The Truth About Ted Sampley, Creator of Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry
Subject: Ted Sampley & www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnkerry.com
The right wing is using Ted Sampley as a surrogate to attack John Kerry on Vietnam. Below is background information on Sampley that the right doesn't want you to know about.
The Sordid Life & Trials of Ted Sampley - Outrageous Claims, Money Making Schemes & Breaking the Law
Ted Sampley is head of the Vietnam Veterans Against Kerry and is responsible for the 1992 fake photo of John Kerry shooting an American MIA in Vietnam with the caption: Kerry eliminates another MIA from his discrepancy list. Sampley has a long history of working against both John Kerry & John McCain dating to the POW/MIA hearings. He even served jail time for starting a fight with John McCain's staff. Sampley was also given a restraining order.
Sampley has called John McCain the Manchurian Candidate and accused him of being brainwashed by the Vietnamese and being a KGB Spy. Additionally, McCain has pointed out that Sampley seems to exploit sensitive issues such as the POW/MIA hearings as a means of making money. McCains words were, "Sampley has a nose for publicity and knack for making money from invented controversies." On his current website, Sampley has another money making scheme selling bumper stickers and lapel pins that read Stop Hanoi John Kerry.
Sampley Under the Microscope
Sampley Said McCain Was Brainwashed by the Vietnamese & a KGB Spy
Sampley calls McCain the Manchurian Candidate, maintaining that the Vietnamese brainwashed McCain, then sent him home to do their bidding--which, to Sampley's way of thinking, explains why McCain was instrumental in the nation's normalization of relations with Vietnam. [Phoenix New Times (Arizona); 3/25/99]
Sampley Says McCain is Actually a KGB Spy
Ted Sampley, a veteran from North Carolina who runs a newsletter, accuses Mr McCain of betraying his country while a prisoner and being a KGB spy. He also made a more bizarre accusation: In the movie The Manchurian Candidate Laurence Harvey portrayed a former PoW from the Korean War whose brainwashing enabled his enemies to be able to manipulate his actions. To trigger him all they had to do was have him play solitaire, with the queen of diamonds being the trigger that made him theirs, body and soul. Mr Sampley went on to ask the senator: "Have the Vietnamese flipped you a queen of diamonds?" [The Independent, 2/17/00]
Sampley Started a Fight With McCain Staffer
In December came an ugly exchange between activist Ted Sampley and an aide to Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican. Mr. Sampley says he went to the senator's Capitol Hill office Dec. 18 to drop off copies of an article he had written. It described Mr. McCain as a brainwashed agent of the Soviet KGB spy agency. McCain staff members already had seen the article. Mark Salter, the senator's legislative assistant for foreign affairs, ordered Mr. Sampley out of the office. Although versions of the story vary somewhat, both Mr. Salter and Mr. Sampley agree that they went out in the hall together. Each says the other threw the first sucker punch, but both say there was a scuffle, and Mr. Salter got the worst of it. [Washington Times, 2/8/93]
Sampley Ordered to Serve Jail Time for McCain Altercation
[Sampley] spent two days in jail and was placed on probation for 180 days. He also was slapped with a restraining order requiring that he stay away from Mr. McCain and his staff. [Washington Times, 2/8/93]
McCain Says Sampley Has a Nose for Publicity and Knack for Making Money From Invented Controversies
"Ted Sampley, whose nose for publicity and knack for making money from invented controversies is colorfully detailed by Mrs. Keating, is the author of my own chapter in the POW conspiracy, in which I am exposed as a KGB-trained Manchurian Candidate. Mrs. Keating puzzles over the perverse pride Mr. Sampley takes in his work, which included torturing the family of an American POW in Iraq with fabricated details of his cruel death at the hands of an Iraqi mob. When the pilot was subsequently freed alive, Mr. Sampley dismissed his fraud as necessary to publicize the plight of POWs. Mr. Sampley excuses all his scams as necessary to advance a noble cause. Mrs. Keating reveals that his likely real motive is more mundane: money. She notes his earnings from his T-shirt concession located near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial were nearly $2 million over three years. He keeps his overhead costs down by not paying a dime to his employees." -John McCain [Washington Times, 12/10/94]
Republican Senator Called Sampley's Slur of McCain Disgusting
Sampley attacked McCain demanding, "Who do you really work for: Moscow or Hanoi?"
