A pretty sad day on the GDP board. A DU poster thinks Kerry lied about being in Cambodia:

[beachmom]

Edited post: someone claiming to be a Hillary supporter. Who knows if they really are.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5369739

Since I put this together I thought it should be in here, too:

Facts on Cambodia:

http://swiftvets.eriposte.com/kerrycambodia.htm

His only error was the timing -- January '69, not December '68. I trust Douglas Brinkley, who was straight that Kerry had placed himself in Cambodia the wrong month, but the fact remains he did go into Cambodia. The other fact is that many missions were happening in Cambodia at that time, and have been irrefutably documented in our history.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/08/13/wus13.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/08/13/ixworld.html

"On Christmas Eve he was near Cambodia; he was around 50 miles from the Cambodian border. There's no indictment of Kerry to be made, but he was mistaken about Christmas in Cambodia," said Douglas Brinkley, who has unique access to the candidate's wartime journals.

But Mr Brinkley rejected accusations that the senator had never been to Cambodia, insisting he was telling the truth about running undisclosed "black" missions there at the height of the war.

He said: "Kerry went into Cambodian waters three or four times in January and February 1969 on clandestine missions. He had a run dropping off US Navy Seals, Green Berets and CIA guys." The missions were not armed attacks on Cambodia, said Mr Brinkley, who did not include the clandestine missions in his wartime biography of Mr Kerry, Tour of Duty.

"He was a ferry master, a drop-off guy, but it was dangerous as hell. Kerry carries a hat he was given by one CIA operative. In a part of his journals which I didn't use he writes about discussions with CIA guys he was dropping off."

Kerry confirmed this on Meet the Press in January 2005:

MR. RUSSERT: See if you could clear up one issue that I think has been left over from the campaign. And that is Steve Gardner, who was a foregunner on your PCF-44 boat, cut a commercial for the Swift Boat Veterans and made a very specific charge. Let me just show that and you can come back and talk about it a little bit.

(Videotape, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ad):

MR. STEVE GARDNER: John Kerry claims that he spent Christmas in 1968 in Cambodia, and that is categorically a lie. Not in December, not in January, we were never in Cambodia on a secret mission ever.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT: Now, the New York Daily News editorial wrote an editorial, and it said this. "As for Kerry, he might ask why the Swifties' attacks have been effective. The answer is his propensity to exaggerate. ... It's looking more likely that he exaggerated, if not worse, when he claimed through the years that he was in Cambodia on Christmas Eve '68. He said the memory was `seared' into him, but it's now clear Kerry was elsewhere, at least at that time. He has yet to explain. Until he does, the Swifties will have a powerful weapon in their arsenal."

And they refer, Senator, to a speech on the floor in which you said that you were there, that the president of the United States was saying you were not there, that there were troops in Cambodia. You have the memory seared in you. In a letter to the Boston Herald, you remember spending Christmas Eve '68 five miles across the Cambodian border. You told The Washington Post you have a lucky hat given to you by a CIA guy "as we went in for a special mission to Cambodia." Were you in Cambodia Christmas Eve, 1968?

SEN. KERRY: We were right on the border, Tim. What I explained to people and I told this any number of times, did I go into Cambodia on a mission? Yes, I did go into Cambodia on a mission. Was it on that night? No, it was not on that night. But we were right on the Cambodian border that night. We were ambushed there, as a matter of fact. And that is a matter of record, and we went into the rec-- you know, it's part of the Navy records. It's been documented by the other guys who were on my boat. And Steve Gardner, frankly, doesn't know where we were. It wasn't his job, and, you know, he wasn't involved in that. But we did go five miles into Cambodia. It was on another day. I jumbled the two together, but we were five miles into Cambodia. We went up on a mission with CIA agents--I believe they were CIA agents--CIA Special Ops guys. I even have some photographs of it, and I can document it. And it has been documented.

MR. RUSSERT: You'll release those photographs?

SEN. KERRY: I think they were shown. I gave them to the campaign, but...

MR. RUSSERT: And you have a hat that the CIA agent gave you?

SEN. KERRY: I still have the hat that he gave me, and I hope the guy would come out of the woodwork and say, "I'm the guy who went up with John Kerry. We delivered weapons to the Khmer Rouge on the coastline of Cambodia." We went out of Ha Tien, which is right in Vietnam. We went north up into the border. And I have some photographs of that, and that's what we did. So, you know, the two were jumbled together, but we were on the Cambodian border on Christmas Eve, absolutely.

