We will hear this claim a lot from our liberal friends. Best we get the answer down. Jon Henke at Q&O blog.
Factchecking Factcheck.org...again
Posted by Jon Henke
Factcheck.org has released an analysis of the latest SwiftVets ad, and it's....er, incomplete.
"Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" announced a second anti-Kerry ad Aug. 20, using Kerry's own words against him. It features the 27-year-old Kerry in 1971 telling the Senate Foreign Relations Committee stories about American troops cutting off heads and ears, razing villages "in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan" and committing "crimes . . . on a day-to-day basis."
The Kerry campaign called it a smear and said his words were "edited" out of context. The ad does indeed fail to mention that Kerry was quoting stories he had heard from others at an anti-war event in Detroit, and not claiming first-hand knowledge. But Kerry passed them on as true stories.
It's true, as far as it goes--in his 71 testimony, Kerry was simply passing on hearsay--but this analysis doesn't go far enough. From the commercial transcript, here are the claims Kerry made....
John Kerry: “They had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads. . .”
John Kerry: “. . . randomly shot at civilians. . .”
John Kerry: “. . . cut off limbs, blown up bodies. . .”
John Kerry: “. . . razed villages in a fashion reminiscent of Ghengis Khan. . .”
John Kerry: “. . . crimes committed on a day to day basis. . . ”
John Kerry: “. . . ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam.”
In Factcheck.org's defense....yes, in his 71 testimony, he was simply passing along stories he'd heard. At least, that is what he claimed during that testimony.
But FactCheck.org claims he "was not claiming to have witnessed those atrocities personally", and that's not entirely true.
In his Congressional testimony Kerry did not claim to have witnessed them personally, but he did claim to have witnessed and participated in similar "atrocities". From an April 18 appearance on Meet the Press....
"I committed the same kinds of atrocities as thousands of others in that I shot in free fire zones, used harassment and interdiction fire, joined in search and destroy missions, and burned villages. All of these acts were established policies from the top down, and the men who ordered this are war criminals."
Note that John Kerry seems to believe that the men who ordered this are "war criminals", but he--apparently--claims the "I was just following orders" defense. Note, too, that John Kerry was an officer and it was his duty to know and abide by the Geneva Convention....even to refuse unlawful orders.
Oddly, Mr Kerry admitted participating in what he terms "war crimes" prior to appearing before the Senate.....but he did not admit to his own participation in testimony before the Senate, claiming he was just passing along the testimony of others.
He also admitted to participating in those actions on the Dick Cavett show, though he quickly pointed out that they weren't trying to, you know, turn themselves in or anything....
"I did take part in free-fire zones, I did take part in harassment and interdiction fire, I did take part in search-and-destroy missions in which the houses of noncombatants were burned to the ground. And all of these acts, I find out later on, are contrary to the Hague and Geneva conventions and to the laws of warfare. So in that sense, anybody who took part in those, if you carry out the application of the Nuremberg Principles, is in fact guilty. But we are not trying to find war criminals. That is not our purpose. It never has been."
Let's review:
FactCheck.org claims the SwiftVets ad is misleading, because "Kerry was quoting stories he had heard from others" rather than "claiming first-hand knowledge".
However, of the 6 Kerry statements in the Swift Vets ad, Kerry has claimed firsthand knowledge--even participation--in 3 of them (shooting at civilians, razed villages, and ravaged the countryside), and only claims to have not participated in two of the allegations (those dealing with torture, dismemberment).
FactCheck.org has a good point--one I've made here--that some atrocities similar to what Kerry described did occur. But FactCheck.org fails miserably in claiming that Kerry "was not claiming to have witnessed those atrocities personally".
In addition to the hearsay of the Winter Soldier "investigation", Kerry very clearly did claim to be a witness and an active participant in what he termed "atrocities".
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