Navy Contradicts Kerry on Release of Military Records

[fintstone]

Navy Contradicts Kerry on Release of Military Records
By Marc Morano
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
September 16, 2004

(CNSNews.com) - The U.S. Navy released documents Wednesday contradicting claims by Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry that all of his available military records have been released.

The Navy, responding to a Freedom of Information Act request from the legal watchdog group Judicial Watch, also referred interested parties to Kerry's campaign web site for government military documents.

Navy Personnel Command FOIA Officer Dave German wrote in an e-mail to Judicial Watch that the Navy "withheld thirty-one pages of documents from the responsive military personnel service records as we were not provided a release authorization."

A "release authorization" would have to come from Kerry filling out and signing a Standard Form 180, something he has yet to do. A Standard Form 180 would authorize the complete release of all his military records. Judicial Watch filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests in August to obtain Kerry's military records.

The official U.S. Navy response was received by Judicial Watch on Wednesday, the same day that Kerry told syndicated radio and MSNBC TV host Don Imus that "We've posted my military records that they sent to me, or were posted on my website. You can go to my website, and all my -- you know, the documents are there."

When Imus pressed Kerry as to whether all of his documents were in fact included on the campaign website, Kerry responded, "To the best of my knowledge. I think some of the medical stuff may still be out there. We're trying to get it.

"We released everything that they (the Navy) initially sent me," he added.

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said the Navy's correspondence confirms that Kerry has not been forthright in releasing his military files.

"It's written confirmation from the U.S. Navy that there are additional documents from Kerry's service record that have yet to be made publicly available," Fitton told CNSNews.com.

Fitton called the Kerry campaign's contention that all of the candidate's military files have been released, "wrong."

"They (the Kerry campaign) are either ignorant or misleading us. The simple solution is to authorize the release of all records related to his service," Fitton said.

German in a letter dated September 15, also referred Judicial Watch to Kerry's campaign website for more information on Kerry's military records.

"Numerous responsive U.S. Navy service record documents, as well as service record documents not subject to disclosure requirements under the FOIA, may be accessed at" the Kerry campaign's website applying to his military records, wrote German.

"Right now we are in the 'Alice in Wonderland' situation, where the U.S. Navy is telling us to go to a campaign Internet site to get government FOIA documents," Fitton said.

"I am not aware of any other instance where [a government agency] told us to go to a political website for documents," he added. "It's not a reliable repository of government documents."

In additional correspondence with Judicial Watch dated Sept. 15, the Navy stated that it did not have a copy of Kerry's Discharge Certificate (DD Form 256N), adding that the Navy did not keep files of the certificate in its records.

German wrote in a letter dated Sept. 15, "A copy of an honorable discharge certificate (DD256N) is not placed in the U.S. Navy Service record when issued."

Jerome Corsi, co-author of the best-selling book "Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry," told CNSNews.com the he was "surprised" the Navy did not have a copy of Kerry's discharge file.

"That means [Kerry's] got it," Corsi said. "It goes against his contention that he has released everything that is in his possession, because certainly that form is in his possession."

Corsi believes that the Navy's official response proves that "it's Kerry who is blocking the release of the [military] documents and nobody else."

"What's Senator Kerry got to hide?" Corsi asked. "By not releasing these files, he is creating the impression that there is something there he doesn't want anybody to see. What is it?"

Judicial Watch is also awaiting the U.S. Navy's response to its inquiry regarding Kerry's "Silver Star with combat V." The citation appears in Kerry's DD214 military form on his website, but according to military officials, no such medal exists.

"Kerry's record is incorrect. The Navy has never issued a 'combat V' to anyone for a Silver Star," said a Naval official to reporter Thomas Lipscomb in an article for the August 27th Chicago Sun Times.

According to the Sun Times article, "Naval regulations do not allow for the use of a 'combat V' for the Silver Star, the third-highest decoration the Navy awards. None of the other services has ever granted a Silver Star 'combat V,' either."

[speeder]

Are you on the GOP slime payroll, in charge of internet car boards?

Give it a rest, we've got a country to save. And the public has spoken, they overwhelmingly don't give a rat's ass about either of our character-challenged candidates pathetic Viet Nam-era history.

