Transcript: John O’Neill Caught in Cambodian Lie

[Junkdrawer]

Mods:
Last night, Kerry’s chief accuser was caught lying about his presence in Cambodia. The irony is that Kerry’s “Cambodian Lie” is being touted in the press as the one “provable” lie in all the Swift Boat Vet nonsense. The issue was exposed on CNN's Aaron Brown show. This morning nothing appears (yet!) in the mainstream press. In the interest of keeping DUers informed, I’d like to post the transcript:

http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0408/24/asb.00.html

JOHNS: Behind the scenes, Kerry's aides were fighting the swift boat charges with unusual ferocity. They say they have evidence one of the top members of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth is an outright liar.

The co-author of the book "Unfit for Command," former swift boat commander John O'Neill said Kerry made up a story about being in Cambodia beyond the legal borders of the Vietnam War in 1968.

O'Neill said no one could cross the border by river and he claimed in an audio tape that his publicist played to CNN that he, himself, had never been to Cambodia either. But in 1971, O'Neill said precisely the opposite to then President Richard Nixon.

O'NEILL: I was in Cambodia, sir. I worked along the border on the water.

NIXON: In a swift boat?

O'NEILL: Yes, sir.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: Now, O'Neill may have an explanation for this but he has not returned CNN's calls. What does seem clear is that a top member of the swift boat group is now being held to the same standard of literal accuracy they've tried to impose on John Kerry -- Aaron.

BROWN: Do they -- are they going to, they being the Kerry side here, are they going to keep talking about this beyond today or are they done with it?

JOHNS: Well they say -- they said both things, excuse me, Aaron. They said they'd really like to get off of it. They've also said they do like to debate the issue of Vietnam because they think it (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in their favor.

The thing that is clear is they think they have to keep going ahead and responding to charges against John Kerry, especially when it has to do with his biography or his resume.

BROWN: And just quickly on the O'Neill thing, just for my edification here, Mr. O'Neill's publicist played for you a tape where Mr. O'Neill says what again?

JOHNS: Well, he says in the tape essentially that he did not go to Cambodia, plain and simple. He says that a couple times in fact in this little short interview that was played for me on the phone. Now, of course, as you listen to that conversation with Richard Nixon, he says something completely different or, at least, that's what it sounds like -- Aaron.

BROWN: It does. Thank you, Joe Johns in Philadelphia tonight.

[amber dog democrat]

1. This is what happens to liars

eventually they get ensnared. I like the Mark Twain remark that its better to be honest/truthful because no man has that good a memory.
Nail the basterd.

[sui generis]

5. there's rope enough everywhere to hang these bastards

It's really funny now that the swiftboat slimebags are getting more "exposure" to see how absolutely slimeball this entire tactic has been, and that it is indeed directly connected with dumbya's administration.

A few days ago the polls read 50/50 and today they are swinging in support of Kerry's record closer to 65/35.

The silver lining in all of this is that the Repugs are now whining "can't we all just get along" now that they have been called on the carpet. They're also starting to get creeped out because our 527's have 15 times as much warchest as theirs do. "Can't we all just get along?"

The long answer is no. Want the short one?

[amber dog democrat]

13. and now WHO'se a clever lad ?

Its getting to where these hate filled ideologues can't see beyond the immediate
results. Something that must rankle them even more is that there is still NO consensus that the Vietnam war was ever justified in the first place.
The hardest thing to admit was that it was an Amercan folly - and that they believed in it. Its another indication that the wounds are still festering -
Cognative dissonance -
And now they are being descredited again.

I love to hear the Chimp squeaking about the evil 527s .

He will do ANYTHING to avoid a referendum on his term in service.

Can't have it both ways. Can we ?
Nail the basterds. KEEP nailing them.

[wryter2000]

And, as usual, they're being short-sighted about it

They could use 527's just as easily, or even more easily, that we can. We have to collect huge numbers of small donations. Their fat cats could just cut huge checks. But they'd kill their own golden-egg laying goose just to spite us.

Guess what, Whistle Ass...it ain't gonna work.

[Joanne98]

19. And moveon is getting ready to run 14 new ads.

:)

[wishlist]

2. Watch Bushco and Swiftliar supporters scramble to explain this one!

Fortunately it is only Wednesday, so there is more time for this and the other Swiftylies to get more media attention before the convention!

[Frodo]

3. He spun it on H&C last night.

Reasonably convincing. Though his confusion over "in Cambodia" and "along the border" were a tad waffle-like.