Senators John Kerry of Massachusetts and Bob Smith of New Hampshire, the committee chairman and vice chairman, came to McCain's defense on the Senate floor. "The smear was uncalled for; it is disgusting," said Smith. The senators said the episode may help convince the panel that some of the POW-MIA groups themselves need investigating and exposure as frauds. [Boston Globe, 2/29/92]
Sampley Has Longtime Hatred for Kerry & Vowed to Come After Him
Sampley Created Fake Photo of Kerry Shooting an American MIA. [Sampley's] publication ranges from hyperbolic to outrageous. The October/November edition from last year, for example, contains a composite picture purporting to show the Senate committee chairman, Democrat John Kerry of Massachusetts, shooting a man in the head. The caption reads: Kerry eliminates another MIA from his discrepancy list. [Washington Times, 2/8/93]
Sampley Vows to Come After Kerry "If Kerry wins the South Carolina primary on Tuesday, we'll be coming after him," said Sampley, a POW advocate who is organizing opponents to Kerry through a new website, Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry, and who was rebuked by Kerry a decade ago for alleging that Senator John McCain was brainwashed by Communists while a prisoner in Hanoi. "We will do what is politically necessary to stop John Kerry and draw attention to the hypocrisy of his campaign." [Boston Globe, 2/1/04]
Sampley is a Longtime Critic of Kerrys POW/MIA Committee
Sampley, who did two combat tours in Vietnam, has been a longtime critic of Kerry's protests and his work as co-chairman of the Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs. [Lowell Sun, 12/15/02]
Sampley Confronted Kerry With Wild Accusations During Lunch Break
Ted Sampley, a Vietnam veteran, confronted committee chairman Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., during the lunch break. Sampley took Kerry to task for saying there is no evidence any prisoners remain alive. "We're pretty much concerned that Senator Kerry doesn't want to believe Vietnam would act like this and continue to hold prisoners," he said. [AP, 9/23/92]
Kerry Had Capitol Police Remove Sampley From 1992 POW/MIA Hearings
Mrs. Stockdale also criticized opportunists outside the government who have played on the emotions of POW families for profit. The remarks brought Ted Sampley to his feet. Sampley, editor of U.S. Veteran, a paper devoted to Vietnam veteran and POW-MIA issues, shouted to Mrs. Stockdale, "Have you sat through these hearings? No. ...I'm not going to sit through this farce."
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the committee ordered a Capitol Police officer to escort Sampley from the room. [AP, 12/3/92]
Sampley's Questionable Claims & Business Practices
Sampley Paid By Secret Reagan Group to Infiltrate Vet Organization?
Mr. Sampley said an organization with close ties to the White House paid him $500 to infiltrate a group of veterans who ran a vigil site near the Vietnam memorial, and that the individual who paid him was reporting back to a staff member of the Reagan National Security Council. [Washington Times, 11/11/91]
Sampley Offered Anti-Communist Insurgents $5,000 to Destroy Government Building in Laos
Ted Sampley, head of Homecoming II, is a Vietnam Special Forces veteran from Fayetteville, N.C. Among other things, Sampley three years ago offered anticommunist insurgents $5,000 to destroy a government building in Laos, arguing that the only way to liberate American POW's from that country was to topple the communist regime. [Time Magazine, 1/13/92]
Statement of Senator John McCain
"I strongly caution reporters who may be contacted by or are interested in Mr. Ted Sampley and the various organizations he claims to represent, and his opinions on the subject of Senator Kerry, or any subject for that matter, to investigate thoroughly Mr. Sampley's background and history of spreading outrageous slander and other disreputable behavior before inadvertently lending him or his allegations any credibility."
"I am well familiar with Mr. Sampley, and I know him to be one of the most despicable people I have ever had the misfortune to encounter. I consider him a fraud who preys on the hopes of family members of missing servicemen for his own profit. He is dishonorable, an enemy of the truth, and despite his claims, he does not speak for or represent the views of all but a few veterans. The many veterans I know would think it a disgrace to be considered a comrade or supporter of Ted Sampley." |
