Posted on 09/11/2004 4:36:14 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
LAST WEDNESDAY, CBS News's 60 Minutes II aired a report that strongly challenged George W. Bush's service in the National Guard. It's a story that has been explored dozens of times in the past five years. Two things in the 60 Minutes II story made it fresh--or, in newsroom parlance, gave it a peg. Ben Barnes, who served as attorney general in Texas at the time of Bush's service, claimed that he had been pressured to help Bush avoid going to Vietnam. But there were problems with Barnes's story, not least that he had previously, and rather specifically, denied the account he gave on 60 MinutesII. (Republicans questioned Barnes's motive, too, pointing out that he is a lifelong Democrat who has raised significant money for John Kerry's presidential campaign.)
The second news peg was more important. 60 Minutes II had obtained "new documents" from the "personal files" of the late Jerry Killian, Bush's commanding officer. That the documents were unearthed some 32 years after the activities they describe must have greatly excited the CBS producers who worked on the story.
According to an Associated Press story, the Killian memos "say Mr. Bush ignored a direct order from a superior officer and lost his status as a Guard pilot because he failed to meet military performance standards and undergo a required physical exam."
If accurate, then, the memos would provide documentary evidence to support the long-circling rumors that Bush received preferential treatment to get out of serving in Vietnam.
But almost immediately, the authenticity of the typed memos was questioned. Although CBS claimed to have had them reviewed by document experts, numerous forensic document examiners interviewed last Thursday by THE WEEKLY STANDARD and several other media outlets concluded that the documents were likely forgeries.
"These sure look like forgeries," said William Flynn, a forensic document expert widely considered the nation's top analyst of computer-generated documents. Flynn looked at copies of the documents posted on the CBS News website. "I would say it looks very likely that these documents could not have existed" in the early 1970s, he says, when they were allegedly written.
Several other experts agreed. "They look mighty suspicious," said a veteran forensic document expert who asked not to be quoted by name. Richard Polt, a Xavier University philosophy professor who operates a website dedicated to the history of typewriters, said that while he is not an expert on typesetting, the documents "look like typical word-processed documents." He adds: "I'm a Kerry supporter myself, but I won't let that cloud my objective judgment: I'm 99 percent sure that these documents were not produced in the early 1970s."
Philip Bouffard, another document expert who plans to vote for Kerry, reviewed the documents at the request of Bill Ardolino, a weblogger who runs INDC Journal. Says Bouffard: "It is remotely possible there is some typewriter that has the capability to do all this . . . but it is more likely these documents were generated in the common Times New Roman font and printed out on a computer printer that did not exist at the time they were supposedly created."
Sandra Ramsey Lines, a document expert from Arizona, told the Associated Press: "I'm virtually certain these were computer-generated."
The experts pointed to numerous irregularities in the Killian memos that aroused their suspicions. First, the typographic spacing is proportional, as is routine with professional typesetting and computer typography, not monospace, as was common in typewriters in the 1970s. (In proportional type, thin letters like "i" and "l" are closer together than thick letters like "W" and "M". In monospace, all the letters are allotted the same space.)
Second, the font appears to be identical to the Times New Roman font that is the default typeface in Microsoft Word and other modern word-processing programs. According to Flynn, the font is not listed in the Haas Atlas--the definitive encyclopedia of typewriter type fonts.
Third, the apostrophes are curlicues of the sort produced by word processors on personal computers, not the straight vertical hashmarks typical of typewriters. Finally, in some references to Bush's unit--the 111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron--the "th" is a superscript in a smaller size than the other type. Again, this is typical (and often automatic) in modern word-processing programs.
There are also problems with the substance of the memos Killian allegedly authored. One of the memos, dated May 19, 1972, recounts a telephone conversation Killian is to have had with Bush. "I advised him of our investment in him and his commitment. I also told him I had to have written acceptance before he would be transferred, but think he's also talking to someone upstairs."
But as Byron York of National Review points out, Killian signed off on a "glowing report" about Bush on May 26, 1972, just one week later. Lt. Col. William D. Harris authored the memo praising Bush. "Lt. Bush is an exceptional fighter interceptor pilot and officer," it read. "He eagerly participates in scheduled unit activities." Killian signed below a statement indicating he agreed with Harris. "I concur with the comments and ratings of the reporting official."
Killian's son and widow also claim that Bush's commanding officer liked Bush and would have been unlikely to have authored the memos. "It just wouldn't happen," Gary Killian told the AP.
Despite these questions, CBS News anchor Dan Rather strongly defended the reporting on Friday's Evening News, and lashed out at those who would question CBS's reporting. "Today, on the Internet and elsewhere, some people--including many who are partisan political operatives--concentrated not on the key questions the overall story raised but on the documents that were part of the support of the story." After a long but relatively thin attempt at refuting the charges against CBS, Rather ended this way: "If any definitive evidence to the contrary of our story is found, we will report it. So far, there is none."
