Posted on 09/14/2004 2:18:24 PM PDT by ambrose
Former secretary says she didn't type memos 04:10 PM CDT on Tuesday, September 14, 2004
By PETE SLOVER / The Dallas Morning News
HOUSTON – The former secretary for the Texas Air National Guard colonel who supposedly authored memos critical of President Bush’s Guard service said Tuesday that the documents are fake, but that they reflect real documents that once existed.
Marian Carr Knox, who worked from 1956 to 1979 at Ellington Air Force Base in Houston, said she prided herself on meticulous typing, and the memos first disclosed by CBS News last week were not her work.
“These are not real,” she told The Dallas Morning News after examining copies of the disputed memos for the first time. “They’re not what I typed, and I would have typed them for him.”
Mrs. Knox, 86, who spoke with precise recollection about dates, people and events, said she is not a supporter of Mr. Bush, who she deemed “unfit for office” and “selected, not elected.”
“I remember very vividly when Bush was there and all the yak-yak that was going on about it,” she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
Well, look at it this way. 15 years ago would we be at this point? CBS acknowledging the existence of 'anonymous' posters on the internet? Being forced to respond to charges of forgery first discovered by members of this board than a blog?
As always, I don't know what will happen in the future. I can only say judging from past history, gains have been incrementally made in the past couple of decades not only in alternative media but within Republican gains in Senate, House and Presidency. Whatever results from the forgeries, a wall has been broken. The landscape is going to look remarkedly different 10 years from now, just as we look back to note it has already changed more than we understood while in the moment 10 years earlier.
There are setbacks, of course, but I'd wager the risk to say overall we've won more battles than have been lost and this movement is growing.
I think the Dem/CBS spin, based on what I've seen on the DU, will be as as follows:
She's 86, so she forgot about typing the memo due to senility..... but her memory of "yak yak" PROVES that Bush was AWOL!
An 86 year old Bush hating nut today stated....
I have to question the purpose of these "memos". I use the term loosely because they don't perform the basic function of a memo--communication. They are just personal notes. If the Colonel was getting ready to discipline the son of an influential politician, it seems to me he would want to DOCUMENT that he did everything in his power to avoid it and show he was left no other choice. This would mean written acknowledgement of the orders from the LT, documentation in his aviators training file and memos flung far and wide to notify the chain what was coming.
I don't see these memos providing CYA, in fact by nature of writing them and holding them in a secret personal file it could show prejudice towards the individual.
Perhaps the command level officers on the board could provide a different perspective. When dealing with sensitive situations like this as a senior enlisted, you had better cross every T and dot every I. Pulling a file out a drawer with personal notes isn't going to cut it when the questions come rolling down the chain. In fact you could be accused of trying to set someone up. The whole thing smells I tell ya.
I don't know if this will help with the Carr Knox secretary story, but I found a service manual for sale for one on a web site. It should indicate if there was in fact any superscript keys on 1968 Olympias.
The link is:
http://users.lewiston.com/ejorgens/office/servicemanuals/late_service_manuals.htm
It looks like it'll cost someone $24.00 to get the manual to verify the secretary.
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If that lead doen't check out then there is a guy named Richard Holt who has a list of Typewriter repair people all over the US (and the globe for that matter). Some of them specifically list Olympia typewriters. You may be able to get a hold of someone who actually knows what a 1972 Olympia typewriter is capable of.
The link there is:
http://xavier.xu.edu:8000/~polt/tw-repair.html
She says the info in the memos was accurate, but it could not have been since Saudt was retired at the time. Also, the other people who were there say that the Colonel was complimentary of Bush.
Sounds like she may have collaborated on the writing end of memogate.
Picked up from hand-written notes...
Army officer, Army jargon ...
Not from the "real" memo's but based on them (i.e., from handwritten notes) ...
written using unofficial terms ...
First reviewing officer (Hodges ?) says were "read aloud over the phone = And he said they "sounded" authentic....
Killian died while serving at Ellington -> He wouldn't have cleaned out his personal files and desk drawers thathad all his "CYA hand-written notes and "to do" list. ...
I think we have our smoking gun, and the bullet, and the trashcan.
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Things were typed (recently) from hand-written notes stolen/taken/removed-but-not-destroyed from Killian's "unofficial" file ..
