Posted on 09/18/2004 8:26:29 PM PDT by NavVet
AUSTIN, Texas - A retired Texas National Guard official mentioned as a possible source for disputed documents about President Bush (news - web sites)'s service in the Guard said he passed along information to a former senator working with John Kerry (news - web sites)'s campaign.
Also Saturday, a White House official said Bush has reviewed disputed documents that purport to show he refused orders to take a physical examination in 1972 and did not recall having seen them previously.
The long-running story on Bush's Texas Air National Guard service took an unusual twist when CBS broadcast a report on what it said were the newly discovered records. The authenticity of the documents has come into doubt.
In his first public comment on the CBS documents controversy, the president told The Union Leader of Manchester, N.H., "There are a lot of questions about the documents, and they need to be answered."
The retired Guard official, Bill Burkett, said in an Aug. 21 e-mail to a list of Texas Democrats that after getting through "seven layers of bureaucratic kids" in the Democrat's campaign, he talked with former Georgia Sen. Max Cleland about information that would counter criticism of Kerry's Vietnam War service. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the e-mail Saturday.
"I asked if they wanted to counterattack or ride this to ground and outlast it, not spending any money. (Cleland) said counterattack. So I gave them the information to do it with," Burkett wrote.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Burkett was Army Guard, some of the language in the documents was army...I believe he "recreated documents " (forged, made up, falsified) but I cannot believe Mapes would fall for just his word...Look what the internet has found on Burkett and she's been working on this story 5 years?..Someone with a tad more credibility surely had a hand pushing this fraud....Mapes/Rather/CBS wanted to believe it...so they did.
They were so intent on "getting Bush" that they completely dropped all pretense of real journalistic integrity, fact checking...depending on virulent Bush haters and dem activists...ignoring any source that was pro Bush.. ...They need to be in the journalism Hall of Shame.
True, but Dan Rather's daughter Robin is very active in the political machine in Abeline. Dan himself did a fund raiser there last year. Many of us suspect that she was, at least, the point of contact with CBS.
I'm not sure that Dan would throw away his career even to save Kerry himself, but his daughter would be another thing entirely, especially since forging these documents might be a federal crime.
I doubt that Bush will prosecute, but given what the left thinks of Ashcroft, I'm sure that they would think he might.
Cleland has confirmed he spoke with Burkett via his cell phone during a car ride in "mid-August". Cleland said he referred Burkett to the Kerry campaign (from there reporters were told his call was set aside---that is being pursued, I'm sure).
The MSM plays right along, that's how it goes down. Except it didn't in this case...because we were on the case...and still are. I can only hope that someone else would have noticed the issues with the memos, but what if someone didn't? And, how many times has this been done in the past (note that the expert CBS hired for this situation was the same expert that verified some of the Vince Foster documents)?
Absolutely. We are still subjected to non-sensical talking points from the "MSM" harking back to the Clinton years and the 2000 election, to name but two areas where they presented outright propaganda at odds with demonstrable fact, or their treatment of the dem at hand differed wildly (as always) from they way a republican would be treated for the same violations.
How many times has it happened, indeed. It's very Soviet/Pravda-ish. If Kerry wasn't so obviously going down on his own the rest of the media outlets would not be pursuing this as they are, IMO. If he were salvageable (ala Clinton) we'd be seeing a different tack.
Cleland has confirmed he spoke with Burkett (via his cell phone---how many people have Max's cell phone #?) and referred him to the Kerry campaign.
His postings are indeed from him. I believe they were the basis for the reporters' questions to Cleland, for example.
The MSM received their talking points and stick to them as best they can despite a public record that refuted much of Wilson's ravings from the get-go. He finally was kicked out of Kamp Kerry only after the 9/11 commission report said his wife did refer him and his trips had actually found evidence of Iraq seeking to purchase yellow-cake.
Anyway, I'm just tossing it out there as an example of what you're talking about. It is left to sane and rational people to drag the facts forward, fully documented seven ways to Sunday in order to refute the talking points which dems/MSM always seem to stick to with remarkable steadfastness.
If this is part of a coordinated campaign that was being set up for weeks now, and I believe it was, there is no way this could be done by the local 'rats of Abilene, Texas.
Kerry would, at the very least, have to have to signed off on it. He is up to his eyeballs in this.
I agree with you whole-heartedly that CBS is not protecting Burkett.
It may very well be that the 'rats and the rest of the MSM are not only not protecting him, but are setting him up to take the fall. As we speak, they are setting up the "lone-gunman on the grassy knoll" theme.
LOL...been through, Baird, Rising Star and Cross Plains many times (sisters went to school in Austin), but it was back in the 60's when the speed limit was 70 and gas was cheap and no one drove under 85! Guess it would take every bit of 2.5-3 hrs to get to Crawford, and I suspect there's lots more cops as you get closer to the ranch. (Is Hico still a speed trap?)
