John Kerry Mug

John Kerry has spent a lifetime both fighting corruption and being targeted by the corrupt. After his service in Vietnam, Kerry took a stance against the war and Richard Nixon targeted him for his Vietnam protest activities. President Nixon, (aka Tricky Dick) can be heard in taped conversations ordering that his staff to "take down the young demagogue" (aka John Kerry). The individual they chose to lead their attack dog was another Vietnam veteran. This same individual, although unsuccessful in thwarting Kerry and the Vietnam protest in 1971, reemerged during the 2004 presidential election to once again attack Kerry, this time with a lot of conservative money behind him. Sam Fox, recent recess apointment by George W. Bush, personally gave 50K to the "swifties". The trail of the swift-boating campaign was thinly veiled and led back to the GOP and even to White House "Rasputin" Karl Rove, who sent a letter thanking the "swift-boaters" for their help during the election. Prior to his election as Lt. Governor of Massachusetts and his election to the United States Senate, John Kerry served as Assistant District Attorney where he initiated special units to fight organized crime and white-collar crime. He was one of the first victim advocates, starting programs to council rape victims and other crime victims. Kerry put a notorious local mobster behind bars and won convictions in other important cases, including one high profile rape case. "“I always had a prosecutor’s mind and a prosecutor’s bent," Kerry was quoted as saying in a New Yorker interview. In the Senate, Kerry continued his war on corruption, taking on an investigatory role that led to the exposé of the Iran-Contra scandal, which was a particularly nasty episode in recent history. Accused drug runners, who were shipping guns to the Nicaraguan Contras, claimed they were under orders of the National Security Council. The implication was that the administration, or at least the National Security Council, turned a blind eye to the drug running. There were attempts to derail Kerry’s investigation, but the scandal was ultimately brought to light. President Reagan's military aide, Oliver North was tried on sixteen felony counts, convicted on three and later had all charges dismissed by the Supreme Court. Today he is a conservative commentator on Fox News. The Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America, Elliott Abrams, pleaded guilty to a felony for lying about foreign funding for the Contras. He was later pardoned by the George Bush Sr. and was appointed by George W. Bush in 2005 as National Security Advisor for Global Democracy Strategy. During the Iran-Contra investigation, Kerry pursued the financing for the South American drug cartels and the investigation led to the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), a powerful, international institution that was eventually exposed as a front for drug running, money laundering and terrorism. Kerry faced strong opposition from the Reagan and Bush administrations and also from powerful members of his own party who did not want him to pursue his investigation. The covert goal of the BCCI was to finance the destruction of Western influence and as part of its goal financed numerous Muslim terrorist organizations. There were alleged CIA connections and a vast web of BCCI corruption that may not be entirely known for generations. Kerry probed further and delved into the connection between drug trafficking and terrorism. In "The New War, the Web of Crime that Threatens America's Security", which Kerry wrote in 1997, he warned of the increasing threat from terrorists. While Kerry did not win the presidency in 2004, he remains in the Senate, fighting with even more vigor, the corruption that has our country in a stranglehold. And the attacks on him continue as one might expect.