Posted on 07/16/2004 10:45:53 AM PDT by areafiftyone
WASHINGTON - The Associated Press asked a federal judge Friday to order the Pentagon (news - web sites) to quickly turn over a full copy of President Bush (news - web sites)'s military service record.
The White House has released partial documentation of Bush's military service in the Texas Air National Guard but has not complied with the news service's Freedom of Information Act request for any record archived at a state library records center in Texas, the AP said in a court filing.
Records released so far do not put to rest questions over whether Bush fulfilled his National Guard service for a period during the Vietnam War, the AP argued in papers filed in federal court in New York.
Those records came from federal records clearinghouses. Texas law requires separate record keeping for state National Guard service, and those records should exist on microfilm in Austin, the AP said.
"A significant, ongoing controversy exists over the president's military service during the Vietnam War, specifically whether he performed his required service between May and October 1972," lawyers for the AP wrote.
There also are allegations that potentially embarrassing material was removed from Bush's military file in 1997, when he was running for re-election as Texas governor, the AP said.
"The public has an intense and legitimate interest in knowing the facts concerning the president's military service. Reviewing the microfilm copy of the personnel file at the Texas Records center could well answer the questions that have been raised," the lawyers wrote.
The news service asked U.S. District Judge Harold Baer to hear arguments in the case and to direct the Pentagon to comply with the FOIA request within three days.
AP first sought the Texas records in March, and sued the Pentagon in April over the allegedly slow response.
The Pentagon said in June that military payroll records that could more fully document Bush's whereabouts during his service in the Texas Air National Guard were inadvertently destroyed. And microfilm containing the pertinent National Guard payroll records was damaged and could not be salvaged, according to the Defense Department.
I thought the Pentagon said that Bush's records were destroyed.
...or his divorce records (a la Jack Ryan R-IL)...
What's this 'Groundhog Day'?
That's right. They destroyed them. There is nothing else to release.
From what I have been reading the libs don't believe that Bush's records were destroyed. They think that the Pentagon was hiding them and was conveniently saying they were destroyed because Bush was AWOL.
Strikes me as odd that you try to get a court to rush these records out before Bush's REELECTION. I mean, where were the reporters in 2000 and during the ensuing four years? Seems to undercut their argument that they now need something in a hurry.
Sure, and if they turn up, years later, in a closet at the White House - no harm, no foul.
Even an AWOL Bush over a Communist Kerry.
The libs/dems got a week out of the NG story in 2000.
Already for the 2004 election cycle, they got a couple of different weeks of coverage.
A few months ago, they tried to raise the issue again. It didn't fly. I predicted then that they would keep trying to get at least one more week of solid GWB's NB record by November.
They have run low on new books, Abu Ghraib has been beaten into oblivion, there isn't much left.
This will not stop until each and every vestige of anything having to do with President Bush's life is investigated, castigated, and thoroughly dissected to the nth degree. It will definitely not stop until after the November elections. He must be a pretty strong man to listen to this day after day.
I think its telling the Democrats are forced to try once again a tactic that didn't work four years ago.
That won't be lost on the voters, folks.
I agree - the Haliburton/Cheney thing just died for them. But they are waiting with baited breath for the Wilson Thing.
The Clinton Admin apparently destroyed them.
The Clinton Admin apparently destroyed them. Probably did so because they wanted to pull this trick.
Good comment -- I agree that these lib attacks have a "Groundhog Day" feeling to them.
What else is left to release?
I want to know what judge cleared complete military records for a FOI filing to begin with!!!!
Freedom of Information regs are set up to deal with a certain situtation of the person's office of govt. job.
Bush does not have to give them squat from his Guard record if he does not want to.
Think about it folks. How many Freepers have served in the military....and now work for the govt. A judge's logic that they can demand all of a person's service record...which is not how the FOI regs are set...means that the media could demand every part of the military record of anyone who works for the govt. and served in the military. Its not supposed to work this way.
This is why John Kerry has stopped people from looking at his total military record. Because FOIs can't work like that.
The missing records are on a table outside Hillary Clinton's office.
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