Kerry’s Refusal to Sign Standard Form 180
E P I L O G U E
ADVANTAGE SWIFT VETS
Unfit for Command called upon John Kerry to sign Standard Form 180, which would authorize the complete release of all his military records. To date, Kerry has refused to comply.
Kerry campaign surrogates have maintained that the Senator has completely disclosed his military records on his web site. On September 16, 2004, the public interest group Judicial Watch released a Navy response to a Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) request. In an email sent to Judicial Watch, the Navy confirmed that thirty-one pages of documents from Kerry’s military file were being withheld because the Navy had not received from Senator Kerry a signed release authorization. Typically, the Kerry campaign refused comment on why Senator Kerry had refused to sign Standard Form 180 and authorize the release of these yet hidden pages. Nor would the Kerry campaign respond to questions asking what the Senator was afraid might be disclosed should the pages become public. 35
The Kerry campaign has also refused to release to the public the Senator’s private Vietnam journals that he shared with campaign biographer Douglas Brinkley when Brinkley was writing Tour of Duty. As reported by the Washington Post, a mainstream newspaper generally pro-Kerry, the refusal to release the private journals rested entirely upon Kerry himself, not upon Brinkley:
<<<<The Kerry campaign has refused to release Kerry’s personal Vietnam archive, including his journals and letters, saying that the senator is contractually bound to grant Brinkley exclusive access to the material. But Brinkley said this week the papers are the property of the senator and in his full control.
“I don’t mind if John Kerry shows anybody anything,” he said. “If he wants to let anybody in, that’s his business. Go bug John Kerry, and leave me alone.” The exclusivity agreement, he said, simply requires “that anybody quoting any of the material needs to cite my book.” 36>>>>
Kerry’s camp continues to stonewall on the release of primary documents regarding his military records, despite extensive selective access he has given to writers known to be favorable or to the publication of documents on his website. This refusal to release information has been maintained in the face of intense public pressure to comply to the more open standards that have become customary for presidential campaigns in recent years, standards the Kerry camp has itself demanded from its Republican opponent.
Once again, we reach the same conclusion: Advantage, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
cont'd.......
AI
