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.
Is the judge doing the same for Ketchup Boy?
Popcorn time.
Uh....how about a judge do that with Kerry...I'm sorry but this strikes me as blatant abuse of power...I guess we should wait on more information but man some people have got to br bristling about right now...
Bush signed his 180.....who is this judge.
Ah.. .can he do that?
What about Kerry's?
What about yours?
What about the secretary's son's?
This is just getting to be silly now. There is a right to privacy in this country. Even if the judge is frustrated.
What is this? I thought that was done already.
Will the judge order Kerry to do likewise?
What the F**K?
To find? ROTFLMAO!!!! Their in Dan Rathers office.
did he? I thought he had not.
What about Kerry? Who is this RDDB judge?
This is incomrehensible!!!!!!
I hate the Fifth Column Left.
Judge doesn't need the order. Bush has signed form 180 authorizing the release of all records.
There is no link. If true, this is just more politizing the non-political.
The political is that Kerry has not signed form 180 and he wants to be Commander in Chief (CIC).
Even if he didnt, what is the difference between this and lets say oh ordering abortion clinics to release records on partial birth abortions? Or Rush's medical records? This smack of high hypocracy on the judiciary.
Strike another win for the judical tyranny of the left.
Did the judge demand that the government release kerry's records? Did the judge demand that the government release another other records?
Anyone care to research the judge.
I have a feeling this is the dems reaching for their "october suprise."
Timed, no doubt, to distract from Rathergate and the Navy-Kerry flap. This is going to be one long down-and-dirty 45 days...
If Dubya signed his 180, then the Judge is likely within his authority to order release of all his records. It's the execution of the 180 that lets the Judge issue this.
I'm not. I'm just wondering why Kerry gets a pass.
Its some activist judge trying to get his name in the newspapers. Give him the obscurity he deserves and/or kick him off the bench.
LOL.. SBVT have been asking Kerry this for months! The Judicial branch has now invalidated itself
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