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Kerry's VVAW organization considered political assassination...

Mar 13, 2004 3:01AM PST

It's interesting to look into the background of people running for President. Better before he gets into power rather than after he achieves it as you can find things like the following:

"The anti-war group that John Kerry was the principal spokesman for debated and voted on a plot to assassinate politicians who supported the Vietnam War.
Mr. Kerry denies being present at the November 12-15, 1971, meeting in Kansas City of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and says he quit the group before the meeting. But according to the current head of Missouri Veterans for Kerry, Randy Barnes, Mr. Kerry,who was then 27,was at the meeting, voted against the plot, and then orally resigned from the organization.
Mr. Barnes was present as part of the Kansas City host chapter for the 1971 meeting and recounted the incident in a phone interview with The New York Sun this week.
In addition to Mr. Barnes?s recollection placing Mr. Kerry at the Kansas City meeting, another Vietnam veteran who attended the meeting, Terry Du-Bose, said that Mr. Kerry was there.
There are at least two other independent corroborations that the antiwar group Vietnam Veterans Against the War, of which Mr. Kerry was the most prominent national spokesman, considered assassinating American political leaders who favored the war."

The full story is an interesting read, as it has all the details, including mention of Kerry's written letter of resignation that nobody can seem to find.
Link to the full story:
http://daily.nysun.com/Repository/getFiles.asp?Style=OliveXLib:ArticleToMail&Type=text/html&Path=NYS/2004/03/12&ID=Ar00100

Discussion is locked

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Re:Kerry's VVAW organization considered political assassination -- Smear machine again! (NT)
Mar 13, 2004 7:10AM PST

.

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How does the saying go, Dave....
Mar 13, 2004 7:54AM PST

Remember your thread that started out with a "Now Republicans adopt con-man tactics" slug?
How does the saying go? Oh, yeah, You can dish it out, but you can't take it.".
Just had a thought for boring times when nothing is on cable. Remember that FEC financial disclosure form of Kerry's? Considering Kerry lives in Boston, and the 14 Billion dollar "Big Dig" project there, a " computer crunch" of his investments and companies who got a piece of that 14 Billion might kill some time. Oh, let's not forget the investments of his wife, who is even more wealthy.

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You mean Kerry might be a fat cat?
Mar 13, 2004 8:42AM PST

Profiting from the Big Dig. Interesting question.

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If it turned out to be true....
Mar 13, 2004 8:17AM PST

would it still be a smear Dave? If so, why. Is everyone just supposed to overlook Hanoi John's past?

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Good question. (NT)
Mar 13, 2004 8:41AM PST

.

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Smear machine again! -- No, it wasn't the Democrits. (NT)
Mar 13, 2004 9:08AM PST
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That wouldn't be particularly surprising.
Mar 13, 2004 8:38AM PST

The question is will Kerry own up to it? Almost certainly no.

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Here's a movie thought...
Mar 13, 2004 9:04AM PST

Here's a movie thought. Remember the "Winter Soldier Investigation"? It turns out that a documentary film was made of it, called "Winter Soldier". Description:
"A feature-length documentary of the historic, Winter Solder captures the terrifying testimonies of more than 200 ex-GIs at the 1971 Detroit Winter Soldier Investigation concerning American atrocities in Vietnam. The film, made about and with the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, was a prize winner at Cannes and Berlin Film Festivals, screened at the Whitney Museum of Art, New York City and televised once by WNET."
I'd like to get my hands on a copy and look at it. Closely, you never know who you might see.

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I've never heard of the movie before, but I suppose Kerry might be in it ...
Mar 13, 2004 9:58AM PST

This is from History News Network:
... Kerry has sought to downplay his own involvement with the three-day Winter Soldier meetings. His campaign said Friday that Kerry "did not speak" at the event - and that he did not testify to his own personal experiences in Vietnam - but was there only as an observer and to record what was happening.

Yet a transcript of the meetings in the Congressional Record shows Kerry did have a role at Winter Soldier that he has not generally acknowledged - that of a "moderator" on one of the panels of veterans who testified, a role organizers now say was to question the veterans and draw out the most remarkable aspects of their testimony.

Douglas Brinkley, a historian who wrote a book on Kerry's experiences in Vietnam and in the anti-war movement, said his research also showed that Kerry had acted as a moderator.
...
Kerry campaign spokesman David Wade acknowledged that Kerry did play a role in the Winter Soldier hearings but said it was far less formalized than the title of "moderator" would suggest - because, Wade said, the event itself was relatively informal, with small groups of veterans gathering throughout the day to offer their stories. Kerry did not know he was listed as a "moderator" in the Congressional Record but viewed his role as a "quasi-journalist" gathering information he later compiled into a book....

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A different perspective on the Winter Soldiers that I find unsettling ...
Mar 13, 2004 10:12AM PST

What if the hearings themselves were truly a fraud?

This may be biased, but the important question is 'What if it is true?': Scott Swett: Doonesbury and the Winter Soldier

... But strangely, all those horrific accounts of rape, torture, arson and slaughter that the VVAW had recorded in Detroit seemed to evaporate once the real investigation demanded by Senator Hatfield began. As recounted in Guenter Lewy's 1978 book ?America in Vietnam,? few witnesses agreed to talk with military investigators, even after being assured that they would not be asked about their own crimes. Many of those who did permit interviews turned out never to have been in combat. Some of the most gruesome claims came from men who were imposters using the names of real Vietnam veterans. One Marine who had been in combat eventually told investigators that a member of the Nation of Islam had helped prepare his statement, and admitted that he had never witnessed any of the atrocities he had testified to in Detroit. In the end, the Navy was unable to verify any of the hundreds of war crimes alleged by the Winter Soldier Investigation. Neither has anyone else during the 33 years since, including journalists, historians, and military and Congressional investigators.

BTW: Although Doonesbury recently quoted Kerry favorably ("How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?") I found a reference to another strip (from the '70s) in which Doonesbury lampooned Kerry as an insincere politico using the anti-war movement for his own ends. Unfortunately I do not have a link to the strip itself and I wasn't following Doonesbury back in the '70s so I cannot verify the claim.

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Re:Kerry's VVAW organization considered political assassination...
Mar 13, 2004 1:04PM PST

This one needs to be thoroughly investigated. And the investigation should start right now.

In earlier posts about Kerry I said "and there's more, lots lots more" but the implications of this one are so serious that even the most left of leftists should be calling for a a full investigation. Now.

DE

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The more that is revealed about Kerry and is true...
Mar 13, 2004 5:10PM PST

...the more I realize that he is just like any of those I despised in the 70's.