PIERCE TELLS REPORTER CBS GAVE HIM 'LOTS MORE DOCUMENTS'

Kerry Spot ^ | Sep 17, 2004 | Jim Geraghty

[Mike Fieschko]

Just exchanged emails with Garry Moon, columnist for the Athens, Ga. Banner-Herald. He shared a stunning bit of news with me, and said he wanted Kerry Spot readers to know, since he doesn’t know when his column is going to run in the Banner-Herald. Moon managed to contact James J. Pierce, the fourth expert that CBS has cited as one of its experts verifying its documents.

(I asked “who is James Pierce?” yesterday. In light of Moon’s news, maybe I was a little harsh on the guy.)

Moon writes:

I called Pierce at about 7:30 p.m. Thursday night. I told him I was with the Athens Banner-Herald newspaper, doing a piece about the Killian memos. He asked me how I got his home phone number, and I told him. I thought he might hang up, but he stayed on the line... maybe because I was upfront with him and not aggressive in asking him questions. He said he couldn't give me many details about his analysis of the documents that CBS gave him because he was still “in the middle of studying them“. More on that to come...

[snip]

- The key point: Pierce seemed upset that CBS is using his ‘Professional Opinion’ memo of 9/14 to prop up their defense about the Killian memos being authentic. Pierce said “CBS is wrong, CBS is wrong” to portray it that way, saying it twice for emphasis. He said that his PO memo was only a preliminary judgment, “not a final conclusion” on all the documents.

- The (for me) stunner: Pierce said that the reason he hadn't rendered a final conclusion yet was that he was only “midway through his analysis” of all the documents - speaking as though there were many docs. CBS gave you other documents besides the four that 60 Minutes used in the story? “Lots more documents” were his exact words.

So it seems like CBS News is - again - misrepresenting what their own experts have told them about the Killian documents. Indeed, given that “lots of documents” are involved, who knows whether the documents that he referred to in his PO actually concerned the four that 60 Minutes used in the story

First thought: Good job, Garry.

Second thought: Just what the heck are these other documents that CBS gave him? Was CBS planning a second follow-up story, using more documents from their source?

What else is CBS not telling us?

[Mike Fieschko]

I did the snipping.

[Sgt_Schultze]

They are assessing the fallout. They want to make sure the next wave of forgeries is more believable.

[Renfield]

National Review does not require excerpting. Please post the whole article.

[boxerblues]

A lot of legitimate documents were released as a result of AP suing under the FOIA at the same time as the phoney one.

[blue-duncan]

This sounds like what one of the Freepers was commenting on yesterday when he/she opined that CBS publicized the obvious forgeries to get a negative response from President Bush and then would follow up with the real documents or better forgeries and call him a liar.

[Callahan]

This is a blog post. I think that is the whole article.

[kcvl]

CBS DOCUMENT 'SOURCE' COMPARED BUSH TO HITLER

http://www.drudgereport.com/

[kjam22]

Sounds like an interview with another useful idiot.

[Callahan]

Then they would have released them already. More likely CBS had a pile of docs that they knew were crap. They picked the best looking ones and ran with them. The others are probably drawn with crayon.

[kcvl]

CABLE NEWS RACE
WED., SEPT 15, 2004

WEATHER CH 3,500,000 [VIEWERS]
FOXNEWS O'REILLY 3,200,000
FOXNEWS HANNITY/COLMES 2,800,000
FOXNEWS GRETA 2,300,000
FOXNEWS SHEP SMITH 2,200,000
CNN LARRY KING 1,400,000
CNN AARON BROWN 1,100,000
MSNBC HARDBALL 685,000
CNN PAULA ZAHN 643,000
MSNBC OLBERMANN 570,000
MSNBC SCARBOROUGH 518,000
CNN COOPER 359,000

[thegreatbeast]

Just darn!

[4CJ]

This sounds like what one of the Freepers was commenting on yesterday when he/she opined that CBS publicized the obvious forgeries to get a negative response from President Bush and then would follow up with the real documents or better forgeries and call him a liar.

Better forgeries.

[Mike Fieschko]

Here's the part I snipped:

[begin rest of article]

- Pierce is not happy that CBS plastered his home address all over the Internet (it's on the ’professional opinion’ memo in the letterhead). A CNN crew was “banging on his door at 5:00am” on Thursday morning trying to get a statement, and camped there until he called the local police to have them removed from his property. His phone’s been ringing off the hook, and he said a reporter [with a major publication] has been “hounding” him the last couple of days, with veiled threats of some kind of legal action against Pierce unless he gave an interview to the reporter. He said the last few days have been “hellish” for him.

- Pierce came off to me as a very nice fellow, but he sounded tired and even a little bewildered... he's in a bit over his head, I think. I think I could have coaxed more out of him but I overheard someone calling him to the front door, saying “the sergeant” was at the door, so he had to get off the phone - perhaps he had summoned the police again to hold the CNN hounds at bay (I caught Aaron Brown's show on CNN last night and they ran a clip of Pierce leaving his house and getting into his car...looked like they were set up across the street from his house).

[end rest of article]

I snipped because I thought it was extraneous to the point of the article, which is the title on Kerry Spot.

[PilloryHillary]

"This sounds like what one of the Freepers was commenting on yesterday when he/she opined that CBS publicized the obvious forgeries to get a negative response from President Bush and then would follow up with the real documents or better forgeries and call him a liar."

YUP!!! Be vigilant......I still think something is up folks.

[Doogle]

just might be the other way around.
Put what you have out now, (forged) and if the public takes that all in we should be able to pass the rest off as real


Doogle

[Nasty McPhilthy]

Bob Tuke's name keeps showing up in this mess, also.

http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:vgURDwVnVcIJ:timblair.spleenville.com/archives/007485.php+burkett,tuke&hl=en

[ModelBreaker]

This explains a lot about post-fraud-exposure behavior by Rather. This was never planned by CBS as a single story. This was the fake. The real punch is still coming. That's why Rather is so insistent that Bush answer the charges. He thinks he has something that will make Bush look like a liar. But he needs to get Bush to take a position first. Wisely, it looks like Bush is going to make Dan play his hand first.

[Chewbacco]

No credibility.

Now, CBS could present a sworn statement signed by G-d himself (and they probobly will eventually) and no one will trust it or believe it.

Rather, and CBS News are done.

[Rutles4Ever]

Go ahead and excerpt from places like NRO and MarkSteyn.com, etc... Why not give them the traffic? It's the least we can do for their free service.

[Diddle E. Squat]

fyi