37. In the CBS Memo 18 August Jerry Killian purportedly writes: "Staudt has obviously pressured Hodges more about Bush. I'm having trouble running interference and doing my job." but General Staudt, who thought very highly of Lt Bush, retired on March 1, 1972. General Staudt was no longer in the TANG military chain of command.
38. CBS Memo18 August is titled CYA, a popular euphemism for covering one's posterior. No military officer in his right mind would use "CYA" to communicate in a memo that might come under scrutiny, even in a Memo to the File.
39. CBS Memo dated 18 August in 1973 specifically claims that Col Staudt was trying to influence Killian to sugarcoat Lt Bush's 72-73 Officer Effectiveness Report (OER). For one thing, Col Staudt had been retired over a year by then. Moreover, the facts in actual records do not support such a statement because there would be no reason for such pressure even if Col Staudt were still around. This is because Lt Bush's OER for the entire period from May 1972-May 1973 was signed as is TANG custom by Major Martin as "Not Observed" since Lt Bush was in Alabama serving with the 187th during part of this time. A "Not Observed" OER is routinely used for long periods of detached duty like this. All of Lt Bush's service time is correctly accounted for by these OER's. No discipline or missing drill times are noted, as would have been required had there been any discipline problems. Lt Bush's two-sentence May 1973 OER was simply a normal administrative accounting of time served. It was ABSOLUTELY NOT sugarcoated. Neither Lt Col Killian nor Col Hodges signed, endorsed, or reviewed the May 1973 OER. Lt Bush's May 1973 OER was NOT backdated or altered. It was properly signed, dated, stamped and is correctly filed with Lt Bush's records in November 1973.
40. CBS Memo 18 August uses the term OETR whereas the proper term would be OER. 41. According to Lt Col Campelli: "Jerry Killian never went near a typewriter. In the Air Force, in those days, notes ?if anyone kept them at all? were handwritten." All the CBS Memos supposedly prepared by Lt Col Killian are typed. For further information see http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1212092/posts
42. Both Lt Col Killian's wife and son relate that Killian wasn't a typist. If he needed notes, he would write them down longhand, but in general, he wasn't paper-oriented, and certainly wasn't a typist.
E. CBS MEMO AUTHENTICATION ISSUES (VERACITY OF EXPERTS, ETC.)
43. The four CBS Memos have NO apparent errors or whiteouts or overtypes or corrections or misspellings or typographic changes visible in any of the documents. It stretches credulity to believe that Lt Col Killian, who did not type much, if at all, could use a manual typewriter to type all four of these relatively complex documents without making a single mistake.
44. CBS admits that it does *not* have the originals, but only original documents can be proven to be real; copies can *never* be authenticated positively. CBS never had the originals, so it is reasonable to conclude that CBS knew that it was publishing something that couldn't be authenticated. Moreover, CBS's own validator, Marcel Matley, wrote in the September, 2002 issue of the journal, The Practical Litigator: "In fact, modern copiers and computer printers are so good that they permit easy fabrication of quality forgeries. From a copy, the document examiner cannot authenticate the unseen original ..." See http://d2d.ali-aba.org/_files/thumbs/components/PLIT0209-MATLEY_thumb.pdf
45. CBS 60 Minutes says validator Matley vouched for all four CBS Memos. However, Matley says he vouched for only one.
46. CBS Memo validator Matley is only a signature expert, not a typographic expert. Also there now seem to be emerging issues on the signatures themselves. For signature authenticity doubts see http://www.washtimes.com/national/20040910-104821-5968r.htm and http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1213174/posts
47. Retired Maj. General Hodges, Killian's supervisor at the TANG, told ABC News that he feels CBS misled him about the documents they uncovered. According to Hodges, CBS told him the documents were "handwritten" and after CBS read him excerpts he said: "well IF he WROTE them that's what he felt." Hodges also said he did not see the documents in the 70's and he cannot authenticate the documents or the contents. His personal belief is that the documents have been "computer generated" and are a "fraud". See http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/NotedNow/Noted_Now.html
48. The CBS Memos purport to be from Lt Col Killian's "personal files". Yet they were not obtained from his family, but through some unknown 3rd party. It is an odd kind of "personal file" when the family of a deceased person is unaware of the file's existence and it is not in their possession. CBS 60 Minutes has not stated any provenance for the memos. This adds further questions to the authenticity of the CBS Memos.
