New attack on Kerry's service: Christmas in Cambodia

[rumguy]

"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.'"

www.drudgereport.com

Kerry really did say that on the Senate floor in 1986.

[k in IA]

1. What does it say in Brinkley's book? I have been surprised to not

see him at all during this whole swift liars fiasco.

[Catt03]

3. Brinkley's been on

I saw him last week and he gave a great response.

I think it was Hardball.......

[KC21304]

6. Kerry wrote in his journal that day they were " not far from the

Cambodian border " And his crew man Wasser told Brinkley, " We were getting close to Cambodia." But there is no mention of gunfire from Cambodians, just from South Vietnamese.

[MikeG]

2. We need to start a pool on how soon this new lie will be debunked.

I say 24 hours.

[yardwork]

4. These guys are really reaching.....

How do they hope to sway undecideds with these stupid smears?

Any reasonable person would listen to this latest one and say "so f*cking what???"

[MikeG]

5. Kerry is now even with Bush with veterans.

[LTR]

7. Drudge is really beating a dead horse

I Googled the quote, and the only sources for it are right wing, and mostly from the past two days:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=%22%27I+remember+Christmas+of+1968+sitting+on+a+gunboat+in+Cambodia%22&btnG=Google+Search

39 sources for this statement, BTW.

Give it a day or two - It will be debunked.

Meanwhile... what about this whopper from Georgie Boy?

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/bushlie.html

QUESTION: One thing, Mr. President, is that you have no idea how much you've done for this country, and another thing is that how did you feel when you heard about the terrorist attack?
BUSH: Well... (APPLAUSE)

Thank you, Jordan (ph).

Well, Jordan (ph), you're not going to believe what state I was in when I heard about the terrorist attack. I was in Florida. And my chief of staff, Andy Card -- actually I was in a classroom talking about a reading program that works. And I was sitting outside the classroom waiting to go in, and I saw an airplane hit the tower -- the TV was obviously on, and I use to fly myself, and I said, "There's one terrible pilot." And I said, "It must have been a horrible accident."

But I was whisked off there -- I didn't have much time to think about it, and I was sitting in the classroom, and Andy Card, my chief who was sitting over here walked in and said, "A second plane has hit the tower. America's under attack."

845 sources for this statement:

http://www.google.com/search?as_q=&num=10&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&c2coff=1&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=waiting+to+go+in%2C+and+I+saw+an+airplane+hit+the+tower+&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=&safe=off

[rumguy]

8. I saw a picture on instapundit

of the actual text of the official record...

At this point I have no doubt he said it.

The thing is - they say he was (gasp) 50 miles from the border. Well that's not far at all - perhaps some of their missions did cross over. As another poster just pointed out, Kerry's diary says he was close to the border on that Christmas day.

[girl gone mad]

9. Here is something that may help.

Notice the contradiction in the following statements. O'Neil's statement is inaccurate, according the links below.

"...DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN AUG 08, 2004 19:04:35 ET X SWIFT OFFICERS AND VETS: KERRY LIED ABOUT SPENDING CHRISTMAS IN CAMBODIA...
Since the early 1970s, Kerry has spoken and written of how he was illegally ordered to enter Cambodia...
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..."

"..."I served in Vietnam as a boat officer from June of 1968 to July of 1969. My service was three months in Coastal Division 13 out of Cat Lo, and nine months with Coastal Division 11 based in An Thoi. John Kerry was in An Thoi the same time I was..."

-Robert Brant, PCF#36, out of An Thoi
http://swift1.he.net/~swiftvet/index.php?topic=SwiftVetQuotes


Here is a map:



Here are the names of the associated patrol areas:
http://swiftboats.net/extras/patrol_areas.htm

Here's Kerry's boat, PCF #66, out of An Thoi. Search for Kerry's name on the page, and you'll see he was patrolling An Thoi in December 1968.

http://swiftboats.net/#pcf66

Patrol Areas 9B thru 9H1 (An Thoi) are right on the Cambodian border. Cat Lo is 5B through 5F, btw.

[Inland]

10. Less than two hours to debunk latest Hate Kerry attempt

[A_Possum]

11. GOOD job, GGM

That's about as graphic a debunking as they come.

[Sparkly]

13. Thanks!

GREAT work! :hi:

[Bush was AWOL]

14. A few questions:

1. Why did Kerry accuse Nixon of being president if this was 1968?

2. Was his location absolutely considered Cambodia?

3. Did he ever claim to have actually been on the Island of Cambodia fighting?

[girl gone mad]

17. Re: "A few questions"

1. Kerry was adressing President Nixon, but referring to President Johnson when he stated "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.."

2. His position in December 1968 was right on the border of Cambodia and Vietnam, which is in direct contradicition to Oneil's statement that Kerry was "never in Cambodia during Christmas 1968, or at all during the Vietnam War....he was more than fifty miles away from Cambodia."

3. Kerry stated "Mr. President, I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia." He didn't say that he was fighting in Cambodia, just sitting in the boat.

It appears that the Swiftboaters are playing a game of semantics. Christmas is a season, not just a single day, that begins on the Sunday nearest November 30 (Advent). Kerry was still stationed by the Cambodian border in early December. They were probably homesick, maybe they put Christmas decorations up on the boat and the memories seared into Kerry involve images of Christmas time, listening to Christmas music or thinking of holidays back home.

I agree with others. These guys are beating a dead horse.

[jtb33]

22. #3 isn't correct...

Here:





You will see that he did say that he was "shot at... by Cambodians".

Kerry just needs to say that he was mistaken, didn't remember correctly, or what have you. I'm sure if someone wanted to pick apart something I said at one time, it would be easy to find some miniscule thing that I didn't remember correctly, or got a bit wrong.

Out of curiosity, how did he know the difference between Vietnamese, Khmer Rogue and Cambodians shooting at him?

[Bush was AWOL]

15. According to Kerry's website

he was on PCF 44 and was at Coastal division 13 after December 13, 1968.

[Scorpious_Maximus]

19. Nice Work!

:kick:

[Sparkly]

12. Drudge is going to keep posting a "Drudge has learned" with each page

he turns in "Unfit for Command."

These people have ZERO credibility, yet he's going to keep us running from now until November (and beyond, when we get our President Kerry) refuting these stupid smears.

Think of them as little games, like scavenger hunts when we were kids. It's more fun that way. :)

[hippiegranny]

16. this shit really needs to stop

the horse. dead already.

[NV1962]

18. *kick*

:kick:

[Zorra]

20. O'Neill and the rest of that republican funded liars club are a joke and

are just total losers.

They need to get a life.

[Fridays Child]

21. Smear boat vet Shumadine admits to being in Cambodia...

...when stationed at An Thoi while Kerry was also stationed there. Looks like O'Neil didn't even check his own web site for conflicting statements made by his fellow smear boaters. Sloppy.

Shumadine:

"I was in An Thoi from June of '68 to June of '69, covering the whole period that John Kerry was there. I operated in every river, in every canal, and every off-shore patrol area in the 4th Corps area, from Cambodia all the way around to the Bo De River."

http://swift1.he.net/~swiftvet/index.php?topic=SwiftVetQuotes