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Evidence Puts Kerry At Kansas Parley | |||||||
2004-03-22 | |||||||
From the March 19th edition of New York Sun. Funny it hasn't been more widely reported: Senator Kerry of Massachusetts yesterday retreated from his earlier steadfast denials that he attended a meeting of Vietnam Veterans Against the War at which a plan to assassinate U.S. Senators was debated. The reversal came as new evidence, including reports from FBI informants, emerged that contradicted Mr. Kerryâs previous statements about the gathering, which was held in Kansas City, Mo. in November 1971. âJohn Kerry had no personal recollection of this meeting 33 years ago,â a Kerry campaign spokesman, David Wade, said in a statement e-mailed last night from Idaho, where Mr. Kerry is on vacation. The "I can't remember" defense.
Translation: "They have hard evidence? Shit!" It did not address the murder plot, though as recently as Wednesday a top aide to Mr. Kerry said that the Massachusetts senator and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee was âabsolutely certainâ he was not present when the assassination plan, known as the âPhoenix Project,â was discussed.
You'd think he'd remember something like this. A historian and expert on activism against the Vietnam War, Gerald Nicosia, provided the Sun yesterday with minutes of the meeting. You kept minutes of a meeting where you were voting on killing US Senators? Mr. Nicosia also read quotes from FBI surveillance documents he obtained under the Freedom of Information Act as he was preparing his 2001 book, âHome to War.â âMy evidence is incontrovertible. He was there,â Mr. Nicosia said in an interview yesterday. âThereâs no way that five or six agents saw his ghost there.â Mr. Nicosia said that the records show Mr. Kerry resigned from the group on the third day of the meeting, following discussion of the assassination plan and an argument between Mr. Kerry and another VVAW national coordinator, Al Hubbard.
Trying to have his cake and eat it too.
Now there is a understatement. Mr. Nicosia repeatedly stressed that he was not calling Mr. Kerry a liar and said he has no animus towards the senator. The historian said he sent copies of some of the documents to the Kerry campaign yesterday morning on his own initiative. âI think Senator Kerry better get his story straight on this,âMr. Nicosia said. Why start now? âIâm a Kerry supporter. I honor the guy,â Mr.Nicosia said. He noted that Mr. Kerry threw a book party for âHome at Warâ at the Hart Senate Office Building. The senator also wrote a positive blurb for the bookâs dust jacket. The book does not mention Mr. Kerryâs presence at the Kansas City meeting. Mr. Nicosia said he did not have the FBI files as he was writing the manuscript. Other accounts led him to think that Mr. Kerry had quit the group at a July meeting in St. Louis. Mr. Nicosia also provided the Sun with minutes of the meeting that he obtained from the Wisconsin state archives, which hold most of VVAWâs papers. The minutes, prepared at the groupâs national office in New York, recount the actions taken by VVAWâs âemergency steering committeeâ during the four-day meeting, which ran from November 12 to 15, 1971. The minutes indicate that at the end of the day on Saturday, November 13, discussion turned to ânational actions and other things.â The meeting is reported to have adjourned at 10 p.m. and resumed at 11 a.m. Sunday. The document goes on to say that the group passed a motion to hold a ânational action⊠in 3 to 5 different sites.â The next entry in the minutes is, âJohn Kerry, Scott Moore, Mike Oliver and Skip Roberts resigned as national coordinators.â A later entry indicates that it was decided that the resignations and the decision on the ânational actionâ should be reflected in all the groupâs papers. According to Mr. Nicosia, the FBI documents and other records do not include any direct reference to the assassination plot. However, Mr. Nicosia said some informants who attended the Kansas City meeting warned the FBI of a âdrastic move toward more violent actions.â Was one of them John Kerry? No? Guess he didn't think killing senators was important. Now, he is one. A VVAW chapter newsletter obtained by the Sun reports that after âmuch argumentâ the Kansas City meeting went into closed session âfor various opaque reasons of security and expediency in order to discuss the national Christmas action.