HODGES SAID HE WAS MISLED BY CBS

Noted Now - ABC News The Note ^ | 09/11/04 | ABC News The Note

[Ed Zoekuiper]

Retired Maj. General Hodges, Killian's supervisor at the Grd, tells 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."

[Texasforever]

This Hodges thing just blew CBS out of the water. EVERY living witness is now calling these documents frauds.

[MichelleWSC]

If CBS does have handwritten documents why would they have gone through all the trouble of retyping them with MS Word and then forging a signature? The logical thing that would have happened is that CBS would have stated and shown the handwritten notes then stated the notes were typed so the message was clear.

Just my 2 cents

[longshadow]

I don't buy your theory on this, as I don't see where the facts support it. However, in this dirty world we live in, there's nothing, absolutely nothing would surprise me. The worst mistake that any investigator can make, is to get tunnel vision and lose objectivity.

To a rational mind, it makes no sense. But rational minds are NOT the target audience.

As I've said elsewhere, this is a very long shot, based on very limited data. And I hope I'm wrong about it.

[Hayzo]

I feel this is bigger than watergate. That was a third rate burglary very early on in a campaign with the intentions never really specific.

This involves the MSM and quite possibly the DNC to bring down a sitting president in a time of war.

This to me is treason of the highest order!

[igoramus987]

Whatever happened about the discovery that Col. Killian retired from the ANG 9 months before the letters were supposedly written by him? I don't remember where I saw that, but if it's true that ought to put the final kybosh on the affair.

It was Straudt mentioned in the 18 August 1973 memo that had already retired in the previous year.

CBS and Rather are just pulling the same strategy as Kerry. Deny Deny Deny. It has worked for Kerry for the last ~40 days.

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

Please add me to your Rathergate ping list, and thanks.

[sinkspur]

Well, every living witness except Strong. He's in the pocket of the Texas Democrats.

But, I agree. This thing continues to unravel by the hour.

[Flamenco Lady]

Here is a little food for thought. When I was a supervisor we used to keep our own department personnel files on each employee. In these files we would keep copies of all documents generated for each employee while they were in our department, with the originals sent to our personnel office. Most supervisors, including myself would keep handwritten notes on employees in their files, which might have included documentation of employee problems, special achievements, discussions with the employee, etc. These would be dated but not signed. These handwritten notes would then be used when the employees formal performance review was written up, or for formal disciplinary action. The handwrites notes were never sent to personnel. Only typewritten reviews or typewritten disciplinary actions. All handwritten notes were destroyed by the supervisor sometime after the employee left the department. This was the case at every employer I have ever had. I would assume something similar might be done in the military, which would lead me to wonder why a supervisor would bother to sign his own personal notes on an employee, and why they were never destroyed. I seriously doubt that CBS has handwritten notes, but I would certainly question why a supervisor would sign his own personal notes on an employee, even if this is the end game Rather intends to play.

[longshadow]

it's also true that "you can't fool all of the people all of the time."

Exactly. And Kerry only needs to fool another 5-10% of likely voters for a couple of months. That why I wouldn't put such a wacky scheme beyond them. They are desperate, and they only need another 5-10%.

[Wolfhound777]

Yeah right and CBS is claiming Hodges misled them. It keeps getting better. The Rats have one foot in the grave and it won't take much for the other foot to get there.

[Timeout]

Hodges needs to give an interview to the Washington Post. Whether we like it or not, they're probably the only arbiter of record whose reporting every other outlet will pick up. Hodges' interview with ABC News will only migrate to a few blogs.

He needs to call Howard Kurtz at the WaPO. Kurtz' Saturday piece is already up and he did not pick up the Hodges retractions. He's written very carefully about this so far (too carefully for my taste). But if Kurtz shoots CBS down....it won't get back up again.

[Shortstop7]

That's an excellent point....and I think that is probably very true.

He just got busted on this one. I'll be honest, I never would have questioned it. I only watched about 10 minutes of the 60 minutes piece. I did see the documents flashed very quickly. I would have never thought another thing about it. If it weren't for sites like this, I would never know about it.

Doesn't it just make you madder than Zell?

It does me.

[halosfan2002]

Dan Rather Retirement coming soon PING!

[Hayzo]

You, my friend, are hitting the target on this thread. Thanks for expressing how I feel!

[No_Doll_i]

Ok I don't get it. If they wanted to actually pull this off it would have been easy enough to do... Old paper, typewriter that would have been used... Sheesh how hard would it be?

They could have checked the so called sources, gotten the dates right etc etc etc. This is not brain surgery.

I posted the following on another thread.. I think we should be looking at the bigger picture.. cause I am damned if I can figure it out.

Well I am not a newbie but I have been thinking of another type of diversion.. bear with me.. put on tinfoil if you must.

Here goes.. WHAT IF, the DNC has written Kerry off already and this is more of a test case to see what and how this would be treated. Like how long would it take to expose it, how would it be done and who would do it and how long would it last.

They would be paying close attention to where and how the exposure occured and who would pick it up and who would buy into it. See how long they could perpertate the lie.

Consider this a test run for the 08 election.

As a result of extensive discussion with another freeper who has been glued to these threads we have consdered what the calculation could be.

See what impact the new media has vs the old media?

Still considering...

Thoughts?

[Shortstop7]

Betcha he was leaning to the left.

[longshadow]

If there were handwritten backups that eased their fears, they wouldn't have presented this as they did.

Ah; but what if the source said: "You can use these documents, but only on the condition that you not reveal my "originals" are handwritten until a week after you air the original story... you can show the "transcriptions" all you want, just call them 'copies'...."

Second, there are factual errors in those documents that have added to the opinion that they are forgeries, including a retired man's name (which couldn't be a typo).

But that's the whole point of the exercise: to make it impossible to challenge the authenticity of the forged handwritten documents, so they can say: "Now that the forgery accusation has been refuted, we know that these handwritten originals (no proportional fonts, no funny apostrophes, no superscripts to question anymore) prove Bush lied...."

That's what I fear they may try to do. You and I both know it doesn't logically hold water, but it doesn't have to. It just has to be plausible to 5 or 10% of likely voters.... and then they begin to doubt Bush's intergrity, and then the smear campaign commences in earnest for 6 weeks straight.

It's admittedly a long shot, and I hope I'm wrong about it.

[just mimi]

This is, to me, a ridiculous premise. For Dan Rather to pull a stunt that puts his credibility and the credibility of CBS on the line just to be able to trick us all in the end to prove a point that would benefit one political party over the other seems more than a little counterproductive.

[Flamenco Lady]

So is Robert Strong another big democratic contributor to the Kerry campaign?

[rebel_yell2]

BIG DEAL!!! How many swift boat captains died versus how many F-102 pilots died? Numbers and percentages. My bet is that F-102 pilots, even stateside, faced a higher risk than swift boat captains. This would seriously torpedo the DNC talking points!!!