Posted on 09/15/2004 3:24:35 AM PDT by conservative in nyc
A timely packet arrived at my door just as the GOP convention opened in Philadelphia. It was some of George W. Bush’s records that were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
At first, Mr. Heldt offered 20 pages of "Bush's National Guard records" on his website for $7.50. It is not clear whether this offer was made before or after Mr. Heldt actually received the documents from his FOIA request. At some later point (likely September or October), he posted these documents on awol.gq.nu and his personal Internet site, www.cis.net. On the awol.gq.nu site, Mr. Heldt wrote "Nearly two hundred Manila wrapped pages of George Walker Bush's service records came to me like some sort of giant banana flip stuffed into my mailbox."
Robert A. Rogers --- The Early Months
Marty Heldt was not the only person interested in smearing the President Bush's service. In July 2000, Air National Guard veteran and supposed self-employed civilian, and free-lance writer Robert A. Rogers (a.k.a. Rar, dba SUNSHINE Ventures, Inc.) from Virginia drafted a series of documents on the President's Texas Air National Guard service. These documents were largely hidden on the website www.herbnstone.com, which started out as a homepage for a charity, the Sycamores of Pasadena, and has subsequently hosted an eclectic mix of anti-war and anti-Bush files.
Unlike Mr. Heldt's website and operations, Mr. Rogers' materials were fairly sophisticated. He drafted a July 28, 2000 press release "A Fangless George Walker Bush", calling the President "A Privileged One Who Received Fast-Track Entry and Repeated Special Treatment, Two Years of Relief from Active-duty Alert Pilot Duties, Appears To Have Dodged DoD-required Substance Abuse Tests Twice AND Received a Ten Month Early-Out Honorable Discharge". Mr. Rogers attached an extremely detailed and footnoted expose with detailed information on alleged facts about the Texas National Guard and President Bush's military record (longer version here, comparing the President's service with Mr. Rogers' --- date unclear, but modified on or before October 23, 2000).
On August 27, 2000, Mr. Rogers drafted an even more detailed press release, claiming that President Bush was "trying to create a 'war hero' image" and casting the "decisive issue still remaining on the table" not as "the alleged drug use one, but the integrity one -- not having to abide by the rules that every other member of the U.S. military is expected to adhere to -- and the men like Bush (who pretended to do their duty) all the while using family influence and favoritism to save their skins." The Internet version of this "press release" had very interesting attachments, including a description of the "EVOLUTION of Print Media Coverage", a "Condensed Attendance/Service TIMELINE", a description of the "Air Force Code of Values", and a "Summary Scorecard" that looks suspiciously like talking points.
By October 4, 2000, Mr. Rogers expanded his effort to the website of liberal Internet "consultants", Bob Fertik and David Lytel, democrats.com. In his more slickly composed article, The Smoking Jet: Bush Military Record Reveals Grounding and Absence for Two Full Years, Mr. Rogers once again claimed President Bush was "Avoiding Vietnam through Preferential Treatment" and may have given up flying due to substance abuse.
The Bush Cleansed the Records "October/November Surprise" -- Bill Burkett Arrives on the Scene with Heldt and Rogers
On November 2, 2000, the so-called "Red Dog Publicists" at Talion.com issued a press release on the Bush is AWOL story, asking the press to "interview former Air National Guard pilot Robert A. Rogers and researcher Marty Heldt" for a remarkable story "as they lead you through the 160 pages of documents uncovered in their Freedom of Information inquiries into bush's official military records." This was around the same time the Bush DUI bombshell was dropped. And on the same day, Senators Bob Kerrey and Inouye held a press conference on the AWOL charges. This press release is on the same website as the Burkett question and answer session. Both talion.com and herbnstone.com included transcripts of the remarks given at the press conference. But these transcripts were not identical --- the herbnstone (Rogers) transcript also included remarks of Max Cleland.
In addition to the Burkett question and answer session that appeared on the talion.com website, there is also what appears to be a statement of someone who is likely Bill Burkett on herbnstone.com (the Rogers website), although the date on which it was posted is unclear. A Google search shows an e-mail with a similar statement dated November 6, 2000. As far as I know, articles based on the Burkett issue were first printed in the London Sunday-Times on Saturday, November 4 (U.S. Time). Among others, liberal muckrakers Linda L. Starr and Bev Conover covered the story on the liberal site, Online Journal, as did Bob Fertik of Democrats.com.
A Talion.com Endnote
One of the principals in the seemingly now-defunct Talion.com was Bev Harris. Bev Harris is the author of "Black Box Voting", a book about the DNC's scare Floridian voters tactic of the month -- how electronic voting machines are hackable.
PING
Makes sense.
Yes he was in the Texas ARMY national guard.
This Burkett fellow was probably the Air National Guard "arm" of the sabotage team formed by Sandy Berger to discredit "W".
Oh yeah, I remember these jokers- associated with Jock Gill?
We did a big dig on them in the Gore War. As I recall- and I will have to look back into it to make sure- some of the associates in their board of directors were involved with acompany that got a LOT of help from the Clinton Energy Dept to install solar powered internet services in parts of the world that al Qaeda would dearly appreciate. The Palestinian authority, Pakistan, etc... I think the company in question was Greenstar or Green something.
I remember one of their slogans was "give a man a fish, he'll be fed for a day, give a man a fishing pole and he will be fed forever" - roughly. I remember that their slogan was funny because it should have read "...teach aman to fish," not "give him" a pole. Typical libs, they think the way to solve a problem is to keep people dependent.
see #9.
Any thoughts?
Democrats.com Declares War on FreeRepublic!
(From one of the links above:)
www.bushcoup.com Registered to: David Lytel, Democrats.com, P.O. Box 20594 (New York, N.Y.) Domain record created on: 11-01-2000 (six days BEFORE the election) Phone contact: 123-456-7890 Purpose: Web site claiming Bush stole the election (formatted in an extremely similar manner to several other sites owned by Democrats.com).
When the Democrats do it, it's not illegal.
It would be very convenient for CBS, the DNC and the Kerry campaign if they can pin all the blame on independent "looney" Burkett.
fyi
marking for a later read
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