â The newsletter also notes the resignation of Mr. Kerry and the other three leaders. It cites âpersonality conflicts and differences in political philosophiesâ as the main reasons for the resignations. A group of VVAW members seized the Statue of Liberty on behalf of the group on December 27, 1971. Itâs unclear whether that action was approved at the Kansas City meeting in November. The three other men who appear to have resigned along with Mr. Kerry did not respond to requests for comment for this story. No doubt on the advice of their lawyers. Mr. Moore did not reply to an e-mail and messages left at his home. Mr. Roberts is now the legislative director for the Service Employees International Union, which is supporting Mr. Kerryâs presidential bid. Tap, tap, nope. Reached at his union office Wednesday, Mr. Roberts said he would call back but did not. Efforts to locate Mr. Oliver were unsuccessful. Earlier in the week, some aides to Mr. Kerry suggested that because he appeared on a PBS âFiring Lineâ broadcast with William F. Buckley on November 14, 1971, Mr. Kerry could not have attended the Kansas City gathering. But that contention also disintegrated yesterday on closer examination. Don't you hate it when the facts get in the way of a alibi? Tapes of the âFiring Lineâ television program are housed at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. An archivist there, Carol Leadenham, told the Sun that Mr. Kerry and Mr. Buckley taped a program on November 2, 1971. No air date was noted, but Ms. Leadenham said it is likely that it aired about two weeks later. âThatâs about the usual time between the taping and the air date,â she said. It ain't live, it's Memorex.
John Kerry, this is your life. | |||||||
Posted by:Steve |
#11 Yes you are right - it would be the ultimate waffle wouldn't it? But he did continue to support the group even after he resigned the leadership. |
Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-3-23 12:00:51 AM |
#10 But why then is he denying it now - 33-odd years later? You would think that revealing it now would show him to be Hero. It would also be the ultimate waffle. Not even Benedict Arnold backstabbed both sides during the Revolution. |
Posted by: Darth VAda 2004-3-22 11:26:17 PM |
#9 You would think that revealing it now would show him to be Hero. But what would it do to his standing with the Democrat base? |
Posted by: Pappy 2004-3-22 10:19:31 PM |
#8 SW - He could have been. But why then is he denying it now - 33-odd years later? You would think that revealing it now would show him to be Hero. And he did continue to support the group and would 'speak for them'.... |
Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-3-22 7:46:06 PM |
#7 SW is possibly right! another example of being on both sides of every issue! |
Posted by: Frank G 2004-3-22 6:54:53 PM |
#6 So this will be the lead story - above the fold - in the NYT, WaPo, LAT, etc., right? Also CNN and all the networks? They'll rag on it for weeks, right? No? Tap-tap. Nope, surprise meter didn't budge. #5 Steve White: You're cute when you're trying to defend Kerry with your "what-if." Naive, but cute. :-p |
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2004-3-22 5:35:45 PM |
#5 What if John Kerry was one of the informants? I'm just asking, but it would explain a) why Kerry didn't call the FBI (they were already in), b) why he resigned (cover close to being blown, perhaps) c) why he's waffled and dissembled about this all these years (don't want to be the stoolie). |
Posted by: Steve White 2004-3-22 5:25:58 PM |
#4 Let me get this right. John F Kerry attended a meeting where the assination of U.S. Senators were discussed and, while he did not support it, did not report it to the authorities and continued to support the group? And the media is not picking this up? But they go into great detail (over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over.. you get the idea) again about Bushs attendence at National Guard in Alabama? Is there something wrong here? Anyone? Hello? |
Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-3-22 4:38:58 PM |
#3 The "I can't remember" defense. Interesting how some folks can't remember a thing about an event or era when put on the spot, but can write and publish a 300 page book covering the same subject. |
Posted by: GK 2004-3-22 4:30:40 PM |
#2 He'd better arrange for "I don't recall" lessons from the Hilldabeast |
Posted by: Frank G 2004-3-22 4:11:11 PM |
#1 hope this one gets out! Could be the end of Kerry if enough fuss is kicked up about this,Should he not be booted from congress for this crime too |
Posted by: Shep UK 2004-3-22 3:29:25 PM |