From: rosaphilia@webtv.net   
      
   Swiftly Slanted, Part 4: No Questions AskedThe ConWeb lets obvious   
   errors in the latest Swifties' ad just slide right by unchallenged.   
   Plus: Is the Winter Soldier investigation discredited, or just the   
   ConWeb that declared without any evidence that it was?   
      
   By Terry Krepel   
   Posted 9/30/2004   
      
   Just how snuggled in bed are the ConWeb and Swift Boat Veterans for   
   Truth? The ConWeb will not point out obvious errors in the group's ads.   
      
   Case in point: the latest offering from the Kerry-bashing group,   
   alleging that John Kerry "secretly met with enemy leaders in Paris,"   
   then "accused American troops of committing war crimes on a daily   
   basis."   
   Related articles on ConWebWatch:   
      
   Swiftly Slanted   
   Swiftly Slanted, Part 2: Now They Tell Us   
   Swiftly Slanted, Part 3: Evolving to Half-Truths   
      
   A Forgery of Outrage   
      
   The problem is, both of those accusations are wrong. Yes, Kerry did go   
   to Paris and meet with Vietnamese leaders, but since he said he did that   
   during his 1971 public testimony before a Senate committee, it was   
   hardly a secret. And Kerry did not accuse American troops of "committing   
   war crimes on a daily basis;" he merely recounted during his Senate   
   testimony what soldiers had testified to during the Winter Soldier   
   investigation held earlier in 1971.   
      
   But you wouldn't know that from reading the ConWeb. WorldNetDaily   
   dutifully reported on the Swift Boat Vets' ad without question. A Sept.   
   22 article tries to obscure the fact that Kerry did no negotiating in   
   his meeting with Viet Cong leaders by stating that "in 1971, Kerry   
   called a press conference in Washington and urged President Nixon to   
   accept the seven-point surrender plan of Madame Nguyen Thi Binh, the   
   foreign minister of the Viet Cong's political entity.   
      
   " WND's source for this is, unsurprisingly, the Swifties' own book, the   
   factually challenged "Unfit for Command." (WND has never reported to its   
   readers the bigoted history of "Unfit for Command" co-author Jerome   
   Corsi.)   
      
   CNSNews.com was also uncritical of the ad, but its Sept. 22 story added   
   a new spin: a report of a second meeting between Kerry and " North   
   Vietnamese communists in Paris" in 1971, something that it had reported   
   on back in June. The source for this was a Los Angeles Times Magazine   
   article written in May by author Gerald Nicosia, citing newly released   
   FBI files.   
      
   But, according to Media Matters for America (full disclosure: my   
   employer), the only evidence for a second meeting in Paris is, as   
   Nicosia told FOX News Channel, a single newspaper clipping from the FBI   
   files in which Kerry mentioned during a speech about having "just   
   returned from Paris and a meeting with North Vietnamese."   
      
   It can be argued that he may have been referencing his trip the previous   
   year. And even if he wasn't, if there was indeed a second trip to Paris,   
   the fact that he was apparently discussing it in public speeches makes   
   it something other than the "secret" the Swifties claim it was.   
      
   CNS also ran an article back in May based on one man's claim that   
   Kerry's trip to Paris broke several U.S. laws. That man: Jerome "Jerry"   
   Corsi. Neither that article nor the September article on the Swifties'   
   ad that references the May article notes his connection with the Swift   
   Boat Vets or his history of bigotry; it merely refers to Corsi as an   
   "researcher and author."   
      
   NewsMax, surprisingly, didn't report on the Swift Boat Vets' new ad, but   
   an April 11 story pushes the line that Kerry's Paris meeting was   
   "secret," and that his discussion of it during his Senate testimony   
   occurred during "a little-noticed question and answer session."   
   * * *   
      
   It's an article of faith in the ConWeb: the 1971 Winter Soldier   
   investigation, which John Kerry cited in his Senate testimony as   
   evidence of atrocities committed in Vietnam, is discredited.   
      
   "More than a few Winter Soldier witnesses later turned out to be   
   complete impostors," claims a February NewsMax story.   
      
    Another February story at NewsMax states: " Later, some 'veterans' who   
   participated in Winter Soldier were exposed as impostors." Yet another   
   story states that "many of the accounts were later completely   
   discredited."   
      
   At CNSNews.com, Winter Soldier-bashing started early. A November 1998   
   "news analysis" from the Claremont Institute references "the   
   now-discredited 'Winter Soldier' investigation of 1970" that gets the   
   year it occurred wrong, as does a February 1999 opinion piece also   
   supplied by Claremont.   
      
   Closer to current events, an August commentary by Paul Weyrich claims:   
   "The only problem is that many who testified never served in Vietnam and   
   others who testified, while in Vietnam, were never near where they had   
   claimed they had committed the atrocities."   
      
   And a Sept. 10 article on a new anti-Kerry documentary claims that "The   
   new documentary also features clips of anti-war former Vietnam veterans   
   apparently making up and embellishing testimony." That documentary was   
   made by a man named Carlton Sherwood, last seen claiming that the Rev.   
   Sun Myung Moon is simply a victim of religious persecution.   
      
   At WorldNetDaily, an Aug. 26 story states that "some of those presenting   
   horror stories at the Jane Fonda-sponsored probe had misrepresented   
   themselves as Vietnam War vets – even using the names of other   
   veterans who did not attend the hearings. Several veterans provided   
   sworn affidavits that others spoke in their names."   
      
   The problem? The main evidence that the Winter Soldier investigation was   
   "discredited" is dubious at best. And the ConWeb offers virtually   
   nothing beyond the above excerpts to prove that it was.   
      
   The only place where there is any documentation whatsoever that anyone   
   who offered Winter Soldier testimony is in a 1978 book, "America in   
   Vietnam" by historian Guenter Lewy, which claims that a Naval   
   Investigative Service report into the Winter Soldier allegations had   
   discredited many of the witnesses and accounts, and in some cases   
   impostors had assumed the identities of real veterans who were not   
   present at the investigation.   
      
   Even WinterSoldier.com, the Free Republic-operated Kerry-bashing web   
   site, offers only the Lewy book as direct evidence that the Winter   
   Soldier investigation is discredited.   
      
   However, as Media Matters for America discovered, that Naval   
   Investigative Service report Lewy cites is nowhere to be found; Naval   
   Criminal Investigative Service public affairs specialist Paul O'Donnell   
   told (registration required) the Chicago Tribune: "We have not been able   
   to confirm the existence of this report, but it's also possible that   
   such records could have been destroyed or misplaced." And Lewy himself   
   admitted to The Baltimore Sun that "he does not recall if he saw a copy   
   of the naval investigative report or was briefed on its contents."   
      
   WinterSoldier.com also offers a sideways attempt to discredit the   
   investigation -- a long excerpt from a book by Kerry-basher B.G. Burkett   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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