Posted on 09/16/2004 9:11:36 AM PDT by areafiftyone
CBS is trying to pin the Rathergate forgery rap on former National Guard officer Bill Burkett - who has no prominent ties to the Kerry campaign or the Democratic Party.
According to the New York Times, as CBS was preparing to admit that documents aired by news star Dan Rather might have been fabricated, "a person at the network named Mr. Burkett as a source of records critical of Mr. Bush's Vietnam era service that CBS said last week came from the personal files of Lieutenant Bush's squadron commander, Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian."
So far Burkett has not responded. And he rebuffed a Times reporter who showed up at his Baird, Texas ranch yesterday.
But the former Guardsman's San Antonio lawyer, David Van Os, told the Times, "The possibility that Bill Burkett would falsify documents or falsify any story is zero."
The paper inexplicably characterized Os's denial as a refusal to answer.
Burkett, however, has been complaining for years that he saw documents from President Bush's National Guard file being tossed in the trash in 1997, with top Bush aide Joe Albaugh allegedly overseeing the file clean-up.
In the last weeks of the 2000 election, he went public with his story for the first time - but failed to produce any records, forged or otherwise, to back it up.
When Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe resurrected the Bush Guard story last February, Burkett was in the spotlight again.
He told the Dallas Morning News that Allbaugh ordered the National Guard chief in Texas to get the Bush file and make certain "there's not anything there that will embarrass the governor."
A few days later, said Burkett, he saw Bush's file and documents from it discarded in a trash can. He said he recognized the documents as retirement point summaries and pay forms.
But he made no mention at the time of any memo from Bush's commander, Lt. Col. Killian, who, in the Rathergate forgery, complained about orders to "sugacoat" Bush records.
Unnoted in today's Times report fingering Burkett was the most telling non-denial to surface so far in the Rathergate imbroglio - a refusal by an unnamed senior CBS executive to deny that Rather got the Killian forgery from the Kerry campaign.
According to Sunday's New York Post, the network exec said he "couldn't answer that question," then hung up.
Also overlooked - an intriguing detail cited repeatedly over the last two days by radio host Sean Hannity from Saturday's Dallas Morning News report on Rathergate.
"Earlier this year," reported the paper, "Kerry aides raised the exact points the memo seemed to address."
The evidence of a Kerry connection may be scant so far - but it's a whole lot more persuasive then efforts by the Times and CBS to turn Bill Burkett into Rathergate's fallguy.
I have head this Burkett story before and I have one big problem with it (ok, maybe two).
If we buy Burkett's story, 1997 Bush operatives went through Bush's records and threw away negative stuff. OK, if this were true the people doing it would know very well what they were doing is a crime. Knowing it is a serious crime I find it impossible to believe the Bush operatives were merely throw the documents in the trash so that Burkett could SEE them in the trash can later. Paper shredders were invented in 1997 (although I am not sure if they could do superscript back them) and I am pretty sure they would have either physically removed the documents or shredded them. The next point is why didn't Burkett pull the documents out of the trash and show them to somebody. The story sounds like complete nonsense.
CBS is covering for the Kerry Campaign. Earlier this year, a lawyer, who is Kerry supporter was talking about 'proof that Pres. Bush refused to take his flight physical', and he works for Kerry. You can find it on crushkerry.com, it's interesting, and CBS is now attempting to have a scape goat, to continue to cover up for the Kerry Campaign.
What if Burkett admits to the forgery, then states he passed the docs onto a DNC staffer, not CBS?
Just curious. Such lawyers aren't cheap. Is Burkett loaded? If not, why the bigshot lawyer? and who's picking up the tab????
Is it "follow the money" time again?????
...and Van Os is from San Antonio. Burkett is outside Abilene. I've lived in both areas, and I know they're QUITE some distance away. Why does some small-town, former Guard nutcase with mental and physical problems have one of the most powerful lawyers in the State.....whose practice is based HOURS away???
Well, he's definitely in the cattle biz:
http://www.simmental.org/ASA%20Board.htm
Could you clarify something ? Burkett was in the Army Guard , not the Air Force.
Is this just a distinction without a difference - are all these guys kind of thrown all together? If not, how does someone like this get ( supposedly ) hold of AF papers???????? I can't believe CBS is passing this off as "news".....
Okay, I'm more willing to listen to that scenario.
commit a robbery with a gun stolen by a friend and see how far the argument goes.
When was the commercial for fortunate son produced?
Rather is now trying to say the underlying story has never been challenged.
Dan Rather is a delusional hack. He has no concept of reality or journalism.
The focus MUST be on the ties to the DNC.
Scenario: So it took him a few more years to dummy up some documents and deliver them to the DNC. The DNC, not wanting to be connected, told him to fax the docs to CBS?
Also, when former insurance commissioner, John Osorio, won $60 million in the lottery, whas Barnes still involved in the Texas Lottery? Osorio was convicted in the Sharpstown scandal, and Barnes was part of it though skated.
What is certain is that the Kerry campaign knew about the memos long ago and knew that CBS was going to use them.
BS he's the textbook wannabe "somebody prominent in the party". I say let them eat each other it's an internal problrm for the DNC.
"He is not one of the better examples of what guardmen are, and actually gives us a bad name."
So he is the ONE of all others that they believe about G.W. Bush?
Actually, I feel sorry for him. He is a very bitter person, obviouslly. How betrayed is he going to feel now that CBS seems to be pointing fingers at HIM? It could make him go over the edge! Oh, I forgot, he has already . . .
Don't get me wrong, he needs to take responsibility for what his part in any illegal activity is. But he should not have to take a "fall" for other people . . . higher up Democrat people, CBS, people, etc.
Dear RightOnline,
Mr. Burkett is a Democrat operative who actually headed the Steering Committee for Mr. Van Os' campaign for chairman of the Texas Democrat Party in 2002.
sitetest
See the link in my reply #118. That link has some interesting facts about burkett.
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