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Re: Kerry's POW-MIA CV in His Own Words

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: July 21, 2003

"Kerry's Take on Legislative Achievements

By The Associated Press

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry recently was asked what he has accomplished in the Senate that would not have been done had he never served. Here is his answer:

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"I think there are actually a lot of things. I mean, I can't -- Can I say that it wouldn't be done, that somebody else might not have picked up the cudgel? I don't know. But I know I led a lot of fights in the Senate that nobody else was doing and that made a difference, whether it was leading the fight to put 100,000 cops on the streets.

"People said it couldn't be done and the (Clinton) administration had given up on the money and it wasn't going to happen and I went on the floor and made it happen ....

"POW/MIA, I think certainly is another. I think some of the fishery laws, some of the environmental laws that we did ... There are a bunch of small-business initiatives that I have undertook in terms of small-business lending, startup venture capital efforts. Things like that.

"The Kerry amendments on money laundering and international cooperation agreements with respect to law enforcement. The entire focus on the Contras and the illegal war in Central America, blowing the whistle on Oliver North's private aid network. Sort of using the investigative side of Congress to make some things happen.

"Noriega. Drugs. Narcotics. CIA. Et cetera. I think if you go back and read our report on narcotics and terrorism that we put out in ... '88, I don't think anybody would have done that. I think that was a huge piece of work that really was quite groundbreaking. ... It led to laws, it led to exposure of the problem. It made it very difficult for the Reagan administration to continue to prosecute the war. It had a profound impact on people's perceptions of what was going on in Central America.

"The Philippines, that would not have happened. I led the fight to change the -- that brought Marcos to hold elections in the Philippines. I did that single-handedly.

"I did the Vietnam normalization and embargo. The strategy that I laid out and pursued would not have happened without me. ... (Sen. John) McCain was involved, but I brought him to it. It's my initiative. I started it."

©2003 The Associated Press "