New Claims Surround Anti-Kerry Ad
The New York Times ^ | Saturday, August 7, 2004 | Jim Rutenberg

WASHINGTON, Aug. 6 - A commercial by a group of veterans accusing
Senator John Kerry of exaggerating his decorated Vietnam War record
was strongly challenged Friday by Democrats as new questions arose
about the claims of one of the men calling Mr. Kerry a liar in the
advertisement.

The Boston Globe quoted the man, Lt. Cmdr. George Elliott, retired,
who as Mr. Kerry's commander in Vietnam had recommended him for a
Silver Star, as recanting a recent sworn statement that he did not
believe Mr. Kerry deserved the decoration because of allegations that
he earned it by shooting a fleeing, wounded Viet Cong in the back.

The advertisement's sponsors, an anti-Kerry group called Swift Boat
Veterans for Truth, later said the newspaper misquoted Commander
Elliott and released another affidavit from him, in which he stood by
his initial charge.

The Boston Globe denied misquoting him. A woman answering the phone at
the Elliott home in Delaware said he would not answer questions about
the dispute and referred a reporter to the anti-Kerry group.

The Swift boat group provided the initial affidavit to reporters this
week when they released the spot, in which Commander Elliott says,
"John Kerry has not been honest about what happened in Vietnam."

He is one of several veterans featured in the spot who call Mr. Kerry
a liar and claim to have served in boats near the one that Mr. Kerry
commanded in the Mekong Delta.

"I still don't think he shot the guy in the back," The Globe quoted
CommanderElliott as saying. "It was a terrible mistake probably for me
to sign the affidavit with those words." The paper also quoted him as
saying he did so out of haste because the group, which is also behind
a new book questioning Mr. Kerry's record that is set for release next
week, was eager to have his statement in hand.

Commander Elliott had already shown some inconsistency concerning Mr.
Kerry's record, especially regarding Mr. Kerry's storied encounter
with the Viet Cong, who was armed with a rocket launcher.

When charges surfaced during Mr. Kerry's 1996 senatorial re-election
campaign that he had shot the Viet Cong in the back as the man was
wounded and fleeing, Commander Elliott spoke in Mr. Kerry's defense,
telling reporters, "The fact that he chased an armed enemy down is
something not to be looked down upon, but it was an act of courage."

Lawyers for Mr. Kerry's campaign and the Democratic Party used the
inconsistencies to convince another television station, WTVG in
Toledo, Ohio, not to run the spot on Friday. But the station reversed
itself later in the day when the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth
released another affidavit from Commander Elliott attacking the
article and affirming his earlier statement. The Globe found itself
further embroiled in the fight when the online Drudge Report posted an
article contending that the reporter who wrote the piece about
Commander Elliott, Michael Kranish, had been "Commissioned to Write
Official Campaign Book Foreword - While Covering Kerry."

But Public Affairs, publisher of Mr. Kerry's campaign book, said Mr.
Kranish had been retained to write the foreword for a different book,
and that when it struck a deal to publish the campaign's platform, it
dropped plans to publish that book.

Martin Baron, editor of The Boston Globe, backed up that version of
events in a statement and also stood by the quotes from Commander
Elliott in his paper. "The quotes attributed to Mr. Elliott were on
the record and absolutely accurate," he said.

All the charges and counter-charges only served to give more attention
to the advertisement, which is running in three swing states, West
Virginia, Ohio and Wisconsin.

Even as they kept their distance from the furor, Republicans gloated,
saying that by responding so forcefully to the advertisement, the
Kerry campaign and Democratic Party were only drawing more attention
to questions about one of Mr. Kerry's greatest strengths as a
candidate.

"They're crazy for making a big deal of it, everybody was ignoring
it,'' said one Republican close to President Bush's campaign.

Democrats said that the spot would only serve to anger voters for
attacking a decorated veteran's war record, and that the anger would
eventually be directed at Mr. Bush.

The party and the Kerry campaign have released bits of information
they say show connections between Mr. Bush and the group - mostly by
noting that Bob J. Perry, a Texas developer whose path has frequently
crossed that of Karl Rove, Mr. Bush's top political strategist,
donated $100,000 to the Swift boat group.
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