49. Both Lt Col Killian's wife and son, as well as the EAFB personnel officer do not find the CBS Memos credible.
50. The CBS Memos are totally inconsistent with the highly positive performance reviews for Lt Bush by TANG.
51. The blurriness of the CBS Memos indicates they were recopied a number of times which is a common tactic of forgers. (copying of the CBS Memos was stated in the 60Minutes broadcast).
IT IS THE CONCLUSION OF THE PROJECT THAT:
CBS DID NOT EXERCISE REASONABLE PRUDENCE IN PUBLICATION OF THE FORGED MEMOS ON 60MINUTES
In addition to the many items detailed in the Project Report, the following were immediate red flags:
1. The superscript "th" in the 04 May and in the 18 August Memos would have been a clear forgery indicator to anyone familiar with a manual typewriter, the only equipment available in 1972.
2. The layout of the documents including proportional spacing should have caused any staff member to try to replicate the memos in Microsoft Word default settings. A simple overlay held up to the window would have revealed the forgery.
3. The use of the "0" in the 04 May and in the 01 August Memo dates and the lack of a distribution list for the these purported orders would have led anyone with past military experience, even at the private level, to know that the documents were not valid.
4. The use of a validator with no admitted typographic expertise. Moreover, that validator was instructed to validate only one Memo signature from a photocopy, despite that validator's own previously published statements that a photocopy could not be used to determine signature veracity.
IT IS THE RECOMMENDATION OF THE PROJECT THAT CBS AND 60MINUTES:
a. Issue a clear and unambiguous public apology to the American Public and to President Bush:
- on CBS News and on 60Minutes
- on the CBS web site
b. Terminate or accept the resignation(s) of those CBS person(s) asserting the authenticity of Documents on CBS News and on 60 Minutes.
c. Post on the CBS web site the source(s) of the forged memos and a chronology of the events relating to this matter specifically including contacts in electronic, telephonic, or written form with any 527, DNC, or Kerry Campaign employees, representatives, or agents. Also, immediately take steps to preserve all such notes and records.
d. Produce within 14 days a follow-up CBS 60Minutes presentation detailing the facts and circumstances relating to the acquisition and use on 60Minutes, CBS News, and the CBS web site of the forged documents.
e. As the forging and use of forged military documents, especially during a national election, is a serious and possibly criminal issue: formally notify the U.S. Justice Department, the Federal Election Commission, and the Federal Communications Commission of the details concerning the acquisition and use of the Documents and fully cooperate with any subsequent investigation(s) and, if appropriate, any prosecution(s).
Link References
CBS Memo 04 May: here.
CBS Memo 19 May: here.
CBS Memo 01 August: here.
CBS Memo 18 August: here.
CBS supposed find of a "th" in a TANG Document (It is single key ligature, NOT a superscript, and is not proportionally spaced): here. (See page 25 of 26)
The Buckhead Post on Free Republic that first unearthed the CBS 60 Minutes Forgery via the internet: here.
Download this as a 60Minutes Forgery Facts Microsoft Word Document.
Download this as a 60Minutes Forgery Facts PDF.
.
FreeRepublic.com, a member of the NEW Main Stream Media……………………………September 20, 2004 5 PM EDT
I am glad you're on our side.
Bump
Absolutely a first rate piece. Every journalist in America will download this.
These are much more detailed and usable than the above html posting. They contain:
….extensive 10-page Project Report analysis as to why the CBS Memos are a forgery
….three page Summary for those folks who don't want to read all the analysis
…. Technical Appendix showing the 04 CBS Memo overlay with MSWord
…. Project Conclusion concerning CBS's "lack of reasonable prudence"
…. Project Recommendation as to what CBS needs to do now that they should likely be entering the "penalty and restitution" discussion phase…
While it might be argued that the need for the Project Report is now over, documentation of the obvious nature of the CBS Memo forgery may, and should, have a bearing on what CBS should be required to do regarding their discovery, validation, and broadcasting of the forged CBS Memos.
This next phase which might be termed CBS "discovery, restitution, and penalty" is also covered in the doc and pdf downloads under CONCLUSION and RECOMMENDATIONS.
.
.
I would like to thank a number of Freepers for input, most importantly one who provided valuable editing input and wrote the Summary, and the site hoster for the doc and pdf's. Thanks also to the pdf converter.