There are several steps CBS could take to clarify the situation.
(1) Obtain the original memos. CBS based its reporting on photocopies. If CBS can produce the original memos, both the paper and the ink can be accurately dated. And the paper can be checked for the indentations made by a typewriter.
(2) Produce other documents written by Killian around the same time that have the same characteristics as the documents in question.
(3) Find any typewriter from the early 1970s capable of producing replicas of the Killian memos. Several experts have already recreated the memos using Microsoft Word. Surely if the documents are authentic, somewhere there is a typewriter that can reproduce them.
If CBS can't provide more definitive evidence of the authenticity of the memos, its anchor will live to regret these words posted late Friday by Instapundit, Glenn Reynolds:
"To err is human but to really foul up requires a computer."
Who said them? Dan Rather.
The rest of CBS's claims regarding Bush rest on the shoulders of Ben Barnes. I haven't seen any media outlet attact the veracity of the 60 minutes report based on Barnes relationship with the Kerry campaign. It's frustrating as hell. They were quick to jump all over the swift vets because they were funded by a Republican. Why no similar outcry here?
Of course it is not the fact that the memo is forged, but the seriousness of the charges that need to be investigated..........at least that is See B.S.'s position.
Regards,
Well, as Ellen 'ranting' Ratner tried to imply on Fox and Friends this morning about Rather's documents: the documents may be faked, but the 'content's must be true.
lol
[That must be the DNC talkingpoint for the day.]
[The Dan's Documents fiasco is similar to Kerry's Khristmas in Kambodia fiasco--no matter which way they try to wiggle out of one lie, it shows up another lie.]
...its' funny yet sad, that ABCNNBCBS has fallen so far, to be considered nothing more than an propaganda organ of $hrillarys' DNC in 2004. I suspect ABCNNBCBS shall go much lower than this in 2008.
...and to think, "the truth, use to be the coin of journalism...but in the 'mordern age', they have become nothing, but shills for the liberals, so much for the truth" it means nothing.
"...its' all for the chil'ren", shrieked $hrillary. :/
That's SO credible that I may just have to change my mind and vote for Kerry. /sarcasm
Bush must stop this nonsense now! He must state that he reported for a secret physical examination in Cambodia, Christmas of 1972 and that the memory was seared, seared in his memory.
I'm no expert, but if I had wanted to imitate a typewriter I would have chosed "Courier" (or a least "Courier New"). What a total dork.
I typed hundreds, probably a couple thousand, of pages of letters and forms in the Army on a mechanical typewriter, on dates after the documents in question. It was different branch, a different place, but the tone and content do not ring true. The Battalion S-1 shop may have had one Selectric, but for the most part we used mechanical machines. The notion that some low level ANG unit somewhere had an IBM Executive is risible on its face.
BTW, it was highly unusual for an officer, especially a LTC (only abbreviation I ever recall seeing), to type his own forgeries, I mean letters.
I read a thread yesterday that stated Barnes didn't become AG until 1 year after President Bush was enlisted in the reserves?
And he was ordered there by President Carter, no doubt.
lol
"Well, as Ellen 'ranting' Ratner tried to imply on Fox and Friends this morning about Rather's documents: the documents may be faked, but the 'content's must be true."
So if I photoshop a picture of John Kerry clubbing baby seals and send it to the media, then it's incumbent on him to prove he never did it? And if he can't prove it to a second-rate journalist's satisfaction, then it must be true, right?
Man, I could have some fun with this...
HA!HA! LOL!...this is getting better ..and better. Its' unraveling before our eyes. :))
Epstein's Mother.
Has anyone addressed the "redaction" from the May 4 note, and how it could show up through what appears to be several generations of copying? (Turn up monitor to max. brightness)
"5000 Longmont, #8"
Some one has been reading MY post on FR. I've been saying this since yesterday. GET the originals, carbon date, check for rag content, ink content, paper size, and check out that damn CIVILIAN PO Box number thing. Military has their OWN mail rooms all letters go there for distribution! And another thing the addy would have been aligned block left, not justified center, that was to time consuming a thing to do for just a stupid memo. Also they would have had print shop produced OFFICIAL letter headed paper/forms to use.
Thanks for the heads-up. I think the blame for this fraud goes to CBS News and the Bush Campaign but not Dan Rather who clearly is in one of the earlier stages of senility (Alzheimers, perhaps). It looked like CBS wanted him to resign but he made it clear he wasn't ready to leave and they backed off. Anyone who watched Rather being interviewed on the street on Friday has to conclude there was serious brain deterioration and inappropriate emotion accompanying his strange verbal presentation.
rahere
Yeh, that is about it.
Brings to mind the old tv evangelists: "Believe!!!! Believe!!!!!!"
They (libs/media) are so trying to make themselves 'believe'.
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