Guard memos on Bush fake, says squadron leader's son (new information about the signature)

Houston Chronicle ^ | 9/9/04

[ambrose]

Sept. 9, 2004, 11:40PM

Guard memos on Bush fake, says squadron leader's son

By MIKE GLENN

Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

The son of President Bush's former squadron commander is disputing the authenticity of memos allegedly written by his father that are critical of Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard.

The purported 30-year-old documents were shown Wednesday on the CBS News program 60 Minutes. The show reported that the documents came from the personal files of Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, Bush's commander in the 111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron at the former Ellington Air Force Base, now Ellington Field.

Houston businessman Gary Killian said Thursday that he doesn't believe the newly discovered documents are legitimate.

Killian said his father, who died in 1984, could barely type and usually assigned typing duties to a secretary.

"It would have been against his own self-interest to keep a memo like that on file," Killian said. "It was just not in his nature to do that."

Killian said the memos appear to be faked. In one of them, he said, his father's first name is used in the signature.

"I don't recall him ever signing with his first name," the son said.

Killian said his father did not maintain an office at home and had no secret file there where such documents would have been stored.

According to the Associated Press, the White House distributed the four memos dated from 1972 and 1973 after obtaining them from CBS News. The White House did not question their accuracy.

Killian said his father "thought well" of Bush's abilities as an Air National Guard pilot assigned to fly the F-102.

mike.glenn@chron.com

[MamaLucci]

..........but our fellow MSM travelers won't blow the whistle." Looks like they were wrong.

Actually, they were right. FREEPERS blew the whistle!!!

[Howlin]

I'll be glad to.

[GailA]

btt

[NYCVirago]

The guy couldn't type. How many white-outs or erasures are there in the 'memos'? < /rehortical question>

That was one of the things we were talking about last night regarding the veracity of the documents. Even excellent typists back then made mistakes, and they would have been visible in the days of typewriters. Yet there's not a single xxxxxx or obvious correction mark in any of the documents. And now that we know that this guy couldn't type, it's even more suspicious.

[Heatseeker]

The guy couldn't type. How many white-outs or erasures are there in the 'memos'? < /rehortical question>

There's a perfectly rational explanation - Lt. Colonel Killian couldn't type, but he was good at building things, and he built this time machine, went forward 30 years, picked up a PC... ;)

[MamaLucci]

FYI, President Bush and F'n Kerry are both slated to speak before some NG group next wk.

[PhilDragoo]

[Cincinatus' Wife]

He said that a CBS reporter read the documents to Hodges over the phone, and that Hodges replied that "these are the things that Killian had expressed to me at the time."

Well, that settles that. /sarcasam

[MamaLucci]

Oooooh, that's good!

[ambrose]

What's scary, when you think about it, is that Kerry/CBS may have gotten away with this if they simply pulled out an old typewriter, and added a few typos and whiteout ink...

[buzzsaw6]

"What nobody has said YET is the fact that the democraps have slandered all Guard members smearing Bush while we had thousands of guard and reserves killed in Vietnam (Even many from Bush's unit) and have thousands of Guard members fighting in iraq right now !"

We Guardsmen notice the slander and will vote accordingly on Nov 2.

[ambrose]

Where is that quote from?

[Grampa Dave]

Phil, do you have interview between Blather and Saddam's look alike last year?

If so would you please post it and ping me.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

A senior CBS official, who asked not to be named because CBS managers did not want to go beyond their official statement, named one of the network's sources as retired Maj. Gen. Bobby W. Hodges, the immediate superior of the documents' alleged author, Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian. He said a CBS reporter read the documents to Hodges over the phone and Hodges replied that "these are the things that Killian had expressed to me at the time." Source

[Irish Eyes]

Love that one.

[GOPcapitalist]

Ping!

Typewriters can't auto-center:

[singfreedom]

Speaking of which (9/11 Commission) was anyone else stunned when the Commission called for "imagination"? I pictured something along the lines of the Brit model during WWII. Brilliant, I thought! Then after reflection, if our intelligence people did things with that kind of flair and "imagination", can you imagine the fit the liberals would have?!!

[Ruth A.]

According to the Associated Press, the White House distributed the four memos dated from 1972 and 1973 after obtaining them from CBS News. The White House did not question their accuracy.

Must be the first time they haven't questioned something from the White House.

[Casloy]

If he was not an experienced typist the Selectric would have driven him insane. It was not an easy typewriter to use. It had a white ribbon for erasing mistakes but you had to hit the erase button immediately after making the mistake or it wouldn't return to the exact spot and you would miss overstrike the character. There were actually two buttons for backspacing, one for full spaces and one for half spaces. If you didn't know the typeface really well it was very difficult to backspace correctly.

[RatherBiased.com]

http://ratherbiased.com/hussein_saddam.htm