Anatomy of a Forgery

The American Spectator ^ | 9-10-4 | Washington Prowler

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Anatomy of a Forgery

By The Prowler

Published 9/10/2004 12:09:06 AM

More than six weeks ago, an opposition research staffer for the Democratic National Committee received documents purportedly written by President George W. Bush's Texas Air National Guard squadron commander, the late Col. Jerry Killian. The oppo researcher claimed the source was "a retired military officer." According to a DNC staffer, the documents were seen by both senior staff members at the DNC, as well as the Kerry campaign. "More than a couple people heard about the papers," says the DNC staffer. "I've heard that they ended up with the Kerry campaign, for them to decide to how to proceed, and presumably they were handed over to 60 Minutes, which used them the other night. But I know this much. When there was discussion here, there were doubts raised about their authenticity." The concerns arose from the sourcing. "It wasn't clear that our source for the documents would have had access to them. Our person couldn't confirm from what file, from what original source they came from." The documents that CBS News used were not documents from any of Bush's personnel files from his time in the National Guard. Rather, CBS News stated that they were documents uncovered in the personnel files of Killian. That would explain why the White House or the Pentagon had never before released or even seen them. According to a Kerry campaign source, there was little gossip about the supposedly hot documents inside the office of the campaign on McPherson Square. "Those documents were not something anyone was talking about or trying to generate buzz on," says the staffer. "It wasn't like there were small groups of people talking about this as a bombshell. I think people here weren't sure what to make of it, because provenance of these documents was uncertain." A CBS producer, who initially tipped off The Prowler about the 60 Minutes story, says that despite seeking professional assurances that the documents were legitimate, there was uncertainty even among the group of producers and researchers working on the story. "The problem was we had one set of documents from Bush's file that had Killian calling Bush 'an exceptionally fine young officer and pilot.' And someone who Killian said 'performed in an outstanding manner.' Then you have these new documents and the tone and content are so different." The CBS producer said that some alarms bells went off last week when the signatures and initials of Killian on the documents in hand did not match up with other documents available on the public record, but producers chose to move ahead with the story. "This was too hot not to push. If there were doubts, those people didn't show it," says the producer, who works on a rival CBS News program. Now, the producer says, there is growing concern inside the building on 57th Street that they may have been suckered by the Kerry campaign. "There is a school of thought here that the Kerry people dumped this in our laps, figuring we'd do the heavy lifting on the story. That maybe they had doubts about these documents but hoped we'd get more information," says the producer. "If that's the case, then we're bigger fools than we already appear to be judging by all the chatter about how these documents could be forgeries." ABC News' political unit held a conference call at 7:00 p.m. Thursday evening to discuss the memo and its potential ramifications should the documents turn out to be a forgery. That meeting took place around the time that the deceased Killian's son made public statements questioning the documents' authenticity. According to one ABC News employee, some reporters believe that the Kerry campaign as well as the DNC were parties in duping CBS, but a smaller segment believe that both the DNC and the Kerry campaign were duped by Karl Rove, who would have engineered the flap to embarrass the opposition.

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[Semi Civil Servant]

The forged documents passed through the DNC, the Kerry campaign, and CBS?

This at a time when Kerry's documents and records are already under scrutiny because of the Swift boat vets?

It would be hard to construct a more perfect storm.

Barring some Spainish election type event, it's over.

[PGalt]

BTTT

[sphinx]

Ah, it's deeper than that -- Karl placed those staffers at the DNC, and he controls CBS news, which is, after all, part of the corporate media....

[PJ-Comix]

You're not too far off about leftist suspicition about Karl Rove. The DUmmies are just beginning to go into Meltdown Mode over the revelation that the documents are forgeries. Here are some DUmmie commentaries including speculation that KARL ROVE was the source of the forgeries:

If this is a forgery, I'm sure it's another in a long line of Karl Rove's stunts. But it's not a forgery. Come on, CBS vetted it with experts, of which there must be many. On the other hand, the detractors are all right-wing bloggers. (Who you know will attack anything that knocks bush.)

My only question Is how thoroughly did CBS review these documents? How many experts did they show these documents to before going on with the story? What were their background and area of expertise?

CBS is a creditable news source. They didn't get that way by being stupid. These docs were probably gone over with a fine tooth comb until they were sure it didn't have any nits.

what document? it doesn't matter. the guy's a deserter who kills for fun he is doomed to failure I don't care if they say it was hand-typed by Rove and given to Rather by Andrew Card dressed as Huggy Bear.

So Rove gave them to CBS? Is CBS that gullible?

There are real docs that the Whitehouse had and they created forgery forms of these docs and passed them off to discredit the real ones if they ever surfaced. It mucks it up enough that if real versions surfaced, noone would ever believe it - the "forgery" meme is planted.

