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Kerry's 180

No, this is not a flashback. The guy continues to "serve" in public office and I continue to watch him. He was on Meet the Press on January 30th and Tim Russert asked him about his not signing Standard Form 180. If you will remember, I wrote about this here, here, here and here. He lied and said that he had personally released all his information but he never signed the Form 180 which would allow people to get the documents themselves. The Department of Defence said repeatedly that they had about 100 pages of documents that they could not release until Kerry signed the Form 180. The growing suspicion was that John Forbes Kerry received a less-than-honorable discharge from the Navy. This article sums it up nicely: bq. My suspicion along with a growing number of military personnel is that Kerry received an "other than honorable" discharge in the early 1970s as a consequence of his vehement anti-US, anti-military activities with the Vietnam Veterans Against the War and his potentially treasonous tête-à-têtes with North Vietnamese Communist officials in Paris. And this one is interesting too: bq. I [DONALD L. NELSON, CAPT, JAGC, USNR] was on active duty as a U.S. Navy lawyer when all of this was going on some 25 to 30 years ago, and so was Mark F. Sullivan, who at all relevant times was the personal lawyer to J. William Middendorf, then the Secretary of the Navy. We remember. bq. We are trying to break this absolutely true story nationwide, i.e., Fox News, C Span, and hopefully all the major networks. We are positive that John Kerry was one of those dishonorably dismissed from the Navy for collaborating with the Viet Cong, after he was released from active duty but still in the Navy, and for a totally unauthorized trip to Hanoi. He later got an “honorable” separation in 1978, some 12 years after joining the Navy, under President Carter’s “Amnesty Program” for draft dodgers, deserters, and other malcontents who fled to Canada and Holland, among other places, to avoid military service to our country. bq. This is why he has refused, and continues to refuse, to release all of his Navy records: they reflect that he was Dishonorably Dismissed from the United States Naval Service. If they do not (which they do), he would have released them to the public. Again, he has not done so, because he well knows that the truth would kill his challenge to President Bush. The emphasis is mine in both cases. These two comments go to show that there is credible evidence that Kerry was less than honorably discharged, got his record "sanitized" by Carter and will not allow the original discharge to become known to the general public as it would be toxic to his career... Here is the transcript of the Meet the Press interview where Tim Russert talks with John Kerry specifically about his signing the Form 180:

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.

So he will only sign his 180 after anyone who wants to see his records signs theirs? I will be surprised if he is in any kind of public office after his senatorial term runs out -- and that clock is ticking... Posted by DaveH at January 30, 2005 7:56 PM