I don't believe a word AP says anymore, or anybody else for that matter.
From CBS:
But 60 Minutes has obtained a number of documents we are told were taken from Col. Killian's personal file. Among them, a never-before-seen memorandum from May 1972, where Killian writes that Lt. Bush called him to talk about "how he can get out of coming to drill from now through November...Col. Killian died in 1984. 60 Minutes consulted a handwriting analyst and document expert who believes the material is authentic."
Why would the White House give them memos that the White House couldn't verify? And if the White House did hand them out, why did they JUST hand them to CBS?
No doubt the first sentence of the AP article makes little sense. The White House isn't handing over ANYTHING to Dan Rather so that he can do a hatchet job on 60 Minutes II. They would more likely be leaked first to the Wall Street Journal or Fox News, which would at least not take things out of context.
My guess is CBS got the documents from someone connected to the Kerry campaign, not the Administration. And the Administration made them available to the press because CBS did a hatchet job, excerpting only those portions of the letters least favorable to the President.
When did CBS post the letters on their website?