A couple of comments and questions:
1. the Free Republic tag line is not on the Conclusion and Recommendations
document. Should it be?
2. if some one wants to host the html above, I will be happy to E-mail
the FR posting code as a MSWord document that can be simply pasted
into a WWW page, as well as the two graphics. Just Freepmail me
with your E-Mail address. No doubt, the html can be improved with
some indents, font changes, text colors, and the like.
3. if you do want to reproduce and host the above article, it is preferred
that you just link to the present host site for the doc and pdf downloads.
That way if there are any changes to the doc or pdf, they will automatically
be done.
In any event, thanks to all of you who provided input. It is pretty clear
that the MSM was using some of the threads for their ideas. If you would
like any changes to the document and pdf that you download, please
post the suggestions so that they can be reviewed by all.
Regards
.
CBS is not credible.
Wow ... remind me to NEVER make you angry. I wouldn't hold my breath on ANY of this, though ... CBS will do nothing. Neither will the government, for it will be viewed as being "partisan." Never mind the breaking of laws ... what we REALLY need are MORE laws that we can ignore! Yeah ... THATs right! </sarcasem>
Is there going to be a separate project thread on discovering "who" did the forgery, the chain resulting in airing and the timelines involved?
Looks like the media will not do it and from comments from the Whitehouse, looks like it will lead to Kerry.
Great job - I knew there were a number of facts that showed the forged nature of these documents, but I didn't realize how substantive that list was.
Maybe the new CBS investigative team will get around to this link sometime in '05.
This is incredible.....
read later
Awesome work, my man! Hat tip.
One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet is the centering of the top 3 lines. I remember from beginning typing class what it took to manually center 3 lines at the top of the page. You had to count all the characters and spaces (Correct me if I'm wrong, but I count 34, 15, and 20 spaces for the 3 header lines). You then divide the number of spaces by 2, dropping the remainder. This would get you 17, 7, and 10. Then you put the carriage at the center position (space 42 on a 8.5 inch sheet of paper using pica type), then BACKSPACE one by one, like 17 times, to know where to start typing "111th...." Repeat the BACKSPACE exercise for lines 2 & 3.
How could Jerry Killian, who "couldn't type," or "never typed," actually be able to properly CENTER the top 3 lines using a typewriter? Would Killian actually gone to that much trouble to center them? Most likely he would have used the left margin, as was much more in practice. That was called BLOCK style formatting, as I remember. MODIFIED BLOCK used the center point (space 42) but all such lines (usually the Inside Address/Date and the Closing) used a left margin of space 42, not centered on space 42.
Also, if typed on a typewriter, and manually centered, the 2nd line, which had an "odd" number of characters, would be "off center" with the 1st line and the 3rd line of the headers, which each had an "even" number of characters, right?
ahhhh didn't they admit today they were forgeries?
I did not notice that this included another important text issue:
The questioned documents not only employ proportional type spacing, but employ "kerning" (more accurately, "pseudo kerning"), which causes certain letter combinations to overlap to reduce white space between letters in a word. The combinations "fo" and "fr" are found in the documents, with the top of the "f" overhanging the next letter. This capability did not then exist in any typewriter, including the special IBM typewriter that produced rudimentary proportional spacing.
Outstanding. Now I feel ready for the Pajamilitia entrance exam.
ping. Thanks!
For condign punishment CBS would read this whole article on-air.
Conservative masterclass BUMP.
Although you include links to the excellent "flounder" site, etc., I think it would be extremely valuable for you to get permission from the "flounder" author to include in your document his "look-see" comparison images of the Composer output vs. the CBS memos. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words -- and is much more convincing.
One more detail: You say that the reader can duplicate the CBS memos using the "default" settings on MS-Word. Perhaps that works on some versions of Word, but on mine at least, in order to duplicate the one memo I experimented with myself I had to select a font size of 12 (default was 10), and left/right margin sizes of 1.0 inches (default was 1.5). But after doing so, it was a pixel-perfect match, using just the default Word tab settings for matching the memo's indented text, etc. Also note that one-inch margins were standard for old-fashioned typed documents -- not sure if some versions of Word use it by default (I was using MS-Word 2000). Perhaps you should include some line like, "using Times New Roman at a font size of 12, and one-inch margins if those are not already the default in your copy of MS-Word".
Other than that, you've made an excellent presentation.