Kerrey's Murdering SEAL Cohorts Issue Group Denial Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit [Bob Kerrey, who earlier in the week thought it would be "interesting" to see what people's reactions were to the revelation of a small episode in his wartime history, has now exhibited some "interesting" reactions himself. Suddenly not so contrite, and after rounding up a handful of his fellow SEAL war criminals, Mr. Kerrey is now saying that the news media's coverage of his johnny-come-lately disclosures is "disgraceful." Disgraceful? What is disgraceful is Kerrey's own cowardice and indifference, his complete inability to take responsibility for what he really did in "honorably" serving the flag. Perhaps the lone dissenting member of Kerry's SEAL gang will now come forward with more information. We certainly hope so. -- NY Transfer] Saturday April 28 11:27 PM EDT (via Yahoo) SEAL Team Issues Joint Denial By RICHARD PYLE, Associated Press Writer NEW YORK (AP) - Five members of Bob Kerrey's Navy SEAL team joined him Saturday in denying that they wantonly killed Vietnamese civilians during a wartime raid, and Kerrey angrily accused The New York Times and CBS of "collaborating" in a propaganda campaign to discredit Americans in the war. "It's disgraceful," Kerrey said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "The Vietnamese government likes to routinely say how terrible Americans were. The Times and CBS are now collaborating in that effort." He continued: "What happened that night is bad enough. ... It is a disgrace that just brings back the memory of the war." The declaration of solidarity among SEAL team members came amid reports from Vietnam quoting a second witness as saying the commando team had intentionally killed civilians during the attack. Kerrey said that about 13 civilians were killed "by mistake" after his SEAL team was fired on and returned fire during a nighttime raid to capture or kill Viet Cong officials believed to be meeting in Thanh Phong on Feb. 25, 1969. Kerrey, a former Nebraska senator, first spoke of the Thanh Phong raid at a Thursday news conference after the Times published the joint Times-CBS News story on its Web site Wednesday. Kerrey was awarded the Bronze Star for leading the Thanh Phong raid and later received the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military commendation, for an unrelated action in Vietnam. The statement from the SEAL team members was provided by Kerrey exclusively to The Washington Post for Sunday's edition. A source close to the former senator said it reflects the position of Kerrey and five others that there is no truth to the allegations that they gunned down civilians, including women and children, or killed them with knives. The statement, said the source, who requested anonymity, was signed by Kerrey and former SEALs Rich Knepper, Mike Ambrose, Lloyd Schreier, Gene Peterson and William H. Tucker III. The other five had not spoken publicly on the issue before Saturday. The seventh member of the unit known as Delta team, Gerhard Klann, claims in the interviews, published in Sunday's New York Times Magazine and to be broadcast on CBS's "60 Minutes II" on Tuesday, that civilians were herded into a group and killed. Kerrey has said he does not know Klann's "motivation" for making the charge, but he insists that the former colleagues remain on good terms. Kerrey said when he complained to the Times about its reporting of the story, "a top executive of the paper told me, t's just business."' "Just business - that's what Michael Corleone said in he Godfather,"' Kerrey said, referring to the classic film about the Mafia. He refused to identify the Times executive who he said made the remark. "I think he knows better," said Joseph Lelyveld, executive editor of the Times, when asked for comment on Kerrey's statement about alleged collaboration with the communist government in Vietnam. "We stand by our story 100 percent, and Mr. Kerrey will reveal more about what happened that night than he has thus far this Tuesday night on '60 Minutes II'," CBS spokesman Kevin Tedesco said. Two Vietnamese women told reporters Saturday that they witnessed the killings in Thanh Phong, and their accounts closely echo Klann's account. Bui Thi Luom, 44, said that women and children were rounded up and shot and that about 20 died. She recalled being told that one girl was "disemboweled," although she did not see it. Pham Thi Lanh, 62, elaborated on her earlier account to CBS, describing how the intruders killed an elderly couple and their three grandchildren with knives. In her latest account, Lanh said the grandparents were decapitated. Kerrey angrily denied the allegations in the AP interview. "They (the SEALs) received fire, and on returning fire, some innocent civilians were killed," he said. "Not once was an order given to round people up and execute them. They didn't disembowel anyone, and they didn't cut off heads." Kerrey also said Lanh's assertion that the raiders wore "helmets" was untrue, and showed the "lack of credibility" in her statement. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytas-04.29.01-00:06:53-25378