Posted on 09/15/2004 10:19:34 AM PDT by Helms
Documented controversy
The row over the authenticity of memos about George Bush's military service is keeping Vietnam at the forefront of the presidential race. Simon Jeffery explains
Wednesday September 15, 2004
For supporters of John Kerry, who have seen allegations about the Democratic candidate's military record sap his campaign, it must have seemed like a case of just deserts. The president, George Bush, was last week looking vulnerable on the same grounds after CBS's flagship current affairs show, 60 Minutes, broadcast a report claiming he had been suspended from pilot duties for failing to meet the required standards. It was also claimed that a commanding officer had been put under pressure to "sugar coat" Mr Bush's performance reviews.
But while CBS stands by its story, allegations have now surfaced that 60 Minutes based a large part of the report on forged documents.
Although what one man - even a presidential candidate - did more than 30 years ago can seem rather trivial, the US election is being fought between a self-declared "war president" and a man who, in stump speeches, claims he would defend his country as president in the way he had defended it as a young man. The battleground is Vietnam.
The broad facts are relatively simple: Mr Bush was awarded a place in the Texas national air guard, allowing him to avoid the draft, while Mr Kerry volunteered for service in south-east Asia and won medals, including one for gallantry.
However, the arguments lie in the details. Mr Kerry's poll ratings suffered as the Republican-linked Swift Boat Veterans for Truth publicised their contested claims that he had not deserved his medals. The CBS report followed a month later.
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upromise.com Its detractors argue that what the station presented as the personal files of Lieutenant Colonel Jerry Killian, Mr Bush's squad commander, had been produced using word processor technology unavailable in the early 70s but relatively common today.
The telltale sign, it is alleged, is that the CBS documents make use of a small 'th' that Microsoft Word turns those letters into if they are inserted after a number.
Font types and spacing patterns also appear to resemble the style of a word processor more than the kind of typewriter the US military would have been using in 1972 or 1973, the detractors say, arguing that, although the technology existed, it was not commonly used for memos.
A post on the Free Republic weblog, which did much to interest mainstream news organisations about the possibility of the documents being fakes, read: "I am saying these documents are forgeries, run through a copier for 15 generations to make them look old."
Like the revelations about racist remarks that forced Trent Lott, the leader of the Republican majority in the US senate, to resign earlier this year, the criticism of the CBS report has been a blog-driven affair. Little Green Footballs, Power Line and Free Republic - all of which could be described as rightwing - have been the main players.
Since then, specialists consulted by CBS have weighed in with conflicting assessments of the documents' authenticity. Killian's secretary, Marian Carr Knox, gave an interview saying she certainly did not type them, but they echoed the officer's thoughts on Mr Bush.
Frank Abangale, the master forger played by Leonardo Di Caprio in Catch Me If You Can, told the New York Post the film would been called Catch Me In Two Days if his work had been as bad.
CBS now prefaces its online version of the report with a statement that the report "was not based solely on recovered documents, but rather on a preponderance of evidence" including interviews with Texas national air guard officials who worked closely with Killian and were well acquainted with his procedures, character and thinking.
The documents also claim Mr Bush refused orders to take a physical examination and was appealing to more senior officers than Killian to get his requests heard.
60 Minutes does not have a reputation for irresponsible journalism - it was the show that first broadcast the now notorious photographs of prisoner abuse at the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq - and it takes the reliability of its stories seriously.
The CBS news president, Andrew Heyward, told the Baltimore Sun he had confidence in the story and it was appropriately vetted, but conceded it was a "political hot potato".
Mr Bush's service record has long been a source of political attacks and, earlier this year, the White House was forced to release records revealing a possible gap in his service for five months in mid-1972 to tame some of the wilder allegations. However, claims that the influence of his father, then a Texas congressman, had saved him from the draft have never gone away.
Ben Barnes, then the Democratic speaker of the Texas House of Representatives - now a Kerry supporter - told 60 Minutes in the same report that he had used his connections to help Mr Bush into the air guard after an approach from a Bush family friend. "I was a young, ambitious politician doing what I thought was acceptable," he told the show. "It was important to make friends."
Killian cannot make such a comment on the record. He died in 1984 and will never be able to either prove that he wrote the documents, or confirm they are fakes.
BADA BING!
BADA BOOM!
Jolly good!
Is there a link to the original FR posting (the infamous post #47)?
Also, can someone educate me on the Dan Rather - "What's the Frequency, Kenneth" joke?
A post on the Free Republic weblog, which did much to interest mainstream news organisations about the possibility of the documents being fakes, read: "I am saying these documents are forgeries, run through a copier for 15 generations to make them look old."More free publicity for Free Republic.Like the revelations about racist remarks that forced Trent Lott, the leader of the Republican majority in the US senate, to resign earlier this year, the criticism of the CBS report has been a blog-driven affair. Little Green Footballs, Power Line and Free Republic - all of which could be described as rightwing - have been the main players.
"claims he would defend his country as president in the way he had defended it as a young man."
Gets three quick, suspect PHs and bugs out? Not promising.
"Post #47"
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1210662/posts?page=47#47
What's the story behind R.E.M.'s song "What's the Frequency, Kenneth"?
http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20010619.html
Who was the Brit who committed suicide after the Guardian lied about him and the Niger story?
Documents Suggest Special Treatment for Bush in Guard
Here is a thread with links to all the Memogate threads.
60 Minutes to Infamy- those forged memos and The Shot Heard Round the World
You, sir, get the bulk of the credit. Did you ever think when you started Free Republic that you would be personally responsible for taking down Dan Rather and CBS?
Kudos and tremendous gratitude from my entire family.
LOL
The posts on the Guardian message board are extremely brutal, vicious attacks on conservative positions, espousing the most extreme Euro leftie liberal bent.
I am Buckhead!!!
But they made up for their appearance of interest in the truth by failing to note Barnes' trail of falsehood, particularly his behavior in the S&L mess.
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