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 ...
Bingo!!! Dan Rather hates it, but John Kerry is enjoying every single minute of this because it give him a free pass on the real issues.
And, this will be leading of CBS News this evening. NOT!
I want to see the originals.
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.
But, she said, telltale signs of forgery abounded in the four memos, which contained the supposed writings of her ex-boss, Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, who died in 1984.
Also Online
Memos released by CBS
She said the typeface on the documents did not match either of the two typewriters that she used during her time at the Guard. She identified those machines as a mechanical Olympia, which was replaced by an IBM Selectric in the early 1970s.
She spoke fondly of the Olympia machine, which she said had a key with the “th” superscript character that was the focus of much debate in the CBS memos. Experts have said that the Selectric, and mechanical typewriters such as the Olympia, could not produce proportional spacing, found in the disputed documents.
CBS officials have defended their report. They have declined to say who provided 60 Minutes with the documents, other than that it was an “unimpeachable source” – or exactly where they came from, other than Lt. Col. Killian’s “personal file.”
The memos, if real, would show that as a pilot, Mr. Bush defied a direct order to obtain a flight physical, enjoyed the benefit of pressure from high officials to “sugar coat” his record, and was grounded for failing to meet military performance standards.
Mrs. Knox said she did all of Lt. Col. Killian’s typing, including memos for a personal “cover his back” file he kept in a locked drawer of his desk.
She said she did not recall typing the memos reported by CBS News, though she said they accurately reflect the viewpoints of Lt. Col. Killian and documents that would have been in the personal file. Also, she could not say whether the CBS documents corresponded memo for memo with that file.
“The information in here was correct, but it was picked up from the real ones,” she said.
She said that the culture of the time was that men didn’t type office-related documents, and she expressed doubt that Lt. Col. Killian would have typed the memos. She said she would typically type his memos from his handwritten notes, which she would then destroy.
Mrs. Knox, who left the Guard before Lt. Col. Killian died, said she was not sure of the disposition of his personal files when he died while still serving at Ellington. But, she said, it would have been logical that a master sergeant who worked in the squadron headquarters would have destroyed any such nonofficial documents after Lt. Col. Killian’s death.
That man, reached Tuesday, declined to comment. “I don’t know anything about the matter,” he said.
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.
You know how CBS will spin this. They'll ignore her saying that their memos are fake, and emphasize her saying that Killian did supposedly think this way about Bush.
Also, sounds like the media is insane with the idea it doesn't matter they used these forgeries, they just want to get after Bush on charges they claim are out there in the form of folks like Ms. "Yak yak".
The picture is pretty clear. Some over-enthusiastic Rat took the rumors that were out there and forged the docs to help CBS turn a bunch of fever swamp much into a concrete story. They wanted it to be true soooo bad.
That's probably why they created those hurricanes, and made sure that the anniversary of 9/11 fell on Saturday.
Evidently not. It is bizarre. Just to recount: 1- She says the documents are forgeries 2- Killian never typed 3- She typed all of Killian's documents 4- The documents are forgeries of documents that used to exist in Killian's personal file, but she has no memory of ever typing them. Got it.
Yep. We should be talking about Kerry's record, and the yawning void that is his running mate's record. We should be talking about Kerry's refusal to open all his medical records, and the governing experience of the boy he considers fit to step into the presidency by a single vote---Kerry's.
How much did the Rats pay her to utter that they reflect documents that one existed? Enquiring minds want to know.
GMTA my 36. LOL
Rose-Mary Woods. That was her name. Thanks.
The forged memos also spoke with precise recollection about dates, people and events, and I wouldn't count on them to tell the truth about what happened any more than I trust Mrs. Knox recollection. She says the documents are forgeries and then concocts a story to match them.
CBS's way out:
"After intensely interrogating our source, he/she confessed that the memos we were given were indeed crude attempts to recreate documents that our source and this wonderful 86 year-old former secretary know existed at the time. We apologize for our errors in misrepresenting the genuineness of the documents, and we regreat having been misled by our source, but we otherwise stand by the content of our broadcast."
Puke. Hope I'm wrong. Copying this post by anyone associated with CBS or Viacom or any of its attorneys or advisors is STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
Think Danny will stand by the memos AGAIN tonight??
Be careful. She just might type some up. She's already outed herself as the one person who could do it. As Terry McAuliffe would gently explain to her, it sure would be a shame if the same thing happened to her that happened to Buddy the Dog.
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