If someone had the originals to read then why not just release those? No need to make fake copies.
> oh.. NOW the Times starts to get into it.
Only part way.
They conveniently neglect to mention that Knox is
stridently anti-Bush, and even spouted some DNC
talking point slogans during her interview.
She can probably be accepted on denying authorship,
but here "recollection" of the general content of
the memos being true is of doubtful veracity.
Is there a thread around finding out who this lady is or should we start the google process?
Actually, this is not an unbalanced piece--I am a bit amazed. In fact, it seems a fairly accurate summary of all the news that has come out today regarding the memos. So--hate to say it, but guess today we might have to give the devil his due.
Wonder how CBS missed her, she meets the required qualifications.
Is it really likely that she would remember one man from another given her age? Heck, forget her age, would Bush, out of all of the men serving, leave such an impression that she would recall this some 30 years later?
Sweet, wily lady, matching her story with the "personal files" storyline already public...
Or was she the source of the story in the first place? Did her collaborator mess up because he used "Army terms" rather that AF?
"Asked about her politics, she said she had never voted for Mr. Bush."
She declined to mention she was a card carrying member of the Socialist Workers party of America, The Communist Party USA, etc, etc. Thats like asking Charlton Heston his politics and saying he never voted Dem.
Whatever .....
Whose to say a Dem operative didn't get to this 86-year old woman and threaten her with only dog-food to eat if President Bush was re-elected and had a chance to veto a social security bill? She was obviously approached by someone in Kerry or Rather's camp to add support to the "story."
Not buying it.
Can anybody tell me why young Bush would give a flying rip about an OER? And pressure to write what? What exactly would a bad OER be and what would it do to Bush, who had by this time decided to ease on out of the service when his obligation was complete. He wasn't even looking for a job as a commercial pilot. As a senior officer once told me, "The worst thing someone can do to me with an OER is roll it up and poke me in the eye with it."
BTW, Bush had already received his 1972 Annual OER before the birth month physical exam was due.
"I didn't put the bullet in the furnace, and stop talking about my mother."
Bill Cosby
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/091504dnpolnatguard.1185eb4ae.html
Former secretary says she didn't type memos
06:24 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.
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.
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.
E-mail pslover@dallasnews.com
"There's no way that I, as a document expert, can authenticate them," Marcel Matley said in a telephone interview from San Francisco. The main reason, he said, is that they are "copies" that are "far removed" from the originals.
Fake, but accurate. What the????????? Ummmmm, anything fake is going to be inaccurate.
From earlier today:
Former secretary says she didn't type memos
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1215941/posts
This is what the NYT suppressed:
"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.”"
But she also said they accurately reflect the thoughts of the commander, Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian.
One more question, Ma'am: Where did you get your mind-reading abilities (MRA)? Scientists didn't discover MRA until 2105, or was it 2106, I forget.
A NY Times article wouldn't be complete without a rip at Bush even when it supposedly is trying to be objective about this issue.