Former secretary says she didn't type memos

Dallas Morning News ^ | 9/14/04

[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.

[Robert A Cook PE]

oh, the "memo's" them selves are recent.

Absolutely.

Somebody, probably right after April this year, re-typed them. transcribed them, but screwed up big-time and tried to "make them look real" instead of just notes.

But Barnes could easily have gotten the hand-scrawled notes they came from (remember her comments!)

And Barnes would have been TX governor, running now (or running instead of Clinton in 92) if the Sharpstown scandal hadn't been exposed.

Revenge for losing the Presidency is a big reason to keep the memo's/copies of the memo's.

[madison10]

The old lady, is lying. Who's gonna know if she is, or not? Lt. Col. Killian is deceased & he can't say diddly.

[Robert A Cook PE]

I don't do photoshop, but someone needs to take the LOTR tower of Sauron and put that big ole CBS EYE on it.

Register!

Register!

Cleanup on aisle three. Somebody spilled some CBS on the floor!

Register!

[Marak]

She says the info in the memos was accurate,

She hasn't actually said that the memos were accurate. The article merely states:

but that they reflect real documents that once existed.

Who knows what she means by this? Was she asked about each of the memos seperately? Is she saying that they merely reflect the fact that Killian kept memos to himself? We really don't know what she meant until someone asks her.

[Paleo Conservative]

I've always thought these were tweaked memos and not made up out of whole cloth.

Yeah, that explains Lt. Col. Killian's signature on memos written in MS Word.

[Semi Civil Servant]

Tag line:

"CBS News: Based on Actual Events"

[madison10]

Thank you.

[cyncooper]

No no no. You misunderstand. I think they had access to some real documents that they then based their forgeries on.

[madison10]

“The information in here was correct, but it was picked up from the real ones,” she said.

How come this sounds like: "I voted for the funding before I voted against it?" (Madison10 paraphrase)

She's been taken DNC/Kerry lessons.

[ambrose]

why not release the "real documents" then?

[Robert A Cook PE]

Tinfoil hat time.

If Killian's were writing hand-written notes to himself, then squirreling those notes in a personal folder in the back of his desk to "CYA" himself, these would have been "literally" his "personal" notes.

He would never have expected anybody to read them. Ever.

But, unfortunately he died while still in the office. He didn't retire. He may not have even returned to the office if he had a heart attack and went straight to the hospital.

So, he (Killian) never purged his personal files. Somebody cleans out the desk, steals the records, and keeps them.

Barnes gets them from that source.

So Barnes convinces Rather that they 'are genuine" because when Barnes last saw them (20 years ago ?) they were genuine.

The guy who screwed the pooch was the jerk who decided to type them up this year into "official" memo's so they'ed be "more believable" ....

[ArmyBratproud]

From what I heard on the Greg Knap interview...
SLOVER indicates that she could not give any examples.

[xzins]

She also said the memos may have been constructed from memory by someone who had seen Lt. Col. Killian’s private file but were not transcriptions because the language and terminology did not match what he would have used. For instance, she said, the use of the words “billets” and a reference to the “administrative officer” of Mr. Bush’s squadron reflect Army terminology rather than the Air National Guard. Some news reports attribute the CBS reports to a former Army National Guard officer who has a longstanding dispute with the Guard and has previously maintained that the president’s record was sanitized. Mrs. Knox also cited stylistic differences in the form of the notes, such as the signature on the right side of the document, rather than the left, where she would have put it.

Dear Dan,

The fat (old) lady just sang.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Yuppers.

But, unless Rather can come up the "real" ones, he's a gonner.

[dfwgator]

But, unless Rather can come up the "real" ones, he's a gonner.

OJ will find the real killers, before Dan finds the real memos.

[js1138]

From Drudge, his own interview with the lady:

>>

"I did not type these particular memos. I typed memos like these," Knox told the DRUDGE REPORT from her home in Houston.

"I typed memos that had this information in them, but I did not type these memos. There are terms in these memos that are not Guard terms but that are Army terms. They use the word 'Billets'. I think they were using that to refer to the slot. That would be a non-flying slot the way we would use it. And the style... they are sloppy looking."

But Marion Carr Knox stands by the accusations contained in the allegedly fraudulent documents that Bush skirted a medical and flight exam without suffering institutional repercussions.

"The information in these memos is correct -- like Killian's dealing with the problems."

"It was General Staudt, not then Lt. Colonel Hodges [who succeeded Staudt], that was putting on the pressure to whitewash Bush. For instance he didnt take his flight examination or his physical. And the pilots had to take them by their birthdays. Once in a while there would be a reason why a pilot would miss these things because some of them were commercial pilots. But they had to make arrangements to take their exams."

Knox speculated as to how she thought the forgeries were created saying, "My guess is that someone in the outfit got hold of the real ones and discussed it with a former Army person."
<<

[madison10]

Is Ms. Knox a real person? Are there TANG personnel records? Is she in them? Who pointed her out to CBS/media as a source in the first place? Burkett?

Sorry, Dan-o they're still forgeries.

[Flint]

“I remember very vividly when Bush was there and all the yak-yak that was going on about it,” she said

This sounds fishy to me. When Pres. Bush was "there" he was just another pilot. There would have been no "yak-yak" going on about him in particular. No more than about any other hot shot pilot at the time.

[xzins]

You can't deduce anything wrong period.

When I hit 40, I got an order (memo) to report for an over-40 physical.

I showed up 3 years later.

I know we like to think that it's "Patton ordered them to take the hill, and the Captain saluted sharply, spun to his men behind him and began issuing directions."

But some things aren't that pressing, and it's understood that some orders are different than others.

You also get an order every year to go for your annual dental exam during your birth month. Sometimes it just doesn't work out.

Sometimes your boss looks you right in the eyeballs and says, "I order you to....." and you know that it's an issue. But you know your boss.

Annual flight physicals are blown off by those who are going into non-flying slots. It's very common. You can let it lapse and then if you get put back into flight slot, then you can renew a physical in a matter of days. No one wants to waste precious flight hour dollars on guys who aren't in slots, and everyone knows it.

[Paleo Conservative]

I agree - see my post #180. Back then, Bush Sr hadn't even been elected Veep, much less president. There is no particular reason for Bush to have stood out as some kind of celebrity.

Not true. He was the son of a former Congressman who had twice run for the US Senate, and came close to winning in 1970. He was US embassador to the UN from 1971-72, and chairman of the RNC 1972-73. He was a high profile politician who was expected to eventually run for President.