Posted on 09/16/2004 6:57:57 AM PDT by Protect the Bill of Rights
Established fact: the memos Dan Rather used in his 60 Minutes II segment are forgeries.
The WASHINGTON POST has reported the memos originated from a Kinko's in Abilene Texas.
Bill Burkett, a man with a long festering grudge against the Bush family lives in Baird Texas, 25 miles from Abilene. It has been report Mr. Burkett has an account at Kinko's
The obvious conclusion would be Mr. Burkett is the source of the memos. Case closed. End of Story. And the DNC and Dan Rather would have us believe the story is over. They want to get to the substance. Problem is that ending is way too neat. I am convinced this goes back to the DNC and the information is out there, waiting for us. I believe it can be proven. But it is going to take some work.
The story is NOT the content of the memos. The story is:
Who faxed them to CBS?
Is the DNC/Kerry Campaign involved?
If the DNC/Kerry Campaign is involved, can it be proven?
Was Dan Rather a willing participant?
I believe the above questions can be answered with certainty. We need another central thread to focus on this chapter of the story. It is a place where documentation can be gathered, facts confirmed, wild speculation disgarded, rumors dismissed, and logical, reasonable conclusions drawn.
This is from my post on another thread: Rather Concedes Papers Are Suspect (Rather Talks of Questions On Papers (on DRUDGE) #127 posted on 09/16/2004
To: shrinkermd; Anti-Bubba182; GOPcapitalist; SnowstormPatriot
As more information flows, I am convinced this is a DNC coordinated smear effort. Case in point:
Ex-Texas Guardsman eyed in Bush memo leak posted on 09/16/2004 2:35:47 AM EDT by Anti-Bubba182
"...Mr. Burkett's attorney, David Van Os, said yesterday through a spokeswoman that he has been instructed by his client not to comment. The New York Times reported yesterday that Mr. Van Os refused to say if his client played a role in providing the memos to CBS.
The New York Times quoted Mr. Van Os as saying, "If, hypothetically, Bill Burkett or anyone else, any other individual, had prepared or had typed on a word processor as some of the journalists are presuming, without much evidence, if someone in the year 2004 had prepared on a word processor replicas of documents that they believed had existed in 1972 or 1973 — which Bill Burkett has absolutely not done" — then he continued, "what difference would it make?" ....." excerpted from the Washington Times.
Next: Memogate: Burkett's attorney/spokesman hosted Kerry rallies in Texas
"Here's a photo of David Van Os, the spokesman for Bill Burkett of Memogate fame, addressing a major John Kerry for President rally in Austin last month."
posted on 09/16/2004 3:04:52 AM EDT by GOPcapitalist
further down the thread: David Van Os for Texas Supreme Court
To: GOPcapitalist
You might also be interested to know that David Van Os was an associate in the law firm of David R. Richards.
For those of you that haven't made the connection yet, David Richards is the husband of Ann Richards, the former Governor of Texas that was defeated by George W. Bush.
Do you smell a bit of vendetta here?
15 posted on 09/16/2004 3:29:10 AM EDT by SnowstormPatriot
Several weeks or maybe a month ago, I watched 2 newsclips which I believe (speculation only) were designed to generate interest in this story. The first was an article in Salon Salon.com News | George W. Bush's missing year Sept 2, 2004. I do not have the whole article [refuse to register] , I believe Mrs. Allison is laying a groundwork for the Killian memos. This may be the article which describes a perceived snub by the Bush family towards the Killians. If anyone has that article, please post link or quote.
I saw another TV news clip and I am desperately looking for the source. It states implicitly that the video Ben Barnes made was done at the request of John Kerry. If anyone remembers the report or has a link to a source on that one, please post here.
Crazy old lady was supposed to say she typed them.
That is untile the OBVIOUS forgeries were exposed.
Good point. The DNC/Kerry may have been holding these documents for a late October Surprise (worked with the DUI and we know Lehane was behind that), but Kerry was getting hammered so hard by the Swifties, they decided they couldn't wait.
I'm sure the DNC/Kerry was also blindsided by the speed in which the story came apart.
http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1865~2389865,00.html
Texans for Truth has local tie
Offspring of Bay Area's MoveOn.org begins airing anti-Bush ads in swing states
By Josh Richman, STAFF WRITER
A "grandchild" of Berkeley-based MoveOn.org will air a new television ad in swing states challenging President Bush's claims of service in the Air National Guard.
