Posted on 09/20/2004 6:13:09 AM PDT by johnny7
ATLANTA — 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" 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 questioned 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 Atlanta 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 Georgia Sen. Max Cleland 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 which 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."
Buckhead,
SeeBS and Dan Rather need to thank you publicly for uncovering fraud. Bill 'em by the hour and send the bill to Danny Boy...it should at least cover the cost of new custom fitted Kevlar pajamas. :o)
Best regards,
Liberty
I got to use one of these justifying margin typewriters back in 1979-80. The way it stored some words and appeared to be typing slightly slower than I was hitting the keys was eerie.
You have to keep in mind that Cox and the Urinal/Constipation hate conservatism even more than CBS and Dan Blather hate it.
One would think they would be interested in who forged these documents
Reports from CBS insiders are that they came from Bill Burkett .. it shouldn't be to hard to find out .. IF THE LOOKED INTO IT
I would gladly give to a fund which would supply Buckhead with free beer for life, he so deserves it...
I joined Free Republic because one of its earliest missions and goals was to expose the liberal bias in the MSM. Finding a place to gather and vent with others who could understand the relentless bullsh*t propaganda masquerading as journalism which dominated the media saved my sanity many times.
That a Freeper exposed that bias more convincingly than any any other effort I've seen to date is such a vindication, it is a spectacular success of this forum. Thank you Buckhead.
That he is a FREEPER honors us all.
Thanks, sir!
*rolls eyes* I really feel sorry for Buckhead. This is the MSM's Gestapo tactics. Expose us and we'll smear you.
"-You have to keep in mind that Cox and the Urinal/Constipation hate conservatism even more than CBS and Dan Blather hate it."
We wouldn't take the Urinal and Constipation even if they gave it to us to wrap our fish in. We tell them that, everytime they call to try to sell us the paper and ....we tell them why :)
Yeah, but some of it is just baffling.
Buckhead is not some lone wild renegade in pajamas, he's just one of us.
I mean him no disrespect when I say that if he he hadn't done what he did, someone else would have, maybe a few hours later, maybe longer than that, but it would have been done.
And THAT's the part that seems to escape some of these reporters - it's not a lone looney, it's a WHOLE HERD of 'em!
You are 100% correct. And CBS has been getting away with this stuff for years. It's time to bring them down.
The fact is, he didn't do it "so quickly". KCTanker noticed that the formating of the documents did not match 1970s AF/ANG standards, he posted that observation while the show was still running. He observation was pretty much instantaneous, based on the overall pattern of the documents. Once images of the documents were available, Buckhead took a closer look at them, based on KCTanker's suspicions. Then everyone was trying to duplicate the memos using Word. Probably no more than an hour's effort. Plenty of time in the known time-line. The only way to make it look suspicious is to compress the timeline and having Buckhead's analysis done when KCTanker posted his observations. Didn't happen that way, and archive is available for anyone who cares to check that out. One must of course pay attention to time zones, but even that isn't all that critical as long as one sticks with a single time zone, including for the time of the broadcast. (FR automatically adjusts the posting times to the individual's time zone,
ping
It does no good to berate the newspaper telemarketer. They don't care and they're probably based in Buffalo. Better you write to the editor, publisher, corporate CEO and stockholders.
Good point and maybe true. . .I tend to think; they do know there are 'whole herds' out here; and from everywhere;. . .but they just don't want to call 'undo' attention to the mega-trend of people accessing info - challenging info - from other sources.
But whatever the case; it apparently was not lost on O'Reilly - at least according to "O'Reilly" - when he dismissively offered that 'these people' were just the 'right-wingers' doing what they do and could not be taken seriously. . .or words to that effect. (He came a long way; and seems headed 'back' again. . .)
Anyway; do hope more people 'drop by' Free Republic to see what it's about and maybe learn something they did not know before they got here!
MacDougald, 46, confirmed he was "Buckhead" after the Los Angeles Times traced his identity through biographical hints posted on the Web site.
Thanks!
ping
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