Longtime civil libertarian and columnist for the left-wing Village Voice, Nat Hentoff charged Sunday that the Kerry campaign is engaged in a transparent cover-up of the Massachusetts Democrat's war record and an attempt to muzzle freedom of speech.
In an interview with WABC Radio's Steve Malzberg, Hentoff noted that the Pentagon has responded to a Washington Post Freedom of Information Act request for Kerry's full military file by turning over just six pages of their 100-plus page Kerry dossier, with a spokesman explaining that Kerry himself wouldn't authorized the release of the full file.
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Kerry has also refused to turn over diaries that the candidate kept during his Vietnam service, with the campaign insisting that an exclusive agreement with Kerry biographer Douglas Brinkley for his 2003 book "Tour of Duty" prevents any further disclosure.
But Hentoff said he wasn't buying that excuse, telling Malzberg, "I have done biographies of John Cardinal O'Connor and A.J. Muste and I've never heard of that kind of agreement."
"The question is, what is Kerry trying to hide?" said the Village Voice writer. "He claims he's interested in the truth. If he's interested in the truth, then release the records."
Hentoff said he's astounded at the media's response to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, whose eyewitness accounts have catapulted the issue of Kerry's war record to the top of the campaign agenda.
"I can't recall ever seeing such distortion of the motivations and the witnessing of these more than 200 Vietnam veterans," he complained.
Of Kerry's efforts to muzzle the Swiftvets by threatening lawsuits against TV stations who carry their ads, Hentoff said, "This tells you something about how a President Kerry is going to handle dissent."
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