Texans for Truth, a section 527 advocacy group, begins airing its 30-second "AWOL" spot Monday in battleground states that have suffered the highest casualties in Iraq, said Director Glenn W. Smith of Austin, Tex.
Texans for Truth was created Aug. 31 by DriveDemocracy.org, a Web-based, Texas-focused grass-roots political organization; Smith co-directs that, too. DriveDemocracy.org is modeled upon MoveOn.org and got what its Web site calls "a generous start-up grant" from it -- money left over from MoveOn's 2003 campaign against the GOP-led congressional redistricting in Texas.
Click Here!
Smith said this week's initial $110,000 ad buy -- on basic cable in Pittsburgh; Columbus, Ohio; Portland, Ore.; Phoenix; Detroit; and Lansing, Mich. -- was to be bankrolled with online donations from DriveDemocracy.org members and Move-
On.org members in Texas.
"We've been raising money since yesterday, and it's coming in at an unexpected clip," he said Wednesday morning, adding it was coming in small denominations.
But later Wednesday, screenwriter Daniel J. O'Keefe of Los Angeles wired Texans for Truth $100,000, bringing the group's total funding so far between $300,000 and $400,000. "He'd called yesterday, he'd gotten the e-mail, and he wanted to help out in a big way," Smith said.
Records show O'Keefe has given the Democratic National Committee at least $23,500 since August 2003.
18 posted on 09/16/2004 11:26:25 AM EDT by OXENinFLA
From this thread:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1217788/posts
David Van Os (Bill Burkett's attorney) is a huge DNC player, with ties to the lcoal, state and national party.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1217535/posts?page=52#52
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1217535/posts?page=53#53
Just a correction for your calculus (it doesn't necessarily change your ourcome), Burkett WAS Army. He was National Guard, not Air National Guard. The former is associated with the Army, the later with the Air Force.
Hence my search for military folks.
Thanks!
Dear Robert A. Cook, PE,
"I think the hand-written are long gone."
I don't think they ever existed. If they had, and Mr. Burkett, or anyone else who might have produced the forgeries, had seen them, he or they would have preserved them.
If you have the real thing available to you, you don't make a forgery. You make a forgery because the thing never existed.
The "real memos" from which the forgeries were produced are a figment of Dan Blather's overactive little mind.
sitetest
I think my resepct for the military is clear from my expressions though!
AMERICAN SPECTATOR
Washington Prowler By The Prowler One Last Smear Published 9/2/2004 12:09:36 AM
"....Just recently, Barnes, at the request of the Kerry campaign, made a videotape at a fundraising event in Texas that was distributed to reporters by Kerry operatives. On it, Barnes explained that, as lieutenant governor, he had recommended Bush for National Guard service. One problem: Barnes wasn't lieutenant governor at the time. But this would be quibbling.
[bold mine]
Okay, it may be unsourced and Barnes is on record that he was unaware he was being taped. But Barnes is on record as saying the complete opposite of what he said in this video. My money is on the The Prowler.
Not proof, but suggestive of just the type of collusion we have suspected.
There will be no one fact we uncover which will be the smoking gun. This is just one piece of a big puzzle. We can and will make rather rue the day he uttered the word "Preponderance"
Perhaps Carville and Begala provided copy to Burkett who, in turn, faxed it CBS.
I really believe this circles back to Begala and Carville.
Look at Burkett saying "we have reassembled your file".
February. Right around McAuliffe/Kerry Guard attacks.
Who are the "we".
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1217916/posts
From another thread.....
Did Dan tip his hand?
Dan Rather from the NY Observer story:
He did not reveal the name of the source, but Mr. Rather said he was a man who had been reluctant to come forth with them because he’d been harassed by political operatives. "Whether one believes it or not, this person believed that he and his family had been harassed and even threatened,"
And from today's NY Times:
In a book published this year, "Bush's War for Re-election" by James Moore, Mr. Burkett is quoted as reporting having received numerous death threats, including telephone messages and a bullet with his name on it that he says he found in his mailbox. More recently, he told people that his son's car had been burned.
