Posted on 09/09/2004 12:41:23 PM PDT by The G Man
After contacting several experts, a rather notable Forensic Document Examiner named Dr. Peter Bouffard took the time to examine a pdf of the documents and perform an initial visual analysis of their authenticity. Dr. Bouffard has a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Michigan, but got involved in forensic examination of typefaces after working in graphics with NCR until 1973 and taking a two-year Certification Program in Document Examination at Georgetown University. After completing the program, he became specifically interested in typewriter classification and went to work for a prosecutors crime lab in Lake County, Ohio.
Using something called the Haas Atlas, the definitive collection of various typefaces, Mr. Bouffard (and other forensic document examiners) examined the veracity of various documents for over 30 years. Beginning in 1988, Mr. Bouffard hired a programmer to write a computer database program that catalogues the nearly 4,000 typefaces that appear in the Haas Atlas. This computer program is now a forensic standard that is sold as a companion to the Haas Atlas by American Society of Questioned Document Examiners (ASQDE).
What did Dr. Bouffard think of the documents?
First, the necessary caveats:
The pdf document is of poor quality. It seems to have been copied and recopied several times, blurring letter characteristics.
Also, certain types of analysis can only be done on the original documents, which dont seem to be available, even to CBS.
So Dr. Bouffard is very clear that his analysis is not 100% positive. That being said
Its just possible that this might be a Times Roman font, which means that it would have been created on a computer. Its very possible that someone decided to create this document on a computer... Ive run across this situation before my gut is this could just well be a fabrication.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
SNIP
--- Next, Dr. Bouffard began entering individual characters in an attempt to match them to the remaining fonts that were available on proportional spacing typewriters of that era, focusing on numbers. Thus far, one character stood out, the number 4. In the document provided by CBS News, the number 4 does not "have a foot" and has a closed top, which is indicative of Times New Roman, a font exclusive to more modern computer word processing programs.
* He looked through old papers he's written, and noted that he's come up against the inconsistency of the "4" several previous times with forgeries that attempt to duplicate old proportional spaced documents with a computer word processing program.---
To Rather: YOU'RE BUSTED DUDE!
The election is OVER and Dan Rather's career ends on the low note he'll be remembered for and rightly so.
There should be rousing demands for Rather to resign!
Zounds! CBS got bitten by the moose.
My sister was bitten by a moose....
It's 59:59 and counting....
CBS Busted BIG TIME.
FONTGATE.
They are going down.
Somebody should be arrested for this. And there should be investigations if the attempt was to bring down a sitting US President through patent and blatant forgeries.
No way, I've offered Dan a better deal, He can take my 10,000 bill and only give be back a hundred. harharhar
It wouldn't be the first time they had been caught sexing up the truth. Does anyone recall the time they had an American voice actor do a fake Iraqi translator accent for Saddam's interview?
For great justice!
Dude, I wouldn't be breathing today if not for Reynolds Aluminum!
The only typewriter of that era that I know of used by the military was the IBM executive. It had proportional fonts.
Looks like the experts have already eliminated this due to the font issue.
Rather needs to resign immediately.
Blessings, Bobo
I'd love to see someone prosecuted for this fraud. I guess it's hoping for too much for someone's hard drive to provide the evidence that those documents were produced by computer.
Staggeringly good stuff.
I think retyping the text is one thing, but I doubt seriously that a PA would put the signature on the retyped text.
I know what you mean. I have one too.
The media will report that back in the late 80s Dr. Bouffard's baby sitter's best friend dated someone who knew a nanny that worked for the Bushes.
Would they go to the trouble of re-recording the translators voice for an interview with Saddam because they didn't like the sound of the original?
'cause they did...
-- l8s
-- jrawk
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