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The Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation states that they are suing Kerry associates:
PHILADELPHIA, Oct 10, 2006 -- The ongoing battle over the truth of alleged war crimes and atrocities committed by Americans in the Vietnam War moves to a Philadelphia courtroom this week.
An action filed in Philadelphia's Common Pleas Court today by a group of highly decorated veterans and POWs may finally hold Massachusetts Senator John Kerry and his allies accountable for the allegations they have propagated over the past 35 years.
On the same site, per Col. "Bud" Day:
Thirty five years ago John Kerry slandered an entire generation of men who fought in Vietnam branding them as a "war criminals." Today, much of the same thing is being said about our young men and women in Iraq.
Now, a lawsuit filed in Philadelphia's Court of Common Pleas will test the very foundation of Kerry's anti-war persona for the first time. It isn't dubious medals or Kerry's disputed service record in Vietnam that is being called into question. This time Kerry may finally be forced to answer for the events that launched his public career, one that made him an anti-war hero for many American liberals and a turncoat for millions of Vietnam veterans.
The lawsuit (Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation, et al. v. Kenneth Campbell, et al.) challenges the basis, the factual accuracy of then-Lt. (j.g.) Kerry's acrimonious testimony before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971. It was there Kerry's public career was catapulted with his now ubiquitous portrayal of American soldiers as murderers, rapists and torturers "who ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam . . . [and] razed villages in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan."
The VVLF site states that Kerry had previously sued the VVLF 2004 in order to halt distribution of the film, "Stolen Honor: Wounds that Never Heal:"
The suit seeks to recover legal fees and other costs associated with Sherwood and the VVLF's defense against legal actions brought by Kerry's associates. Those actions claimed that "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal," a film documenting the impact of John Kerry's allegations against POWs, defamed them by challenging their assertions and those of John Kerry that they personally committed or witnessed other U.S. Servicemen engage in war crimes. Those actions were suddenly withdrawn this summer.
During the 2004 campaign, top Kerry campaign officials circulated memos seeking to silence the film and used the Campbell and Bjornson lawsuit as a threat against at least one Philadelphia-area theater to not show the film. That theater ended up canceling the showing just before it was to be viewed. At the time the suit was withdrawn, The Legal Intelligencer (July 13, 2006) reported that the lawyer for Kerry's associates had said that bringing the suit had accomplished their goals of gaining publicity and stopping the film from being shown.
Kerry's suit against the VVLF has recently been dropped, under timing that leads the VVLF to the following obervation:
The suits by Kerry's associates were suddenly dropped earlier this year just as they and several of their allies faced depositions under oath and subpoenas of their military records.
If you have links to additional reports on this story, please post them or email them to me.
