Vets say Pickens backed off $1 million bet

WASHINGTON, June 27 (UPI) -- Veterans say billionaire T. Boone Pickens backed off on a $1 million bet against claims disparaging 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry's military service.

Pickens' spokesman says he was only speaking of television ads he bankrolled for Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group that organized a media campaign to dispute Kerry's claims about his service in Vietnam, ABCNews.com reported. Pickens issued the $1 million challenge in November.

Kerry, a U.S. senator from Massachusetts, offered to meet with Pickens, who turned him down because "none of the material Kerry or the crewmen provided was germane to the ads," Pickens' spokesman Jay Rosser told ABCNews.com. "Nobody has stepped forward with any factual mistakes in those ads."

Pickens may be cutting too fine a line, said Del Sanudsky, a Swift boat veteran who served with Kerry. He and other veterans sent Pickens photocopies of evidence supporting Kerry's record.

"(Pickens) sent us a brief letter back saying the same thing (he told Kerry)," Sanudsky said.