Posted on 09/11/2004 12:50:42 PM PDT by tdadams
AUSTIN, Texas — The man named in a disputed memo as exerting pressure to "sugarcoat" George W. Bush's military record left the Texas Air National Guard a year and a half before the memo supposedly was written, his service record shows.
An order obtained by The Dallas Morning News shows that Col. Walter "Buck" Staudt was honorably discharged March 1, 1972. CBS News reported this week that a memo in which Staudt was described as interfering with officers' negative evaluations of the future president's service was dated Aug. 18, 1973.
That added to mounting questions about the authenticity of documents that seem to suggest Bush sought special treatment as a pilot, failed to carry out a superior's order to undergo a physical exam and was suspended from flying for failing to meet Air National Guard standards.
Staudt, who lives in New Braunfels, Texas, did not return calls seeking comment. His discharge paper was among documents obtained by The Morning News from official sources during 1999 research into Bush's Guard record.
A CBS staffer stood by the story, suggesting Staudt could have continued to exert influence over Guard officials. But a former high-ranking Guard official disputed that, saying retirement would have left Staudt powerless.
Authenticity of the memo and three others included in Wednesday's "60 Minutes" report came in for heavy criticism yesterday, prompting an unusual, on-air defense of the original work. Experts on typography said the memos appeared to have been computer-drafted on equipment not available at the time.
And the widow and son of the officer who supposedly wrote them, Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, who died in 1984, have said it wasn't his nature to keep detailed personal notes.
In its news broadcast yesterday, CBS said the documents were supported by both unnamed witnesses and others, including document examiners.
CBS anchor Dan Rather earlier told The Dallas Morning News that he had heard nothing to make him question the legitimacy of the memos. He attributed the backlash to partisan politics and competitive journalism.
"This story is true. The questions we raised about then-Lieutenant Bush's National Guard service are serious and legitimate," he said. "Until and unless someone shows me definitive proof that they are not, I don't see any reason to carry on a conversation with the professional rumor mill."
The Washington Post quoted Rather as saying CBS had talked to two people who worked with Killian — his superior, retired Maj. Gen. Bobby Hodges, and his administrative assistant Robert Strong — and both described the memos as consistent with what they knew of Killian. Hodges, who told CBS he was "familiar" with the documents, is an avid Bush supporter and "it took a lot for him to speak the truth," the Post quoted Rather as saying.
The Los Angeles Times, however, later quoted Hodges as saying that he believed the memos from Killian were not real. A CBS news executive confirmed that Hodges had changed his story.
Rather's interview with The Morning News concluded before the newspaper determined the date of Staudt's departure, but a CBS staffer with extensive knowledge of the story said later that the departure doesn't derail the story. "From what we've learned, Staudt remained very active after he retired," the staffer said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "He was a very bullying type, and that could have continued."
In the "60 Minutes" report, Rather said of the memo's contents: "Killian says Col. Buck Staudt, the man in charge of the Texas Air National Guard, is putting on pressure to 'sugarcoat' an evaluation of Lt. Bush."
Staudt was the person Bush initially contacted about Guard service, and he was the group commander at Ellington Air Force Base in Houston when Bush arrived there to fly an F-102 jet. He transferred later to Austin, where he served as chief of staff for the Air National Guard.
In the disputed memo, Killian supposedly wrote "(another officer) gave me a message today from group regarding Bush's (evaluation) and Staudt is pushing to sugarcoat it."
It continues: "Austin is not happy either."
The CBS staffer said the memo appears to recognize that Staudt has retired, since it differentiates between his displeasure and that of Austin, where he served his final Guard stint.
But another Texas Air National Guard official who served in that period said the memo appears to wrongly associate Staudt with his group command in Houston, and — based on that mistake — the memo distinguishes his views from that of the Austin Guard.
Retired Col. Earl Lively, director of Air National Guard operations for the state headquarters during 1972 and 1973, said Staudt "wasn't on the scene" after retirement, and that CBS' remote-bullying thesis makes no sense.
"He couldn't bully them. He wasn't in the Guard," Lively said. "He couldn't affect their promotions. Once you're gone from the Guard, you don't have any authority."
Bush has not commented publicly about the CBS report, and aides say his honorable discharge proves he fulfilled his obligations.
These people never give up.
The standard for CBS is that one must find "definitive proof" (which CBS will never concede exists) that their anti-Bush smear documents are a fraud. And definitive proof (which CBS will never say exists) that SwiftVet anti-Kerry claims are true.
One can only hope that the wider public begins to notice these things.
If he was a bully, his retirement would have occasioned great rejoicing among the formerly bullied, who would then take great joy in showiong him how much power he no longer had.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1212927/posts
Yet Another CBS Document Experiment (CBS file vs. Word document) [perfect match]
There are so many stories out that demo the FRAUDcast ...
