Kerry accepts challenge to war-fraud claims

Senator John Kerry, whose 2004 US presidential campaign was torpedoed by critics of his Vietnam War record, has accepted a Texas oilman’s offer to pay $1m (€683,000) to anyone who can disprove even a single claim of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

In a letter to Boone Pickens, the Massachusetts Democrat wrote: “While I am prepared to show they lied on allegation after allegation, you have generously offered to pay $1m for just one thing that can be proven false. I am prepared to prove the lie beyond any reasonable doubt.”

Mr Kerry, a US Navy veteran and former prosecutor, said he was willing to present his case directly to Mr Pickens.

Mr Kerry said he would donate any proceeds to the Paralysed Veterans of America charity.

The senator said Mr Pickens issued the challenge on November 6 in Washington, while serving as chairman of a 40th anniversary gala for American Spectator magazine.

“I trust that you are a man of your word, having made a very public challenge at a major Washington dinner, and look forward to taking you up on this challenge,” Mr Kerry wrote.

In the letter, Mr Kerry offered to travel to Dallas, Texas, to meet Mr Pickens in a public forum or to invite him to come to Massachusetts and suggested the two could visit the veterans’ charity to see first-hand how Mr Pickens’ money could be used to help.

In a letter faxed to Mr Kerry, Mr Pickens wrote: “I am certainly open to your challenge.”

But Mr Pickens said he would not consider giving Mr Kerry the reward unless he surrendered copies of his wartime diaries, as well as movies he shot while on patrol, and his complete military records for 1971 to 1978.

Mr Pickens said the documentation would be needed to disprove the group’s ads.

“When you have done so, if you can then prove anything in the ads was materially untrue, I will gladly award one million. As you know, I have been a long and proud supporter of the American military and veterans’ causes,” he wrote.

And Mr Pickens proposed a counterchallenge, saying: “If you cannot prove anything in the Swift Boat ads to be untrue, that you will make a $1m gift to the charity I am choosing – the (Congressional) Medal of Honour Foundation.”

First in the book Unfit For Command, and then in a series of television commercials, Mr Kerry’s critics challenged the circumstances for his military awards, accused him of doctoring reports and argued that he never travelled into Cambodia as claimed.

While fellow veterans and reporters disproved many of the group’s claims at the time, Mr Kerry refused to air ads responding to the criticism, instead muting his response for fear of legitimising his critics’ attacks.

But the senator conceded after losing to Bush that his lacklustre response probably cost him the election.

In May 2005, Mr Kerry began allowing reporters access to his full navy personnel and medical records – something he refused to do during the campaign.

Those records mostly duplicated documents Kerry released during the 2004 campaign, but added numerous commendations from commanders who criticised his service during the US presidential race.

That disclosure renewed questions about why Mr Kerry did not respond more forcefully, with control over the White House at stake.

He decided against launching a second bid for president, but vowed to defend his record and prevent other candidates from being “Swift-boated”.