Replies

On July 23, Michael Smith, a freelance journalist in Texas who was working on the story along with Mapes, sent her an email that began: "I am close to something that the Bushies are worried about..." Mapes responded: "I desperately want to talk to you....Do NOT underestimate how much I want this story."

Mapes and freelance journalist Michael Smith (who worked on the piece with Mapes) had different recollections of how Burkett came into custody of the documents. Smith told the panel that Burkett “received them anonymously in the mail”, while Mapes said Burkett identified a warrant officer named George Conn (which Burkett would later admit was a lie).

Is it the same Michael Smith?

That info is about the fake NG documents, right?

I presume you're showing there was a Michael Smith working with Mapes .. but Rush already knew that .. what we don't know is whether it's the same Michael Smith.

Mapes and freelance journalist Michael Smith (who worked on the piece with Mapes) had different recollections of how Burkett came into custody of the documents. Smith told the panel that Burkett “received them anonymously in the mail”, while Mapes said Burkett identified a warrant officer named George Conn (which Burkett would later admit was a lie).

Is this the same Michael Smith???

Yup...Smith was involved with the TANG forgery. These people are idiots if they think they can get by with this again.

Ultimately, Burkett decided to turn over the documents to one of the most persistent journalists, CBS producer Mary Mapes, sometime in August. He and his wife met Mapes and CBS reporter Mike Smith at a pizza restaurant a few miles from their ranch. At first he gave them only two of the six documents, which Mapes said she planned to have analyzed for authenticity, according to Burkett. Burkett said he passed the rest of the documents to Smith around Sept. 5, at a drive-in restaurant near Baird.
Source

So now we have established that Michael Smith actually worked for CBS.

According to some sources, he was no freelance journalist...he was an Associate Producer at CBS

The first is the “smoking gun” email from associate producer Michael Smith to Mapes. It details his efforts to find some bribe money for Burkett, for a “book deal.” OK, payoffs disguised as book advances are a common problem the past few years. But, this is bribery; call it what it is.
Stated Intent to Affect Election. But the Smith email to Mapes is worse. In trying to procure bribe money for Burkett, Smith reveals to us his exact state of mind: “What if there was a person who might have some information that could possibly change the momentum of an election….?” This CBS News Associate Producer’s intentions are clear: He wants the documents to “change the momentum of the election.”

Remember that Burkett told the tale about how he made photocopies of the documents he obtained after a phone call from the mythical Lucy Ramirez, and then burned the originals. Then there is the "old typewriter" angle. The MO is exactly the same.

Ok...from my research I have found that most think that Michael Smith of Rathergate and this Michael Smith are two separate guys. But the coincidences are getting weirder...check this out:

You'd think having such a unique typewriter Killian would have used a less easily traceable model for his devastating ''CYA'' memo. Also, he might have chosen a font other than Times New Roman, designed for the Times of London in the 1930s and not licensed to Microsoft by Rupert Murdoch (the Times' owner) until the 1980s.

Source

Okay...this is getting even weirder...the strange connection to the yellow cake memos, which incidentally also turned out to be forgeries...

In its rush to air its now discredited story about President George W. Bush’s National Guard service, CBS bumped another sensitive piece slated for the same “60 Minutes” broadcast: a half-hour segment about how the U.S. government was snookered by forged documents purporting to show Iraqi efforts to purchase uranium from Niger.
Burba, the Italian journalist, confirmed to NEWSWEEK this week that Martino is the previously mysterious “Mr. X” who contacted her with the potentially explosive documents in early October 2002—just as Congress was debating whether to authorize President Bush to wage war against Iraq. The documents, consisting of telexes, letters and contracts, purported to show that Iraq had negotiated an agreement to purchase 500 tons of “yellowcake uranium from Niger, material that could be used to make a nuclear bomb. (A U.S. intelligence official told NEWSWEEK that Martino is in fact believed to have been the distributor of the documents.)
One striking aspect of the FBI’s investigation is that, at least as of this week, Martino has told associates he has never even been interviewed by the bureau—despite the fact that he was publicly identified by the Financial Times of London as the source of the documents more than six weeks ago and was subsequently flown to New York City by CBS to be interviewed for the “60 Minutes” report.
MSNBC

Per the article Rocco Martino is a mysterious Roman businessman with longstanding ties to European intelligence agencies.

And guess who is attending the Downing Street Memo inquiry...none other than...{drum roll)...

Former Ambassador Joseph Wilson said, "We are having this discussion today because we failed to have it three years ago when we went to war."
"It used to be said that democracies were difficult to mobilize for war precisely because of the debate required," Wilson said, going on to say the lack of debate in this case allowed the war to happen.
Wilson wrote a 2003 newspaper opinion piece criticizing the Bush administration's claim that Iraq had sought uranium in Niger. After the piece appeared, someone in the Bush administration leaked the identity of Wilson's wife as a CIA operative, exposing her cover.
CNN

I feel like I am playing Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon...but why do I also feel this bacon is sizzling?