Swift Boat / Stolen Honor Truth Points (with links!)

[IdaBriggs]

I got into it with a Freeper friend a while back, and had to provide "links" for EVERYTHING. Here is some of the stuff I was able to provide him THANKS TO DU! (Yes, there is MORE if you do a search on it -- DU is AMAZING!)

FACT: One of the main vets behind this was on the “Veterans for Bush” re-election committee: NAME = Ken Cordier (http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/08/21/edwards.swiftboat/index.html)

Before his departure, Cordier <snip> was a member of the Bush-Cheney campaign's veterans' steering committee, campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said in a written statement issued Saturday night.

FACT: Bush’s main campaign lawyer was also the lawyer for the Smear Boat guys. NAME = Benjamin Ginsberg (http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/08/25/ginsberg.swiftboat/index.html)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A legal adviser to the Bush-Cheney campaign resigned Wednesday after revealing that he had also advised the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the 527 group that has launched a campaign to discredit Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's military record.

A campaign official told CNN that Benjamin Ginsberg advised the group a few months ago at the same time he was working with the Bush-Cheney campaign.

FACT: Ginsberg's opinion on "dual roles" with campaigns and 527's: (http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2004_08/004571.php)

An article that appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer just two weeks ago included this bit about Ginsberg: "Ben Ginsberg, a legal adviser to the Bush campaign, specifically condemned the dual roles played by Democrats Harold Ickes and Bill Richardson, who had official roles at the convention and also within prominent friendly 527s. 'They're over the coordination line,' Ginsberg said of Ickes and Richardson. 'The whole notion of cutting off links between public officeholders and soft-money groups just got exploded.'"

To make things even better, Ginsberg doesn't just advise the Swift Boat Guys -- a role he will no doubt seriously downplay over the next few days. He serves as the official chief counsel to Progress for America, another 527 that, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, exists to "form 'issue truth squads' that respond to Democratic attacks on President Bush."

FACT: The main financial contributor is a personal friend of Karl Rove (campaign manager). NAME = Robert Perry (original article requires registration, and can be referenced at this website) (
http://www.misleader.org/daily_mislead/Read.asp?fn=df08252004.html)

. . . the Dallas Morning News yesterday reported that the man bankrolling
the smear ads is hosting President Bush's top political adviser at a fundraiser
in New York during the Republican National Convention. Robert Perry, the
top Bush-Cheney fundraiser who is financing the Swift Boat Veterans for
Truth ads, "is listed as the co-host" of an event whose guest list includes Karl
Rove on September 1

Dallas Morning News: "Veterans' Group Critical of Kerry Backed by Bush Supporter." Bob Perry, a major supporter of President Bush and the Republican Party, is the biggest financial backer of a veterans group seeking to discredit Democrat John Kerry's military service, according to federal records. Perry, a Houston homebuilder, gave $100,000 to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group that has been critical of Kerry's anti-war activities after he returned from Vietnam. That accounted for two-thirds of the organization's receipts to date. (DMN, 7/23/04)


FACT: the “unimpeachable Admiral” who turned out to have gotten some Bush/Cheney “help” with a $40 million dollar defense contact. NAME = William Schachte (http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/227267p-195132c.html)

GOP convention Chairman David Norcross practices law in the same D.C. firm, Blank Rome, as William Schachte, a retired Navy admiral who says Kerry did not deserve one of his Purple Heart medals, Time magazine reported yesterday.

Schachte is aligned with the anti-Kerry group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which has dominated the campaign in recent weeks with accusations that the former Swift boat skipper is lying about how he got his war medals.

FACT: $40 Million Buys a Lot of Friends for Schachte (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47542-2004Aug30.html)

Four days ago, retired naval Rear Adm. William L. Schachte Jr. seconded accusations made by the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth seeking to discredit Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry's record in Vietnam. But since then, Democrats have discovered that Schachte is also a long-standing supporter of President Bush and a lobbyist whose client FastShip Inc. recently won a $40 million grant from the federal government.

<snip>

According to a March 18 legal filing by Schachte's firm, Blank Rome, Schachte was one of the lobbyists working for FastShip on issues such as the effort to win funding for a new marine cargo terminal. On Feb. 2, Philadelphia-based FastShip announced that it would receive $40 million in federal funding for the project.
In addition, David Norcross, Schachte's colleague in the Washington office of Blank Rome, is chairman of this week's Republican convention in New York. Records also show that Schachte gave $1,000 to Bush's 2000 and 2004 campaigns."

FACT: This ties into the Bush/Cheney re-election campaign. See schematic. (http://nytimes.com/imagepages/2004/08/19/politics/campaign/20040820_SWIFT_GRAPH.html)

BONUS FACT: POW Crap --

AP: Another Two Bush Officials Linked to Swift Boat Vets Ads. "Two former Vietnam prisoners of war who appear in ads attacking Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry were appointed by the Bush administration to a panel advising the Department of Veterans Affairs. The former POWs in the ad, Kenneth Cordier and Paul Galanti, serve on the VA's 12-member Former POW Advisory Committee. VA Secretary Anthony Principi appointed Cordier in 2002 and Galanti in 2003. Cordier also was a member of a Bush campaign veterans' committee but quit earlier this month after that role was revealed." (AP, 9/3/04)

MORE FACT -- OUTED AS LIARS on MSNBC Hardball on Sept 9, 2004: (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5962170/)

(excerpt from "film")
JACK FELLOWES, FORMER VIETNAM POW: We stayed two more years because of him. John Kerry, Jane Fonda, and all that crowd, the anti-war movement, I figure they owe us two years.

