Text 1852, 157 rader
Skriven 2004-09-08 10:41:00 av FRANK SCHEIDT (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av JOHN HULL
Ärende: Full Page Ad against Kerr
=================================
-=> Quoting John Hull to All <=-

 JH> The husband of Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen has taken out full page ads
 JH> in several military newspapers against Kerry.  Spends over $50 Grand of
 JH> his own money. 

 JH> MISSION: IMPLAUSIBLE
 JH> Ad warns young soldiers about Kerry
 JH> Vet tells of 'wound' from hearing of '71 testimony in hospital

 JH> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 JH> Posted: September 8, 2004
 JH> 1:00 a.m. Eastern


 JH> By Art Moore
 JH> © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com 

 JH> As a warning to young servicemen, a former Army Ranger in Vietnam and
 JH> Florida state senator purchased full-page ads in military newspapers
 JH> recounting how he learned of John Kerry's 1971 accusations of war
 JH> crimes as he lay severely wounded in a hospital. 

 JH> Dexter Lehtinen, a Miami attorney, told WorldNetDaily the ads are
 JH> entirely his own, though he consulted with his wife, Rep. Ileana
 JH> Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., and grown children before pouring more than
 JH> $50,000 of the family's money into spots in the Army, Air Force, Navy
 JH> and Marines Times last week. He also bought full pages in the Capitol
 JH> Hill newspaper Roll Call during the Democratic convention and The
 JH> Tennessean of Nashville last Wednesday when Kerry spoke to the American
 JH> Legion in that city.  

 JH> Lehtinen said he has no official connection to the Republican Party,
 JH> Bush-Cheney campaign or Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, but he is
 JH> passionate about ensuring young active-duty and recently retired
 JH> servicemen who know little about Kerry learn of the senator's anti-war
 JH> activities.  

 JH> "This is an audience that could be superficially misled by a simple
 JH> statement that John Kerry was a Vietnam veteran," said Lehtinen, a
 JH> former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida whose face
 JH> was blown open by shrapnel while leading a Special Forces mission into
 JH> Laos.  

 JH> Lehtinen said a friend who recently came back from Iraq and retired
 JH> after 30 years in Special Forces related that "all of these young kids
 JH> are proud of their service, of what they are doing, but when Kerry is
 JH> mentioned they say, 'Oh, well he fought in Vietnam. I like someone who
 JH> fought in Vietnam.'"  

 JH> "I thought that was a good audience to get the truth to," said
 JH> Lehtinen, "not so much changing their minds, but providing information
 JH> and preventing a mistake from happening – a 19-20 year old who might
 JH> believe he is supporting a pro-military candidate." 

 JH> The ad includes a photo of Kerry during his 1971 testimony alongside a
 JH> quote with his blanket indictment that American soldiers "raped, cut
 JH> off ears, cut off heads, cut off limbs, randomly shot at civilians,
 JH> razed villages in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan ... ." 

 JH> The text begins: 

 JH> In 1971, I awakened after three days of unconsciousness aboard a
 JH> hospital ship off the coast of Vietnam. I could not see, my jaws were
 JH> wired shut, and my left cheekbone was missing, a gaping hole in its
 JH> place.  Later, while still in that condition at St Albans Naval
 JH> Hospital, one of my earliest recollections was hearing of John Kerry's
 JH> testimony before Congress.  

 JH> I remember lying there, in disbelief, as I learned how Kerry told the
 JH> world that I served in an Army reminiscent of Genghis Khan's; that
 JH> officers like me routinely let their men plunder villages and rape
 JH> villagers at will; that "war crimes" committed in Vietnam by my fellow
 JH> soldiers "were not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a
 JH> day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of
 JH> command." 

 JH> Lehtinen then recalls how Kerry went to Paris to meet with North
 JH> Vietnamese enemy officials while U.S. soldiers still fought in the
 JH> field.  

 JH> "The pain and disbelief I felt listening to his words went deeper than
 JH> the pain I felt from the enemy fire which seriously wounded my face,"
 JH> he said.  
 JH> Though he still bears the scars, the physical wounds have healed, he
 JH> said, but "more than 30 years later, the wounds inflicted by John Kerry
 JH> continue to bring pain to scores of Vietnam veterans." 

 JH> "Those wounds – the bearing of false witness against me and a
 JH> generation of courageous young Americans who fought and died in Vietnam
 JH> – are much more serious than any wound warranting a Purple Heart," he
 JH> said. "Those wounds go to the heart and soul. Those wounds never go
 JH> away.  

 JH> He notes his son is a Marine Corps weapons officer flying the F/A 18
 JH> Hornet in "the same Marine Corps Kerry ridiculed with his 1971 book
 JH> cover showing protestors simulating the Iwo Jima Memorial, raising an
 JH> upside-down American flag." 

 JH> Kerry, Lehtinen charges, "shamelessly drapes himself in the imagery of
 JH> Vietnam, military service and the support of veteran's devoid of any
 JH> media scrutiny. Meanwhile, the criticism and disapproval of Kerry by
 JH> scores of veterans continues to fall on deaf ears. Worse yet, any
 JH> legitimate criticism of Kerry's post-war record is discredited as a
 JH> 'personal' attack or an attack against his service." 

 JH> He calls on Kerry to sign a waiver to release his military personnel
 JH> and medical records, Form 180. 

 JH> Lehtinen said he had to sign that form when he became a U.S. attorney.
 JH> 
 JH> "This is the portrait of a man who has failed to comes to terms with
 JH> his treacherous past," Lehtinen says in the ad, concluding, "I, Dexter
 JH> Lehtinen, paid for this ad personally, without any connection to other
 JH> individuals or groups, because I want the public to know what John
 JH> Kerry did to our Vietnam veterans." 

 JH> Lehtinen will speak Sunday at a rally at the U.S. Capitol in
 JH> Washington called "Kerry Lied While Good Men Died." 

 JH> Vietnam Vets for the Truth bills the event as a gathering of veterans
 JH> who "served honorably" in Southeast Asia. 

 JH> The theme of Lehtinen's newspaper ad is similar to a television spot
 JH> run by Swift Boat Veteran's for Truth, which features prisoners of war
 JH> who said their North Vietnamese captors piped in audio from Kerry's
 JH> 1971 Senate committee address to demoralized them. 

 JH> Jerome Corsi, co-author with John O'Neill of the group's best-seller,
 JH> "Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry,"
 JH> told WND he welcomes Lehtinen's testimony as another category of
 JH> servicemen, wounded vets, whose suffering was severely deepened by
 JH> Kerry's accusations and anti-war activities. 

 JH> "What strikes in these veterans' minds was that Kerry was a spokesman
 JH> for this group [Vietnam Veterans Against the War], giving voice to the
 JH> Vietnam veteran war myth," said Corsi, who pointed out the second half
 JH> of his book is devoted to Kerry's post-war activities. 

 JH> "He was clean shaven, spoke well, didn't come across as a wild hippy,
 JH> and the liberal press gravitated to him," Corsi said of Kerry. 

 JH> As WorldNetDaily reported, POWs telling of Kerry's impact will be
 JH> featured in a television documentary about to be released by a Vietnam
 JH> war veteran and award-winning reporter. 

Powerful stuff, John.  If I hadn't already intended voting 
against John Kerry, this certainly would influence me.  You can 
almost feel this guy's anguish as he hears Kerry's broad-brush 
smear of men still in Vietnam at the time of Kerry's Senate 
testimony.

... "ONE WAY ONLY":  Don't you *dare* try any other way!

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