I voted for Nader in 2000 but I probably won't be voting for him again this election. As far as democrats, they actually had great debates this year and a great set of candidates. In this order, here's who I would have liked to see in the nomination:

1. Dennis Kucinich 2. Barbara Lee 3. Al Sharpton 4. John Edwards 5. Howard Dean 6. John Kerry

If you watched the democratic debates then you can get some idea here of where I'm coming from. Lieberman wasn't even an option for me. In the debates I definitely felt that Kerry was the worst choice, both for what I wanted in a president and as an opponent of George Bush. He had gone along with Bush way too much. The right has really started to dominate politics in America, and its mostly because they play politics like a war and battle offensively. That's the winning strategy. The democrats think going to the middle and being polite is the way to bring in voters but they're wrong.

Dennis Kucinich would be perfect to go against Bush right now. He could attack Bush without being called a hypocrite, whereas I'm sure Kerry will have to face that charge as well as the flip-flopper legend spun by the mythical "liberal" media.

Having said that though, now that the debates are over and Kerry has the nomination, and as I learn more about Kerry, Kerry seems to me to have the potential to be one of the best presidents we've ever had. I think all the attacks on him by the press and refusal to treat him seriously as they did to Nader, honestly, has made me re-examine him and give him another chance. Who is John Kerry? I now ask myself.

First off, let's consider what we all already know. John Kerry voluntarily served in Vietnam. He won medals of honor and purple hearts. He put himself in harm's way and saved the lives of people he served with. Then he came back to America and spoke out against what he had seen and participated in and actually was a major force in ending the war. So right there he already has the best credentials of any serious candidate I've seen in my lifetime, as far as I'm concerned. Progressives from that time credit Kerry with really turning the tide against that war when he spoke against it before congress as spokesperson for Veterans Against the War. Its amazing to me that this still is spun like its a bad thing, or that Kerry's anti war stance was somehow fraudulent or purely self promotional. Are his opponents trying to go back and say Vietnam was a good thing now?

Secondly, I heard this guy on the Berkeley affiliate of the Pacifica network, KPFA, a while back who worked with Nader all throughout the years when Nader was doing all the battles for consumer rights and safety and he was saying that John Kerry was actually a key figure in many important and progressive battles in this country. John Kerry of all senators has done more to document corporate crime than any other and has pursued corporate crime vigorously. In addition he has also stepped forward to lead many battles for the environment, and has stood out as a senator that has been a crucial advocate for some of the most important environmental legislation we've had.

Thirdly, John Kerry chaired the commissions that investigated the CIA drug connection, including trafficking to America in the late 80's. I have Gary Webb's Dark Alliance right here in front of me. It was published in 1998 as a follow up of his stories in the San Jose Mercury News in 1996 about the CIA, Contras and crack. I am now going to quote the book for you.

Kerry and his staff had taken videotaped depositions from Contra leaders who acknowledged receiving drug profits, with the apparent knowledge of the CIA. The drug dealers had admitted-- under oath--giving money to the Contras, and had passed polygraph tests. p. 14

Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts has accused Bermudez (a contra leader) of being a a drug trafficker himself: "He was the target of a government-sponsored sting operation," Kerry told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in a closed door hearing in June 1986. "He had been involved in drug running and that sting operation saw him get tipped off. And the law enforcement officials know that the sting operation was pulled back in the interests of protecting the Contras." p.62

During a 1987 Senate subcommittee hearing, Senator John Kerry of Mass. told DEA director Jack Lawn that "the head of the DEA office in Costa Rica was interviewed by this committee and he told us that the infrastructure that we used to supply the Contras was used to smuggle drugs. This is your DEA officer in Costa Rica. Are you familiar with that report?"

"No, sir, I am not," Lawn said. The DEA's position, said Lawn and aide David Westrate was that there was "no credible evidence" to support such allegations. The DEA officer in Costa Rica who was questioned by Kerry's committee, Robert J. Nieves, was in a perfect position to know, however. According to Norwin Meneses, Nieves was his control agent and would be throughout the remainder of the 1980's. p.206

But then Senator John Kerry of Mass. and his staff started making noises about the Contras being involved with cocaine. They had been interviewing mercenaries, former Contras and Cuban-American sympathizers, making trips to Costa Rica and Miami, talking to foreign officials and federal prosecutors. They started pushing for an official investigation of Contra connections to drug traffickers. With the public's crack hysteria at a fever pitch, a more deadly or untimely accusation could not have been made against the Contras, and the Reagan Administration knew it.

