Kerry to release records
Officials say they will be posted online
WASHINGTON -- After a day of heated criticism from Republican Party officials, the campaign of Senator John F. Kerry yesterday switched course and said it would release more of Kerry's military records.
An initial distribution of 13 pages to the Associated Press last night did not include any previously unavailable documents. A campaign official said in a press release that more records would be posted online by today.
On Sunday, Kerry was asked on NBC's ''Meet The Press" whether he would release all of his military and medical records. He said, ''I have" and added that they were open to inspection at his headquarters. But when a reporter from The Boston Globe sought to review the records on Monday, campaign spokesman Michael Meehan said no records beyond those already given to this newspaper would be released. ''He is releasing all military records he has released to The Boston Globe," Meehan said.
Yesterday, Republican officials blasted Kerry as failing to live up to what they considered to be his promise to release all military and medical records. The Republican Party chairman, Ed Gillespie, mocked Kerry's refusal to release all records, saying, ''Guess it depends on what your definition of the word 'all' is."
Late yesterday, after Kerry's stance and the Republican taunts became the subject of numerous media reports, the campaign announced that it would release more records than it had given to the Globe, but it did not say what additional records would be made available.
The campaign said in a brief statement that it ''will post the military records that the US Navy provided Kerry on his active military service from 1966-1970 on www.johnkerry.com."
The campaign has released records that are publicly available under the Freedom of Information Act, but many papers can remain secret under privacy law and thus can only be distributed at Kerry's discretion.
By Monday, the Globe had already obtained from or been shown by the campaign perhaps two dozen pages of documents and, aside from a letter of recommendation, they do not include evaluations from Kerry's commanding officers.
Until now, the campaign mostly has provided publicly available citations for Kerry's three Purple Hearts, Bronze Star, and Silver Star. The Silver Star citation, for example, describes how Kerry beached his boat to run after a Viet Cong holding a rocket launcher. Kerry ''leaped ashore, pursued the man behind a hootch, and killed him," the report says.
Separately, Meehan earlier this year showed the Globe a copy of a medical report that said Kerry was treated for a shrapnel wound that led to his first Purple Heart. Meehan would not allow a copy to be made of the document.
The campaign, which declined a request last year to release all of Kerry's medical-related military records, agreed to show that document to a reporter after one of Kerry's commanding officers said he raised questions about the nature of the wound and whether Kerry had taken enemy fire. The matter is reported in a forthcoming book by a team of Globe reporters, ''John F. Kerry: The Complete Biography."
Yesterday, the campaign showed that document to the Associated Press.
The other documents released yesterday to the AP include the award citations and two after-action reports that describe the wounds that Kerry received for his second and third Purple Hearts. The award citations have been available from the campaign previously, and the after-action reports have been publicly available from the Navy Historical Center and were reported last year by the Globe.
Last night, Kerry spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said, ''John Kerry's very proud of his military record, having won three Purple Hearts, a Silver Star, and a Bronze Star. He is proud of the people that he served with -- This is a story that we want to tell, because it shows a man of great leadership. John Kerry is not only proud of talking about his military record, because it shaped him as a leader and a person. But there are also others who are able to talk about him, like his crewmates who have stood by his side in his decades since their days in the war."
President Bush's military service record in the Texas Air National Guard has been the subject of controversy. His service concluded with a final year of sporadic duty and an early return in 1973 to civilian life. The White House has said all of Bush's military records have been public; the White House did not make public his medical records but allowed reporters to look at some of those records.
Earlier yesterday, the Kerry campaign chairman, Jeanne Shaheen, said in television interviews on Fox and CNN that the records were already posted. But Gillespie, the GOP chairman, said they were not posted at that time.
For months, the site has included a section on Kerry's service record, but it does not offer copies of actual records; instead it is a summation of Kerry's service, based in part on a series published last year by the Globe. Meehan did not respond to a request to clarify whether some reports have been online and where they are located or whether Shaheen was referring to the summary.
In the interview on CNN, correspondent Judy Woodruff asked Shaheen whether Kerry would release ''all of the material, evaluations by his commanding officers? All of his medical records?"
''Our intent is to make all of those records available," Shaheen responded. ''Most of them are -- they're all available on the website that we have today."
When Woodruff asked whether ''everything [is] going to be put out," Shaheen said, ''we intend to put out everything that we have."
Kranish reported from Washington; he can be reached by e-mail at kranish@globe.com. Healy traveled with Kerry in Florida. 