Even Bush himself says to lay off this stuff, is he winking to his minions (like you) when he says this?

[fintstone]

The Kerry camp attacks Bush's military record every day while refusing to disclose their candidate's. Liberals on this thread have posted that Kerry released all his records and would like to be shown that he hadn't. Consider yourself shown.

[fintstone]

More importantly to voters though, this article shows, once again, a blatant lack of character and honesty that goes far beyond his military record.

[island911]

Originally posted by speeder
. . .Give it a rest, we've got a country to save. And the public has spoken, they overwhelmingly don't give a rat's ass about either of our character-challenged candidates pathetic Viet Nam-era history.. .

true, folks don't give a rat's ass about pathetic Viet Nam-era history. BUT, what they may care about is a the presidetial nominee (and minions like Ra^ther) who continues to push, push and PUSH stuuupid LIES about that era.

So I guess that I understand why you want this all to stop.

Kerry is so pathetic, that, as politicians go, he makes Dan Quale look like a super-genius.

Man, if I were a Dem, I would be pleading 'PLEASE please PLEASE make it stop.

[cegerer]

Here's a quick quiz: anybody recognize at least 1 person in this photo? That's easy, the real question is where is this photograph displayed?

[fintstone]

Just goes to show he is a war hero afterall.

[djmcmath]

Originally posted by fintstone
Just goes to show he is a war hero afterall.

Sure he's a war hero -- just not a US war hero.

[cegerer]

The photo (including another of Jane Fonda) is displayed in a room dedicated to war protestors who contributed to the Communist victory in the Vietnam War at the Vietnamese Communist War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). That's Do Muoi, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam partying with JFK ......

[ubiquity0]

Can you be more precise about the reason Kerry was in Vietnam when photographed 'partying'?

[fintstone]

I think that is the picture when he is celebrating selling out our MIAs....but the point is more that his picture is placed in honor as a hero of their war with the US.

[cegerer]

I think it is from around 1993 and JFK was there to discuss MIA/POWs. Nothing wrong with that. But the fact that he's celebrated in a Communist museum for helping North Vietnam win the war is more than disturbing for a possible US President.

[speeder]

I would vote for the guy who owns Motor Meister over dick&Bush, and just take my chances.

[fintstone]

Yep, Kerry led the little group that closed the door on the POW/MIA investigations (although there was tons of credible information that would indicate that there were many still in country after '73), so we could normalize relations with Vietnam. If any were still alive, that would have been the death sentence.

[cegerer]

"I would vote for the guy who owns Motor Meister over dick&Bush, and just take my chances.

I heard Mr. MM has 2 Purple Hearts (he was a helicopter mechanic in Vietnam and was self-inflicted with shrapnel from a couple of engine failures .... ) AND he skipped out on 6 months of National Guard duty to start a fledgling business later to be known as MotorMeister ......

[speeder]

Originally posted by fintstone
Yep, Kerry led the little group that closed the door on the POW/MIA investigations (although there was tons of credible information that would indicate that there were many still in country after '73), so we could normalize relations with Vietnam. If any were still alive, that would have been the death sentence.

I have sad news for you, there never were any "MIA"s. They are all dead, KIAs. What do you think, that someone is keeping them in their basement for 35 years??

Like I said, pufterville is where you live.

[speeder]

And that is not meant to be insensitive to their memories, just cold, hard fact. Unless you get your history lessons from Chuck Norris movies, this should be pretty self-evident.

[fintstone]

Lots of credible witnesses to POWs after all were supposedly returned...maybe they were killed soon afterward (since they didn't need them due to our Kerry led "surrender")..maybe not....Either way, they should have been made to account for them and return the bodies. Thousands of patriots are holding POW/MIA vigils as we speak....out here in pufterville (or the other 48 states)

[fintstone]

Originally posted by speeder
I have sad news for you, there never were any "MIA"s. They are all dead, KIAs. What do you think, that someone is keeping them in their basement for 35 years??

Like I said, pufterville is where you live.

And that is not meant to be insensitive to their memories, just cold, hard fact. Unless you get your history lessons from Chuck Norris movies, this should be pretty self-evident.

