Wes Vernon, NewsMax.com
Wednesday, March 3, 2004

Gary Aldrich, who made waves during the Clinton years for writing the New York Times best seller "Unlimited Access," is leading a citizens' coalition in demanding that the presumptive Democrat nominee release his FBI dossier, protected under U.S. privacy laws.

Aldrich, president of the Patrick Henry Center for Individual Liberty, an organization that supports whistleblowers who expose government corruption, told NewsMax he thought it was critically important for Kerry to ask for the files release to clear the air about his anti-war activities in the early 1970s.

By releasing the file, Aldrich says, Kerry would put any rumors to rest.

Aldrich said his demand was reasonable. He noted that many Democrats demanded, without any proof of wrongdoing, that President Bush should release his military records because of baseless claims he was "AWOL" in the National Guard.

Aldrich, whose activities with the FBI gained a high profile in 1996 when he exposed the broken security system and lax attitude on security in the Clinton White House, will not say what he knows about FBI investigations of Kerry.

'Enlightening'

What he does say is this: “Yes, that’s precisely why it is my organization that can lead the campaign to get Senator Kerry to request these files. I think we’re going to find material in those files very interesting and enlightening, and bring some clarity to what is otherwise a very hazy explanation and description of Senator Kerry’s activity, both in Vietnam and in the U.S. after he returned.”

The Patrick Henry Center does not presume to know the truth about Kerry’s military service, Aldrich says, “nor is the center in receipt of any information about Senator Kerry’s FBI file, if indeed one exists.”

As to whether he has memory of any interest by the FBI in Kerry’s activities in those anti-war days, he is more circumspect. But this much he can say:

“It is well-established that Kerry was a key leader of the group known as Vietnam Veterans Against the War, or VVAW. It is also well-known that the FBI and other domestic intelligence agencies monitored activities of VVAW, and kept files about their leadership and members’ activities.”

Those files are not available to the public. Only the senator can authorize their release.

President Bush ordered the release of his Guard records once the Democrats decided to make an issue of them, possibly as a strategy to inoculate their candidate against any future questions about Kerry's own activities.

Now, says Aldrich, “Senator Kerry, the ball is in your court.”

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