Yet Another Rlfeport Supports Kerry's Account

The New York Times > Washington > Campaign 2004 > Navy Report Supports Kerry's Account

A Navy report filed five days after a disputed mission in Vietnam supports Senator John Kerry's version of the incident and contradicts critics who say he never came under enemy gunfire when he won two medals.

A weekly report from the Navy task force overseeing Mr. Kerry's Swift boat squadron reported that his group of boats was fired on in the March 13, 1969, mission. Some of Mr. Kerry's critics, including several men who were on other boats that day, say there was no enemy gunfire in the incident, for which Mr. Kerry won a Bronze Star and his third Purple Heart.

The March 18, 1969, report from Task Force 115, which was located by The Associated Press in a search of Navy archives, is the latest document to surface that supports Mr. Kerry's description of the event. Crew members on Mr. Kerry's boat and a Special Forces soldier Mr. Kerry pulled from the water that day insist there was enemy fire. The task force report twice mentions the incident and both times calls it 'an enemy-initiated firefight' that included automatic weapons fire and underwater mines.

Task Force 115 was commanded at the time by Roy Hoffmann, the founder of the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which has been running advertisements challenging Mr. Kerry's account of the episode.

A member of the group, Larry Thurlow, said he stood by his assertion that there was no enemy fire that day. Mr. Thurlow, the commander of another boat who also won a Bronze Star, said task force commanders probably relied on the initial report of the incident. Mr. Thurlow says Mr. Kerry wrote that report.

The anti-Kerry group has not produced any official Navy documents supporting its claim.

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The SVBT guys have about as much credibility now as George Bush himself. None.

US bounty hunter had contact with Rumsfeld's office

BBC NEWS | South Asia | US admits 'bounty hunter' contact

When Jonathan Idema, also known as Jack, first appeared in court in Kabul last month, he was asked to prove his claims to have had links with the US Department of Defense.

One name he mentioned was Heather Anderson, the Pentagon's Acting Director of Security, who answers to the chief official responsible for intelligence matters in the office of Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary.

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This is interesting. Anderson admits contact, but says she turned him down. In a normal administration I'd be inclined to believe her. In this administration, and especially when it involves Rumsfeld ....

Rumsfeld may have read too many Clancy novels.

SVBT: O'Neill changes yet another story

The Agonist | thoughtful, global, timely

The chief critic of John Kerry's military record told President Nixon in 1971 that he had been in Cambodia in a swift boat during the Vietnam War -- a claim at odds with his recent statements that he was not.  

'I was in Cambodia, sir. I worked along the border,' said John E. O'Neill in a conversation that was taped by the former president's secret recording system. The tape is stored at the National Archives in College Park, Md.

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When interviewed recently O'Neill claims that when he said "in Cambodia" he meant "near Cambodia".

This guy is insane.

The "Christmas Eve" attack on Kerry is cheap and almost certainly wrong. By Fred Kaplan

Holiday in Cambodia - The "Christmas Eve" attack on Kerry is cheap and almost certainly wrong. By Fred Kaplan

... But one thing is for sure: Lt. Kerry did not spend that Christmas Eve just lying around, dreaming of sugarplums and roasted chestnuts. He had plenty of time to cover the 40 miles from the Cambodian border to the safety of Sa Dec (he did command a swift boat, after all). More to the point, the evidence indicates he did cover those 40 miles: He was near (or in?) Cambodia in the morning, in Sa Dec that night.

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Rove may yet regret starting this fight. Now all we need is some former special ops guy to come out of the wilderness and say Kerry ferried him in.

Rove's fingerprints

Salon.com News | When Republicans attack

...Wayne Slater isn't surprised at all. Slater, the veteran Dallas Morning News reporter who coauthored 'Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential,' said Tuesday that the Swift Boat Veterans attack was entirely predictable. Slater has watched Karl Rove work for nearly two decades, and he said the 'mark of Rove' in a campaign is always the same: Aim nasty attacks right at your opponent's strength, but keep your own fingerprints off them.

