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Posted on 09/13/2004 6:13:42 AM PDT by jmstein7
WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- Mary Mapes, a Dallas-based producer for CBS, has been identified by Talon News sources as the person who obtained the documents that suggest President George W. Bush did not fulfill his National Guard obligations 30 years ago. The documents, which have been judged to be forgeries by many news services and forensics experts, are at the center of a scandal that threatens the credibility of the network.
Late Friday, CBS spokesperson Kelli Edwards confirmed to Talon News that it was Mapes that obtained the documents (view documents here), but refused to comment on the questions surrounding their authenticity. Mapes did not respond to Talon News requests for comment.
During Friday's network news broadcast, anchor Dan Rather defended the four pages he claims were written by Bush's superior officer at the Texas Air Guard, Lt. Colonel Jerry Killian. Rather talked with handwriting expert Marcel Matley who said that on the basis of his analysis of the signatures, he is pronouncing the documents to be authentic. Not all of the pages carry Killian's signature.
Two others were interviewed for the segment. Robert Strong, an administrative officer for the Texas Air Guard during the Vietnam era, who vouched for the documents.
Author James Moore, a Bush antagonist, said, "They are absolutely consistent with the records as I know it."
Rather dismissed his critics, saying, "Today, on the Internet and elsewhere, some people -- including many who are partisan political operatives -- concentrated not on the key questions the overall story raised but on the documents that were part of the support of the story."
But glaring omissions marred Rather piece. On Friday, Killian's son Gary told nationally syndicated talk-show host Sean Hannity that Mary Mapes had contacted him before CBS ran the story. He said that he warned her that the documents might be forgeries.
Following the broadcast, Talon News asked Edwards why Killian's son and wife weren't mentioned during the broadcast.
She said, "I'm not going to debate every aspect of the story. We stand by the piece."
Killian's widow, Marjorie Connell, told ABC Radio News, "The wording in these documents is very suspect to me. ... I just can't believe these are his words."
Connell said that 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."
Connell said that her late husband was a fan of the young Bush.
She stated, "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."
Rufus Martin, the personnel chief in Killian's unit at the time told CNN, "They looked to me like forgeries. ... I don't think Killian would do that, and I knew him for 17 years."
Retired Maj. General Hodges, Killian's supervisor, told ABC News that he feels CBS misled him about the documents they uncovered. He said that CBS told him the documents were "handwritten" and after CBS read him excerpts he said, "Well if he wrote them that's what he felt."
Hodges believes the documents are frauds.
Doubts were being openly debated on rival networks. ABC News reported that they contacted more than a half dozen document experts who said they had doubts about the memos' authenticity.
Bill Flynn, one of country's top authorities on document authentication, told ABC, "These documents do not appear to have been the result of technology that was available in 1972 and 1973."
He continued, "The cumulative evidence that's available ... indicates that these documents were produced on a computer, not a typewriter."
CNN contacted independent document examiner Sandra Ramsey Lines who said the memos looked like they had been produced on a computer using Microsoft Word software. Lines is a document expert and fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. She pointed to a superscript -- a smaller, raised "th" in "111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron" -- as evidence indicating forgery.
After reviewing copies of the documents at her office in Paradise Valley, Arizona, Line said, "I'm virtually certain these were computer generated."
One expert counts at least 50 points that suggest the documents are forgeries.
The White House is remaining neutral on the documents' authenticity.
Press Secretary Scott McClellan said Friday, "We don't know whether the documents were fabricated or are authentic. The media has talked to independent experts who have raised questions about the documents."
He pointed out that CBS has not disclosed the source of the documents.
Newsweek is suggesting that Mapes received the documents from Bill Burkett, who it describes as a disgruntled former Guard officer. The magazine reports that Mapes flew to Texas to interview him.
If the documents are proven to be forgeries, the scandal would go to the highest level of CBS news. Talon News sources say that Jim Murphy, Executive Producer of the CBS Evening News, approves virtually every word that goes on the air. "60 Minutes II" Executive Producer Jeffrey Fager would also be on the endangered list, since his show originated the document story.
But more likely it would be Mapes who would take the fall along with Janet Leissner, the Washington Bureau Chief for CBS News. Leissner orchestrated the interview with White House communications director Dan Bartlett during which he was confronted with the suspect documents. Dan Rather was originally scheduled to do the interview, but White House correspondent John Roberts was substituted at the last minute for an unknown reason.
Mapes is no stranger to controversy as she also obtained the photographs of inmate abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The source of the photographs as well as the documents now in question has never been revealed.