[Junkdrawer]

9. Yeah, and O'Neill gave Kerry the benefit of the doubt too...

NOT

[Frodo]

11. True

But Kerry's statement involved a date, O'Neil's defense (which on this ONE point seems believable) relies on there NOT being a date associated with it.

[farmbo]

16. O'Neill's lie can't be "spun"...He said on This Week that he'd never

...been to Cambodia.

Transcript should confirm his lie was not "date sensitive"...he mocked Kerry's story saying (WTTE): "...I patrolled that same river (as Kerry)...and we didn't go to within 50 miles of the Cambodian border."

His defense is NOT believable.

[Frodo]

27. Look, I'm not defending the guy, I'm just saying

on THIS his statement was understandable. Kerry also made comments about "along the border" when questioned about being IN Cambodia. Is he not believable?

O'neal says that both of them were in a completely different part of the country the following year (not on a river). So his statement about the "same river" and how close they got is reasonable. If he WAS assigned to the Cambodian border (coastal duty, not riverine warfare) months later her could talk about being "along the border" and truthfully say you can't get close to the (other) border going up the river they were on in December.

Now, it doesn't explain telling Nixon "in Cambodia" AND "along the border" in the same sentence, but we're making the same comparison in defense of Kerry's "seared seared" comments.

[74dodgedart]

45. I saw that..I tried to find the transcript.

I recall that he said there was no way Kerry could have even been close to Cambodia.

The freeper defense is that the text is taken out of context (how ironic)

[tandot]

22. see post 20. Does "along the border" mean 50 miles away from the border

he is exposed as the liar we all knew he was.

[Frodo]

30. As I said (see attached map)

He's claiming they are two completely geographically seperate areas. One going up the mekong river, the other months later on the WEST coast of Vietnam (I think) and along the Cambodia border (with the ocean).

[Inland]

24. But that's exactly the same confusion he skewered Kerry over, the dick!

[Frodo]

28. Right!

But Kerry gave a specific date which later turns out to be incorrect(at least it currenty looks that way).

[bagnana]

35. right, and that makes Kerry a liar, as opposed to O'Neil who was

just making a "believable, reasonable" mistake in this instance? Would that Kerry was offered such opportunity to parse his words as O'Neill was, rather than someone writing a book about him being a liar.

[Frodo]

38. Nope, it makes (probably both of them) just guys trying to remember

facts that were irrelevant THEN and are certainly irrelevant NOW.

But only one of them is trying to make political hay over it.

[bagnana]

47. Who might that be?

[Frodo]

50. That would be the "swiftvets"

Do try to keep up, hmm? :hi:

[louis-t]

48. Actually I would say the reverse.

It makes O'Neill a complete liar. Kerry may have gotten the date wrong, is that a lie? What does it matter when he was there? It may have been a month later. What does 'Christmas in Cambodia" have to do with anything, really? Why is that important? It isn't.

[jdj]

56. But they forgive Bush saying he saw the first plane hit....

"He's just misspeaking" a la Woodruff.

[geek tragedy]

40. What about his denial of ever having been in Cambodia or

stating that anyone who did go there had committed a war crime and would be court martialed?

:shrug:

[Frodo]

43. He didn't have a particularly good answer.

He and Alan Colmes started talking over each other a tad. Alan wanted to concentrate specifically on the "I was IN Cambodia" part of the sentence and O'Neil wanted to draw attention only to the "Along the border" part of it. He's believable in the explanation of two completely different parts of the country, but he's still stuck with the apparent contradiction of "IN" and "never in".

It's really the same defense Kerry is making ("near Cambodia" is not really contradicting "IN Cambodia").

[CatWoman]

4. Junkdrawer, do us a favor, please

can you email this to Buzzflash, Tweety, Olberman, Josh Marshall, Atrios?

I'm at work, and can't use my email addy to do this type emailing.

Spread the word far and wide!!!!

[Junkdrawer]

7. Unfortunately, I'm at work too. Evil DUers, a little help...

;)

[wicket]

8. Same here

I'd do it, but I too am at work and can't do that sort of emailing.

Is there a DUer out there who could email this story to those websites?

[Tansy_Gold]

12. I'm at home, can email anything ol' thing I want!

:evilgrin:

Just tell me how much to send -- the whole transcript, the DU thread, you name it!


Tansy Gold, reporting for duty

[wicket]

15. Send the DU thread!

Just my opinion :)

[Tansy_Gold]

18. I got Buzzflash and Olberman

Anyone got other addies handy while I'm looking 'em up?

[0007]

23. Good girl!

[landdaddy]

17. Atrios

is already all over it this morning!

