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."
Atlanta / BUCKHEAD bump!!
From a former resident of Buckhead, now in Inman Park, Atlanta GA.
Buckhead is the man!
ROFL. One of our local rubber spined tv libs said the same thing. He thinks the docs were planted by republicans because the forgeries were picked up so quick by the right.
Heheh I wish I had gotten this kind of attention when I was the first one to break the story that Gore would try to steal the Florida elections by calling for a manual recount in select democratic controlled counties.
"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."
-We don't berate the telemarketers, we are courteous. Also if I remember correctly it seems to me the ones that have called us are from Georgia. We tell them why we don't want the paper, how liberal it is, etc.and ask them to pass this on to their supervisors and the newspaper. Even if they don't care I am assuming they will tell someone they couldn't sell it to our household because of its liberal bias.
You are right, we should right to the editor.
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