SHUSTER: But the fact is, the war stopped in 1973 when the Nixon administration negotiated an end. And history shows it was the lack of a settlement before then, not any protest, that kept the North Vietnamese fighting.

<more>

CARLTON SHERWOOD, PRODUCER, “STOLEN HONOR”: Very simply—and I think you know this, Chris—There is a reservoir of resentment out among the Vietnam veterans, combat veterans, particularly, since what John Kerry did in 1971. And I thought the best way to tell this story was through the POWs who—there were direct consequences to these men for what John Kerry...

MATTHEWS: In putting this film together, what did you learn were the consequences, if you could accumulate them right now for us?

SHERWOOD: Oh...

MATTHEWS: Of John Kerry‘s testimony. What you know for sure, not speculation, what you know for sure.

SHERWOOD: According to the POWs, what they said to me...

MATTHEWS: Well, what they know for sure, if you can tell me what that is, not what they‘re speculating.

<snip>

MATTHEWS: Wait a minute. This is very important. You told me a minute ago that you were threatened with possible execution, and certainly trial...

WARNER: Right.

MATTHEWS: ... as one of the possible selectees after the war was over.

WARNER: Right.

MATTHEWS: Did they ever say to you, because of John Kerry‘s testimony, you were going to face a possible execution?

WARNER: No. They didn‘t say that. They said—they kept pointing - they just kept saying over and over again...

MATTHEWS: Did any other former POWs say that they were told by their captors that they would face trial, potential trial, and potential execution because of what John Kerry said?

SHERWOOD: Oh, yes. Yes. In fact, one guy—one fellow, Leo Thorsness (ph), is a Medal of Honor recipient.

MATTHEWS: And he says?

SHERWOOD: And he said that as a result of Kerry‘s testimony, he was threatened with execution.

MATTHEWS: And he was told by his captors, because of the testimony, they were doing this to him.

SHERWOOD: Yes. This is a—yes.

MATTHEWS: That‘s what I want to know. I‘m trying to nail this down.

SHERWOOD: This is a U.S. Naval officer.

MATTHEWS: Admitting his credentials to speak publicly. I‘m asking, did he say specifically that they told him that because of what Kerry had said, he was facing this possible punishment?

SHERWOOD: Yes. He said that.

MATTHEWS: That‘s what (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to know. Let‘s to go Ken Campbell, who‘s a Vietnam veteran who protested the war. And on the phone, we‘re joined by Phil Butler, who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

Let‘s go to Phil Butler. Could you tell me your years of captivity, Mr. Butler?

PHIL BUTLER, FORMER PRISONER OF WAR: Yes. I was captured on April the 20th of 1965 and released on February the 12th of 1973, just a little short of eight years. I‘m the eighth longest-held prisoner of war in Vietnam. And I was in Camp Unity, which was the camp that was mentioned earlier, I think, after the San The raid, from November the 20th of 1970 to May the 25th of 1972. During that time, I lived in room 2 of that camp with Ken Cordier (ph). And next to me in room 3 were Paul Galante and Jim Warner for a while, and also, Bud Day (ph) and Robert Shoemaker (ph) were in room seven of that camp.

And I can assure you that in Camp Unity—there were several hundred of us there—during all that time period, from 1970 up through May of 1972, we absolutely never heard of John Kerry. And if John Kerry‘s name was used or mentioned in other camps, I can assure you that, certainly, in my opinion, John Kerry has absolutely no connection whatsoever either with anybody being tortured or with prolonging the war in any way, shape or form.

MATTHEWS: Let me ask you generically, Phil, did you ever experience as a POW the kind of threats that Mr. Warner suffered, where they said to you, We‘re going to try some of you guys after this war is over, we‘re going to execute some of you guys after this war, and then show that kind of material, show that kind of propaganda, which for them was propaganda, testimony from Jane Fonda or anybody in the anti-war movement? Was anything like that ever done to you?

BUTLER: No. They never really used anybody in the anti-war movement to torture me. I was tortured numerous times between 1965 and 1969, for which I received Purple Hearts and—real Purple Hearts and two Silver Stars, and so on and so forth. But other POWs have, as well...

MATTHEWS: From the other POWs, sir, did you ever hear stories of them being told that testimony by people like John Kerry back home was threatening them or could be used against them in future war criminal trials?

BUTLER: Absolutely not. Absolutely not. I did not know the name John Kerry until quite a while after I came home.

MATTHEWS: Let me go back to Jim Warner. Wasn‘t there any scuttlebutt in the camp? You guys were all in this fix together, possibly going to be executed. You‘re all worried about getting home and wanting to get home. Didn‘t you talk about that with people like Phil?

WARNER: Yes. Yes. We did.

MATTHEWS: Well, how come he doesn‘t remember it?

(There's more; go read it. These guys get totally OUTED as lying.)

[emulatorloo]

1. Thanks for putting this together, esp the Matthews transcript

The whole thing is probably worth a media blast.