[jayfish]

26. Words E-Mail Of Advice.

Register with ALL of the free E-mail providers: Yahoo, Hot-mail, Excite. Not only will this help you with you work conundrum but they can be used as spam filters as well.

Jay

[tandot]

33. I've emailed my text from post 20 to Countdown and Hardball

Hope they'll pay attention.

[Career Prole]

6. Good catch!

:thumbsup:

[ET Awful]

10. Thanks! I've been looking for a transcript, much appreciated :)

wooohooo!

[ItsMyParty]

14. Been searching all morning and there is nothing on this on tv media

Anything in print yet?? In fact it seems today they have stepped up hits on Kerry like "he deserves it because he made 'Nam a big part of his campaign", etc. Saw a hit piece by Lisa Myers on MSNBC just a few minutes ago. I assume that means it was or will be on NBC because she does that kind of things for "special presentations" and/or reports on the Nightly News. Get on this Kerry campaign--you have more ammo now it's going to have to come out of your mouths obviously or the media is not going to cover it.

[tandot]

20. I just posted this in response to WilliamPitt's thread:

Sorry for the source but here is a part of an interview O'Neill gave to humaneventsonline.com:

http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=4835

<snip>

O' NEILL: Oh, absolutely. First of all, Kerry's story, on more than 50 occasions on the floor of the Senate, and on more than 50 different occasions in interviews as recently as last summer, was that the turning point of his life was that he had undergone this deal where he had been illegally ordered into Cambodia at Christmastime--Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Sometimes he says "turning point of his life." As a matter of fact, Kranish, his biographer, on Hannity and Colmes described this as the turning point of life. . . . The guy in command of him at that point in time was a man named Joseph Streuhli and then the chain of command would have run up ultimately to Admiral Hoffmann and then Admiral Zumwalt, who's dead. We checked with Joseph Streuhli to ensure that there was never anything like that occurring. We also know that it's a lie independent of those comments in the following two ways. In the book Tour of Duty, Kerry is placed safely in Sa-Dec, some 50 miles from the Cambodian border, writing a letter, in his words, with visions of sugarplums in his head. Second, we know he wasn't in Cambodia that Christmas Eve because everyone familiar with the entire operation series knows that the PCF, the Swift Boat areas, stopped just north of Sa-Dec, some 50 miles from the border. The areas further north were PBRs--smaller boats--and that the border was heavily guarded to ensure that nobody could go across it.

There were navy gunboats anchored in the Mekong River Channel, through which a Swift Boat would have to pass.

O' NEILL: Yes. It would have been apprehended 30 miles before. But were placed there because in 1967 some drunken Army guys actually went up that river and were interned in Cambodia. And so to avoid future incidents, those gunboats were placed there. And we checked with the commander of those gunboats, whose name is Tom Anderson. He's also in the book.

Did he say that no Swift Boats went by his post?

O' NEILL: Yes. The significance of "Christmas in Cambodia" is that he accused every single fellow officer--I mean every superior--of a war crime in crossing an international boundary illegally. He painted himself as a hero among villains. He said it was the turning point of his whole life many times--how many people fake the turning point of their life?

<snip>
Here is what O'Neill told Nixon:

<snip>
O'NEILL: I was in Cambodia, sir. I worked along the border on the water.

NIXON: In a swift boat?

O'NEILL: Yes, sir.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

<snip>

If no swift boat could get closer than 50 miles to the Cambodian border and all other boats were apprehended by gunboats 30 miles before the Cambodian Border, how the hell did John O'Neill pass them?

[wishlist]

21. This is on Atrios blog this morning- I emailed a bunch of other places

Here is link to Atrios where O'Neil's tape transcript is up there today!

I have emailed a half dozen other media outlets about this story

http://www.atrios.blogspot.com/

[Inland]

25. And suddenly O'Neill is unavailable for comment. Hm.

[arlib]

31. Maybe Frodo could sub in a pinch...

...he always seems to have GOP talking points handy for any issue one cares to bring up.

[Frodo]

32. I gave it my best shot -

lol

He's not an easy man to defend.

[AZCat]

36. Funny how you couldn't turn on the TV...

for a while without seeing his mug. Now, he pulls a Cheney and zips into an "undisclosed location". I thought you just wanted to get out the truth, John!

[Inland]

37. Well, maybe he turned off his answering machine

because he is shy and retiring and untinterested in being on cable news.

[AZCat]

41. I do that sometimes

Because those cable news shows, they're always calling. I told Fox, "We're through!" But they just can't handle the break-up. They keep leaving messages late at night, peeking in my windows to see if I'm giving interviews to MSNBC, emailing me at work to tell me how much they need my right-wing lovin'.

