Text 887, 125 rader
Skriven 2004-08-07 08:03:39 av John Hull (1:379/1.99)
Ärende: Veteran Reaffirms Anti-Kerry Ad Support
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Here's the REAL truth about Mr. Elliott.



ELECTION 2004
Vet denies retraction of Kerry war criticism
Boston Globe story saying he backed off 'extremely inaccurate', 'highly
misleading'

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Posted: August 6, 2004
2:16 p.m. Eastern



© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com 

A Vietnam veteran who appears in a television ad critical of Sen. John Kerry
says a Boston Globe article asserting he retracted his criticism of the
presidential candidate's war service is "extremely inaccurate" and "highly
misleading." 

In a statement, Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth says "Captain Elliott
reaffirms his affidavit in support of that advertisement, and he reaffirms his
request that the ad be played." 

The Globe story by Michael Kranish said Elliott, in an interview yesterday,
backed off one of the key contentions of a book to be released next week by the
veterans group, "Unfit for Command." 

Elliott, according to Kranish, said he had made a "terrible mistake" in signing
an affidavit that suggests Kerry did not deserve the Silver Star. 

But the veterans group says the article is "particularly surprising given page
102 of Mr. Kranish's own book quoting John Kerry as acknowledging that he
killed a single, wounded, fleeing Viet Cong soldier whom he was afraid would
turn around." 

Kranish, who is covering the Kerry campaign, wrote the foreword to the official
Kerry-Edwards campaign book and is listed as the lead author, the Drudge Report
noted today. 

Telephoned for comment, Kranish declined to speak on the record with
WorldNetDaily but forwarded a statement from the Globe which said the paper
stands by the story. 

"The quotes attributed to Mr. Elliott were on the record and absolutely
accurate," said the statement by Globe Editor Martin Baron. 

Baron asserted it is "completely untrue" that Kranish "was ever contracted to
write for a Kerry campaign publication." 

The editor explained that "earlier this summer, Kranish worked with Public
Affairs, the publisher of the Boston Globe biography of Kerry, 'John Kerry: The
Complete Biography by the Boston Globe Reporters Who Know Him Best,' to write a
short introduction to a second project: an independent, unauthorized review of
publicly available documents dealing with the platform and policy statements of
Kerry and Edwards. " 

Baron said that when Public Affairs "subsequently struck an agreement with the
Kerry campaign to do an official campaign book, Kranish's relationship with the
project immediately ended." 

The swift-boats group says it has more than 250 members "who are revealing
first hand, eyewitness accounts of numerous incidents concerning John Kerry’s
military service record." 

"The organization will continue to discuss much of what John Kerry has reported
as fact concerning his four-month tour of duty in Vietnam," the statement said.


In the affadavit, given to the newspaper to back the group's contentions,
Elliott is quoted as saying that Kerry "lied about what occurred in Vietnam ...
for example, in connection with his Silver Star, I was never informed that he
had simply shot a wounded, fleeing Viet Cong in the back." 

The statement refers to a Feb. 28, 1969, incident in which Kerry won the Silver
Star after shooting a Viet Cong soldier who had been carrying a rocket launcher
and running toward a hut. Kerry's crewmates said in interviews last year they
thought the action was necessary and it was Elliott who recommended Kerry for
the Silver Star, the Globe reported. 

But some Kerry critics have questioned whether the soldier posed a danger to
the crew. 

The Globe quotes Elliott as saying yesterday, "I still don't think he shot the
guy in the back. It was a terrible mistake probably for me to sign the
affidavit with those words. I'm the one in trouble here." 

The book says "Elliott indicates that a Silver Star recommendation would not
have been made by him had he been aware of the actual facts." 

In the television ad, Elliott says, "John Kerry has not been honest about what
happened in Vietnam." 

As WorldNetDaily reported, lawyers for the Democratic National Committee and
Kerry's presidential campaign have faxed a letter to television station
managers warning them not to broadcast the ad. 

WTVG in Toledo, Ohio, dropped the ad today after the Kerry campaign used the
Globe story to convince the station's management the ad was false, the Drudge
Report said. 

The book also raises questions about the action of March 13, 1969, for which
Kerry was awarded a Bronze Star and his third Purple Heart. 

In the interview with the Globe, Elliott said that based on the affidavits of
the veterans on other boats, he now thinks his assessment that Kerry deserved
the Bronze Star and third Purple Heart may have been based on poor information.


"I simply have no reason for these guys to be lying, and if they are lying in
concert, it is one hell of a conspiracy," he told the paper. "So, on the basis
of all of the information that has come out, I have chosen to believe the other
men. I absolutely do not know first hand." 



John 

America:  First, Last, and Always!
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