Memogate: Did Burkett Tip His Hand?

Retired Texas National Guard officer Bill Burkett, a long-time Bush-hater who has been named by several news outlets as a possible source for the forged documents in the CBS memogate scandal, wrote the following on August 13, 2004, for Democrats.com, before the memos surfaced:

I have found no documentation from LTC Killian's hand or staff that indicate that this unit was involved in any complicit way to either cover for the failures of 1LT Bush, or to provide him pay or certification for training not completed.

So, if Burkett found no such documentation - did he forge it? And did he then sell CBS a bill of goods, convincing them that the memos were authentic and "accurately reflected" that for which there actually is no authentic documentation? [Hat tip: Mike Hollihan]

Here's a story from today's Washington Post reporting that the forged documents were faxed from a Kinko's in Abilene, Texas, which is the closest Kinko's to Burkett's home 21 miles away in Baird, Texas.

I'll bring you more links later regarding Burkett.

Ah- but he didn't get the rank "right" on the democrat
site. He wrote the rank in Army format... 1LT. In USAF it is 1Lt

In some of the official orders this got garbled to 1st Lt -which appears to have affected (Burkett's?) forgery effort.

It's a sign, not a good sign, that FR is, perhaps, descending a bit too much into Frivolity. (but maybe that is a GOOD sign in a way ... we dont take ourselves too seriesly, unlike the folks who never raise their voices on NPR, but yell with the best of them at home where no one can hear).

Bottom line, beeber, hugh, series .... all of it is just a pursuit of laughs over typos from long dead threads. My preference for laughs is some of the cartoons and graphics ...

I agree with the other poster who said he wished it would die.

Was Burkett even in the Air National Guard? 
I thought he was in the ARMY National Guard. He writes rank like an Army officer.

The old ladies recent claims about the memos following the Army National Guard standard is a STAGED SETUP! They're TRYING to get people off the real scent!! THE REAL SCENT IS DIRECTLY CONNECTED TO, AND OPERATING IN THE KERRY CAMPAIGN, OR THE DNC ITSELF AS A KEY PLAYER. OR THE SOURCE IS RATHER'S DAUGHTER. BURKETT IS A DISTRACTION AND A POTENTIAL FALL GUY!! GET OFF THIS FAST AND FIND OUT WHO RATHER AND CBS WOULD JEOPARDIZE THE ENTIRE NETWORK FOR AS AN "UNIMPEACHABLE SOURCE"... IT AIN'T BURKETT!! THAT'S FOR CERTAIN!!!!

It looks like Burkett was floating the idea around that Bush's TNG records were being purged by GOP operatives. Failing to find any such docs someone simply made them up based on someone's "memory". Hence the claim that "the docs may be forged but the content is correct".

There may be a lot of Burkett's stink on this but I don't think he forged the docs--too many military mistakes that a member of the TNG would never have made. Burkett came up with the idea and someone else ran with it and made sure it would be traced back to Burkett if it blew up by sending the faxes from the Kinkos that Burkett has an account at.

Would Burkett get the format of Bush's rank right on democrats.com, but wrong on the forgeries?

...Also the signature block that Killian used was:

Lt. Jerry B. Killian
Commander
instead of "Commanding"...

"... IT AIN'T BURKETT!! THAT'S FOR CERTAIN!!!! I said as much last night. I think Ben Barnes, Kerry's campaign manager, is behind it. He lives near Abiline, too. He also hates Bush. He's the one who's daughter called him a liar. It's posted around here somewhere.

Yeah I think (Burkitt is the fall guy and not the brains behind the memos. It is more likely a DNC operative who may have met with Burkett and faxed the fake docs out while travelling back to a larger city or airport. What is the geography? Is the particular Kinkos between Burkitt's house and a larger city or DFW or in the other direction?

"I'm very suspicious that Burkett is being offered up as a fall guy and red herring to distract from an even more sinister conspiracy that strikes at the very heart of Kerry's campaign and the DNC headquarters."

I'm a bit suspicious overall of how this whole thing has unfolded. It's an absolute missle to the heart of the Kerry campaign in the sense its a vacuum sweeping up valuable last minutes for Kerry to use to boost polls.

Who .... really now, WHO aimed this missle? My guess: a Clintonite.

I didn't even know about the secretary's claim about Army formats.

I only know the memos "ain't" written by an Air Force officer and have seen plenty of Army formats during 10 years of joint service. Whoever dummied these memos- had army background or assistance from someone with Army background- imho.

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