DeVore stands by his account of Lebanon incident

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Republican Senate candidate Chuck DeVore said Friday that “the liberal media” had accused him of “a Blumenthal moment” — a reference to Connecticut Atty. Gen. Richard Blumenthal’s admission this week that he had misspoken about his military record in the Vietnam War era.

A Times report Friday said DeVore, who spent 24 years in the California Army National Guard and U.S. Army Reserve, mentioned during a March candidate debate that he was “shot at in Lebanon” without making clear that it happened while he was a student and a reporter for the Orange County Register. He was on a media tour of southern Lebanon when the incident occurred.

Another journalist who was on the tour contradicted DeVore’s statement that “the Syrians shot at us and kind of drove us off the hill.”

Former ABC News correspondent Bob Zelnick told The Times that nothing he “saw or experienced could reasonably be interpreted as our having been driven off the hill by Syrian fire.”

DeVore stood by his account at an appearance before a group of Republican women in Riverside. He played portions of the tape that he recorded during the 1984 episode. It included sounds of gunfire, narration from DeVore and discussion with the men he describes as the Israeli soldiers who accompanied the group.

DeVore provided his own narration during the Riverside event. After listening to one of the popping rounds of gunfire, he told the audience: “Hear how quiet everything got after that? It’s because they were whistling over our heads at that point.” “Hear that? That’s the Israeli officer going: OK, we’re through. You’re all off the hill.”

The officer’s words are difficult to decipher on the tape, which DeVore has posted on his website. Though DeVore’s transcript says the officers “were clearly concerned for our safety,” on the tape it sounds like the officer could have said, “OK, are we all through?”

A transcript of the tape sent to a Los Angeles Times reporter indicated that DeVore was laughing during the incident, and others were making light of it.

DeVore said his campaign distributed the tape to the media “so I could prove to them that I’m not a liar.”

“The liberal media is now accusing me of a Blumenthal moment,” DeVore said. And it’s like — excuse me?”

--Maeve Reston in Riverside