Memogate: Did Burkett Tip His Hand?

Retired Texas National Guard officer Bill Burkett, a long-time Bush-hater who has been named by several news outlets as a possible source for the forged documents in the CBS memogate scandal, wrote the following on August 13, 2004, for Democrats.com, before the memos surfaced:

I have found no documentation from LTC Killian's hand or staff that indicate that this unit was involved in any complicit way to either cover for the failures of 1LT Bush, or to provide him pay or certification for training not completed.

So, if Burkett found no such documentation - did he forge it? And did he then sell CBS a bill of goods, convincing them that the memos were authentic and "accurately reflected" that for which there actually is no authentic documentation? [Hat tip: Mike Hollihan]

Here's a story from today's Washington Post reporting that the forged documents were faxed from a Kinko's in Abilene, Texas, which is the closest Kinko's to Burkett's home 21 miles away in Baird, Texas.

I'll bring you more links later regarding Burkett.

Burkett is the FALL guy, it's someone MUCH closer to the Kerry camp than this guy. There's NO WAY Rather would have said it was an "unimpeachable source" for this kook. Nor would he have worked so hard to try to dodge this.

No, he may be the "sacrificial goat" they offer up, but he's NOT the one who did this. It's likely 'Ol Terry boy, or Carville, or Rather's own daughter.

The REAL perpetrator is someone that Rather and dnCBS would LITERALLY put their careers and the entire dnCBS news organization in jeopardy of collapsing for.

No, Bill Burkett is NOT the man... And you can bet, if it turns out they name him, he'll either take the money and run and "admit it" or he'll deny it and note they're trying to make him the fall guy. But he is NOT the source of those documents.

Read that again. It's quite damning:

I have found no documentation from LTC Killian's hand or staff that indicate that this unit was involved in any complicit way to either cover for the failures of 1LT Bush

How does that square with the CBS memos where Killian supposedly wrote that he was under pressure to "sugar coat" Bush's evaluation?

today's Washington Post reporting that the forged documents were faxed from a Kinko's in Abilene, Texas, which is the closest Kinko's to Burkett's home 21 miles away in Baird, Texas.

This is hearsay.
Don't believe it until CBS shows us the original timestamped fax.

CBS has zero credibility and nothing about this story can be believed until there is a full disclosure with real evidence from CBS.
And the source of this claim, Strong, has already lied for CBS once.

I'm very suspicious that Burkett is being offered up as a fall guy and red herring to distract from an even more sinister conspiracy that strikes at the very heart of Kerry's campaign and the DNC headquarters.

Besides, Dan Rather claimed the documents came from an "unimpeachable source".
Surely CBS would not trust a character as shady as Burkett for that, right?
Especially one who is on the record as saying he had no such documents, right?

That would be the most scandalous part of the story yet, as far as Dan Rather and CBS News is concerned. This kind of thing could end CBS's news division completely.

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