Anyway, it'd be neat if someone had snapped a pic of Cleland and Burkett together. Can somebody PhotoShop one and send it to Dan?
LOL, nearly choked on my Juicy Fruit gum!
The Joe Wilson deal is another obvious situation where the strategy of the demcrats was multi pronged, but with the same goal. They're not stupid. They're intelligent, but they're devious in the worst way. And, I do mean they act un-American when they plan and plot only for political gain all the while talking about principle.
If you haven't seen FREEPER Wolfstar's analysis on the Joe Wilson situation, I implore you to read it. It is a complete deconstruction of the foundations behind the Joe Wilson story being the cornerstone of the Bush Lied mantra that John Kerry himself is parroting.
Link: Set up? Anatomy of the contrived Wilson "scandal"
Ironically, and in light of the recent revelations that so-called "stockpiles of WMDs" haven't been found, the comment that President Bush made in his SOTU address (that Saddam was trying to obtain yellowcake Uranium from an African country) turns out to be not only factually correct, but consistent with the concessions that Joe Wilson himself made. regarding the contact between an Iraqi representative (which turned out to be none other than "Baghdad Bob") and representatives of Niger's government. Since Niger has 2 main exports --goats and uranium-- it is only fair to consider that, given the plans that we now know Saddam had, the Iraq/Niger discussion was not about goats, but uranium.
Have we ever heard the MSM admit this? No. And, they won't because it completely removes the "Bush Lied" mantra. And, given that Dan Rather is ABSOLUTELY dead wrong and there is visible proof of it and yet he still is holding the line shows just how far the MSM will go to protect their liberal friends in government.
Anyway, good post. Make sure to check out FREEPER Wolfstar's analysis.
BTTT
It's most simple if there is no source whatsoever, and the staff at CBS made this up themselves. I know the media types consider Dan Rather an, "honest man, a good man, a wonderful journalist", but this devotion to a confidential source while the world is falling makes this source look more like an imaginary friend.
I disagree. I know there've been instances of just this sort of thing: "Dateline" with the gas tanks on GM trucks, "20/20" with the Food Lion scandal in the mid 90's. But Dan and Mapes would have made this up in 2000 and sprung it right on the heels of the DWI surprise. Plus, NBC and ABC only got zinged with lawsuits, not federal criminal charges that can land people in the pen. Dan, as dumb as he is, isn't that dumb.
While he didn't make nearly the deal about it that Ketchup Boy has, algore did occasionally remind people that he served in Vietnam. These forgeries, coming right on top of the DWI, may well have been a knockout blow for Dubya.
However, Cabana Boy has centered his entire campaign on 4 months in Vietnam. Burkett was bragging about this stuff for at least a couple of weeks before See BS ran the story. Add a whiff of desperation as the Kerry campaign sinks further behind following the Swifties and the GOP convention, and CBS and Blather were only too happy to accept these forgeries at face value.
I'm pretty sure that Burkett is the original source, given the discrepancies between Army and Air Force. But how did CBS get hold of them? Therein lies the stonewall and denials. If it's Barnes, he's a major Kerry operative in Texas. If it's Rather's daughter(which I believe it is), he's also not going to sing. If it's Cleland, he's another Kerry bigwig.
Anyway, CBS would have copped if it was just Burkett, dismissing him as a nut who fooled Mapes and then ceremoniously fired her. As it is, it looks like Burkett is being set up to be the fall guy for this one. If CBS manufactured them, Dan would be looking for a good retirement home while the Tiffany network was trying to hold on to its broadcast license. Dan is covering for somebody who's identity with this dirty trick is in the Kerry campaign or DNC.
I don't think it's an accident that Ketchup Boy was whining about the Swifties by saying that he served in Vietnam and Bush can't account for his service time, and MacAwful and the DNC running ads saying he was AWOL. As others on this thread have said, this was a coordinated slander that backfired.
That's the problem with dirty tricks. You better not get caught. The reason Blather is acting so Nixonian is that if it is revealed that the DNC or Cabana Boy are the one's who gave the go ahead for this mess, not only does Kerry lose, but he's going to bring down RAT Senators and House members with him.
Thanks for the encouragment everyone. I'll be out for awhile. I'd like to consider your points a bit more before posting again. I will try to take a few minutes from work tomorrow to catch up. (I have NO idea how you folks keep up with it all)
Thanks again
Still no mention of Burkett being with the Army National Guard.
They do stipulate Air National Guard when talking about President Bush and Albaugh, but notice how Burkett is identified. Only as a member of the National Guard.
I disagree. Because of the claim that the source is "unimpeachable," I think the source was either Bill and/or Hitlery.
Since Bill has already been impeached (and I do not think could ever be impeached again) and Hitlery could possibly be impeached as a Senator, in my opinion, Bill is most likely the source.
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