Fax# (212) 975-1998
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.
Burkett was army and Knox has this to say last night.
"Knox speculated as to how she thought the forgeries were created saying, "My guess is that someone in the outfit got hold of the real ones and discussed it with a former Army person."
Convinced?
Yeah, I saw that.I think that's Huge.
The big 'secret' is no secret at all.
This forgery was nothing less than a major portion of the coordinated (and illegal) 'Fortunate Son' attack on the President by the Kerry/DNC/CBS propagandists.
It's right out in the open for anyone with eyes to see.
What's funny is that I'll bet there were quite a few eyeballs watching CBS News these last couple of nights that don't normally do so: specifically, news junkies who have been following the Rathergate scandal excitedly.
But since those folks are not likely to be in Nielsen families, they're not being included in the ratings. As well it should be: few of those people are likely to be patronizing the advertisers anyway :)
Also CBS and Dan Rather are getting more publicity from this the more they stonewall.
That has been my question about this "scrubbing" of TexANG files that supposedly took place by, or at the behest of, GWB operatives back in the late 90's...
Burkett would have us believe, they went all they way there, making no attempt to hide their intentions, "scrubbed" the files, and then just tossed the damning documents in the nearest trashcan and left? That doesn't even pass the giggle test...
It's the reason why they choose helpers with credibility problems. Just like Clinton did. Over and over and over. And if Monica hadn't have kept that dress, we would never have had the evidence of his patterns. Regardless of the issue, it's the same MO.
Absolutely no one who was purging a file of damaging information would discard the documents in a trash can. The information would have been destroyed, not discarded.
Burned, perhaps. Shredded, perhaps. Tossed in the trash can, absurd.
Sent to my local CBS affiliate station.
To whom it may concern:
Dan Rather, on CBS 60 Minutes, presented fake documents to the American people. The documents have been proven to be fakes yet Dan Rather continues to stand by his lies.
Dan Rather also attended and was a Keynote Speaker at a Democrat Fundraiser in Texas, further proving his bias. Dan Rather has acknowledged this bias (and apologized) in a recent interview with Geraldo Rivera.
Dan Rather of CBS is incapable of presenting the news is an unbiased fashion. I'm convinced this led to the serious breach of journalistic ethics regarding the use of forged documents. I simply can no long believe a word broadcast on CBS News.
Biased reporting of the “news” is unacceptable and deserves an appropriate response. Thus, I am programming my television set to delete all CBS affiliated channels. Your station and your advertisers will not show in my household.
I will put the CBS channels back on my televisions when Dan Rather apologizes for using his position with CBS for his partisan political antics and resigns.
Best Regards,
The FBI has got to get Burkett and put the squeeze on him.
Texans need to get together and make certain this doesn't happen.
Does anyone know where Rather's daughter lives in Texas?
This is the number of a CBS "shirt" - not the usual comment line: 1-212-975-3166. Two days ago, CBS put out a statement that someone examined ALL four memos (even though there are 6) and vouched for their authenticity. CBS has YET to release his name. The man I speak with (very articulate and obviously a front man) says CBS has no comment at this time as to who this document expert is. It's time for a MASSIVE FEEP.
This is the number of a CBS "shirt" - not the usual comment line: 1-212-975-3166. Two days ago, CBS put out a statement that someone examined ALL four memos (even though there are 6) and vouched for their authenticity. CBS has YET to release his name. The man I speak with (very articulate and obviously a front man) says CBS has no comment at this time as to who this document expert is. It's time for a MASSIVE FREEP.
Fear of Arkancide?
"shredded, not discarded in trash cans."
and how do point summaries and pay forms get mutated into memos from LTC Killian to himself?
I have heard about a file vetting and documents thrown out, supposedly implying that the documents thrown out could have been the faked memos or something else damaging to Bush.
In realty, if the papers he found in the trash were damaging to Lt Bush, we would have seen them years ago, and it would NOT have been necessary to fake memos from LTC Killian to himself.
Another reason this seems recent is that the official files were released in 2004 -- preculding them from faking something official, which could be cross-checked. So they had to resort to something like a memo to file.
IF THERE WAS SOMETHING DAMAGING, A GUY LIKE THIS WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN SITTING ON IT ALL THESE YEARS. His hatred would not have let him.
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