| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: Politix |
| Another Kerry in Cambodia Reference - US News May 8 2000 |
| 2004-08-10 |
| A Mission to Cambodia by Kevin Whitelaw | May 08 '00 Sen. John Kerry made his first forays into Cambodia during the Vietnam War as a Navy lieutenant on clandestine missions to deliver weapons to anticommunist forces. Lemmee see - CIA agents, patrolling weapons deliveries. Sound like a Baron von Munchausen complex to me. When he returned last week, the mission was official, but dicey nonetheless. At the request of the United Nations, Kerry is trying to broker a compromise on how to try leaders of the former Khmer Rouge regime, whose late 1970s reign of terror claimed the lives of some 1.7 million Cambodians. Broker a compromise? How Kerry! Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen wants to control any court looking into genocide charges, but U.S. and U.N. officials have demanded an international tribunal. "You can't have a situation where a justice system that many people view as inoperative will have the ability to trump the international community's consensus," says Kerry. Kerry is offering a compromise to allow for co-prosecutors and co-investigators. Both Cambodian and foreign judges would have to agree before an indictment could be thrown out. Hun Sen had initially accepted the proposal but ran into hard-line opposition from his political allies. Kerry anticipates a deal could be struck as early as this week. UN wannabe? Still, the parliament needs to go along, and many members of the ruling party (including Hun Sen) held low- or mid-level posts in the Khmer Rouge regime and might be reluctant to sign on. A legislative debate has been delayed until late May, ostensibly because of a termite infestation of the parliament building. But what about the war crimes? The CIA agent and the above mentioned weapons in the dark of night Dec 24 1968? Remember President-elect Nixon was jumping the gun before the oath was taken and usurping LBJ!!!!! |
| Posted by:BigEd |
| #1 CAMBODIA 'MISSION' NEVER HAPPENED: SHIPMATES Three of the vets quoted in the book were part of the five-member crew that served on Kerry's own boat: Bill Zaldonis, Steven Hatch and Steve Gardner. They deny they or their boat were ever in Cambodia. The other two crewmen declined to be interviewed for the book, "Unfit for Command," which raises questions about Kerry's military service. |
| Posted by: ed 2004-08-10 22:51 |