Washingtonpost.com
September 23, 2004
U.S. Wants Broader Search For Missing POWs
By Vladimir Isachenkov, Associated Press
MOSCOW - The American co-chair of a U.S.-Russian commission working to determine the fate of missing servicemen said that a more extensive search through Russian government archives is needed to determine if any American prisoners from the Korean and Vietnam wars were taken to the Soviet Union.

Jerry D. Jennings, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense in charge of the worldwide search for missing American servicemen, praised Russia's contribution to the painstaking effort to determine the fate of American servicemen missing from World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Cold War. None have been found alive.

But a key question has remained unanswered since the Joint Commission on POW/MIAs was set up in 1992: Were any American prisoners from the Korean and Vietnam wars taken to the Soviet Union?

"I think if there were high-value prisoners, they would have taken them out" to the Soviet Union, said Jennings, who served as a CIA intelligence officer in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam war. "There have been clues, the problem is there is no hard evidence."

A hint emerged when researchers found a brief memoir written by the late Russian military historian and the commission's co-chair, Dmitry Volkogonov, shortly before his death in 1995, in which he said he had discovered in Russian archives a Vietnam-era document assigning the KGB the task of "delivering knowledgeable Americans to the USSR for intelligence purposes."

Russian officials said there was no such directive and that they are convinced such transfers did not take place.
If such transfers occurred, relevant documents would likely reside in KGB archives, which unlike some of the Russian Defense Ministry's files, remain classified and off-limits to U.S. researchers, Jennings said in an interview.

"It's likely that the answers are in the KGB files, it's likely that they would hold these special prisoners if they were brought in the country," Jennings told The Associated Press.

With Russian officials stonewalling U.S. requests for access to KGB archives, a possible solution could be engaging retired Russian officers to rummage through the sensitive files on behalf of U.S. officials, Jennings said.

A similar approach had been negotiated with Vietnam where retired senior intelligence officers were recruited to search through classified files for clues to the fate of missing American servicemen, Jennings said.

He said that he got assurances from senior Russian officials that the Kremlin would continue providing strong support to the POW/MIAs panel despite a recent government reshuffle that left the status of its Russian part uncertain.

The Russian government has allowed the commission's researchers to review thousands of pages of documents from the Russian Defense Ministry's Central Archives relating to U.S. combat losses in Korea. The search helped clarify the fate of 264 Americans who went missing from the Korean war.

The Russians have also provided extracts from classified documents relating to the downing of U.S. aircraft in Vietnam and helped find remains or determine the fate of American airmen whose planes were shot down on spy missions over the former Soviet Union during the Cold War.

The United States, in turn, has given Russia archival documents shedding light on the fates of about 450,000 Soviet displaced persons from World War II and 163 Soviet soldiers who went missing during the war in Afghanistan. It has also provided information on many Russians missing during the Cold War.

"This is a very sensitive, very important issue to the veterans on both sides and to the families of the missing on both sides," Jennings said of the commission's work.

[djmcmath]

The reason we hunt for bodies of POW/MIA people is a lot deeper than someone who's never served is liable to understand. It's the same reason the Navy Seals believe in never leaving a man behind. It's not entirely unlike the reason that those of us in the incomprehensible warrior classes of this society believe in military honors at funerals. It's closely related to those worthless pieces of cloth we wear on our chests, alongside shiny six-dollar bits of cast metal.

We do this thing not for the money, or for the fame, or the hordes of screaming women waiting eagerly at home for my return. The money's mediocre, the fame is as much negative (thanks, Wash.Post et al) as it is positive, and the women are nasty. It's about honor, courage, and committment. It's about having ideals, about standing up for each other in the interest of the common good. It's about sacrificing all that we have for people like you, who would just as soon see our memory forgotten and dishonored. It's about protecting your right to protest the work that we do, or to protest the funding that makes our work and therefore your protest possible, or to elect a president who pressed the effort to forget those who died in the service of their country.

(sigh) But like I said, if you're not a warrior, this is probably all lost on you. I can hardly wait to go back to sea, where I can pretend that the people who's freedom I'm defending appreciate the thing I'm doing, and will afford me some respect when I'm dead.

Dan