"The obvious intent of Senator John Kerry is to try to orchestrate a series of sensational accusations against the Contras in order to obtain massive press coverage at about the time of the next Contra aid vote," Trott was informed in a May 1986 memo from the Justice Department's congressional liaison. "It will be Senator Kerry's intention to try and twist facts and circumstances in order to unjustifiably defame the Justice Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the DEA. Indeed, we have been informed that Senator Kerry will take every opportunity to make the implication or express claim that there is a conspiracy within the Administration to cover up illegal activities of the Contras and their supporters." The fact that Kerry, a former federal prosecutor, had been an outspoken opponent of Contra aid made Reagan administration officials even more distrustful.

By June 1986 Kerry's staff had compiled enough information for the senator to approach its colleagues on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and seek authorization for an official investigation. (Yes!) According to a transcript of that secret meeting, Kerry warned the assembled senators that some of what he was about to tell them "strains credulity at moments in time and it strained my credulity. When I first heard this stuff, I said 'I do not believe this, you know? It cannot be true.'"

But after talking to many current and former Contras, Kerry said, there was ample evidence to suggest that the Contra leaders were corrupt, dealing in drugs and weapons, using their supply lines to run both, and that some U.S. government officials were protecting them. "We can produce specific law enforcement officials who will tell you that they have called off drug trafficking investigations because CIA is involved or it would threaten national security or because the state department did not want it to happen," Kerry told the the committee. "Our sources have suggested in direct testimony that agencies of the US government may be failing to stop or punish those engaging in these criminal activities because those individuals are otherwise engaged in helping US foreign policy."

Kerry warned: "When the State Department begins to say that we should not be pursuing the drug trafficking because it would threaten our national security, this committee ought to understand why we are making a decision that it is okay to have drugs coming into this country."

Kerry chief investigator, Washington, D.C., attorney Jack Blum detailed some of the charges Kerry's staff had looked into and told senators that "the narcotics are coming into the US not by the pound, not by the bag, but by the ton, by the cargo planeload."

And, Kerry added, the leadership of the FDN knew about it and was involved in it. "It is clear that there is a network of drug trafficking through the contras and it goes right up to Calero, Mario Calero, Adolfo Calero, Enrique Bermudez. And we have people who will testify and who have."

But the idea of diving into such a stinking swamp made some of the other senators squeamish. Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware warned that "we should understand that this thing may take us to places we would have rather not gone. But we should be aware of it and I think there is no choice but to go there." Sen. Nancy Kassebaum of Kansas said she didn't think the committee had the authority to get into the issue. Instead of holding hearings or subpoenaing records, she suggested an alternative approach: "It seems to me that we should be able somehow to really work with the CIA, the DEA. There are channels, it seems to me that have that ability."

Kerry almost laughed. "Well, let me say that I would be amazed if the CIA were to be very cooperative in this," he said. "We had a meeting with the CIA, Justice Department... CIA jumped out of their seats at some of the stuff that they heard we were thinking about looking at. I mean, the just literally jumped out of their seats. They were amazed that we were going to look at this stuff." p. 278-279

We've heard a lot of things about John Kerry. His opponents on the right often seem to revile him with every fiber of their being, often with as much outrage as I have towards George W. Bush. On the other hand, many on the left feel that he is simply another clone of George Bush wrapped in a more attractive dressing. If I did not listen to progressive radio on Pacifica I never would have heard about John Kerry, prosecutor and documenter of corporate abuses. Or John Kerry, effective advocate of the environment. If I hadn't read Dark Alliance I never would have known that John Kerry was the Senator that spearheaded investigations into the CIA's connections with narco-trafficking. This has been one of the most overlooked criminal investigations in recent history in my mind, in spite of the fact that CIA even did an internal investigation in 1997 that confirmed their guilt. When Gary Webb originally published the findings of his investigation, he was chastised by the CIA and literally ran out of his field by his own colleagues. Luckily of all members of the congress, there was one senator with the courage and moral integrity to speak the truth while those around him covered up or remained silent.

From the PBS website:

Senator John Kerry (D-MA), Chairman of that sub-Committee, had this to say about the recent allegations raised by Mr. Webb and others, "There is no question in my mind that people affiliated with, or on the payroll of the CIA were involved in drug trafficking while involved in support of the Contras, but it is also important to note that we never found any evidence to suggest that these traffickers ever targeted any one geographic area or population group."

John Kerry is a true American hero... really, I mean it.

-Joseph Merrill
-7/7/2004