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.
Oh please! This is beyond disgusting. Kerry won't sign the release for his, is AP demanding them also? I doubt it. I am so sick of activist judges in this country. Boston tea party time, only not over taxes alone!
I think you're right.
I do try to be nice, but................
I don't quite understand the order, coming from a judge. But, Bush WANTS all of his records released. The judge's order works in favor of Bush, not against him. Bush was angry a few weeks ago when another set of document turned up, to the chagrin of some records repository.
The judge is putting heat on the Pentagon and it's apparatus.
As for Kerry, this news puts pressure on him, or can if the media asks "Mr. Kerry, have you authorized the release of all of your records?" Either he lies, or he says "no." And in this time when the CBS/Killian flap is cooking, the question of military records is highly interesting.
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.
As was reported in the April issue of NewsBriefs, the judge reinstated the crucial drug evidence on April 1 in the case after a rare rehearing in March and considerable public and political criticism. Judge Baer denied that the political pressure had influenced his reversal, saying that he changed his mind after hearing the testimony of a second arresting police officer, and the defendant, Ms. Bayless.
Where's the problem and what this judge orders? Release all documents? They are released according to the WH. So what? Bush didn'r sign form 180, but who cares. He woulnd't lie, I'm pretty sure. So give them these doc's, THAT will be devasting. But some reactions here in are interesting too. Such much whining about this pice of shit, huu?
Does anyone know for sure that Bush is ABLE to sign a 180? Does it work the same way for the National Guard?
Perhaps there is no such option available to Bush.
Perhaps a distinction should be made between
Bushes 'personnel file and form180',,,,
and,,,,
every other Pentagon scrap of paper
that for one reason or another, relates
to Bush.
Judge Baer: "Your wish is my command."
I'm working on looking into him some more, but I know he's already slated to retire and just a week ago, Bush nominated his replacement.
That's too easy. Try "Louie Louie".
Judicial Watch already has, back in August. They got their reply yesterday and it confirms what we already know. Not all of Kerry's records have been released and he's refused to authorize their release. Case closed.
This was in response to an FOIA lawsuit filed by the LSM. We should file the same type of lawsuit agaginst Kerry.
[It] was Judge Harold Baer, Jr., of the U.S. District Court in New York City, who in late January [1996] held the fruits of a car search (80 pounds of narcotics) inadmissible because, in the neighborhood of New York where the search took place, it was rational behavior for citizens to run from police, leaving no "reasonable suspicion" that a criminal act had been committed. Before long, both Speaker Gingrich and Senator Dole suggested that Judge Baer be impeached, and there was even an initial statement from the White House spokesman that the president might seek Baer’s resignation. In early April, Baer reversed his earlier ruling, and that seemed to be the end of that.
The problem here is what kind of fraud they are going to release.
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