- Why is John McCain so supportive of Bush and Cheney after
being so viciously attacked by them in the 2000 campaign? The answer to
this question may partially rest in Navy records detailing the events that
took place on the USS Forrestal in "Yankee Station" in the Gulf
of Tonkin at the end of July 1967. The neo-cons, who have had five years
to examine every file within the Department of Defense, have likely accessed
documents that could prove embarrassing to McCain, who was on board the
USS Forrestal on July 29, 1967, and whose A-4 Skyhawk was struck by an
air-to-ground Zuni missile that had misfired from an F-4 Phantom.
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- What have sealed Navy records given to the neo-cons to
blackmail McCain? Plenty, according to eyewitness on the USS Forrestal.
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- According to an eyewitness to the Navy's worst fire disaster
that killed 134 sailors and injured 62, McCain and the Forrestal's skipper,
Capt. John K. Beling, were warned about the danger of using M-65 1000-lb.
bombs manufactured in 1935, which were deemed too dangerous to use during
World War II and, later, on B-52 bombers. The fire from the Zuni misfire
resulted in the heavy 1000 pounders being knocked loose from the pylons
of McCain's A-4, which were only designed to hold 500-pound bombs.
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- During the fighting of the fire and while VF-74 and VF-11
were still counting their dead, McCain was helicoptered off the Forrestal
to the USS Oriskany, which suffered a major fire on October 27, 1966, that
killed 44 sailors. In that event, thousand pound bombs were jettisoned
away from the fire but the lessons of the Oriskany went unheeded by the
Forrestal's officers, including McCain, who served with the VA-163 Saints
on board the Oriskany when the fire on that vessel occurred. On October
26, 1967, McCain was shot down over North Vietnam during a bombing sortie
from the Oriskany.
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- Aug. 29, 2005 -- Bush celebrating McCain's 69th birthday
with a cake. Bush and his operatives may have more than a cake up their
sleeves when it comes to McCain's Navy record prior to his time as a POW.
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- The unstable bombs had a 60-second cook-off threshold
in a fire situation and this warning was known to both Beling and McCain
prior to the disaster. On January 14, 1969, the USS Enterprise, steaming
75 miles southwest of Pearl Harbor, suffered a major fire. In that episode,
similar unstable 1000-pound bombs detonated, killing 27 sailors and injuring
more than 100. At the time of the Enterprise disaster, the Commander-in-
Chief of US Pacific Forces was Adm. John S. McCain, Jr.,Sen. McCain's father.
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- At the time of the Forrestal disaster, Admiral McCain
was Commander-in-Chief of US Naval Forces Europe (CINCUSNAVEUR) and was
busy covering up the details of the deadly and pre-meditated Israeli attack
on the NSA spy ship, the USS Liberty, on June 8, 1967. The fact that both
McCains were involved in two incidents just weeks apart that resulted in
a total death count of 168 on the Forrestal and the Liberty, with an additional
injury count of 234 on both ships (with a number of them later dying
from their wounds) with an accompanying classified paper trail inside the
Pentagon, may be all that was needed to hold a Sword of Damocles over the
head of the "family honor"-oriented (McCain's persona is supported
by his book about his father and grandfather, both Navy admirals, titled
"Faith of My Fathers") and the "straight talking" McCain.
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- The Bush administration and neo-cons may have uncovered
reams of documents that throw cold water on that public perception. STORY
IN PROGRESS.
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- http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/
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