Kennedy and the KGB | Drudge Retort

Monday, August 31, 2009

Shortly after the announcement of Ted Kennedy's death, I had already received several interview requests. I declined them, not wanting to be uncharitable to the man upon his death. Since then, I've seen the need to step up and provide some clarification.

The issue is a remarkable 1983 KGB document on Kennedy, which I published in my 2006 book, The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism (HarperCollins). The document is a May 14, 1983 memo from KGB head Victor Chebrikov to his boss, the odious Soviet General Secretary Yuri Andropov, designated with the highest classification. It concerns a confidential offer to the Soviet leadership by Senator Kennedy. The target: President Ronald Reagan.

Posted by JeffJ at 07:41 AM | 34 COMMENTS | permalink | Comment on This Entry

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JeffJ

Jeff Jaskolski

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Fascinating.

Until I stumbled upon this article, I was completely ignorant of this aspect of Kennedy's history.

Our media is beyond pathetic for purposefully hiding this.

#1 | Posted by JeffJ at 2009-08-31 07:42 AM | Reply | Flag:

The logical problem with such "revelation"
is that any offer to help the KGB would provide that organization with an endless franchise to blackmail the American Senator allegedly making himself a volunteer.

The man says this document is genuine because he says so. Oh, hum. I wonder if he's also a Birther, wondering why the Hawaiian Secretary of State is such a liar.

The man said he also waited until Kennedy was dead out of sense of decorum. I think he waited until the man best placed to defend himself was unable to. A review of libel laws might also be instructive.

"Our media is beyond pathetic for purposefully hiding this...."

That, media, I swear. Every Saturday night it's women, drink, and what can we hide from the American public.

Shame on you for wasting our time.

#2 | Posted by Zed at 2009-08-31 10:47 AM | Reply | Flag:

"The man says this document is genuine because he says so. Oh, hum. I wonder if he's also a Birther,..."

That's good...IMMEDIATELY attack the writer. Certainly don't look into the matter at all. Here's ANOTHER guy you can attack...but above all, don't check it out first.

www.forbes.com

#3 | Posted by jestgettinalong at 2009-08-31 11:02 AM | Reply | Flag:

"Certainly look into the matter at all...."

If you think about what this man says, it's obvious he didn't check into the matter either.

What this creature asserts about this document, in matters of discovery and authentication, can be questioned seven ways from Sunday.

Why didn't he do that hard work? Because it was hard? Because the subject is titillating? Because he knew Kennedy was dying and there wouldn't be an immediate counter-blow?

So I'll attack the writer. He's the one making the "case".

#4 | Posted by Zed at 2009-08-31 01:27 PM | Reply | Flag:

A Reagan suckass doesn't like Kennedy?

Will wonders never cease.

#5 | Posted by Corky at 2009-08-31 01:32 PM | Reply | Flag:

Just a minor point to start with---This creature alleges Kennedy not only had correspondence with the KGB but wanted a face-to-face with KGB in Moscow.

You just need to think about that assertion, really think about it, to understand what a comedy routine is being proposed here as reality.

#6 | Posted by Zed at 2009-08-31 01:33 PM | Reply | Flag:

Christ-On-A-Fucking-Cracker!
The guy should just leave ronnie raygunz alone-there's no need to continue to suck his dick.

OK-so he says no one's been able to debunk it?(According to the Forbes article)-yet no one(not even Soviet Archive Experts) Have been able to Authenticate it.

It's nothing but a clever fake.

#7 | Posted by frankf55 at 2009-08-31 01:47 PM | Reply | Flag:

I just read the "document." First, there is no way Kennedy would risk his career by traveling to Moscow to meet with Andropov and strategize with him. That is just plain foolish, if any major American politician did that it would destroy their career. If any politician did it the CIA would immediately inform the president.

Second, the idea that Kennedy believed that Andropov appealing to the American people on TV for a change in Reagan's policies is preposterous, it would obviously have exactly the opposite effect. It would have made Reagan look victorious.