It happened in Texas in 1994, when Karl Rove ran Bush's campaign against Gov. Ann Richards. Richards' strength, Slater said, was her reputation for tolerance and inclusiveness. Then somebody started rumors in conservative East Texas, whispers suggesting that Richards and some of her staff members were gay. Bush didn't make the accusation himself, of course, but one day a state senator serving as Bush's East Texas campaign chairman -- a politician who had worked previously with Rove -- told a newspaper reporter that Richards' appointment of 'avowed homosexuals' might be a liability in her campaign for reelection. The rumors, suddenly on the record -- at least sort of -- become newspaper stories, and Bush won the race.

Six years later, with Bush and Rove facing a must-win Republican presidential primary in South Carolina, somebody started suggesting that Sen. John McCain's experience as a prisoner of war in Vietnam had left him mentally unstable. Again, it was an attack on the opponent's strength -- in McCain's case, his role as a war hero -- and again, Bush and Rove disavowed any involvement in the attacks. When McCain challenged Bush in a Republican debate, Bush said: ' John, I believe that you served our country nobly.'

Of course, that's almost exactly what Bush has said about John Kerry, even as a group with close ties to Rove and the Bush-Cheney campaign runs an advertisement making the opposite point. When Larry King asked Bush about the Swift Boat Veterans' ad earlier this month, Bush said that he believes Kerry performed 'honorable service' in Vietnam.

Slater said that Kerry has learned a lesson from the losses suffered by Ann Richards and John McCain. 'You do not ignore the attacks,' Slater said. 'Richards never responded, and with McCain the response was too muted and too late. The lesson here is that you should respond immediately and try to tag the Bush administration or the Bush campaign as the responsible party.'

The New York Times > Washington > Campaign 2004 > TV Watch: On Cable, a Fog of Words About Kerry's War Record

The New York Times > Washington > Campaign 2004 > TV Watch: On Cable, a Fog of Words About Kerry's War Record

That kind of air-kiss coverage is typical of cable news, where the premium is on speed and spirited banter rather than painstaking accuracy. But it has grown into a lazy habit: anchors do not referee - they act as if their reportage is fair and accurate as long as they have two opposing spokesmen on any issue.

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Fox is behaving as expected, but CNN is little better.

Rove understands cable TV.

This NYT piece rips cable TV right and left.

Too bad I don't terminate cable service -- never had it. I even got rid of our antennas -- we can't even get broadcast TV. No great loss.

More Bush coordination with SBVT

The Agonist | thoughtful, global, timely: "Benjamin Ginsberg's acknowledgment marks the second time in days that an individual associated with the Bush-Cheney campaign has been connected to the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which Kerry accuses of being a front for the Republican incumbent's re-election effort.

The Bush campaign and the veterans' group say there is no coordination."

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Nope, no coordination at all. Merely a great deal of integration.

BBC NEWS | Americas | Abu Ghraib report attacks 'chaos'

BBC NEWS | Americas | Abu Ghraib report attacks 'chaos'

I heard a discussion of this report on NPR. One number stuck in my head: 75:1. That was the ratio of Abu Ghraib prisoners to military police.

At Guantanomo Bay the ratio was 1:1. Without mortars. With an apparently more disciplined set of detainees.

The military police who served at Abu Ghraib under those conditions, and who did not abuse prisoners, deserve medals.

Those who spoke out against the abuse deserve medals and promotions. (Though Bush will give them neither.)

Rumsfeld deserves a rotation at Abu Ghraib.

Back to Iraq 3.0: Inside the Imam Ali Shrine

Back to Iraq 3.0: Inside the Imam Ali Shrine

Inside, we were greeted warmly. The Mahdi know how to work the media, and they know the world press generally likes the scrappy underdog — especially if they don’t actively try to kill you like the Sunni insurgents do. And to give Moqtada credit, he does try to discourage kidnappings and he’s been helpful in getting two of my friends released. There were no weapons in sight, and I don’t think — anymore — that there are any in the Shrine proper. But I did watch mortars being fired from just beneath and outside the eastern wall of the Shrine. The mortar teams were right up against the wall, allowing them quickly leave the mortar outside and dash inside to become unarmed pilgrims again.

And this is pissing off a lot of the people who live around the Shrine. The Mahdi aren’t particularly accurate in their firings, and they’re dropping live rounds in a densely populated area. Houses and cars are being blown up. People are dying, and the residents of Najaf are blaming Moqtada.

“There is no food, no water,” said Akil Ramahi, 32, in the streets before we entered the old city. “Death is better than this.”

