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Politics : Politics & Broadcast News Media - Nightly -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: greenspirit who wrote (108)	12/1/1999 6:47:00 AM
From: jimpit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 165

NewsMax.com newsmax.com With Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff For the story behind the story... Wednesday December 1, 2:20 AM Did the Press Spike Story of Gore's Vietnam 'Bodyguard'? Did Newsweek and other news outlets spike reports that Al Gore had a battlefield bodyguard in Vietnam? That's the question being asked as onetime Gore "security escort" H. Alan Leo took his story to the airwaves Tuesday night. Appearing on Fox News Channel's "Hannity and Colmes", Leo revealed that he was interviewed about his Gore connection by Newsweek's Bill Turque "about a year ago this time." (Turque was researching a Gore book.) On Monday, Leo told NewsMax.com that he'd spoken to "a dozen reporters" in the last 12 months, all of whom were looking into Gore's stint in Vietnam. But before NewsMax.com interviewed him last Friday, Leo's comments had appeared in just one publication -- and that was only six weeks ago. In a front page story that ran on Oct. 15, The Los Angeles Times became the first outlet to go public with news that Leo had been assigned to be Gore's Vietnam bodyguard. But even then, the story of Gore's favored wartime treatment went nowhere. When first questioned by NewsMax.com last week about the bodyguard report, Alan Leo said that he thought "too much is being made over this story." Too much? Leo was apparently unaware that most of what he had told reporters over the past year had yet to see the light of day. Finally, on Monday Newsweek reported on Turque's interviews with Leo and others who spent time with Gore in Vietnam. Evidently Turque's book won't be available for some time. But with Leo spilling the beans, first to NewsMax.com and now to Fox News, the horse was rapidly leaving the barn. Fox News Channel's Hannity commented on the timing of the information flow towards the end of Leo's network television debut: "Well, that raises questions in my mind. Newsweek, which spiked the Monica Lewinsky story, only to be broken by Drudge; why they sat on this for a year while questions about George W. Bush were being raised." The reserved Vietnam veteran has agreed to another appearance on Hannity's WABC New York radio show. Stay tuned. newsmax.com