The whole thing is a joke to try and prop up the old myth about Reagan bringing down the USSR. I think too many Americans are beginning to see through the myth and so it is requiring some new rewrites.

#8 | Posted by danni at 2009-08-31 05:45 PM | Reply | Flag:

What bullshit. The stuff of rightwing wet-dreams.

#9 | Posted by moder8 at 2009-08-31 06:00 PM | Reply | Flag:

What bullshit.

How do you know this?

#10 | Posted by goatman at 2009-08-31 06:06 PM | Reply | Flag:

What bullshit.

How do you know this?

#10 | Posted by goatman

Because no evidence was presented. For starters.

#11 | Posted by DARTHCHENEY at 2009-08-31 06:57 PM | Reply | Flag:

Killer Kennedy should have been tried for treason and treated like the Rosenbergs if found guilty.

#12 | Posted by r_zeitgeist at 2009-08-31 09:20 PM | Reply | Flag:

Airbrushing out Mary Jo Kopechne
Only a Kennedy could get away with it.

By Mark Steyn

We are enjoined not to speak ill of the dead. But, when an entire nation or, at any rate, its "mainstream" media culture declines to speak the truth about the dead, we are certainly entitled to speak ill of such false eulogists. In its coverage of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's passing, America's TV networks are creepily reminiscent of those plays Sam Shepard used to write about some dysfunctional inbred hardscrabble Appalachian household where there's a baby buried in the backyard but everyone agreed years ago never to mention it.

In this case, the unmentionable corpse is Mary Jo Kopechne, 19401969. If you have to bring up the, ah, circumstances of that year of decease, keep it general, keep it vague. As Kennedy flack Ted Sorensen put it in Time magazine: "Both a plane crash in Massachusetts in 1964 and the ugly automobile accident on Chappaquiddick Island in 1969 almost cost him his life."

That's the way to do it! An "accident," "ugly" in some unspecified way, just happened to happen and only to him, nobody else. Ted's the star, and there's no room to namecheck the bit players. What befell him was . . . a thing, a place. As Joan Vennochi wrote in the Boston Globe: "Like all figures in history and like those in the Bible, for that matter Kennedy came with flaws. Moses had a temper. Peter betrayed Jesus. Kennedy had Chappaquiddick, a moment of tremendous moral collapse."

article.nationalreview.com

#13 | Posted by MURPHY at 2009-08-31 11:12 PM | Reply | Flag:

"Airbrushing out Mary Jo Kopechne
Only a Kennedy could get away with it."

'...only...' lol

#14 | Posted by Bani at 2009-08-31 11:19 PM | Reply | Flag:

And we know Killer Kennedy always loved a good joke about Chappaquiddick.....

He thought Mary Jo's death was hilarious.

#15 | Posted by r_zeitgeist at 2009-08-31 11:24 PM | Reply | Flag:

He thought Mary Jo's death was hilarious.

#15 | Posted by r_zeitgeist

link?

#16 | Posted by Bani at 2009-08-31 11:25 PM | Reply | Flag:

This just in:

Dick Cheney secret agent for Al Quaeda!!! Unimpeachable documentation has just been uncovered showing that Dick Cheney was on the Al Quaeda payroll for the past 12 years and was actually the 20th man on 9/11.

This reporter has in his hand over 20 payroll checks personally signed by Bin Laden and made out to Cheney and deposited to his Senate Credit Union account.

The reason no official record of Cheney's movements on September 11, 2001 exist is because he had slipped away from his secret service detail and was trying to get to the airport in time to catch the flight that later crashed in PA. He drove himself to the airport but unfortunately got the airports mixed up and went to Dulles instead of Washington National. His 4 terrorist accomplices had to do the hijack without him.

Doubtless many of the people on the Right will cry in their Bud Lites tonight!!!

#17 | Posted by axe at 2009-09-01 12:12 AM | Reply | Flag:

I doubt that anybody has a lower opinion of Ted Kennedy than me but come on now using a KGB file as proof he was a traitor? Those guys would put anything in a report to make their Politburo bosses happy.

