry said he gave back his medals in order to "wake the country."ABCNEWS.com Discarded Decorations Videotape Contradicts John Kerry's Own Statements Over Vietnam Medals By Brian Ross and Chris Vlasto ABCNEWS.com April 25— Contradicting his statements as a candidate for president, Sen. John Kerry claimed in a 1971 television interview that he threw away as many as nine of his combat medals to protest the war in Vietnam. "I gave back, I can't remember, 6, 7, 8, 9 medals," Kerry said in an interview on a Washington,...

KANSAS CITY - (KRT) - Confronted with 32-year-old FBI records, Sen. John Kerry's campaign all but conceded he attended a 1971 Kansas City meeting where a fellow anti-war veteran called for political assassinations. Those active in Vietnam Veterans Against the War at the time stress that the suggestion for such a violent approach was angrily rejected. They say their memories do not include Kerry taking part in the radical discussion. A statement Thursday by Kerry's camp said the Massachusetts Democrat did not recall the meeting, although FBI surveillance material and the group's archives clearly show that Kerry resigned from his...