In 1999 Mapes was threatened with imprisonment if she failed to turn over the transcript of an interview that Dan Rather conducted with the third defendant being tried for murder in the dragging death of James Byrd, Jr. in Jasper, Texas. CBS ultimately complied with the court's demand for the information.
You are exactly right about that. If it comes down to it, she's going down for the Dan. This "producer" probably had the memo dumped off in her lap by Terry McAwful and the DNC.
"who gave Mary the documents?"
Exactly. Identifying who "obtained" the documents is hardly the end of the story.
My, my. The CBS fax number is at the top of the various documents. I certainly hope it isn't abused by anyone.
She got them directly from the Kerry campaign, who got them in turn from the DNC. Where the DNC got them is unknown.
And anther question EVERYONE should be asking is why did See?BS, the Kerry campaign, and the DNC ignore everyone who told them that the documents could be forgeries? The answer is of course, because it was part of their co-ordinated smear campaign for that week. And unfortunately for them, every single one of their smears were conclusively prove to be outright lies.
BTW, is Kitty Kelly still going to be on GMA this week?
If they're proven to be forgeries??? I think that's already been done. What standard needs to be met to declare them "officially" forgeries?
Perharps there is no way to declare them "officially" forged, but it's a moot point by now. They are forged and the case has been made in spades.
"But more likely it would be Mapes who would take the fall along with Janet Leissner, the Washington Bureau Chief for CBS News"
Well, it certainly looks suspicious to me. The "Old Boys" are blaming the girls. Tsk tsk tsk.
Double Ping
| NMU | TEXAS | Confidentiality/Privilege | Nov 5, 1999 |
CBS news producer Mary Mapes was granted a last-minute emergency appeal and avoided an order to report to Jasper County Jail by 4 p.m. Friday, Nov. 5 for refusing to turn over outtakes of the network's "60 Minutes II" interview with alleged murderer Shawn Allen Berry.
Mapes' attorney filed an emergency appeal with the Court of Criminal Appeals in Austin, and the court ordered the trial judge in Jasper to respond to the motion by Monday, Nov. 8. Mapes posted a $2,000 bond as part of the appeal and will not have to report to jail.
Mapes was subpoenaed and ordered to appear before a state court in Jasper and to bring with her outtakes and unedited portions of an interview between CBS anchorman Dan Rather and Berry. Berry is one of the men charged in the 1998 dragging death of James Byrd Jr. Mapes challenged the subpoena on the grounds that she has never possessed or controlled the tapes.
When she failed to hand over the interview tapes on Nov. 2, the court held her in contempt. However, the effective date of the court's ruling was postponed until after Nov. 4, when a state appellate court in Beaumont reviewed the ruling against Mapes.
CBS anchorman Dan Rather also was subpoenaed in late October to testify at Berry's murder trial.
The trial court in Jasper approved the subpoena of Rather, found that he is a "material and necessary witness," and ordered him to be present at the trial for about two weeks starting Nov. 9.
On Nov. 5, however, a New York City trial judge heard arguments from CBS objecting to the demand for Rather's testimony. Prosecutors dropped their request for Rather's presence at the trial. The trial judge did not rule on whether it will order Rather to turn over the tapes, but will try to rule by Nov. 12, according to CBS.
The interview occurred in late September, when Rather interviewed Berry for the CBS program "60 Minutes II." Berry, charged with the June 7, 1998 killing of Byrd, admitted in the interview that he was present on the road where Byrd was chained to the bumper of his pickup truck, but he could not stop his co-defendants, John William King and Lawrence Russell Brewer, from beating Byrd because he was threatened by King when he tried to help Byrd.
(Texas v. Berry)
That's because they have an agenda and his name is George W. Bush. They want to destroy him. It ain't gonna happen.
CBS turns over interview with murder defendant
November 10, 1999 Web posted at: 10:58 PM EST (0358 GMT)
NEW YORK (CNN) -- To keep a producer [Mary Mapes] from being thrown into jail, CBS News on Wednesday turned over the transcript of an interview that Dan Rather conducted with the third defendant being tried for murder in the dragging death of a black man.
The trial of Shawn Allen Berry, 24, got under way in Jasper, Texas, on Wednesday after a judge refused a defense request for a change of venue.
Two other men, white supremacists John William King and Lawrence Russell Brewer, already have been convicted and sentenced to die for chaining James Byrd Jr. by his ankles to a pickup truck and dragging him along a country road until his body was torn apart
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