Max Cleland's schedule on
August 25 in Texas needs to be fully examined. Cleland tried to deliver a letter to President Bush around 1pm in Crawford, followed immediately by a short press conference. When did he leave Texas, where did he leave from, and what did he do in the time in between?
Only days prior to Cleland's impromptu visit to Texas, he began
discussions with Bill Burkett, who is now known to be CBS's source for the forged documents.
Later the same day of Cleland's Texas trip, Burkett announced in a rant to President Bush on the progressive
onlinejournal that, "I know from your files that we have now reassembled, the fact that you did not fulfill your oath, taken when you were commissioned to 'obey the orders of the officers appointed over you'."
What time was this rant posted?
Did Cleland help him write it?
Who is the "we" Burkett is referring to concerning the documents being "reassembled"?
Did Cleland help Burkett forge the documents on that day?
Crawford, Texas, where Cleland was at 1pm on August 25, is only
162 miles from Baird, Bill Burkett's home.
Did Cleland make a visit there that day?
Did someone in the Kerry campaign act as a middleman in passing along the information to CBS that Burkett had these documents?
Did someone in the Kerry campaign lobby CBS to use these documents or vouch for their authenticity?
CBS claimed that these documents came from
"unimpeachable sources." Other than Burkett, who are the other sources?
Why did CBS consider
Burkett "unimpeachable"?
Was the journalistic fraud perpetrated by CBS so deep and corrupt that they actually relied on the sole testimony of a documented crazy person who had already been discredited on kook conspiracy theories involving Bush?
Or is it more reasonable to assume that CBS News would not put their credibility and even their careers on the line unless there was someone like Cleland or Barnes vouching for the documents as well who CBS is now protecting?
CBS must answer the question of how they learned that Burkett now had these memos. Did the discovery of these new documents play a part in Ben Barnes' decision that he was now ready to talk to 60 Minutes on air, after Mary Mapes had long been urging him to do so? Is there a connection between this sudden change of heart by Barnes just
two days before CBS hit "pay dirt" with these forged documents?
Did Ben Barnes see these documents even before CBS did?
Here is some
insight into the question:
Rumors about the memos had circulated in the Democratic Party and media circles for weeks; in fact, CBS had used their existence to help persuade Barnes to talk. He told Democratic friends before the "60 Minutes II" broadcast that if documents the network was hunting for were found—and were authentic—"the election is over."
But now we learn that Barnes decided to talk to CBS just
a few days before CBS received the documents:
During the Republican National Convention in New York, Rather got a call from Ben Barnes, a onetime Texas lieutenant governor and veteran Democrat who has known the anchor, a former Houston TV reporter, for 30 years. Barnes said he was ready to say before the cameras that he had pulled strings to get Bush a coveted slot in the Texas Guard in 1968. Mapes had long been urging Barnes to tell his story.
On Friday, Sept. 3, the day after the convention ended, Mapes hit pay dirt. She told Howard her source had given her the documents.
This would mean that the Kerry campaign -- which Barnes is co-chair of -- got the documents
first, then CBS received them a few days later.