Bush Guard Memos Scrutinized (Kerry's lying pals at CBS begin a slow back-peddle)

CBS supposed "News" ^ | Friday, September 10, 2004

[JohnHuang2]

---

Bush Guard Memos Under Microscope
NEW YORK, Sept. 10, 2004


Questions were raised Thursday about the authenticity of newly unearthed memos purporting to have been written by one of President Bush's National Guard commanders in 1972 and 1973.

The memos, which were publicized on CBS News' 60 Minutes, say Mr. Bush ignored a direct order from a superior officer and lost his status as a Guard pilot because he failed to meet military performance standards and undergo a required physical exam.

The network defended the memos, saying its experts who examined the memos concluded they were authentic documents produced by Lt. Col. Jerry Killian.

But Killian's son, one of Killian's fellow officers and an independent document examiner questioned the memos.

Gary Killian, who served in the Guard with his father and retired as a captain in 1991, said he doubted his father would have written an unsigned memo which said there was pressure to "sugar coat" Mr. Bush's performance review.

"It just wouldn't happen," he said. "No officer in his right mind would write a memo like that."

The personnel chief in Killian's unit at the time also said he believes the documents are fake.

"They looked to me like forgeries," said Rufus Martin. "I don't think Killian would do that, and I knew him for 17 years." Killian died in 1984.

Independent document examiner Sandra Ramsey Lines said the memos looked like they had been produced on a computer using Microsoft Word software. Lines, a document expert and fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, pointed to a superscript — a smaller, raised "th" in "111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron" — as evidence indicating forgery.

Microsoft Word automatically inserts superscripts in the same style as the two on the memos obtained by CBS, she said.

"I'm virtually certain these were computer generated," Lines said after reviewing copies of the documents at her office in Paradise Valley, Ariz. She produced a nearly identical document using her computer's Microsoft Word software.

In the Wednesday broadcast, 60 Minutes said the purported memos were "documents we are told were taken from Col. Killian's personal file. The program says it consulted a handwriting analyst and document expert who believes the material is authentic.

"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," CBS News said in a statement. "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 White House distributed the four memos from 1972 and 1973 after obtaining them from CBS News. The White House did not question their accuracy.

Robert Strong was a friend and colleague of Killian who ran the Texas Air National Guard administrative office in the Vietnam era. Strong, now a college professor, also believes the documents are genuine.

"They are compatible with the way business was done at the time. They are compatible with the man that I remember Jerry Killian being," says Strong. "I don't see anything in the documents that is discordant with what were the times, what was the situation and what were the people involved."

The documents were described in a 60 Minutes that featured a retired Texas politician's claim that he pulled strings to get young Mr. Bush, then a college graduate at the height of the Vietnam War in 1968, into the Guard — a posting that made service overseas unlikely.

Former Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes — then the 29-year-old speaker of the Texas House — told CBS News Anchor Dan Rather that he used influence on Mr. Bush's behalf at the request of a Houston businessman friendly with the Bush family, oilman Sid Adger.

Mr. Bush has denied he received special treatment. The White House ascribed Barnes' remarks to political motives. Barnes is an adviser to Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry.

The president's service record emerged as an issue during the 2000 race and again this winter. The Killian documents revived the issue of Mr. Bush's time in uniform after weeks in which Kerry, a decorated Vietnam combat veteran, has faced questions over his record as a Navy officer and an anti-war protester.

In May 1968, Mr. Bush signed a six-year commitment to fly for the Air Guard. Mr. Bush was honorably discharged from the Guard in October 1973 and left the Air Force Reserves in May 1974.

Early in his military career, Mr. Bush received glowing evaluations from Killian, who called Lt. Bush "an exceptionally fine young officer and pilot" who "performed in an outstanding manner."

Documents released this week show Mr. Bush with scores of 88 on an airmanship test, 98 on aviation physiology and 100 on navigational abilities.

The questions about Mr. Bush's service center on how Mr. Bush got into the Guard and whether he fulfilled his duties during a period from mid-1972 to mid-1973.

After taking his last flight in April 1972, Mr. Bush went for six months without showing up for any training drills.

That May, Mr. Bush skipped a required yearly medical examination. In response, his commanders grounded him on Aug. 1, 1972.

In September 1972 he received permission to transfer to the Alabama unit so he could work on a political campaign there.

What the Killian memos purported to show is that Mr. Bush defied a direct order to appear for the physical, that his performance as an officer was lacking in other ways and that Mr. Bush used family connections to try to quash any inquiry into his lapses.

In a separate revelation, the Boston Globe this week reported that Mr. Bush promised to sign up with a Boston-area unit when he left his Texas unit in 1973 to attend Harvard Business School. Mr. Bush never signed up with a Boston unit.

Bartlett claimed in 1999 that Mr. Bush had joined a Boston unit. Bartlett told the Globe this week that he "misspoke."



©MMIV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[happydogdesign]

[Sacajaweau]

It might be one of the reasons that the documents are not on Military stationary. The jail time will be shorter.

[dasboot]

Oohhhh! didn't McAulife say Bush refused to report for a physical in one or more of his unsubstantiated diatribes Good catch......

[GailA]

ABCNEWS

"We don't know where the documents come from," he said, adding, "They didn't come from any family member."

Connell said her late husband would be "turning over in his grave to know that a document such as this would be used against a fellow guardsman," and she is "sick" and "angry" that his name is "being battled back and forth on television."