“One man did all this,” he continued. “If Saddam had been here, he would have gotten rid of Moqtada al-Sadr in one day. I accuse Moqtada al-Sadr of destroying the market—” he was referring to a bombed-out market—”Not the Americans.”

To be fair, more common was the “pox on both houses” sentiment, but interestingly, the Mahdis are about as popular as the Americans, which is to say not very popular at all.

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This blog has the most convincing reporting I've read on the shrine battles.

What Bush's donors got in return

John Kerry for President - Rapid Response Center

Bush is a gangster with integrity. If you help him, he helps you. He provides great return on investment, like any good member of "The Family".

Of course most Americans aren't a member of his "Family".

Then and now: changes in the swift boat stories ...

The Washington Monthly -

Roy Hoffman, today: "John Kerry has not been honest."
Roy Hoffman, 2003: "I am not going to say anything negative about him — he's a good man."

Adrian Lonsdale, today: "He lacks the capacity to lead."
Adrian Lonsdale, 1996: "He was among the finest of those Swift boat drivers."

George Elliot, today: "John Kerry has not been honest about what happened in Vietnam."
George Elliot, 1996: "The fact that he chased an armed enemy down is something not to be looked down upon, but it was an act of courage."

Larry Thurlow, today: "...there was no hostile enemy fire directed at my boat or at any of the five boats operating on the river that day."
Larry Thurlow's Bronze Star citation, 1969: "...all units began receiving enemy small arms and automatic weapons fire from the river banks."

Dr. Louis Letson, today: "I know John Kerry is lying about his first Purple Heart because I treated him for that injury."
Medical records, 1968: "Dr. Letson's name does not appear on any of the medical records for Mr. Kerry. Under 'person administering treatment' for the injury, the form is signed by a medic, J. C. Carreon, who died several years ago."

Grant Hibbard, today: "He betrayed all his shipmates. He lied before the Senate."
Hibbard's evaluation of Kerry, 1968: "Mr. Hibbard gave Mr. Kerry the highest rating of 'one of the top few' in three categories—initiative, cooperation and personal behavior. He gave Mr. Kerry the second-best rating, 'above the majority,' in military bearing."

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My Kerry Volunteer page ...

:: John Kerry for President - Volunteer Center ::

I'm number 760,000 or so on the volunteer list. One gets points for fundrainsing, recruiting etc. That's a long list.

When you volunteer you get a "web page". To put it mildly, there's not much opportunity for customization. You get to select what political pablum is displayed as one's "personal message". There are few attempts to profile the volunteers, but they're pretty dull. One question asked me to list which of Kerry's policies attracted me. The policy of "I'm not George Bush" was not on the list.

Kerry Attacks: His Internet Ad

Tell George Bush: Stop the Smear - Get Back to the Issues

A great ad -- one that drafts McCain (however unwillingly!) into the middle of this battle. It's taken from the McCain-Bush primary battles, when McCain attacks Bush for an earlier cowardly Bush ploy.

We need a lot more of these.

Click on the link, watch the video.

Ivins on Thucydides

Star-Telegram | 08/22/2004 | Molly Ivins | Thucydides had it right

o think of the future and wait was merely another way of saying one was a coward; any idea of moderation was just another attempt to disguise one's unmanly character; ability to understand the question from all sides meant that one was totally unfitted for action; fanatical enthusiasm was the mark of a real man. … Anyone who held violent opinions could always be trusted, and anyone who objected to them became a suspect."

The quote is from Thucydides, an early historian, writing about the day in 415 B.C. when Athens sent its glorious fleet off to destruction in Sicily.

Garrison Keillor: What Democrats Believe

Salon.com Books | Prairie fire

I don't know any common people personally, though I do know people living on a narrow financial ledge who work terrifically hard to keep from falling off. Young writers, artists, musicians, for sure, but also office workers trying to pay off college loans, own a car, lead a decent life with some music and fun in it, and not to drown in credit card debt. For them, the middle-class life -- the house, the kids, the leisure -- is not so attainable as it was for their folks. You can't swing it on $12.50 an hour. This is a great country for people who earn a quarter-million a year or more, and the others are getting gypped. Democrats were put on earth to speak up for them. We believe in the energy and inventiveness and wild ambition of the young, the marginal, the outsider, the dispossessed -- that's where the genius and soul of this country resides, and we should not crush it underfoot.