John Kerry in Iraq

[snopes]

"This is a true story.....

Check out this photo from our mess hall at the US Embassy yesterday
morning. Sen. Kerry found himself all alone while he was over here. He
cancelled his press conference because no one came, he worked out alone
in the gym w/o any soldiers even going up to say hi or ask for an
autograph, and he found himself eating breakfast with only a couple
of folks who are obviously not troops.

What is amazing is Bill O'Reilly came to visit with us and the troops at
the CSH the same day and the line for autographs extended through the
palace and people waited for two hours to shake his hand. You decide who
is more respected and loved by us servicemen and women!"

Again I say..."GOD BLESS OUR TROOPS!!"

[Malruhn]

Granted, I don't like Kerry, but I doubt the veracity of the text.

This pic could be from anywhere. It could be a pre-meal meeting before the troops got there. It cuold be anything. The decorations seem awfully 4th of July to me...

And last, but certainly not least, that guy may not be Kerry at all, just a guy that looks similar. I met a guy like that last summer.

Bogus.

[LittleDuck]

It looks like there aren't a lot of people there to begin with, not just sitting with Kerry. I would say possibly real pic, innacurate description.

I also wonder why we see the UK flag on the wall (among others I don't readily recognize), but not the US flag. I know it could have been farther down but it all makes me curious.

[RobDBlackwolf]

Or... He might be photoshopped into a picture of an empty table, or the table might have been reserved for his entourage which had been smaller than expected or he was found going to an empty looking table to say "hi" to the folks sitting there.

[KathyB]

Source of the photo and the comment A picture tells a 1000 words.....

This Michele Malkin columns says Questions about the John Kerry photo
Answer: It's real and accurate There is another photo of Kerry taken at the same time and some other photos of the mess hall, as well as comments from the original poster.

However, Frank Lowenstein, a Kerry staffer and " longtime Kerry national security advisor" who acompanied the Senator to Iraq, issued the folowing
statement. Since it comes from Kerry's website, I assume it's for public distribution

Statement of Frank Lowenstein

“It’s a weird feeling seeing this photo of Sen. Kerry debated and decoded like some artifact out of the DaVinci Codes. It’s strange to me because I was there when the photo was taken. I traveled with Sen. Kerry throughout his Middle East trip. I’m his foreign policy staffer. Myself and Major McKnight were sitting right there when this photo was snapped.

Snubbed? Alone? Hardly. Sen. Kerry isn’t eating alone. In fact that photo is at an off the record breakfast meeting Senator Kerry conducted early Sunday morning with the very real Marc Santora of the New York Times Baghdad bureau and his younger colleague from the newspaper.

The man shown in the green shirt across from Sen. Kerry is Marc Santora. Right after that interview was completed, Senator Kerry videotaped a message expressing his and the country's support for the troops, to be shown on the armed services network in Iraq. Just the night before, Sen. Kerry was in that very same mess hall at a table where he ate dinner with about 10 U.S. soldiers.

Additionally, Senator Kerry spent nearly a day and half (out of two days in Iraq) outside of the Green Zone because he felt strongly that he wanted to hear from troops on the front lines. On Saturday morning, he greeted U.S. soldiers in Basra, and also met many British troops while he was there. On Saturday afternoon, he flew to FOB (Forward Operating Base) Warhorse, where he had a town hall meeting with over 100 soldiers. On Sunday morning, he was briefed by U.S. commanders at a training camp for Iraqi security forces. On Sunday evening, he traveled to another FOB where he had a long dinner in the camp mess hall with soldiers, including many from Massachusetts.

These troops are nothing short of amazing, and my boss knows that with every fiber of his being. He’s a combat veteran. He’s been there.

Sen. Kerry knows that if you’re in public life, you’re going to have things you say and do taken out of context, sometimes photos even. It goes with the job. I just wanted to set the record straight about this photo not just because I was there and I know the truth, but because Sen. Kerry enjoyed his time and his conversations with the troops, and I hate to see anyone try to make some political hay out of all this or pretend this photo is something it's not.”

