Update from the Captain!
UPDATE II: Marc at USS Neverdock says that the story gets even more bizarre at Rawstory:
“I first photocopied them to ensure they were on our paper and returned the originals, which were on government paper and therefore government property, to the source,” he added. [...]
“It was these photocopies that I worked on, destroying them shortly before we went to press on Sept 17, 2004,” he added. “Before we destroyed them the legal desk secretary typed the text up on an old fashioned typewriter.”
Why an old-fashioned typewriter? Why not just retype them on a computer, if you've already decided not to work from the originals? It looks like an attempt to fake people into believing that the documents produced by Smith were the originals.
This story gets nuttier and nuttier.
UPDATE III: Despite what Truck says in the comments, a lack of protest from Downing Street after being asked to authenticate retyped copies of alleged minutes of secret meetings does NOT constitute verification. The same exact argument came up with the Killian memos in Rathergate and the Newsweek Qu'ran-flushing report last month. In both cases, the documents or sources turned out to be fakes. It's the reporters' job to provide verification, not simply a demurral by officials to opine on their authenticity. If that isn't obvious, then centuries of evidentiary procedure in American and English common law have gone for naught, as well as traditions of journalistic responsibility and professionalism. After all, this argument just means that reporters can type out anything they like and the burden of proof shifts from the accuser to the accused in proving them false -- hardly the process endorsed in libel and slander cases in the US, at least.
Posted by Captain Ed at June 19, 2005 12:00 PM
[Anti-moonbat sarcasm torpedo ARMED. FIRE!!]
Yes, exactly!
This proves the lefties DO learn from their mistakes.
An old fashioned typewriter.
The only thing that got through to them from the Dan Rather / TANG debacle was "we were caught cause we didn't use AN OLD FASHIONED TYPEWRITER."
So for the next round of incriminating documents, they just HAD to involve a OLD FASHIONED TYPEWRITER.
It's all so clear, now, isn't it?
Cheers!