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The Swift Boat Vets web site is reporting that Barnes' son has just been on a talk show and stated that he believes that the documents that CBS have are a mixture of genuine and fakes.

Commander's Son Questions Memos on Bush's Service
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE and JIM RUTENBERG

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/10/politics/campaign/10guard.html

Published: September 10, 2004

ASHINGTON, Sept. 9 - A day after memos emerged suggesting that George W. Bush received favorable treatment when he was in the National Guard during the Vietnam War, the son of Mr. Bush's squadron commander said he doubted the authenticity of some of the memos his father was said to have written.

The White House, meanwhile, for the second day in a row dismissed renewed questions about Mr.Bush's service as "recycled" and said they were part of a "coordinated attack" by Senator John Kerry, Mr. Bush's Democratic opponent in the presidential campaign, and his associates.

The new fracas over Mr. Bush's service began after CBS News and its program "60 Minutes'' reported on four memos they said were from the personal file of Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian, who died 20 years ago. The memos said Mr. Bush had disobeyed a direct order to go for a physical in 1972 and that Colonel Killian had felt pressure to "sugarcoat'' Mr. Bush's record.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, the officer's son, Gary Killian, said he doubted his father wrote some of the memos. "I am upset because I think it is a mixture of truth and fiction here,'' Mr. Killian said.

CBS said in a statement that it stood by its story and the memos' authenticity. "As is standard practice at CBS News, the documents in the '60 Minutes' report were thoroughly examined and their authenticity vouched for by independent experts,'' the statement said. "As importantly, '60 Minutes' also interviewed close associates of Colonel Jerry Killian. They confirm that the documents reflect his opinions and actions at the time."

The news organization declined to say how it obtained the memos.

Mr. Killian, who served in the Guard with his father, said one memo looked legitimate. But he said he doubted his father would have written the one referring to sugarcoating Mr. Bush's performance record.

"It just wouldn't happen," he told The A.P. "The only thing that can happen when you keep secret files like that are bad things.'' He could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The White House itself did not contest the memos' authenticity and handed them out to reporters. It continued on Thursday to handle questions based on the memos, particularly about the accusation that Mr. Bush failed to take a physical "as ordered." The physical exam was required for Mr. Bush to remain a pilot.

Asked about a passage in one memo saying Mr. Bush had failed to take the ordered physical, Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, deflected the question and told reporters on Air Force One that such attacks were expected because Mr. Kerry was "falling behind in the polls" and because Mr. Bush had had "a very successful convention."

Asked again about the order, Mr. McClellan said that Mr. Bush was "seeking to transfer to a unit in Alabama because he was going there to work in a civilian capacity," suggesting that he did not need to maintain his status as a pilot at that time and therefore did not need a physical.

Asked if the president did or did not defy the order, Mr. McClellan said the Democrats were engaging in "recycled attacks."

Joe Lockhart, a spokesman for the Kerry campaign, said, "Rather than deal with real issues with real candor, Mr. McClellan is resorting to hurling nonsensical, inaccurate and baseless charges at the Kerry campaign."

At the same time, Democrats stepped up their criticism of the president. Senator Tom Harkin, the Iowa Democrat and a Navy flier in Vietnam, called the president a liar for claiming to have fulfilled his Guard duty.

"This is about George Bush not doing his duty in the National Guard and then lying to the American people about it," Mr. Harkin told reporters at a news conference at the Democratic National Committee.

While the two parties were absorbed with the actions of Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry more than three decades ago, both Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry steered clear of the issue on the campaign trail. Neither candidate was available to reporters. Both are to address the National Guard Association of the United States at its convention next week in Las Vegas.

Meanwhile, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which has ties to the Republicans and has attacked Mr. Kerry's service in Vietnam, said Thursday that it would spend $680,000 to put up a nationwide commercial that criticizes Mr. Kerry for tossing his war decorations.

The spot, which already ran for three days in Florida during the Republican National Convention this month, is to run for seven days on several cable channels.

It opens with film of a rally where Mr. Kerry and other veterans who had turned against the war tossed their decorations, and a voiceover declares: "Symbols. They represent the best things about America." It then shows Mr. Kerry telling an interviewer that same year, "I gave back I can't remember, six, seven, eight, nine." The voiceover then asks, "How can a man who renounced his country's symbols now be trusted?"

This is the third commercial by the Swift boat group. The first accused Mr. Kerry of lying to get his medals. Navy records contradicted the accusations, but the group has argued that the Navy records were based only on Mr. Kerry's version of events.

Still, the group has focused its more recent advertisements and statements on Mr. Kerry's statements after the war, when he gained nationwide attention - and angered some other veterans - for turning against the war and saying that American soldiers were committing atrocities in Vietnam.

A spokesman for the group, Sean McCabe, said that "everything is on the table" but that the group would continue to focus on Mr. Kerry's antiwar activity.

The Kerry campaign said the Swift boat group was desperate to keep alive accusations that had already been discredited.

"This group has less credibility than a trashy tabloid magazine," said Chad Clanton, a spokesman for the campaign.