Or is this a attempt to sabatoge Kerrys attempt to run for President in 04'.

Since this started in NY, wanna bet Hillery is behind this?

Kerrey's SEAL Team Issues Joint Denial

By RICHARD PYLE
.c The Associated Press
 
NEW YORK (April 29) - Five members of Bob Kerrey's Navy SEAL team joined him Saturday in denying that they wantonly killed Vietnamese civilians during a wartime raid.

``No order was given or received to execute innocent women, old men and children as has been described by some,'' said a statement signed by Kerrey and five SEAL mates published in Sunday's Washington Post. ``We took fire and we returned fire. Our actions were in response to a dangerous situation that we know for certain could have resulted in our deaths.''

In a telephone interview Saturday with The Associated Press, Kerrey said it reflects the position of him and the five others that there is no truth to the allegations that they gunned down civilians or killed them with knives.

The statement was signed by Kerrey and former SEALs Rick Knepper, Mike Ambrose, Lloyd Schrier, Gene Peterson and William H. Tucker III. The other five had not spoken publicly on the issue before Saturday.

The seventh member of the unit known as Delta team, Gerhard Klann, claims in interviews published in Sunday's New York Times Magazine and to be broadcast on CBS's ''60 Minutes II'' on Tuesday that civilians were herded into a group and killed.

``One of the men in our squad remembers that we rounded up women and children and shot them at point-blank range in order to cover our extraction,'' the SEAL team members' statement said. ``That simply is not true.''

Kerrey has said he does not know Klann's ``motivation'' for making the charge, but he insists that the former colleagues remain on good terms.

The former Nebraska senator, meanwhile, accused The New York Times and CBS of ``collaborating'' in a propaganda campaign to discredit Americans in the war.

``It's disgraceful,'' Kerrey told the AP. ``The Vietnamese government likes to routinely say how terrible Americans were. The Times and CBS are now collaborating in that effort.''

He continued: ``What happened that night is bad enough. ... It is a disgrace that just brings back the memory of the war.''

``I think he knows better,'' said Joseph Lelyveld, executive editor of the Times, when asked for comment on Kerrey's statement about alleged collaboration with the Vietnamese government.

``We stand by our story 100 percent, and Mr. Kerrey will reveal more about what happened that night than he has thus far this Tuesday night on '60 Minutes II','' CBS spokesman Kevin Tedesco said.

Kerrey, in speaking publicly last week about the raid, said that about 13 civilians were killed ``by mistake'' after his SEAL team was fired on and returned fire during a nighttime raid to capture or kill Viet Cong officials believed to be meeting in Thanh Phong on Feb. 25, 1969.

Kerrey was awarded the Bronze Star for leading the Thanh Phong raid and later received the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military commendation, for an unrelated action in Vietnam.

The declaration of solidarity among SEAL team members came as a second witness in Vietnam told the AP the commando team had intentionally killed civilians during the attack.

Two Vietnamese women told reporters Saturday that they witnessed the killings in Thanh Phong, and their accounts closely echo Klann's account.

Bui Thi Luom, 44, said that women and children were rounded up and shot and that about 20 died. She recalled being told that one girl was ``disemboweled,'' although she did not see it.

Pham Thi Lanh, 62, elaborated on her earlier account to CBS, describing how the intruders killed an elderly couple and their three grandchildren with knives. In her latest account, Lanh said the grandparents were decapitated.

Kerrey denied the Vietnamese women's allegations in the AP interview.

``They (the SEALs) received fire, and on returning fire, some innocent civilians were killed,'' he said. ``Not once was an order given to round people up and execute them. They didn't disembowel anyone, and they didn't cut off heads.''

Kerrey also said Lanh's assertion that the raiders wore ``helmets'' was untrue, and showed the ``lack of credibility'' in her statement.

AP-NY-04-29-01 0005EDT

Copyright 2001 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.  All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

Now, Kerry is anti-gun so I would never vote for him.  But still he is a combat veteran and a Medal of Honor winner, so the way the media is treating him is, in my opinion, total bullshit.

To answer the title question:  Yes, of course.

Norm

anti gun, anti constitution, just another
lying liberal. And that goes for mccain as well.