| Beware Secret Cambodia Mission |
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August 10, 2004 |
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BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
 RUSH: Three. Three campaign finance watchdog groups filed a complaint today, accusing a group of Vietnam veterans of violating the campaign finance laws, by airing an ad that challenges John Kerry's military record. Democracy 21, the Center for Responsive Politics, and the Campaign Legal Center, argue that the ad by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth violates a federal ban on the use of unlimited donations, often referred to as soft money to influence federal elections.
Now, don't you find this fascinating? You've got all of these Democrat 527s out there and nobody files any charges against them. The thing that continues to strike me about this is that Kerry refuses to come out and answer these guys. Somebody's telling the truth here and somebody isn't. And you have groups of people that both would say, on the surface, appear credible. You've got Vietnam vets on both sides. And you've got a presidential candidate on one side. And you've got some Vietnam vets on another side who claim that the presidential candidate is lying and is misrepresenting his record and won't show his records. And what's happening is that all these Democrat groups are lining up, liberal groups trying to shut down this ad with intimidation and lawsuits and, you know, not criminal charges, but quasi-criminal charges, violating campaign finance reform laws. It's breathtaking to behold.
By the way, folks, I want to tell you something. We did a little research today -- let me grab this thing right in front of me. I won't bother to tell you how we found it, but it's the Washington Post, Sunday, June 1st, 2003, and the headline of this story -- by Laura Blumenfeld -- it's, "John Kerry, Hunter, Dreamer, Realist. Complexity Infuses Senator's Ambition." |
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"John Kerry eats dove, even better, he shoots them, from behind the stalks of a southern cornfield he'll watch them flutter and dart, then he'll fire. 'You clean 'em, you let 'em hang, takes three or four birds to have a meal,' Kerry said, "You might eat it at a picnic, cold, roasted, I love to eat dove.'" Now, this is over a year old. This story is about 13 months ago. I just want to read to you the last -- one, two, three, four -- five short little paragraphs here.
"And who is he, really?
"A close associate hints: There's a secret compartment in Kerry's briefcase. He carries the black attaché everywhere. Asked about it on several occasions, Kerry brushed it aside. Finally, trapped in an interview, he exhaled and clicked open his case. 'Who told you?" he demanded as he reached inside. 'My friends don't know about this.'
"The hat was a little mildewy. The green camouflage was fading, the seams fraying.
'My good luck hat,' Kerry said, happy to see it. 'Given to me by a CIA guy as we went in for a special mission in Cambodia.'
"Kerry put on the hat, pulling the brim over his forehead. His blue button-down shirt and tie clashed with the camouflage. He pointed his finger and raised his thumb, creating an imaginary gun. He looked silly, yet suddenly his campaign message was clear: Citizen-soldier. Linking patriotism to public service. It wasn't complex after all; it was Kerry.
"He smiled and aimed his finger: 'Pow.'
 Now, we found this. The important thing about this is that in a story that's 13 months old, there's a reference to John Kerry having made a secret mission in Cambodia with a CIA guy. Thirteen months ago.
Now, you can look at this one of two ways. Either they knew that somebody was going to charge he had never been in Cambodia after he made a big thing about it in 1986, or he was in Cambodia on a secret CIA mission. So there you have it. I just want to put it out there because that's a latest charge from the swift boat veterans. Well, it's actually from the book, Unfit To Serve, that he'd never been in Cambodia. He lied about it. Just to keep you up to speed on what's going to break.
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Read the Articles... |
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XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN AUG 08, 2004 19:04:35 ET XXXXX
SWIFT OFFICERS AND VETS: KERRY LIED ABOUT SPENDING CHRISTMAS IN CAMBODIA
**Exclusive**
Since the early 1970s, Kerry has spoken and written of how he was illegally ordered to enter Cambodia. Kerry mentioned it in the floor of the Senate in 1986 when he charged that President Reagan’s actions in Central America were leading the U.S. in another Vietnam. Here’s what he said as excerpted from the new book, UNFIT FOR COMMAND:
I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by the 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. I have that memory which is seared--seared--in me.
DRUDGE has learned from the accounts of Swift Boat officers and Kerry’s crewmembers that Kerry was never in Cambodia. UNFIT FOR COMMAND authors charge that Kerry made it all up.
“Despite the dramatic memories of his Christmas in Cambodia, Kerry’s statements are complete lies,” according to John O’Neil, co-author and the Swift Boat commander who took over Kerry’s boat. “Kerry was never in Cambodia during Christmas 1968, or at all during the Vietnam War. . . . he was more than fifty miles away from Cambodia.”
Kerry was stationed at Coastal Division 13 in Cat Lo. Coastal Division 13’s patrol areas extended to Sa Dec, about 55 miles from the Cambodian border. . . . Tom Anderson, Commander of River Division 531, who was in charge of PBRs (small river patrol crafts] confirmed that there were no Swifts anywhere in the area and they would have been stopped had they appeared.
All the living commanders in Kerry’s chain of command . . . deny that Kerry was ever ordered to Cambodia. They indicate that Kerry would have been seriously disciplined or court-martialed had he gone there. At least three of the five crewmen on Kerry’s boat, Bill Zaldonis, Steven Hatch, and Steve Gardner, deny that they or their boat were ever in Cambodia.
O’Neill observed that the Cambodia incursion story is not included in Tour of Duty (Kerry’s recent biography). Instead, Kerry replaced the story with a report about a mortar attack that occurred on Christmas Eve 1968 “near the Cambodian border” in a town called Sa Dec and Christmas day was spent at the base writing entries in his journal.
After conducting interviews and research, authors of Unfit for Command conclude, “The truth is that Kerry made up his secret mission into Cambodia.... the lie about the illegal Cambodian incursion painted his superiors up the chain of command. . . . as villains faced down by John Kerry, a solitary hero in grave and exotic danger and forced illegally against his will into harm’s way.”
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