So I understand what poor Johnnie is going through.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

29. Was there a big sign or banner over the river at the Cambodian border?

Saying "Welcome to Cambodia. Enjoy your stay"??? Whether Kerry actually went across an imaginary border as he went up the several channels of the giant Mekong River Delta of southwestern South Vietnam flowing from Cambodia, he must have come within one or two kilometers. There are at least two principal branches of the Mekong crossing into Vietnam before it turns into a maze of channels and canals of the delta region. There might even be more but I can't find an accurate map. When Kerry spoke about crossing into Cambodia, it's not as though he was talking about Pakistan or Iceland. It was right next door and very possible. I believe his crewmen said they didn't think they had ever crossed that border. But without GPS satellite technology, how could they really be sure? If Kerry was patrolling the river right at the Cambodia border, why is it such a big issue as to whether he ever crossed the border or not?

[Norbert]

34. Swifties stories have more holes than my screen door.

Every day that is another couple of stories.

[wryter2000]

39. Wow

Should they try to bring legal action against O'Neill for libel/slander? I'd really like for him to have to testify about his lies under oath.

On edit: shoot, you don't do time for a civil action. Oh, well...

[The Night Owl]

42. Earth to Aaron Brown... Earth to Aaron Brown...

The explanation is that John O'Neill is a liar!

[skip fox]

44. I've added to "SBVT: The File." Please send more links

and stories. I'll put new version of file in Editorials sometime tomorrow.

[Junkdrawer]

51. Here's an interesting "history" thread...

There are several points of coordination between FreeRepublic and the Swifties. So I searched the FR archives to see if I could find John O'Neill recruiting. Here's my results:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=664241&mesg_id=664241&page=

[fjc]

46. That passage not in the link....

Could you find the passage in the transcripts that you quoted?

[Junkdrawer]

49. Yes it is..

What don't you see? Here it is freshly cut:

JOHNS: Behind the scenes, Kerry's aides were fighting the swift boat charges with unusual ferocity. They say they have evidence one of the top members of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth is an outright liar.

The co-author of the book "Unfit for Command," former swift boat commander John O'Neill said Kerry made up a story about being in Cambodia beyond the legal borders of the Vietnam War in 1968.

O'Neill said no one could cross the border by river and he claimed in an audio tape that his publicist played to CNN that he, himself, had never been to Cambodia either. But in 1971, O'Neill said precisely the opposite to then President Richard Nixon.

O'NEILL: I was in Cambodia, sir. I worked along the border on the water.

NIXON: In a swift boat?

O'NEILL: Yes, sir.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: Now, O'Neill may have an explanation for this but he has not returned CNN's calls. What does seem clear is that a top member of the swift boat group is now being held to the same standard of literal accuracy they've tried to impose on John Kerry -- Aaron.

BROWN: Do they -- are they going to, they being the Kerry side here, are they going to keep talking about this beyond today or are they done with it?

JOHNS: Well they say -- they said both things, excuse me, Aaron. They said they'd really like to get off of it. They've also said they do like to debate the issue of Vietnam because they think it (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in their favor.

The thing that is clear is they think they have to keep going ahead and responding to charges against John Kerry, especially when it has to do with his biography or his resume.

BROWN: And just quickly on the O'Neill thing, just for my edification here, Mr. O'Neill's publicist played for you a tape where Mr. O'Neill says what again?

JOHNS: Well, he says in the tape essentially that he did not go to Cambodia, plain and simple. He says that a couple times in fact in this little short interview that was played for me on the phone. Now, of course, as you listen to that conversation with Richard Nixon, he says something completely different or, at least, that's what it sounds like -- Aaron.

BROWN: It does. Thank you, Joe Johns in Philadelphia tonight.
[/i}

[Ducks In A Row]

52. Didn't O'Neill know that Nixon taped all his conversations?

Oh wait. O'Neill's a moron.

Nevermind

[74dodgedart]

53. New Document surfaces to Support Kerry

From http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5818634/


"The March 18, 1969, weekly report from Task Force 115, which was located by The Associated Press during a search of Navy archives, is the latest document to surface that supports Kerry’s description of an event for which he won a Bronze Star and a third Purple Heart.

The Task Force report twice mentions the incident five days earlier and both times calls it “an enemy initiated firefight� that included automatic weapons fire and underwater mines used against a group of five boats that included Kerry’s."

[Junkdrawer]

54. Kick

:kick:

[Junkdrawer]

55. Kick

:kick:

[democrat_patriot]

57. Afternoon kick.

[Junkdrawer]

58. First evening Kick

:kick: