Why did the Max Cleland connection fall out of the forged document story? Cleland admitted that he is the one who directed Burkett to the Kerry campaign, and talk to him while he was in Texas trying to deliver a letter to Bush.
It seems he might have been the “impeachable source” either him or the Kerry campaign.
CBS’s Mapes called Lockhardt not to pass Burkett’s phone number, but to thank them for the forged documents, in my opinion. Why don’t we hear Max Cleland’s name in this story anymore?
If these documents existed before this year, Ferkit would have had them all over his website, and Moore would have used them too.
So, obviously forgeries.
Burkett claims he had handwritten notes he took some time ago.
Burkett is in bed with Ferkit on this story for a long time.
Ferkit helps get the notes 'reassembled' into type. Feb 04.
Ferkit and Zack Exley are tight.
Ferkit and McAuliffe talk about "breaking open" the TANG issue with something big soon. Spring 04
Exely is taken into the Kerry campaign this summer.
Carville, Begala, Lockhart join the Kerry campaign primarily to work on the Swift Vet and military issues summer 04.
Fortunate Son campaign is devised. Summer 04.
Kerry slipping in the polls.
Ferik asks Exley when the forgeries will be used, and keeps blabbing about the issue on his website.
Exley talks to Lockhart, Begala and Carville about "the time is now" to get this out.
Exley and the other dirty tricksters give the 'reassembled' forgeries to Burkett, but state he must go to the press with it, to distance the Kerry campaign.
Burkett gets the documents, and is confused, wants the campaign to use them now.
Finally he goes to Mapes, to contact Lockhart.
Kerry camp tries to stiff arm the contact to maintain plausible deniability, but know they must at least talk to Burkett so he will work with Mapes.
Lockhart calls Burkett who feels like a big man, and tells Mapes to press on.
Lockhart et al are giddy when Rather goes live.
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.
If it was the documents that convinced Barnes to do the interview, and he decided to do the interview a couple days before CBS got them, then 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.
Why did Barnes have this sudden change of heart just before CBS recieved the documents?
The close proximity of these correlated events is almost certainly
not a coincidence.