Posted on 09/16/2004 2:02:11 PM PDT by Leroy S. Mort
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - A former Texas Air National Guard official who served at the same time as President Bush says he believes the bigger story about gaps in Bush's service is being overlooked in disputes over the validity of certain Guard documents.
``I think the public ought to be concerned about his preferential treatment getting in and whether he satisfied his commitment to the Air Guard. Those are the two fundamental questions,'' said Robert Strong, the administrative officer in charge of air operations at Guard state headquarters from early 1971 until March 1972.
Documents publicized last week by the CBS program ``60 Minutes'' have been called into question by some experts and relatives of the late Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, who supposedly wrote them when he was one of Bush's commanders in 1972 and 1973. The memos indicated that Killian had been pressured to sugarcoat Bush's performance and that the future president had ignored an order to take a physical.
CBS stood by its reporting, but CBS News President Andrew Heyward said the network would redouble its efforts to determine the authenticity of the documents.
Killian's former secretary, Marian Carr Knox, 86, of Houston has said she believed the memos were fake but their content accurately reflected Killian's opinions.
``I know that I didn't type them,'' she said in an interview with CBS. ``However, the information in those is correct.''
Strong told The Associated Press on Thursday that he couldn't vouch for the authenticity of the memos, but ``if Mrs. Knox didn't type those documents and she thinks they're fake, I'll go with her judgment.'' He said he doesn't know who provided CBS with the documents.
But Strong added that he and Knox worked closely with Killian and are in better position to know about his work habits and feelings about Bush than Killian's five children, who were between the ages of two and 19 in 1972. Strong said Killian's records would have been removed from his Guard office before his family would have been allowed to retrieve his personal items after he died in 1984.
Regardless of the authenticity of the memos, the question should be centered on Bush's Guard service, and what is indicated in the documents, Strong said.
``Why aren't we focusing on the content?'' Strong said, adding that he believes there are holes in Bush's official Guard record.
``The White House has just got to be thrilled to death that everybody's tormenting about subscripts and superscripts,'' he said, referring to the several days of debate among experts about whether the memos were forgeries generated on a computer instead or if a typewriter common in the 1970s was used.
As Bush flew to campaign in Minnesota on Thursday, White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters aboard Air Force One that ``CBS has now acknowledged that the crux of their story may have been based on forged documents.''
Strong confirmed that at least one of the documents used by CBS bore a faxed header indicating it had been sent from a Kinko's copy shop in Abilene. Strong said he was shown copies of the documents about three days before the ``60 Minutes'' broadcast on which he appeared last week.
Bill Burkett, a retired National Guard officer who lives just outside Abilene, has been cited in reports in Newsweek and The New York Times as a source for CBS' report. His lawyer, David Van Os, issued a statement saying Burkett ``no longer trusts any possible outcome of speaking to the press on any issue regarding George W. Bush.''
Burkett did not return several phone messages left by The Associated Press this week, and did not talk to an AP reporter who visited his ranch in Blair on Thursday.
Burkett, 55, told The Associated Press in February that he had overheard a conversation in 1997 between then-Gov. Bush's chief of staff, Joe Allbaugh, and then-Adjutant Gen. Daniel James of the Texas Air National Guard in which the two men spoke about getting rid of any military records that would ``embarrass the governor.''
Burkett said he saw documents from Bush's file discarded in a trash can a few days later at Camp Mabry in Austin. Burkett described them as performance and pay documents.
Allbaugh and James denied the allegations.
Yet in The Real Robert Strong:
Strong admitted that he had never served with or even met Lt. Bush. He admitted further that Jerry Killlian had never discussed Lt. Bush with him. Strong acknowledged that he had “no personal knowledge about Bush’s service.”
Um... because they're forgeries and therefore irrelevant?
So Robert Stong knows for sure exactly what Killian did and did not discuss with his wife. I don't think so--- and most Americans would find that an amazing assumption as well I suspect.
The Dims keep repeating this ridiculous line, as if the electorate gives a rat's ass about Bush missing a physical exam over 3 decades ago. .....especially considering that same electorate had now qualms about twice electing a draft dodger over WW2 heroes.
I didn't bother reading the whole article.
Is this the same Strong who Dan Rather interviewed in the original 60 minutes piece?
And yet Col. Lively, who succeeded Strong at TANG in 1972-73, had no problems whatsover with Bush (as he said emphatically on Fox & Friends several days ago) and said Killian didn't either. He's also one of the people who flat out said there was no waiting list for the pilot's program, so Barnes couldn't possibly have done any favors to get Bush in anyway.
But the public ISN'T concerned about it and that's what bugs you anti-Bush folks, doesn't it??
Strong is just another Dem political hack who is trying to divert the press to the non-story of GW's guard service, for which he was honorably discharged. Keep on putting pressure on the forgeries.
I have a question...if there were gaps in Bush's service, WHO THE HELL WOULD CARE besides the people who hate Bush already?
Strong is just another Dem political hack who is trying to divert the press to the non-story of GW's guard service, for which he was honorably discharged. Keep on putting pressure on the forgeries.
By KELLEY SHANNON
Associated Press Writer
From Kerry Spot at NRO
Strong calls them "compatible with the way business was done at the times." That's a dodge. "Genuine" and "compatible" are not synonyms.
Strong also says "[Killian] was trying to deal with at least one superior officer, General Staudt, who was closely connected to the Houston political establishment." He says nothing about Staudt retiring almost two years earlier. Just how reliable is that memory, Mr. Strong?
Also Strong later admitted he never observed Killian typing. In fact, he said that he "didn't know if Jerry Killian ever touched a typewriter in his life." Killian was stationed in Houston, Strong was stationed in Austin.
He also said, "I would not say that I authenticated the documents. I basically said that if these documents are what they purport to be, then I don't see anything inconsistent with the way we did business or the man I knew Jerry Killian to be. You know, I'm looking at third or fourth generation copies of memos that look perfectly OK to me. But it's been 30-odd years, man." Strong has also said he "has no personal knowledge" of George W. Bush's National Guard service.
Your honor, I'm finished with this "witness."
now = no
Check this out! *Be sure to read Leroy S. Mort's commentary.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought all this controversy occurred from 1972-1973. This guy was even there at the time so how would he know.
I guess that's why he isn't in the AP story.
It's time to add the AP to the cBS list of BIASED JOURNALISM outlets.
More DNC propaganda from the usual suspects.
AP joins CBS as a dicredited "news" organization.
My father helped me get my first summer job because he knew the president of a small company. Parents help their children, they're supposed to help. So even if W's father helped him get into TANG so what?
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