610 posted on 09/16/2004 11:49:13 AM EDT by Pete
From the spectator.org days ago:
Washington Prowler
Anatomy of a Forgery Print Friendly Format
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By The Prowler
Published 9/10/2004 12:09:06 AM
More than six weeks ago, an opposition research staffer for the Democratic National Committee received documents purportedly written by President George W. Bush's Texas Air National Guard squadron commander, the late Col. Jerry Killian.
The oppo researcher claimed the source was "a retired military officer." According to a DNC staffer, the documents were seen by both senior staff members at the DNC, as well as the Kerry campaign.
"More than a couple people heard about the papers," says the DNC staffer. "I've heard that they ended up with the Kerry campaign, for them to decide to how to proceed, and presumably they were handed over to 60 Minutes, which used them the other night. But I know this much. When there was discussion here, there were doubts raised about their authenticity."
The concerns arose from the sourcing. "It wasn't clear that our source for the documents would have had access to them. Our person couldn't confirm from what file, from what original source they came from."
The documents that CBS News used were not documents from any of Bush's personnel files from his time in the National Guard. Rather, CBS News stated that they were documents uncovered in the personnel files of Killian. That would explain why the White House or the Pentagon had never before released or even seen them.
According to a Kerry campaign source, there was little gossip about the supposedly hot documents inside the office of the campaign on McPherson Square. "Those documents were not something anyone was talking about or trying to generate buzz on," says the staffer. "It wasn't like there were small groups of people talking about this as a bombshell. I think people here weren't sure what to make of it, because provenance of these documents was uncertain."
A CBS producer, who initially tipped off The Prowler about the 60 Minutes story, says that despite seeking professional assurances that the documents were legitimate, there was uncertainty even among the group of producers and researchers working on the story.
"The problem was we had one set of documents from Bush's file that had Killian calling Bush 'an exceptionally fine young officer and pilot.' And someone who Killian said 'performed in an outstanding manner.' Then you have these new documents and the tone and content are so different."
The CBS producer said that some alarms bells went off last week when the signatures and initials of Killian on the documents in hand did not match up with other documents available on the public record, but producers chose to move ahead with the story. "This was too hot not to push. If there were doubts, those people didn't show it," says the producer, who works on a rival CBS News program.
Now, the producer says, there is growing concern inside the building on 57th Street that they may have been suckered by the Kerry campaign. "There is a school of thought here that the Kerry people dumped this in our laps, figuring we'd do the heavy lifting on the story. That maybe they had doubts about these documents but hoped we'd get more information," says the producer. "If that's the case, then we're bigger fools than we already appear to be judging by all the chatter about how these documents could be forgeries."
ABC News' political unit held a conference call at 7:00 p.m. Thursday evening to discuss the memo and its potential ramifications should the documents turn out to be a forgery. That meeting took place around the time that the deceased Killian's son made public statements questioning the documents' authenticity.
According to one ABC News employee, some reporters believe that the Kerry campaign as well as the DNC were parties in duping CBS, but a smaller segment believe that both the DNC and the Kerry campaign were duped by Karl Rove, who would have engineered the flap to embarrass the opposition.
This was Ketchup Boy's October Surprise. But they panicked over the Swifties and Bush's convention bounce. And BTW: I think the unimpeachable source is Dan's daughter, a known Texas RAT operative.
95% chance Kerry himself knew about it and was clearly involved.
I really hope so. And I agree, Burkett just seems too neat. I'm not saying he was setup. He may be the willing courier. He may even be such an underperformer that he was also the forger and the DNC were just that stupid to pass on the documents. But people deserve the answer to this - not even so much who FAXed the documents to CBS, but who was behind it? And as the Dem always like to say, how high does it go?
Are you shocked? Not fair? Who said anything about fair? Remember President Dukakis? He was very fair. Now he teaches at Northeastern University. John Kerry has been very fair in dealing with the Swift Boat charges. That's why so many of my Democrat friends have decided to stop talking to the campaign, and start putting money together independently.
The arrogant little Republican boys who have been strutting around New York this week, claiming that they have this one won, would do well to take a step back. It could be a long and ugly road to November.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/9/1/90434.shtml
This was obviously coreographed.
I seriously doubt that. Rove is not that dumb. The "Duck", that all of this walks and talks like, is the Clintons.
I agree, but after FR and the blogs put a few pieces together, the democrat's wheels have fallen off and they are scrambling to get their stories straight. Got to keep their feet to the fire before they get their rythem back. That way, they'll keep making mistakes.
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