[Simply Madeline]

TPM's Take

John Kerry blog


Other than one guy in fatigues, it appears military personnel are scarce overall, not just at Kerry's table.

ETA: Upon viewing the picture with the contrast turned up a bit, there are more people in the picture than I had first thought.

I trust that our troops are not ignorant enough to consider the draft dodging Bill O'Reilly to be heroic, and Vietnam veteran John Kerry to be loathed and despised.

Pogue

[Lainie]

He's not even alone in that photo. He's got his head turned as if he's involved in a conversation with someone to his left and across the table. There's also a man sitting directly across from him -- the gentleman is looking downward, not at Kerry, but people do look at their plates from time to time when they're eating.

Oh, and what Pogue said. If our troops are indeed that ignorant, it's hardly something to celebrate.

Originally Posted by snopes

What is amazing is Bill O'Reilly came to visit with us and the troops at
the CSH the same day and the line for autographs extended through the
palace and people waited for two hours to shake his hand. You decide who
is more respected and loved by us servicemen and women!"

Again I say..."GOD BLESS OUR TROOPS!!"

Yep...nothing says 'patriotism' more than shunning a decorated veteran in favor of people who avoided serving during a time of need.

GOD BLESS BLIND PARTISANSHIP!

[Sara@home]

I don't know much about photography or photoshopping so can someone explain why Kerry looks lighter and brighter than anything else in the photo?

From Malkin's column

He's also wearing the same shirt in these photos from his Iraq visit posted at Blackfive.

Yeah, right. He only has one blue pinpoint cotton oxford shirt. No Northernestern elitist rich guy yuppie would ever own more than one blue pinpoint cotton oxford shirt. Bet he only owns one pair of kahkis, too.

TPM Muckraker commenter Donald notes this photo of the Embassy mess hall, apparently posted by a Baghdad-based photographer on December 25, 2006. I've added a yellow oval to call attention to the decorations hanging from the ceiling, which appear to be identical to those in the photo of Kerry posted on Hennen's site:

Uh, except the ones in the oval are red, white and green and the ones in the photo of Kerry are red, white and blue?

And as others have said, clearly he is listening intently to someone acroos the table and to his left, whether that person was caught on camera or not.

[Lainie]

Originally Posted by Sara@home

Yeah, right. He only has one blue pinpoint cotton oxford shirt. No Northernestern elitist rich guy yuppie would ever own more than one blue pinpoint cotton oxford shirt. Bet he only owns one pair of kahkis, too.

And only one pair of loafers, too, I bet.

[Sara@home]

Kerry's version is the right one.

The right wing bloggers got it wrong again.

Snubbed? Alone? Hardly. Sen. Kerry isn’t eating alone. In fact that photo is at an off the record breakfast meeting Senator Kerry conducted early Sunday morning with the very real Marc Santora of the New York Times Baghdad bureau and his younger colleague from the newspaper. The man shown in the green shirt across from Sen. Kerry is Marc Santora....

A couple days ago I got in touch with Santora. He confirmed that he'd met with Kerry and Danner. Kerry's staffer, it turns out, was wrong on two points: The man across from Kerry wasn't Santora. And the person accompanying Santora wasn't a "younger colleague from the newspaper." Rather, Danner was the one who went on the trip with Santora. (I'd contact the person who first posted the photos, but he's saying he won't say any more on the issue.)

Told that the Kerry people had confirmed that the meeting was an off-the-record talk with reporters, Danner replied: "The discussion was off the record, but given the fact that the Kerry people have confirmed it, I suppose it's all right if I confirm it."

"Santora was to my right," Danner also said. "It was very early in the morning at about 8:30, in the green zone. The reason that people weren't sitting directly around us was that we were having a private conversation." Asked if the troops showed animosity to Kerry, Danner said: "Not in any way that I noticed. A number of soldiers came up and asked to have their photograph taken with him."

Picture was taken Dec. 17th.

[Mint Crisps]

Well I guess that means case is closed.

But I too wonder why that British flag is there. Poor American flag, pushed aside for the British flag.