 Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. |
Wade Sanders, one of Sen. John Kerry’s most vocal and enthusiastic Swift Boat supporters during Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign, has been doubly disgraced – first by being convicted on federal charges of child pornography, then by being stripped of his Silver Star – two events that the Navy says are independently justified.
The Navy Department confirmed to WND that Sanders was stripped of his Vietnam Silver Star Medal on grounds unrelated to his prosecution and conviction for possessing child pornography.
When the Navy Times reported the revocation of Sanders’ Silver Star on July 27, the publication was uncertain whether Sanders’ conviction for child pornography played a role in his loss of the award.
The paper also reported that the Navy had declined to make public a copy of the Mabus memorandum published here.
The decision to strip Sanders of his medal was made nearly a year before the Navy Times article was published.
Navy spokesperson Lt. Alana Garas provided WND with a memorandum by Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus on Aug. 9, 2010, indicating that the Navy conducted an investigation of the facts for which the medal was awarded and the circumstances surrounding the processing of the award. The probe concluded with a decision to revoke the medal.
The memorandum, published in its entirety here, makes no references to the criminal child pornography charges that ultimately sent Sanders to prison.
Instead, it suggests the facts of the incident did not warrant the awarding of the medal and that there were irregularities in the processing of the award that cast further doubt on whether it was justified.
  Navy Department memorandum revoking Wade Sanders’ Vietnam Silver Star Medal |
What about Kerry?
The Navy declined to respond to WND’s inquiry whether Kerry or any other Swift Boat veterans were under investigation for having received undeserved or improperly awarded citations for their military service in Vietnam.
Sanders is currently in federal prison serving a 37-month sentence after he pleaded guilty on Dec. 22, 2008 to one count of possessing child pornography. An FBI investigation led to the discovery of child pornography on the computers in his home.
The federal government’s sentencing memorandum in the Sanders criminal case, dated May 4, 2009, can be read here.
Sanders, one of Kerry’s fiercest defenders in the 2004 presidential campaign, introduced Kerry to the 2004 Democratic National Party’s nominating convention in Boston.
In 2004, Sanders, then a San Diego resident, responded to a speech given by John O’Neill, co-founder of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and co-author of “Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry,” gave to a Commonwealth Club of California audience in San Francisco. Sanders declared that O’Neill’s claims were a “pack of lies.”
Sanders further commented, “I would go into combat with John Kerry any time, any place – I wouldn’t follow George Bush into an ice cream parlor.”
“O’Neill needs to be confronted with the lies he’s fomenting,” Sanders told the Oakland Tribune in an interview in which he compared O’Neill and Karl Rove to Nazi propaganda master Joseph Goebbels, saying they “studied at that man’s knee.”
Sanders contention that the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth members were lying about Kerry’s military service was a frequent theme that he continued even during the years he wrote as a commentator for Military.com.
Sanders repeated the charge in a February 2008 book review he post on Amazon.com of “To Set the Record Straight: How Swift Boat Veterans, POWs and the New Media Defeated John Kerry,” co-authored by Scott Swett and Tim Ziegler.
“Joseph Goebbels once observed that ‘If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it,'” Sanders wrote, beginning his book review. “The authors of this book apparently channeled the former Minister of Information, because this book is nothing other than a regurgitation of the lies spouted by a thoroughly discredited group to smear a man they never served with.”
While Sanders served in the Swift Boat command during the Vietnam War, he was not in Vietnam when John Kerry served.
Sanders cited the Bible in his book review.
“‘Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.’ (John8:2-1 KJV),” he noted. “The authors of this book and the Swift Boat Veterans for Lies would be well advised to consult the good book before the (sic) engage in lies and false accusations.”
Less than three months later, on May 2, 2008, agents from the FBI and officers from the San Diego Internet Crimes Against Children executed a federal search warrant authorizing them to search his home and seize an external hard drive and three computers subsequently found to contain media child pornography.
Despite being stripped of his Silver Star, Sanders still holds a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart from his service in Vietnam.
Editor’s note: Jerome R. Corsi is co-author of “Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry” and worked extensively with Swift Boat Veterans for Truth during the 2004 presidential campaign.