MR. RUSSERT: Nixon was president-elect, not president, at that particular time. He wasn't sworn in until...

SEN. KERRY: In 1968, he wasn't sworn in yet.

MR. RUSSERT: But he was president-elect, not president.

SEN. KERRY: That's correct.

MR. RUSSERT: Many people who've been criticizing you have said: Senator, if you would just do one thing and that is sign Form 180, which would allow historians and journalists complete access to all your military records. Thus far, you have gotten the records, released them through your campaign. They say you should not be the filter. Sign Form 180 and let the historians...

SEN. KERRY: I'd be happy to put the records out. We put all the records out that I had been sent by the military. Then at the last moment, they sent some more stuff, which had some things that weren't even relevant to the record. So when we get--I'm going to sit down with them and make sure that they are clear and I am clear as to what is in the record and what isn't in the record and we'll put it out. I have no problem with that.

MR. RUSSERT: Would you sign Form 180?

SEN. KERRY: But everything, Tim...

MR. RUSSERT: Would you sign Form 180?

SEN. KERRY: Yes, I will. But everything that we put in it, Tim--everything we put in--I mean, everything that was out was a full documentation of all of the medical records, all of the fitness reports. And I'd call on those who have challenged me, let's see their records. I want to see the records of each of those people who have put up a challenge, because some of them have some serious questions in them, and it hasn't been appropriate...

MR. RUSSERT: So they should sign Form 180s for themselves as well?

SEN. KERRY: You bet.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6886726/

So he was not lying about Cambodia. He didn't "misspeak"; he told the truth, even if he had the exact date wrong. Although at both times he was near the Cambodian border.

Pretty disgusting that I had to put this together to refute what a Democrat said on this board.

[karynnj]

1. This post and the other one slapping the DU people who

casually diminish Kerry's experiences were awesome. I hope it makes them at least think about it. (I find it amazing that they trivialize a 25 year old with everything to live for being wounded three times. I doubt they would want to experience it once.)

[ginnyinWI]

2. GDP has been a disaster zone this week.

All the crazies are coming out of the woodwork. Really.

[Inuca]

5. There were times in the past

when I wished that the "real world" out there were more like DU. How wrong I was :-(....

[Mass]

3. And another one posts the endorsement on Jane Fonda using the term

"Hanoi Jane" directly from TMZ in the title without even a regret for using it.

[karynnj]

4. Another attacks Obama for speaking of McCain's comment that we

could be in Iraq for 100 years. (Prosense hits that one very hard in a dueling thread.)

[beachmom]

6. I think we have a real live freeper, armed with a map.

But I don't know for sure. Anyway, did Kerry's crew members ever weigh in on January and February '69? This is getting ridiculous.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5369739&mesg_id=5372624

[Mass]

7. Unfortunately, no. This person is an old DUer, hating Kerry per some old posts.

He has been there since 2003.

[karynnj]

8. From memory, I remember that there was some discussion as

to whether anyone but Kerry would know the details of where they were going. I posted this:

"It could well have been better that they not know. Kerry would have likely been the one who read the map and told people where they were to go. From your map reading - the issue may have been those 5 miles. Kerry never said he went to Phonm Phen, he said they went into Cambodia. Five miles in is STILL breaking international laws.

In 2004, when the freepers were saying that NO swiftboats went into Cambodia, the Kerry team found audio on the Nixon tapes where John O'Neil spoke of going into Cambodia himself - with Nixon. Proving that 1) that swiftboats went there and 2) Nixon knew."

[JI7]

9. John O'Neill talked about being in Cambodia with Nixon also

there is video of it.

and for these assholes on DU , fuck them.

[JI7]

10. we defended Clinton against so much, and much of it true and his fault

such as the Lewinsky thing.

do other Democrats not deserve to be defened. . the Clintons didn't do anything on their own. the entire party defended them and we lost Congress also.

[karynnj]

11. EXACTLY

For me, it was also that I did not criticize them when I should have. This is something I never want to do again - because we need to demand from Democrats what we demand from Republicans.

But most of the people who bothered to answer were not these jerks.