I agree - its a fraud Walt has showed two other era documents "as proof" that have the superscripted "th" and none of them even closely resemble the document 60 mins had - they fell for it hook line and sinker. They look completely different in the way it was done. If I knew how to PSP them side by side I would but I am looking at them now and this 60 mins thing was a fraud and Rove is ROFL at them.

Oh, please. Like a bunch of amateurs on the Internet would be able to figure out something that CBS News stuck its neck out over and never thought to investigate. Riiight.

Yikes. I started out thinking this was a Rove plant, after reading http://www.warblogging.com / - then I was convinced it wasn't. I've been crazy all day about this thing. Now I'm back where I started. I need to be sedated.

What's with all you paranoid people? Get a grip!!! This is exactly what goo defence attorneys do...CREATE DOUBT!!!! There's absolutely no reason to think these doxs are forgeries! NONE!!!

Document is forgery -- this can become the basis of an allegation that the whitehouse continues to deceive the public by lying to us, sometimes in very clever ways.

CBS has to have something to substantiate the authenticity of the memos. If it doesn't, it has cost itself any credibility it had. Obviously, this wouldn't be good for a it's news division. CBS' story had to be thoroughly vetted!

Oh good GOD! Stop and think for a moment...IF it were discovered that they were a forgery then the media would HOT after the story of who did it and why. The blowback from that would be bigger than the actual story.

What crap. The issue is are they believable? Hell yes. And what the f*ck does a wife or son for that matter really know about husband/dad. Well sh*t, let's ask Hillary. What's really Rovian is to suggest the documents are fake. Chimp has been an underachiever his whole goddamn life, much to our pain, so why would they NOT be authentic?

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!!!

[metesky]

What a ride the last 24 hours have been, eh?
It's a good time to be a conservative!

[sphinx]

One however was framed as an order to Bush. If that one is fake, then that is forging a Military/Government document, with fraudulent intent. The intent being to accuse Bush of a crime under the UCMJ, failure to obey a direct order. If it can be determined who committed the crime, the revelation alone is gonna leave a mark.

I wonder how many hard drives are having fatal accidents tonight.

[metesky]

They gave that game away with turnovers.

Sorry, but the Pats won it with take-aways.

[iopscusa]

Oh yeah, I'm preping my TinFoil Hat w/visor for the coming SC winter, having added earmuffs and an upgraded onboard BS Meter v.f911. Just keepin' it real.

[RaceBannon]

And you know what? Bill Clinton delayed his bypass surgery to make the media pay attention to him immediately after the convention to take away the news of the convention, too!


...wait a minute, that one might actually be true!...

[iopscusa]

Circling Sharks is a great analogy!

[vanagoner]

Oh, please. Like a bunch of amateurs on the Internet would be able to figure out something that CBS News stuck its neck out over and never thought to investigate. Riiight.

Uhhh . . . .right!

[Niks]

This proves it! CBS is the media wing of the Demo-rat party.

[RobFromGa]

This is a story that Joe Sixpack can grasp,

That is a very good point and very important. To understand this story is very simple. CBS at the bidding of the Kerry campaign resorted to forged documents in an attempt to smear President Bush's National Guard service and was caught in the lie by regular people in less than a half-day. The next story is also pretty simple: John Kerry has been accused of making up other stuff on his war record and refuses to sign a release to turn over ALL the documents.

[dubyain04jebin08and12]

As a Pats fan and a PRO-LIFER, I hereby disavow any the existance of any alleged "anti-choice" movement and affirm your disgust with the term "turnover." I saw takeaways myself!

[dubyain04jebin08and12]

>>>> This is enough to show that the DNC is behind this.

I would love to think that, but if they were going to pull a stunt like this, even they would have known better than to use MS Word. This was such an amateurish hack job, it has to have originated either as a gag or a trap.

[BunnySlippers]

So who gave the copies to CBS?

[RobFromGa]

The Media are analogous to the rogue states we are fighting in the WoT. They provide a place of comfort for the evil-doers to plot and recruit. We are bit by bit removing these safe havens and turning them into accountable ones.

This will hurt Hillary in the future because the MSM will no longer be able to lie for her with impunity. At some point, one of the networks will turn, there is too much money not to cater to the conservative audience by resenting both sides of issues. Once one turns, another will turn and we will have some objectivity back in the Media.

[fortheDeclaration]

"The real tipoff that the memos were fakes was the fact that Killian emailed them ..."

LOL! Yea, you think that would have tipped them off that something wasn't right!!!

[fortheDeclaration]

"If I was a Colts fan I would be pretty frustrated right now. They gave that game away with turnovers"

Not to change the subject of the thread, but the Colts did a major choke last night!
I only saw the last few minutes of the game and I saw a fumble on the goal line
Manning, who is suppose to be an expert on picking up blitzes get sacked to take them out of field goal range
What were they thinking holding on to the ball that long?
The Pats have their number like the old Steelers had the old Houston Oilers number.