Here are some others, in addition to the above...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1212991/posts
TYPOGRAPHIC PROBLEMS WITH THE BUSH MEMOS
Typewriter Expert can't duplicate Guard memos using IBM Composer
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1213108/posts
In addition, here are some other more recent threads of note to most interested in this stuff:
Seems obvious to me that someone took a real signature, copied it and added it to the MS Word forgeries... probably too tough for this "expert" to figure out this tactic... LOL... The REAL question now is who did it, and why.
---->>>
From "Rather Forges Ahead"... regarding his "expert" authenticator...
"Matley comes up from Google as a "graphologist" and has authored books on how your handwriting shows your personallity."
CREDENTIALS:
Certification with commendation, Paul de Sainte Colombe Center, January 28, 1981
------
Did a google on Paul de.......
It's about pen and pencil therapy!!!!!!!! The guys a loon
60 posted on 09/11/2004 4:05:08 AM EDT by Poincare
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1212980/posts?page=60#60
--->
You will probably also enjoy these:
It would take an incredible amount of fussing around with the Composer to reproduce these memos. In addition, there are major font availability questions that do not appear to be answerable, and in addition, the ANG unit was using a fixed, not proportional, typewriter for other memos. Plus, the style of those memos is not even close to the style of these forgeries.
Check:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1212833/posts
Another Shoe Drops...May 24th Memo from Killian Office Not Similar to CBS Memo
No chance in hell, BP. Check out this thread.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1212786/posts
You are tilting at windmills with the IBM Selectric Composer theory.
Go to this link:
http://www.ibmcomposer.org/docs/Selectric%20Composer%20Operations%20Manual.pdf
which is a user's manual showing some sample typed text using this typewriter.
Rather could get any expert he wants to attempt to do this, but it may even then be impossible. Even then he would have to explain the style differences and why it was done on the wrong size paper and many other anamolies.
Meanwhile, it is trivial to compose these on MS Word.
These are clear forgeries, Danny - time for you and CBS FRAUDcasting network to hang it up
/
Exactly.
? How so?If you think about it, the copy of a copy of a copy nature of the fraudlent "memo" is one of the strongest indictments of it. First because that is a natural way to obscure evidence of fraud, and secondly because if the writer really was afraid of his retired former superior, the writer would have held the original close and made few if any copies.
But of course the chain of custody is a rotten apple, too - the widow and surviving son of the "author" of this "memo" wouldn't have known to even look for it, and don't know how anyone else would have found it. And if indeed copies of copies of copies have been floating around, exactly why does one of them show up only now, after Bush has been in three previous high-profile political campaigns?
Of course the fact that the "memo" is trivial to produce with Microsoft Word and would have been tedious to produce on any 1972 typewriter is the strongest evidence aside from the fact that hardly any typewriter would give you curved quotation marks - and that Times New Roman wasn't available on typewriters.
No, that doesn't sound desperate and defensive at all, now does it?
Are you kidding? Rather laid down the gauntlet by saying "This story is true" and that "he stands by it" in the face of such blatant forgeries. Enough reporters see red meat just waiting for anyone who can get there first to bury CBS.
The undersea earthquake has already taken place. We are now just waiting for the tsunami to make its way to shore...
They are so BUSTED! There are *thousands* of google hits on Col Staudt, but the above comment is the only one to claim that he's a "bully."
The Dems are just making this stuff up as they go!
1 Full Legislative Day Left Until The AWB Expires
Dan can dismiss it with the same epithets that were hurled at Drudge when he started cracking stories and injecting honest discussion of important issues into the MSM.
But epithets don't dismiss the very real fact that noteworthy challenges have been put to these documents and unless Rather can authenticate them, he and his show have been dealt a serious credibility blow.
But they don't need "definitive proof" to make charges against the President.
You're quite right about that. The definitely are.
"all sorts of "could haves" and "was possibles" to have actually happened in combination in order for the original allegation to stand up."
and so many of those 'could haves' involve misquoting or using other people . . . just so many tools for the elites, aren't we all --
According PeopleData.com:
https://www.peopledata.com/query1.php?first=Walter&last=Staudt&state=TX&ref=yhsumres_bgc&se=YH
Walter B. Staudt is 82 and living in Texas. Why the hell hasn't someone interviewed him already? This could be the lynch pin to the whole story.
I want him fired, not just laughed at.
The emperor has no clothes.
FReepers,
Please keep up the posts. Also please support the websites that do the research to prove that these documents are frauds. We will win this. The MSM can't bury this. CBS will lose. Keep it up. Have faith. We will prevail!
The emperor is begging for more clothes... and stupid non-alibis It's CBS which is on the line, not the Guards' assertions anyways, duh!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.