All this indicates somebody in frequent contact with officers in the mid-level circles at Ellington (who had reason to dislike/hate Bush/Bush's family even then => Lloyd Bentsen's son ?)
He would be intimately familiar with Bush's transfers, OER problems and the assignment in Alabama ... His grounding, other details.
Enough to keep the rumors flying since 1973, when the file was "closed"?
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So, the source grabbed the hand-written notes, and passed them to the Kerry/dnc/Gore/McCain/Richardson campaigns (!)
Then the Kerry/dnc/Gore/McCain/Richardson (leaning towards McCain/Gore/dnc/Kerry because of timing these rumors came last time!) and reads them, throws some of the papers away, reads some read of them, distributes some "sue" them "off the record" with favorite reporters.
Other campaigns, and other reporters (and their co-horts in the dnc) keep the story bubbling and replaying in the background, but don't use them, or haven't actually "seen" the memo's that everybody keeps talking about.
Kerry (in April 27) releases the 'wording" of the memo's so tehy have better talking points, but is smart enough NOT to show anybody the original memo's themselves. Nobody questions the press release. Media has talking points for several months.
But, somebody in Kerry campaign (or an amateur in moveon.org) gets desperate, gets insanely "mad" after the Swifties get their message out, and decides to "destroy Bush for good."
So, that person types up the memo's so they "look" official.
And passes them to an equally desperate Dan Rather, who wants a last glorious scoop to crown his career at CBS. Then he can retire in the spring 2005, successful at last at overcoming Walter's shadow.
" In the world of investigative journalism, they don't come any bigger than 60 Minutes. That's why the lightning-quick takedown of the venerable CBS News program's tale of President Bush's alleged sweetheart Vietnam-era treatment in the Texas Air National Guard was so shocking.We don't know for certain if CBS and correspondent Dan Rather were really snookered by forged documents. CBS is sticking by its story that the papers on which it based its damning report were authentic. But that report was shredded by the school of piranhas in the blogosphere – and Old Media reporters who followed quickly in the Web bloggers' wake.
The attack started immediately after 60 Minutes II aired the report Wednesday. Hours later, posters at the Free Republic Web site noticed something odd about the documents. The lawyer-run Powerlineblog.com site got interested, and then graphic designer Charles Johnson at littlegreenfootballs.com showed on his site how the documents were likely designed using Microsoft Word and its Times Roman font – which did not exist when Mr. Bush was in the Guard.
Sensing blood in the water, the professional sharks at ABC News, Newsweek, The Dallas Morning News and others took big bites out of the report's credibility in other areas. Result: The story is now about CBS and what looks like its sloppy reporting, not Mr. Bush and what he did during the Vietnam era.
Which is not entirely fair, really, because Mr. Bush has not been entirely forthcoming about his Guard record (nor, for that matter, has Democrat John Kerry released all the documents related to his service in Vietnam). CBS' bungling of this story with only seven weeks to go in the presidential race probably means that any further reporting on Mr. Bush and the Guard, however well sourced and documented, will be received by many Americans as mere political mudslinging.
We think New York Times columnist William Safire may be on to something by telling his old friend Dan Rather to quit stonewalling and instead to call for an independent investigation of CBS' report. The days are long past when a major media organization can haughtily appeal to the authority of its brand name to dismiss criticism it finds impertinent. "
My 86-year-old mother-in-law in the nursing home also speaks with precise recollection about dates, people and events, but she doesn't recognize her own grandchildren when they come to visit her.
The interesting thing about them is that they are named barnes1-4.pdf. Does that name ring a bell? Could he have provided them with the docs or is it just because he was on 60 minutes at the same time as the docs were?
The docs are at:http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/washington/elections2004/stories/090904dnpolmemos.fae722ba.html
Here's a link to one of the docs:
I'm sorry - you're right. (It has always worked for me before. Hmmmmmm...)
After all, Killian died in office, so it wasn't as if Killian himself spent a lot of time going through files and purging his personal records before he passed away. Whoever forged (er-typed) the memo's this eyar pawnd hem off as "real memo's" ... And Dan rather bought it, hook, line, and sucker.
Related thread:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1216011/posts
This old gal sounds like Dan, wishing to hell they were real.
Bush Sr. was in politics and there was talk of a run for Senate against Ben Barnes. So Barnes would have wanted to dig up dirt on anyone in the family.
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