NY Times Claims Conspiracy in Swift Boat Vets' Anti-Kerry Ad
NewsMax.com
Friday, Aug. 20, 2004
In a front page report on Friday, the New York Times lends support to Sen. John Kerry's claim that the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVFT)are a front for the Bush-Cheney campaign.
According to the newspaper, "A series of interviews and a review of documents show a web of connections to the Bush family, high-profile Texas political figures, and President Bush's chief political aide, Karl Rove."
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The New York Times says the accounts given by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth "prove to be riddled with inconsistencies," and it then details those inconsistencies - basically dismissing the Swift Boat vets' charges against Kerry without pressing Kerry himself for answers.
The Times charges:
Many of the vets criticizing Kerry now have praised him in the past, calling him a "good man," his silver star action "an act of courage," and saying Kerry was "beyond reproach" and "among the finest of those Swift Boat drivers."
Bob Perry, top donor to Republicans in the state of Texas, has given $200,000 to SBVFT. Perry is a close friend of Bush adviser Karl Rove.
Several other Bush associates are affiliated with the SBVFT group, including Harlan Crow (trustee of Bush Library), Margaret Wilson (former Bush General Counsel) and Tex Lexar (ran as Lt. Gov. on ticket with Bush in 1994).
SBVFT investigators misled interviewees when researching Kerry Biographer Douglas Brinkley's book.
One of the authors of "Unfit for Command", Jerome Corsi, should be discredited because he has said anti-Catholic, anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic things, for which he has apologized, on a "right-wing" Website.
The Times says the SBVFT's argument "founders" because of Corsi and other contradictions, including a Dr. Letson's claim that he treated Kerry for his Purple Heart wound the SBVFT says was self-inflicted. The Times reports that the then-medic does not appear on Kerry's medical records.
SBVFT haven't been able to satisfy questions about their accusation regarding Kerry, so they are "focused primarily on the one allegation in the book that Mr. Kerry's campaign has not been able to put to rest: that he was not in Cambodia at Christmas in 1968, as he declared in a statement to the Senate in 1986," the Times writes.
The Swift Boat Veterans' Lonsdale responded to the Times by telling the Old Grey Lady, " Mr. Lonsdale explained it: "We won the battle. Kerry went home and lost the war for us."
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