Why do I get the feeling that some know-it-all is gonna come along and tell me it wasn't the Politburo bigwigs they were trying to appease?

#18 | Posted by Gimme_a_Scotch at 2009-09-01 02:33 AM | Reply | Flag:

The document is legit - the allegations contained within are suspect and nearly impossible to verify.

I highly doubt Kennedy was a traitor. However, at the time, nobody believed Alger Hiss was a traitor either.

#19 | Posted by JeffJ at 2009-09-01 03:14 AM | Reply | Flag:

Why am I not surprised it is a JeffJ thread.

Just getting more and more disengenuous by the day.

Can't wait to see JJ post something about biden being a spy in his younger years.

#20 | Posted by moneywar at 2009-09-01 03:25 AM | Reply | Flag:

Can't wait to see JJ post something about biden being a spy in his younger years.

If he does, I'll be the first to call him out on it. Biden was far too busy plagarizing to be involved in espionage

#21 | Posted by goatman at 2009-09-01 03:33 AM | Reply | Flag:

$War,

The document exists.

The KGB was legendary for propaganda and as such, the allegations contained within the document are most likely false.

That doesn't change the reality that the document does in fact exist.

#22 | Posted by JeffJ at 2009-09-01 03:37 AM | Reply | Flag:

Reagan is constantly accused of secretly cutting a deal with the Iranians prior to his ascension - his motives ostensibly being purely driven by the desire for power.

That shit gets thrown around this place all of the time WITHOUT any kind of substantiation.

#23 | Posted by JeffJ at 2009-09-01 03:40 AM | Reply | Flag:

This is the kind of stuff drudge has turned into, it is why I stay away now. Just political bullshit.

#24 | Posted by moneywar at 2009-09-01 03:43 AM | Reply | Flag:

Just political bullshit.

It's a political blog

#25 | Posted by goatman at 2009-09-01 03:45 AM | Reply | Flag:

I can barely read this site anymore, and the fact that it is so loaded with trojan horse virus's and bumping jumping site ads that it is no longer becoming worth my time.

#26 | Posted by moneywar at 2009-09-01 03:46 AM | Reply | Flag:

Moneywar,
thanks for reminding me to clean my computer before I go to bed.

#27 | Posted by bruceaz at 2009-09-01 03:48 AM | Reply | Flag:

Reagan? Who the fuck cares.

We have major problems in our country right now and all you can post is political bull shit of days gone gone gone past of a senator that just died and happens to be opposite your political hacking. Far to funny.

#28 | Posted by moneywar at 2009-09-01 03:50 AM | Reply | Flag:

#28 | Posted by moneywar

What's funny is your composition.

#29 | Posted by JeffJ at 2009-09-01 04:00 AM | Reply | Flag:

Have a nice day!

#30 | Posted by moneywar at 2009-09-01 04:00 AM | Reply | Flag:

You too!

#31 | Posted by JeffJ at 2009-09-01 04:01 AM | Reply | Flag:

Have a nice day!

Only three more and I'm off this pig for 21 days.

#32 | Posted by goatman at 2009-09-01 04:13 AM | Reply | Flag:

"The document is legit - the allegations contained within are suspect and nearly impossible to verify."

Oh, well as long as JeffJ says so then gee whiz who are we to doubt.

Hey Jeff, I'm laughing AT you right now.
8:27 a.m. E.S.T., Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2009.

#33 | Posted by danni at 2009-09-01 08:27 AM | Reply | Flag:

"The man said he also waited until Kennedy was dead out of sense of decorum. I think he waited until the man best placed to defend himself was unable to. A review of libel laws might also be instructive."

It says in the article he published the document in 2006 and that Kennedy's office responded to it.

I don't know if its true or not but the author wasn't scared of libel. I would think either party would engage in something like this now but in 1983 they weren't as mindlessly partisan.

#34 | Posted by Sully at 2009-09-01 09:56 AM | Reply | Flag: