ABOVE and BEYOND

The blogger (Jeff Harrell) and Gerry Kaplan went above and beyond the call of duty.

Type Assessment of the Questionable Memos

When Jonathan Klein (on FOX with Stephen Hayes) calls the BLOGGERS a bunch of men in pajamas, in the living room, he doesn’t have a clue, a hint, a whiff of the expertise available from the bloggers. And, when he thinks there are no “checks and balances,” he should be thinking of CNN, CBS, and, AL JAZEERA—who force-feed us through the “tube.”

Pay attention OLD MEDIA; or, you might have to move to OLD EUROPE. Jeff and Gerry have produced a far more credible piece of investigative journalism than I had seen from CBS--before I stopped watching them.

The latest is that “CBS stands by the Documents.” I’d rather not be Rather (at this moment); Rather may rather be Snodgrass, by the time this is finished.

The new “3 ‘R’s”: . . .ready Rather’s retirement!

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

Justice for ALL

To the Men and Women who Preserve, Protect, and Defend:
WE THANK YOU!

---

THE PRICE OF CHAINS

Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? [Patrick Henry]

WHY? (at the Mudvillegazzette)

If you haven’t read this one you missed a good one. Actually, not just good . . . . .great! "WHY?" is one of the best blog posts I’ve seen for a while.

(Where is the Pulitzer Prize Committee?—they’re probably hiding with the Nutzo-Nobel group!)

At Bandit’s Hideout forum:

Sevry wrote:

If Kerry did swing hard starboard as he says, then Rassman couldn't have been on the deck to starboard because he'd have been pressed up against the outside of the cabin walls. But if he were on the stern - off he goes to port.

I wrote:There may be more at work here than centrifugal force. A hard swing to starboard means the boat tilts severely. You have forward momentum, sharp swing, and tilt—probably before the centrifugal force is applied. If there is a correction (as described) in the other direction, he’s dumped….cookies, and all. I’m not sure Rassmann is as important, yet. He’s confused the issue about which boat, what happened; and, the thing we know about Rassmann is that he was picked up by Kerry. We know he fell off some boat, and that he was far enough away from the others that he wasn’t seen right away. He said he was the only one in the water. Thurlow and (at least) two of the PCF-6 crew were in the water, according to most reports.

Rassmann was not in a position to see much; doesn’t seem to know much. But, while we're on Rassmann, could he have mistaken ricocheting bullets for enemy fire?

Rassmann seems to be a distraction from the facts.

Good Topics

Antimedia has some good topics, today:

CBS News investigates Bush

Speaking of Kerry's medals

How long can old media ignore this?

KERRY RETURN 3/13

Beldar Info

There are still a few more issues here worth developing.
1. Kerry took off after the mine explosion under nearby PCF #3, sustaining 'withering fire' from both banks for ~5,000 meters. In my book, that's 3.2 miles and several minutes before they noticed either that the firing had stopped, NO ONE HAD FOLLOWED THEM, they were ordered back by radio and/or Rassmann was missing. So to run away and return to the scene, Kerry traversed nearly 7 miles!! Even at full throttle, that certainly would consume some time.

Using: DISTANCE / (divided by) rate (speed) = time

Covert: 5000 meters into 2.699475 nautical miles

Then: 2.699475 divided by 20 knots equals .134974 miles per hour or approx. 1/10 hr.

Multiply .134974 (hr) by 60 (in an hr) equals:

08.987424 minutes at 20 knots or approx. 16 minutes round trip

- - - -

06.48 minutes at 25 knots or approx. 13 minutes round trip
10.80 minutes at 15 knots or approx. 21 mintues round trip

Kerry’s boat would not have been back to the scene within 10 minutes [more than the best time (25 knots); and, could have been unable to navigate at 15 knots due to the damage (if the damage report was accurate) which would mean at least 21 minutes round trip.]

NEW ANALYSIS

There is an interesting analysis about the incident on February 18, 1969:

(…)No one in the media has even discussed this mission, but it's important to understand how Kerry manipulated reports to portray himself as hero. In the report for this day, he appropriated to himself action that actually happened to LTJG Hildreth. What is particularly appalling is that he hid injury reports for men on Hildreth's boat in order to make his version of the events of that day plausible.

Great Find, by Antimedia: See THIS IS FAR FROM OVER

SHOT on FEB. 27

JK Combat Reports

27 FEB 1969 Bay Hap River
On an evening patrol with two other swiftboats, PCFs 23 and 43, about 26 miles south of Ca Mu, the patrol took heavy fire, including five rockets. Three rockets narrowly missed Kerry's boat, and exploded on the opposite bank. Another rocket exploded near PCF 94, and the fifth exploded near PCF 23, wounding a crewmember on that boat. The boats suppressed the fire and withdrew. During the battle, a sailor on Kerry's boat, Crewmember/Trainee Michael J. Givens was shot in the upper right arm. Givens injuries were not serious and he was sent to the 79th field hospital in Can Tho.

Within the known data there is fact, obscured fact, jumbled fact, and deception. The data shifts and changes to be hardly recognizable. Alton, said to have been present after the 1/29/69 action, does not seem to be within the data presented; however, it is difficult to prove he was not there. Fred Short, said to have been Alton's replacement for the 2/28/69 action, is included within data. And then, we have the above information which describes Givens as a "Crewmember/Trainee" on Kerry's boat.

If Givens existed, and if the information is accurate, Givens may have been Alton's replacement, or Crewmember "X" was Alton's replacement and Givens replaced Crewmember "X." Because there do not seem to be any other injuries to Kerry's crew on the February 27 incident; and, because Short was a replacement on February 28, it appears that Short replaced Givens.

Also, there was a Givens listed at swiftboats.net within the miscellaneous category (where we find so many others who participated within the Kerry Records.) He is listed as EARL L. GIVENS, GMG3, Qui Nhon (10/68 - 9/69)

January - February 1969, Scenario #1:
Alton: Injured aboard PCF-94, January 29, 1969--replaced by--
Givens: Injured aboard PCF-94, February 27, 1969--replaced by--
Short: participated in the action aboard PCF-94, February 28, 1969

OR,

January - February 1969, Scenario #2:
Alton: Injured aboard PCF-94, January 29, 1969--replaced by--
Crewmember "X": injured or tranferred, was aboard PCF-94, replaced by--
Givens: Injured aboard PCF-94, February 27, 1969--replaced by--
Short: participated in the action aboard PCF-94, February 28, 1969

SITE CLEANING?

newsmax

Sunday, Sept. 5, 2004 1:22 p.m. EDT
Brinkley: Navy Probe Could Doom Kerry Campaign

Sen. John Kerry's campaign biographer Douglas Brinkley said Sunday that if an ongoing Navy investigation into Kerry's military decorations turns up evidence of "purposeful" deception, it could spell doom for the top Democrat's White House bid.

Praising reporter Thomas Lipscomb, who broke news of the Navy investigation on Friday, Brinkley told WABC Radio's Steve Malzberg, "Journalists are going to have to see whether there's a discrepancy on [the citations posted to Kerry's] Web site - whether there's something wrong that's said there or not."

Might make you wonder what will disappear from the site, now. Will there be some fall cleaning?

A SCENARIO

A 3/13/69 scenario: Kerry’s boat was close enough to PCF-3 that when the mine went off, blew 3-boat feet out of the water, the resulting force from 3-boat’s tons of gravitational return propelled a wall of water into 94-boat causing a violent lurch of Kerry’s boat, which he thought was a mine. This lurch tossed Rassmann into the water.

There was not a near-simultaneous indistinguishable mine hit on 94-boat. The 94-gunner would not have been firing prior to the mine explosion under 3-boat. There were seconds of firing before the gun jammed; there were seconds to realize another weapon was needed; a few seconds for Rassmann to grab the weapon and get onto the deck and get tossed off the boat. Those seconds were most likely the time it took for the wall of water to hit Kerry’s boat. (Even a fat man doing a cannonball off a diving board looks like a mine explosion. Envision it: tons of the 50-ft. fast boat hitting the water.)

Sequence: PCF-3 was first to feel the action, then came firing to suppress a perceived assault, a gun jammed on the bow of 94, followed by Rassmann’s taking a weapon toward the bow, the wall of water hits Kerry’s boat—sudden violent lurch, water all over the place, Rassmann is tossed off, PCF-94 tromps on the gas.