<font color=blue>"So, OK, I read the testimony and, if Kerry "called all of us war criminals," it sure wasn't in that venue. If you come across it somewhere, I'd appreciate your pointing it out to me."<font color=black>
......In an interview Tuesday on CNN's "Wolf Blitzer Reports," <font size=4>O'Neill said allegations about atrocities made by Kerry after his return render him "unfit" to be president.
"His allegations that people committed war crimes in that unit, and throughout Vietnam, were lies. He knew they were lies when he said them, and they were very damaging lies,"<font size=3> said O'Neill, adding that other former sailors from the same unit also plan to come forward to take on Kerry, whose Vietnam service has figured prominently in his campaign for the White House.
Message 20046870
.......Russert played a tape in which Kerry made similar
statements on Meet the Press that year. <font size=4>"There are all
kinds of atrocities," Kerry said on the tape, "and I would
have to say that, yes, yes, I committed the same kind of
atrocities as thousands of other soldiers have committed<font size=3>
in that I took part in shootings in free-fire zones. I
conducted harassment and interdiction fire. I used 50-
caliber machine guns which we were granted and ordered to
use, which were our only weapon against people. I took
part in search-and-destroy missions, in the burning of
villages. All of this is contrary to the laws of warfare.
All of this is contrary to the Geneva Conventions and <font size=4>all
of this ordered as a matter of written established policy
by the government of the United States from the top down<font size=3>.
And I believe that the men who designed these . . . by the
letter of the law - the same letter of the law that tried
Lt. Calley - are war criminals."
Message 20065808
VIETNAM WAR VETERAN JOHN KERRY'S TESTIMONY BEFORE THE SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE, APRIL 22, 1971
.....WINTER SOLDIER INVESTIGATION
I would like to talk, representing all those veterans, and
say that several months ago in Detroit, we had an
investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged and
many very highly decorated veterans testified to <font size=4>war
crimes committed in Southeast Asia, not isolated incidents
but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full
awareness of officers at all levels of command....<font size=3>
They told the stories at times they had personally raped,
cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable
telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut
off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians,
razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan,
shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and
generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in
addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and
very particular ravaging which is done by the applied
bombing power of this country.
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