HONORABLE HAROLD BAER, JR.
500 Pearl Street
Chambers 2230
New York, New York 10007
Telephone (212) 805-0184
Facsimile (212) 805-7901
Courtroom 23B
Courtroom Deputy
Mr. Dennis Swain
Telephone (212) 805-0088
Posted on 09/16/2004 1:52:12 PM PDT by Spackidagoosh
Edited on 09/16/2004 2:17:33 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
WASHINGTON - A federal judge has ordered the Pentagon (news - web sites) to find and make public by next week any unreleased files about President Bush (news - web sites)'s Vietnam-era Air National Guard service to resolve a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by The Associated Press.
U.S. District Judge Harold Baer Jr. handed down the order late Wednesday in New York. The AP lawsuit already has led to the disclosure of previously unreleased flight logs from Bush's days piloting F-102A fighters and other jets.
Pentagon officials told Baer they plan to have their search complete by Monday. Baer ordered the Pentagon to hand over the records to the AP by Sept. 24 and provide a written statement by Sept. 29 detailing the search for more records.
"We're hopeful the Department of Defense (news - web sites) will provide a full accounting of the steps it has taken, as the judge ordered, so the public can have some assurance that there are no documents being withheld," said AP lawyer David Schulz.
White House officials have said Bush ordered the Pentagon earlier this year to conduct a thorough search for the president's records, and officials allowed reporters to review everything that was gathered back in February.
Through a series of requests under the federal open records law and a subsequent suit, the AP uncovered the flight logs, which were not part of the records the White House released earlier this year.
Both Bush's and John Kerry (news - web sites)'s service records in Vietnam have become a major issue in the presidential race. New records that have surfaced in recent weeks have raised more questions.
Bush's critics say Bush got preferential treatment as the son of a congressman and U.N. ambassador. Critics also question why Bush skipped a required medical examination in 1972 and failed to show up for drills during a six-month period that year.
Bush has repeatedly said he fulfilled all of his Air National Guard obligations.
The future president joined the Texas Air National Guard in 1968, when he graduated from Yale. He spent more than a year on active duty learning how to fly and then mostly flew in the one-seat F-102A fighters until April 1972.
The pilot logs show a shift to flights in two-seat trainer jets in March 1972, shortly before Bush quit flying. Former Air National Guard officials say that could have been because F-102A jets were not available for Bush to fly or because of other reasons, such as concerns about Bush's flight performance.
Bush skipped his required yearly medical exam in 1972 in the months after he stopped flying in April. Bush has said he moved to Alabama to work on the unsuccessful Senate campaign of a family friend.
Bush never showed up for Guard service between late April and mid-October 1972. He won approval to train with an Alabama Air National Guard unit during September, October and November 1972, but more than a dozen members of the unit at that time say they never saw him there.
The only direct record of Bush appearing at the Alabama unit's base is a January 1973 dental exam performed at that base. Bush's Texas commanders wrote in May 1973 they never saw him between May 1972 and April 1973, a time when his pay records show he trained on 14 days.
Although military regulations allowed commanders to order two years of active duty for guardsmen who missed more than three straight months of drills, that never happened to Bush. Commanders had leeway at the time to allow guardsmen to make up for missed drills.
Where are Kerry's records?
Hon. Harold BAER, Jr.
United States District Judge
Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse
500 Pearl Street, Chambers 2230
New York, New York 10007-1312
(212) 805-0184
Courtroom 23B
Deputy (212) 805-0088
http://www.ndsn.org/summer96/baer.html:
Judge Baer ruled on January 24 that the search of Carol Bayless' car was unreasonable because police brutality and corruption are so prevalent in some neighborhoods in New York City that it is natural for people to run away from police. He said that even innocent people flee the police in Washington Heights, a neighborhood where officers were viewed as "corrupt, violent and abusive." Because he found the search unreasonable, Baer excluded 80 pounds of drugs as evidence and a videotape confession in which Ms. Bayless stated that she had made at least 20 round trips from New York to Michigan since 1991 to ferry drugs.
http://www.nlf.net/brief.html:
During the run-up to the 1996 presidential election, President Clinton threatened to ask for the resignation of federal district Judge Harold Baer, Jr., and Bob Dole (joined by House Speaker Newt Gingrich) also threat-ened to pursue Baer’s impeachment. Baer’s offense involved sup-pressing 34 kilograms of cocaine, 2 kilograms of heroin, and a confes-sion to twenty drug running trips. In the process, Baer vilified police in his written opinion.[10] In response, the current Chief Judge of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, Jon O. Newman, and three of his predecessors wrote letters to both the President and Senator Dole criticizing their remarks concerning Judge Baer.[11]
HONORABLE HAROLD BAER, JR.
500 Pearl Street
Chambers 2230
New York, New York 10007
Telephone (212) 805-0184
Facsimile (212) 805-7901
Courtroom 23B
Courtroom Deputy
Mr. Dennis Swain
Telephone (212) 805-0088
Appointed by CLINTON!
Again, what is this the tenth time??
I'm trying to remember whether one was filed for Kerry's records. I know the records have been requested, early by the Boston Globe (but they just asked Kerry) and later by the Washington Post. I'm pretty sure the Globe wouldn't go FOIA, but I'm not sure about the WAPost.
I guess if Bush granted authority, then a judge can say: 'go do it'.
This is not a big deal. Bush himself ordered the Pentagon to search for them. They have already been working on it and will finish Monday.
I hope someone sued for Kerry's records under the freedom act.
Okay...Has Bush signed his 180 or not....if he hasn't, there is no way a judge can order this.......
Is this the same 'judge' who violated Jack & Jeri Ryan's private and sealed divorce?
Look out for more fake docs.
Most judges think they are equal to God. Abuse of the bench is grounds for removal but how sad, no one in authority ever seems to pursue the removal of a judge for that reason. They protect their own.
Well he's been given two "passes".
When you consider the potential influence of his wife's assets, a billionaire! and the concealment of all her financial records? well, that's also a huge and unwarranted "pass".
We've heard how much of Dick Cheney's FORMER ties with Haliburton? No pass issued there!
And to read today that the Kerry/Heinz tax "burden" was only 12%!!!!
NO PASS!!!
WE NEED TO START IMPEACHING THESE IDIOTS NOW!!!!
There's got to be a way.
Probably not needed if Bush instructed the Pentagon to turn over the information. I like forms as well as the next guy, but that doesn't make them scripture.
The link is right above the pic of Rather sticking a pencil in his ear.
I think this might be good news, and what Bush is counting on. You sure can't question the timing of the discovery of documents SUPPORTING Bush if they are found now.
Of couse, there is a lot of tin foil stuff being floated right now, but make no mistake, a very high stakes poker game is being played out right now. Things are not what they appear to be.
Isn't Bush a pretty good poker player? 8^>
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