Her late husband was a fan of the young Bush, said Connell, who remarried after her husband died in 1984. "I know for a fact that this young man … was an excellent aviator, an excellent person to be in the Guard, and he was very happy to have him become a member of the 111th."

[IamConservative]

Do you remember McAulife saying that? AWOL, didn't report for a physical, etc. The part about the physical at the time was to suggest Bush couldn't pass because he was on drugs. Now it appears in a document for the first time that is thought to be a forgery.

If the heat stays on CBS, they may turn on the supplier. How very interesting if it goes back to the DNC. McAulife has been the most vigorous fanner of these flames.

[snarkytart]

"Her late husband was a fan of the young Bush, said Connell, who remarried after her husband died in 1984. "I know for a fact that this young man … was an excellent aviator, an excellent person to be in the Guard, and he was very happy to have him become a member of the 111th."






OH THIS HAD TO KILL THE MEDIA TO HEAR HER SPEAK THESE WORDS!!

[Carolinamom]

Killian's wife said that he did not type. Only took notes. Sooooooooooo, if these "memos" were for his personal file (which his son said he did not have), they would have been in his handwriting (which they were not). The signatures do not match either. Freepers more knowledgeable than I am pointed out tha fonts, spacing, terminology, etc. did meet the smell test either.

[Madame Dufarge]

Killian's widow needs to sue these scum for billions.

Yes.

Wouldn't CBS be compelled to divulge the source of the "memos" as a result?

[AFPhys]

They are now CFS: The Columbia FRAUDcasting System

CFS: It's Official

[steve in DC]

I have heard this described as "inept forgery"...something anyone could have uncovered as bogus documentation...

From the inappropriate designation of "1stL", to the fact that the timeline is obviously wrong (re Sault's retirement), to the fact that it is obviously a word processor document, and not typewritten, to the obviously forged signature....

This is a dosument that should have been easily exposed as a fraud by a high school journalism student....

But, apparently the Kerry Campaign has had it in their posession, but under wraps, for some time. And now it miraculously turns up in the hands of Dan Rather...and he is running with it as though he has the exclusive on the discovery of the Rosetta Stone.

I heard some dimwitted bimbette on this morning's infotainment show postulate that it was all an elaborate Karl Rove hoax, disreputably perpetrated on CBS.

I have a more straight forward theory...

Basically the "story" is about the dirty forger who was trying to dupe the media into becoming "unwittingly" complicit in a conspiracy to slander a candidate.

From whence could these documents originate? And who could deliver them to the media with sufficient credentials so that that...even that paragon of media professionalism...that man with over a century of broadcast excellence on his resume...that unbiased, hard hitting, bulldog of an investigative journalist...Dan Rather..could have been unswervingly convinced of their authenticity, even after they were thoroughly, and painstakingly pored over to vett their origins and to ensure their authenticity?

Why do I sense the shadowy presence of the Hillary Clinton in the wings?

[OldFriend]

Did Bill Gates ever think in a million years that his product would be used to discredit his leftist buddies.......

We can add Gates' name to Nixon and Dole as part of the deconstructing of john kerry.

[Petronski]

Killian's wife says he did not type, yet the prevailing theory yesterday was that he had prepared the documents on an IBM Executive, a particularly complex typewriter.

LOL

[JohnHuang2]

;-)

[OldFriend]

Do you really have any doubts about how willing CBS was to use suspect documents to attack the President?

[OldFriend]

Freepers ought to be calling CBS and saying.....FREEPERS REPORTING FOR DUTY!!!

[dmartin]

The good folks over at MSNBC seem to have missed all the details regarding the forgeries. The slant of this article is unbelievable. It gives the impression that the documents fill in missing details that the White House has been reluctant to provide. See the following link :

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5952048/

[scooter2]

Bartlett told the Globe this week that he "misspoke"

That's Democrat for "lied through my friggin teeth".

[tcostell]

McAulife and Begala aren't exactly "quality" sources of information. I'm sure if you carefully sifted through all the things they've said in the last 4 years about Bush you can find them accusing him of all sorts of nonsense.

Kind of like Shakespeare's monkeys. If you tell enough lies about a conservative, eventually someone will forge a document which seems to support some of them. I don't think there is a specific connection here.

I'm sure there will be other forgeries as well...things like a memo from the State department telling the White house that there are no WMD's in Iraq, but they are getting pressure from Rumsfeld to keep quiet about it...or transcripts of a meeting between Cheney and lumber companies where he agrees to secretly sell them all the lumber in all the national forests but only if they promised to clear cut it all and pave afterward.

Remember who we're dealing with here.

[Loyal Buckeye]

"Dan Rather must have been a key part of the scheme. He was not duped because he found an expert to authenticate the documents and even found an "eyewitness." His expert is the only one who found nothing suspicious. Dan Rather is not an innocent victim. He made it happen."

Absolutely correct. This whole interview with the political hack Barnes and the use of the forged documents was intentional by Rather.

[Pharlap]

No. I was really responding to today's media spin which is to refer to the documents as a "hoax," i.e., implying that CBS was duped. I believe that Dan Rather knew what he had and didn't much care because of his hatred for the Bush family. I also believe that he didn't expect to get caught the way he did. So, now we will see an attempt to minimize the damage. Thus, the CBS was duped by a hoax theme.