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It seems Sen. John Forbes
The lack of any substantive new material about Kerry’s military career in the documents raises the question of why Kerry refused for so long to waive privacy restrictions.
You bet it does! But it also raises other questions. Little questions... like: Do we really have all the records?
It seems that the previously missing 100 pages are still missing, as PoliPundit points out in his post on the development. He also notes that Kerry indicated during his Meet the Press appearance on Jan. 30, 2005 that he was "sent some more stuff" "at the last moment" (presumably back before the election) that was never released, which he then promised to put out. Where is it, John? Also of note, there is no after-action report regarding Kerry's first Purple Heart. Hmmmm. Lorie Byrd wonders if that may be the part of the record that Mr. Kerry is afraid of.
Marc at USS Neverdock wants to know if Sen. Kerry signed a key portion of his Form 180:
Unless we know whether Kerry signed Part III of form 180, we won't know if he has released his "full record". If people can get a copy of Kerry's records, can they get a copy of the Form 180 to see if he signed part III?
The Navy said they had over 100 pages they could not release without Kerry's authorization. Did the Globe get that many and are they reporting on all of them?
Matt Margoils got John O'Neill of the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth to comment on the matter at Blogs for Bush:
We called for Kerry to execute a form which would permit anyone to examine his full and unexpulgated military records at the Navy Department and the National Personnel Records Center. Instead he executed a form permitting his hometown paper to obtain the records currently at the Navy Department. The Navy Department previously indicated its records did not include various materials. This is hardly what we called for....
Mr. O'Neill then goes on to list a number of unanswered questions left for us to ponder. Please read it.
The one interesting development as the result of the release of these latest records... Kerry's college grades have been made public, and they aren't all that good! Maybe those grades were what Kerry was afraid of? H-Bomb at Ankle Biting Pundits is all over it!
If the Senator wasn't afraid of any of these things, then why did it take so long to sign the damned form (signed on May 20 per the Boston Globe)? For an answer, let's go straight to the horse(face)'s mouth (from the Globe article):
''The call for me to sign a 180 form came from the same partisan operatives who were lying about my record on a daily basis on the Web and in the right-wing media. Even though the media was discrediting them, they continued to lie. I felt strongly that we shouldn't kowtow to them and their attempts to drag their lies out."
Pfffttt! Yeah, right! Kill the messenger!
Now how long, exactly, has it been that the Senator has avoided signing this thing?
Kerry's refusal to waive privacy restrictions dates back to at least May 2003, when the Globe asked in writing for Kerry to sign the Form 180.
Two years??? Amazing! Oh, and I guess that makes the Boston Globe a part of those "partisan operatives" "lying about (his) record on a daily basis...in the right-wing media." LOL!
Since PoliPundit has now removed his self-created Kerry SF-180 Clock from the top of his blog (today marks day 128 since the TV promise), I was going to follow suit and delete it from my sidebar. After reading all of this (Mr. O'Neill's comments in particular), I have decided that the clock remains for the time being.
It seems to me that quite a few questions remain unanswered from a man who still professes a desire to be elected Commander-in-Chief of the most powerful nation on Earth.
More:
Scott "The Big Trunk" Johnson and Paul "Deacon" Mirengoff at Power Line
"Captain Ed" Morrissey at Captain's Quarters
Tom Maguire at Just One Minute
Mark Coffey at Decision '08
Jay Tea at Wizbang
Kevin Aylward at Wizbang
Pat Curley at Brainster
Michelle Malkin
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UPDATE 6/8:
BREAKING NEWS: You must read the latest article on Kerry's SF-180 fiasco from Scott Johnson at Power Line. Reader John Boyle has spotted something that makes this whole thing stink to high Heaven!
The SF 180 is actually a request for "Report of Separation" and all such documents are in the sole custody of the National Personnel Records Center, in St. Louis - not the branch in which the veteran served (in this case the Navy). And the character of Kerry's "separation" (discharge) from the Navy is obviously the document(s) that are hot.
The SF 180 directs the National Personnel Records Center to release records, at the request of the documented veteran, and send them to whomever he designates (usually himself) - period. What is the Navy doing in the middle of this? The Navy must have been the designated recipient, on this specific SF 180 (not the Boston Globe, as Kranish explicitly admits). As a Federal entity, the Navy is then subject to Privacy Laws and any release by them had to be additionally waived by Kerry - or not. He could then easily not waive specific documents for release that he found damaging. What the Boston Globe got was the remainder of whatever the Navy received from NPRC, less what Kerry wished to withhold.
It may be that the Globe is unaware of this game; although I wrote about this at length last week to their reporter Joan Vennochi, who had written that Kerry's 180 was in the pipeline, in order to alert the Globe to what was afoot.
A real shell game.
Scott Johnson states that reporter Thomas Lipscomb (The American Spectator/Jewish World Review/NY Sun) is on the case. If Kerry thought he could put one over on everybody with this phony "I signed my 180, everything is out there now" B.S., he was sadly mistaken! This ain't over by a longshot folks!
HT: Pat Curley at Brainster's Blog
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