XPost: alt.politics.media.latimes.bias, alt.politics.socialism.libertarian,   
   talk.politics.guns   
   XPost: mn.politics   
   From: 24hours@365.days   
      
   In article    
   "Trumpistan!"  wrote:   
   >   
   > BY THOMAS LIPSCOMB - Special to the Sun   
   > October 13, 2004   
   >   
   > An official Navy document on Senator Kerry's campaign Web site listed as   
   > Mr. Kerry's "Honorable Discharge from the Reserves" opens a door on a well   
   > kept secret about his military service.   
   >   
   > The document is a form cover letter in the name of the Carter   
   > administration's secretary of the Navy, W. Graham Claytor. It describes   
   > Mr. Kerry's discharge as being subsequent to the review of "a board of   
   > officers." This in it self is unusual. There is nothing about an ordinary   
   > honorable discharge action in the Navy that requires a review by a board   
   > of officers.   
   >   
   > According to the secretary of the Navy's document, the "authority of   
   > reference" this board was using in considering Mr. Kerry's record was   
   > "Title 10, U.S. Code Section 1162 and 1163. "This section refers to the   
   > grounds for involuntary separation from the service. What was being   
   > reviewed, then, was Mr. Kerry's involuntary separation from the service.   
   > And it couldn't have been an honorable discharge, or there would have been   
   > no point in any review at all. The review was likely held to improve Mr.   
   > Kerry's status of discharge from a less than honorable discharge to an   
   > honorable discharge.   
   >   
   > A Kerry campaign spokesman, David Wade, was asked whether Mr. Kerry had   
   > ever been a victim of an attempt to deny him an honorable discharge. There   
   > has been no response to that inquiry.   
   >   
   > The document is dated February 16, 1978. But Mr. Kerry's military   
   > commitment began with his six-year enlistment contract with the Navy on   
   > February 18, 1966. His commitment should have terminated in 1972. It is   
   > highly unlikely that either the man who at that time was a Vietnam   
   > Veterans Against the War leader, John Kerry, requested or the Navy   
   > accepted an additional six year reserve commitment. And the Claytor   
   > document indicates proceedings to reverse a less than honorable discharge   
   > that took place sometime prior to February 1978.   
   >   
   > The most routine time for Mr. Kerry's discharge would have been at the end   
   > of his six-year obligation, in 1972. But how was it most likely to have   
   > come about?   
   >   
   > NBC's release this March of some of the Nixon White House tapes about Mr.   
   > Kerry show a great deal of interest in Mr. Kerry by Nixon and his   
   > executive staff, including, perhaps most importantly, Nixon's special   
   > counsel, Charles Colson. In a meeting the day after Mr. Kerry's Senate   
   > testimony, April 23, 1971, Mr. Colson attacks Mr. Kerry as a "complete   
   > opportunist...We'll keep hitting him, Mr. President."   
   >   
   > Mr. Colson was still on the case two months later, according to a memo he   
   > wrote on June 15,1971, that was brought to the surface by the Houston   
   > Chronicle. "Let's destroy this young demagogue before he becomes another   
   > Ralph Nader." Nixon had been a naval officer in World War II. Mr. Colson   
   > was a former Marine captain. Mr. Colson had been prodded to find "dirt" on   
   > Mr. Kerry, but reported that he couldn't find any.   
   >   
   > The Nixon administration ran FBI surveillance on Mr. Kerry from September   
   > 1970 until August 1972. Finding grounds for an other than honorable   
   > discharge, however, for a leader of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War,   
   > given his numerous activities while still a reserve officer of the Navy,   
   > was easier than finding "dirt."   
   >   
   > For example, while America was still at war, Mr. Kerry had met with the   
   > North Vietnamese and Viet Cong delegation to the Paris Peace talks in May   
   > 1970 and then held a demonstration in July 1971 in Washington to try to   
   > get Congress to accept the enemy's seven point peace proposal without a   
   > single change. Woodrow Wilson threw Eugene Debs, a former presidential   
   > candidate, in prison just for demonstrating for peace negotiations with   
   > Germany during World War I. No court overturned his imprisonment. He had   
   > to receive a pardon from President Harding.   
   >   
   > Mr. Colson refused to answer any questions about his activities regarding   
   > Mr. Kerry during his time in the Nixon White House. The secretary of the   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)