Posted on 09/18/2004 8:51:41 PM PDT by kristinn
An Atlanta lawyer, Harry W. MacDougald, has become a key figure in the controversy over whether CBS News relied on forged documents to question President Bush's service in the National Guard.
Writing under the nickname "Buckhead" in a posting on FreeRepublic.com, a conservative Web site, MacDougald was the first to question the authenticity of documents, purportedly written in 1972, because the proportionally spaced fonts used in the memos were not used in typewriters at that time.
"I am saying these documents are forgeries, run through a copier for 15 generations to make them look old," he wrote in a message posted less than four hours after the Sept. 8 broadcast of "60 Minutes II" in which the documents were revealed.
Overnight, "Buckhead" became an Internet hero to conservatives as his five-paragraph posting touched off a cascade of questions about the documents. One suggested he be named "Freeper of the Year," using the name FreeRepublic posters call themselves.
On Democratic blogs, meanwhile, questions were being raised about how "Buckhead" could have analyzed the typefaces so quickly, and whether the questionable documents could have been a Republican plant.
MacDougald, 46, confirmed he was "Buckhead" after the Los Angeles Times traced his identity through biographical hints posted on the Web site. He declined to comment further to the Journal-Constitution or to the Los Angeles Times.
MacDougald serves on the advisory board of the Southeastern Legal Foundation, a conservative advocacy group, and as a sole practitioner was involved in two of the foundation's high-profile cases: a challenge to the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill, and the Arkansas disbarment proceedings against former President Bill Clinton.
He also wrote an amicus brief for FreeRepublic.com in a breach of copyright case brought against the Web site by the Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post.
Phil Kent, a former president of the foundation, said he was "tickled" to learn of MacDougald's involvement.
"He's always been kind of an Internet watchdog," Kent said. "Harry's a jack-of-all trades. He's very aware of a lot of things most of us wouldn't pick up on."
Former Atlanta City Councilman Lee Morris, who was deposed by MacDougald as a friendly witness in one of several whistle-blower cases he successfully litigated against the city, described him as a "meticulous" attorney, who "seemed like he was fired up for the right reasons."
Former Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Colin Campbell, who interviewed him several times about the whistle-blower cases, said MacDougald struck him both as "a man of integrity" and "someone who loves to stir the pot."
While several associates referred to MacDougald as a prodigious researcher, none knew of any experience he has had in identifying forged documents.
MacDougald works for Womble, Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, a North Carolina-based firm that opened its Atlanta branch in 1993. He's a graduate of Brown University and the University of Georgia Law School.
He's also a member of the Atlanta chapter of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group from which a number of the Bush administration's federal judicial nominees have been drawn.
The memos reported on by CBS were allegedly written by Bush's Texas Air National Guard commander, Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, suggesting that Bush had received preferential treatment and failed to show up for a required physical.
The Washington Post reported Saturday that Bill Burkett, the former Guard officer suspected of providing the documents to CBS, contacted former Sen. Max Cleland (D-Ga.) in August to offer the same information to Sen. John Kerry's campaign. Cleland confirmed that he told Burkett in a brief phone conversation to contact others in the campaign.
Burkett wrote in a Web posting that the Kerry campaign didn't call him back. The Post also pointed out several words and phrases that were repeated in the alleged Killian documents and in Web postings made recently by Burkett.
In addition to the speed with which the typeface discrepancies were pointed out, Democrats have questioned the immediate release of copies of the documents by the White House, which had obtained them from CBS.
As more information filtered out, "Buckhead" became more cautious than he was in his initial post.
Congratulations were "premature," he replied to one admirer on Sept. 9, saying his conjecture was "not 100% conclusive because the IBM Executive and IBM Selectric Composer would do proportional fonts."
Later in the day, "Buckhead" wrote to another poster that he felt additional information was confirming his suspicions.
"As for my part, this tsunami would, without any doubt whatsoever, have happened w/o me, so it ain't no big thang," he wrote.
"I will have a cold one tonight, though."
Appoint Buckhead to SCOTUS!
Why the hell are these media morons writing as if you need some sort of twenty year certification course to determine that these look like obvious forgeries?
Chief Justice Buckhead has a nice ring to it.
That is a nice article. Seems like the Atlanta-Journal is proud of Buckhead's involvement.
Predict CNN camera crew on his doorstep within 48 hours.
This is just too sweet for words!
So that's how they figured out who he was.
They're trying to cover up for the fact that a bunch of twenty and thirty-year veterans in a print medium didn't catch it.
I think your average reporter is not too bright.
serves on the advisory board of the Southeastern Legal Foundation,
was involved in a challenge to the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill
part of the Arkansas disbarment proceedings against former President Bill Clinton.
What an amicable fellow. I knew there was a reason I liked him.
Just for one thing, nothing is ever their own fault. In fact, the way Democrats think, it doesn't know how many Democrats knew beforehand that Dan Rather was going on the air with fishy evidence. Against that, if even one Republican anywhere can be shown to have known in advance, it's a Republican plot.
They haven't found that Republican yet, of course, but they're looking for him and they will find him.
It is a good article -- thanks for finding and posting it.
For the archives!
Has it been determined that Burkett offered "the same information" to Cleland, or simply that he offered "some" information? I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same set of memos, but we should be careful about asserting things before they have been definitely established. At this point it looks likely that he's the one who faxed the memos from Abilene, but I don't think we have proof yet.
ANYBODY old enough to have used an old Royal, or an IBM typewriter once in awhile, as I did, would have figured this out, looking at the PDFs from CBS. ANY TYPEWRITTEN 1972 "MEMO" with slick proportional spacing should have set off alarm bells to anyone over 45. I guess I should have gone into rocket science, because I knew they were NOT original the minute I saw them. Rare skill, I guess.
Alas, the elephant is still in the room...
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