Setting the Record Straight - Frank Lowenstein’s Statement
Below is a statement from Frank Lowenstein. Frank accompanied Sen. Kerry to the Middle East, serves on Sen. Kerry’s Senate staff, and is a longtime Kerry national security advisor.
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.”
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Thanks for posting this, Violet. It seems that Senator Kerry’s trip was very serious and positive.
It is too bad that the right wingnuts will take any document of any situation and crop it, edit it, or otherwise distort it to represent whatever negative meaning they wish to convey.
When Michelle Malkin wanted to “prove” the legitimacy of the first photo, she posted another photo that showed the Senator actually dining with the troops in Iraq! But the version of that photo that she posted, was CROPPED from the version available on Yahoo - cutting out the face of the person listening intently to Senator Kerry. Hmmm, now how is it that she posted a cropped version of that pic, I wonder?
Yes, okay, there has been way too much discussion of this photo and the right wing’s twisting and turning.
I’m done. It’s just one more for the “right wing will twist and distort anything” files.
RW nonsense aside, this is pretty cool: a further glimpse into an amazing trip by Senator Kerry.
The RWers are so desperate. They must really be afraid of Sen Kerry.
I saw this at DU:
Jesus—the man can’t sneeze without it becoming the subject of a right-wing talking point.
I’d satirize their antics on my site, but I’m afraid I’ll give them more ideas—seems nothing’s too stupid, nothing’s too far from the truth for them.
Isn’t it awful Senator Kerry has a Christmas tree?
I also hear from a reliable source that he likes spaghetti. And this fact has been *covered up* by the liberal media! They don’t want you to know….but here, in the no-spin zone, we call it like it is.
Glad to see Frank Lowenstein set the record straight, not that it really needed to be set straight. The picture proved nothing to me whatsoever; the fact that he was being interviewed just showed what I knew already to be true—that people are going to come up to John Kerry, especially when you’re away from home and suddenly see a familar famous face!
I’m with MH. I’ve probably spent too much time on this already—right wingers seem to latch onto something, and they just won’t LET GO. After a while, when you discover there’s nothing much to the story, that it’s just best to let IT go, and let them chew on it in a corner amongst themselves.
Anyway, this was an opportunity to get a glimpse of what Sen. Kerry did in Iraq—the town hall with 100 troops sounded very interesting. I hope the soldiers and the senator learned a lot from each other.
Leave it to the RW to make something out of nothing. I didn’t believe for a moment that what was being claimed was accurate, but I was upset that the RW blogs were yucking it up at Senator Kerry’s expense, using lies once again to distort something good Senator Kerry was doing.
Mr. Lowenstein should not of had to come out and set the record straight, but I am glad that he did. We now have the truth for an actual attendee,to counter their lies.
I don’t know what to think. There is so much deception and hatred percolating through the right wing grinding machine, I wonder how any one man can take it?
Senator Kerry is a strong and brave man fighting for what many of us agree is the common good. To see him treated worse than a traitor by those so filled with malice, hate and disregard for the truth is truly depressing. Why one man should subject himself to such ridicule is hard to comprehend. I am reminded of damocles who, no matter what he does is forced to endure an ever present threat to his honor and integrity.
I so deeply hope that whatever Senator Kerry’s decision regarding running for President, he will always be reassured that there are millions of Americans who do not harbor ill will towards him, but have a profound respect for everything that he has done in his public life. I hope that it will be that knowledge that will allow him to face everyday with the comfort that the most vocal critics are but an aberration. Those who should speak so maliciously about him truly do not care about their fellow citizens of this or any other country. They can not begin to comprehend why Senator Kerry - whose honest and caring attempts to help his fellow man - is beyond being insulted by their self serving rhetoric. For Senator Kerry really is a man of the people, but too many of the “people” have been corrupted by malice and lies leading to a profound antipathy.
Should Senator Kerry feel obliged to run for President may God protect him and his family from what is sure to be even more outrages against his sincere attempts to make the world better for all of us.
Thanks for this, and especially for the extra information it provided on Sen. Kerry’s fact-finding trip to the Middle East. Facts and the future of our country: we used to care about those two things once. I am so grateful that Sen. Kerry is helping us care about them again. I so strongly hope that this man of integrity, experience, vision, and compassion will be our next President.
Thank you for your comments, oncall.
Thanks for this post. It’s really too bad that Mr. Lowenstein got dragged into all the drama that surrounded this. It was the unfortunate consequence of RW bloggers assigning the worst possible meanings and motives to what they observe about JK.
It’s not Kerry but Bush who the troops dislike. His approval among the troops is falling towards the level of his support here according to a poll in Military Times.
More at Liberal Values:
http://liberalvaluesblog.com/?p=824
Thank you for posting this account of Kerry’s real activities in Iraq. This attempt to insult Senator Kerry never had any teeth to begin with. They were clearly misrepresenting the photo because Kerry is clearly speaking to someone. It also came out that the man who posted it to begin with was a former Bush speechwriter now in Iraq.
So, what does this tell us? For one, it tells me that this man could not find a really bad photograph with troops reacting negatively to the Senator. It also suggests they have nothing else to hit the Senator with because even if this were true it would simply show that the RW propaganda made the soldiers feel that a prominent Senator was against them, when in fact he has a 40 year record supporting the troops. Should make the Republicans proud of themselves that they were willing to make the troops feel less supported than they are just for politics. Fortunately, they have had experience in seeing the RW lie.
The odd thing is that because of their stupid attack, we know that Senator Kerry spent a lot of time with soldiers on the front line and avoided any hint of publicity or photo ops. What a contrast with Senators McCain and Leiberman, who went to the Green Zone and then had a photo op press conference. Although I assume we will never hear anything from the town hall, I bet it would be fascinating to see.
The link to Lowenstein’s background was fascinating. His father was an amazing person - and he appears to be too.
My gosh, just read the writer’s bio, and it’s Allard Lowenstein’s son. I am old enough to respect and know about him.
Kerry has had just an activist history for the good, and inspires such loyalty. No wonder the opposition hatchets come out.
Talking about old friends of his, I saw the IMAX movie today at the Natural History Museum about Mars, by documentary filmmaker, George Butler. Unless there is another with the same name, he is a longtime, loyal friend, responsible for Pumping Iron, and many more, like Going Upriver: the long war of John Kerry.
See Roving Mars. It will remind you about the wonders of science, and how teamwork and dreaming the impossible can come true. Forgot the ugliness of this adminstration for a minute.
Marjorie-
George Butler did a wonderful book of photographs, “John Kerry A Portrait” If you haven’t seen it, you should try to find a copy.
Photos from 1970-2003
I remember a couple, GV. Maybe as a book and magazine spead.
Some warm and human images as a dad, and some from the campaign. Others what look like participation in the anti-war movement and hearings, including Butler, as also shown in the movie, Going Upriver.
In the Fall of 2003, to encourage supporters feeling the brunt of Dean hype, I think, Butler held a small showing of its beginning, a rough cut.
We felt determined that this man should prevail, many of us feeling that for decades.
Marjorie - some of them did show up as part of a nice spread in TIME, but I highly recommend the book. George Butler is an amazing artist.