KERRY STILL WON'T RELEASE ALL HIS MILITARY RECORDS

If you believe Santa really does fill all those stockings, maybe you believed what the Boston Globe reported on June 7: "Senator John F. Kerry, ending at least two years of refusal, has waived privacy restrictions and authorized the release of his full military and medical records." (Bold added)

But the Globe is a "Kerry friendly" paper. So it's no surprise that under questioning by bloggers and a few in MSM, the Globe's report that Kerry authorized "the release of his full military and medical records" is falling apart.

In a Chicago Sun-Times op-ed, Thomas H. Lipscomb, senior fellow at the Annenberg Center for the Digital Future, reports Kerry's Senate office wouldn't provide a copy of the form Kerry signed for the Globe nor would Kerry's staff answer questions.

Merely signing a record release form, known in the military as SF-180, doesn't mean everything in a veteran's records is released. Kerry and any other veteran can specify what records are to be released.

Lipscomb discussed the matter with an expert.

"There is nothing magic about signing a SF 180," said former Naval Judge Advocate General Mark Sullivan. "It is sort of like your checkbook. You can fill out a check for one dollar or a million. It is the same check form."

"And the Globe story says Kerry sent it to the Navy Personnel Command, which is only a limited storage location. So it is not surprising that the Globe then notes that what they received was largely 'duplication' of records previously released. The Navy Personnel Command primarily stores a subset of service records rather than a person's full military records. There is no doubt there are a lot of after-action records missing from what Kerry has released," said Sullivan.

Did anyone at the Globe or in MSM see the SF-180 Kerry signed?

According to Lipscomb, "no one in the press has yet claimed to have seen a copy of Kerry's SF-180. When asked if she had a copy of Kerry's SF 180, the Globe's Managing Editor Mary Jane Wilkinson said, 'I haven't seen it, and I don't know if anyone here has.'"

Meanwhile, there's something Wilkinson wants us to know: "The Boston Globe is not going to make available the (Kerry records) we have received."

Sad but not surprising.