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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[Thane_Banquo]

I hope the WH/Bush comes out and makes a statement STRONGLY condemning the Kerry campaign for passing along fake docs to the media.

NO! No matter what, the Bush campaign must not comment on the controversy until CBS itself has admitted the documents were fake and were passed along from the Kerry campaign. The White House must not make this look like they're pushing the issue, or the media will spin this as another Republicans attack campaign and drop the story.

[snarkytart]

Excellent point!
:o)

[Thane_Banquo]

Doesn't the DNC (snicker!) want Kerry to win?

McCauliffe is the Clintons' man. He knows Hillary doesn't want Kerry to win. But I think that was your point.

[Graymatter]

Disagree? You must be replying to the wrong post because I agree completely with all you've written. As I just wrote, "The guy doing the shooting and the guy driving the getaway car do not stay friends on the way to criminal court."

[Condor51]

Poor ole C^BS - I almost feel sorry for them, NOT!

Wi^thout a doubt it's time to put Dan Bla^ther out to pasture. Then he can sit back all day long and ponder; What's the frequency Kenne^th

(note to self; if ever attempting to forge a document from the 1970's use a typewriter) hahaha

[Thane_Banquo]

Lots and lots of contradictory stories coming out about what CBS did/didn't do to authenticate these docs.

My guess is CBS has either an in-house document verifier or oen they use regularly. He probably serves as a rubber stamp, doesn't actually look very closely. The attitude at CBS would be, "We need you to issue a favorable opinion of the documents' authenticity so we can run the story." If the expert is a team player, he'd feel pressured to verify the documents.

No matter what else it is, journalism is a business first, and they felt they could make advertising money if they received verification of the documents.

[IamConservative]

Do military officers keep quasi private personnel files that do not become part of the official retained record?

That is what is being suggested happened.

[Iowamerican]

I'd love to go into John Edward's other America and have this same thing happen except with the Bush/Cheney campaign having a tenuous connection to it.

Has anybody checked with Tom Daschle to see if he is saddened yet?

[Lijahsbubbe]

What did Bush know and when did he know it?

[Fishtalk]

Do military officers keep quasi private personnel files that do not become part of the official retained record? That is what is being suggested happened.

OF COURSE THEY DON'T!!!!!

Well, some kook like that Florida nutzoid former senator might but most normal people don't do such things.

I understand that is the suggestion by CBS but who's buying that? Besides that little matter of forged and bogus documents as their base.

God I hope this story doesn't die and I pray that some heads roll.

[jwalsh07]

A good time indeed amigo.:-}

[Carry_Okie]

Y'think Kerry will be accepting any more help from the Clintons?

Sure, he's still married to Theresa, isn't he?

Kerry clearly suffers from BCS (Battered Candidate Syndrome). It's unconscious compensation for his overbearing duplicity.

[M. Peach]

We need to tell Dan Rather to resign.

[Brandon]

So the signatures don't match but they went ahead anyway. And they admit it. That makes them guilty of libel. If nothing else, this will be the last we hear of the Bush National Guard nonsense.

Not just libel -- fraud. Falsifying government documents. There are potential criminal charges here, I think.

[Tribune7]

ping

[dirtboy]

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.

That's astounding. Absolutely astounding. There are professional reporters working for major newspapers who believe that the target of their attacks should be responsible for performing the fact-checking. That's as absurd as asking a prisoner to check the knots on the noose that's going to hang him.

[Grampa Dave]

"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."



Apparently, the above insanity is being pushed by the drugged out and Aids Dementia crowd at DU.

[oblomov]

>>Fat Man Moore is a sleeper agent of the VRWC

Moby is, of course. He's a big Republican who worked behind the scenes to fund numerous GOP 527s. I met him at a party for George Mossbacher a few years ago, and he told me about his plan to "go deep" this election cycle.

[George Smiley]

This tinfoil hat is comfy.

And stylish, too.

At least that's how it seems over at DU as of late.

[Bob]

The second is that the media being in the tank for Kerry becomes impossible to deny. Here CBS News has literally taken documents from the Kerry campaign and promoted them as "news," with an obvious intent to smear Bush. The media's credibility takes another mighty blow.

IANAL - I wonder if a provable DNC-CBS link might also be useful in establishing the 'malicious intent' element that's needed for a 'public figure' like GWB to successfully sue for libel.