Posted on 09/09/2004 11:44:01 AM PDT by Peach
Thursday, September 09, 2004 2:41 PM EST
By Melanie Hunter CNSNews.com Deputy Managing Editor September 09, 2004 02:34 pm
'60 Minutes' Documents on Bush Might Be Fake
(CNSNews.com) - The 32-year-old documents produced Wednesday by the CBS News program "60 Minutes," shedding a negative light on President Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard, may have been forged using a current word processing program, according to typography experts. Three independent typography experts told CNSNews.com they were suspicious of the documents from 1972 and 1973 because they were typed using a proportional font, not common at that time, and they used a superscript font feature found in today's Microsoft Word program. More to Come
Why were none of the letters on letterhead? Every Memo for the Record had to be on letterhead at MAJCOM and we required our field activities to do the same.
There is a lot wrong with these memos including putting 04 as the date. Everyone typed 4 April 1972 during those years -- I never saw an 0 before a number. The 0 was only added when it became the age of word processing and computers. I worked in the Command Section back then and I can guarantee you that 0 was never put before the number.
Another is the subject line: You would have listed 1st Lt George W. Bush, followed by his service number -- never have witnessed a subject line like that either.
Signature blocks look wrong. In the Air Force it was always the name, Lt Colonel, ANG, USAF, USAFR -- they identified which part of the service they were from. Not to mention it would then list Commander on the the 2nd line and if you didn't use letterhead with the seal, then you had to type the office like
Name
Commander
AFLC
I don't know any office personnel who would have typed these documents and put them in the file with all the mistakes I can find. I am with you -- no secretary I ever met would have typed these.
Not a person I know ever spelled out NLT before (NLT) -- never, ever. The ONLY time acronyms were spelled out in official correspondence was when the reader might not recognize the acronym. I never spelled out AFLC or AFSC or SAC or the rest the first time in a letter. You would spell out something not immediately recognizeable like Man Hours (MH) or something like that so you could MH through the remainder of the document.
To this date, I still sign checks and everything else with a number before the month and year.
ONLY MAJCOM's general officer/equivalent secretaries were issued Executive typewriters and you had to sweat blood to get them approved then. Below General Officer we did not have any at our MAJCOM Headquarters. All other office personnel including the guys in military personnel were issued selectric typewriters.
All paper we used had the watermark of the AF -- if these documents were original, they would have the watermark seal on the blank paper. You could hold it up to the light and see the watermark.
As for who typed the document? You are right. At the bottom of every letter/memo was DAV/skc for an example so you knew who wrote it and typed it. I had forgotten about that. And then we had the carbon pull apart paper that you would list where everything was filed.
Generally slander is for spoken defamation, libel for written. But does the script of a TV program, or the transcript, count as written? If it does, then defamation on a scripted TV program, or one for which a written transcript is provided, would be both libel and slander. Thus Big $$. Falsification of government documents: Big Time in the Big House with Big Bubba and/or Big Bertha. Don't bend over to pick up the soap, unless being Big Bubba's Bitch floats your boat.
Only problem is the "public figure" exception unless you can prove they knew the documents were false, so slander or libel might not be actionable, but falsification of government documents will still get you a date with Bubba or Bertha, possibly both.
Just proof that Al Bore invented time travel as well as the internet
Forgot one other thing. When the IG inspected, they brought along Administrative types that poured over your documents and would have written up these Memo's -- not done according to AFR you received a black mark. We had to get rid of a signature stamp one time that didn't conform. I have seen the IG people nitpick until you wanted to pull out your hair including putting the file code in the wrong location.
I don't thinks that's mud. Put it this way, I think that stuff will keep him safe from Fundamentalist Islamic Terrorists.
We need a re-enactment. We also need to examine all the contemporaneous documents of the Texas ANG at the time.
carbon paper but not the carbon paper you are thinking of -- we had boxes with different colored thin sheets for copies with the cheap one time use carbon paper attached and you had to tear them off.
At this guy's level in the ANG, you would have had to jump through hoops to get a Memo copied. Just didn't happen. At MAJCOM we had Xerox machines but the only one you didn't have to get approval was the one we had in the Command Section for our use. Memo's for the Record were not something in those days you could have gotten copied.
I'm sure they'll try to protect their sources co-conspirators.
dd Mmm yy
Reply To
Attn Of:
Subject:
To:
You are correct! Only recent years did the Air Force start using addresses for their offices. At Wright-Patterson the address would have been: HQ AFLC/CC and on the next line Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433 -- no street addresses.
When we had Mobilization Assistants into our office we had to change the signature block from USAF to USAFR
following the rank.
th was not available.
Lack of letterhead bothers me a lot and the address is not how any I have ever seen addresses. Where is the unit address like 2750th ABW/SP?
Also when referencing a member of the military you had to write the service number changed to SSN behind his name so there could be no doubt and the full name was written out.
Your idea was timely and so very important. You have stood up for our President, and even more importantly, for the NEED for our press to present the truth of FACE the consequences. Thank GOD for the internet and especially for this fine forum.
AG-I am remembering other times when FR helped to bring forth the truth...especially the downside legacy of billy klinton! How we worked on that!
And on WACO (how that one hurt our hearts)
And on what seems like a thousand other assaults against our culture and constitutional foundations by the clinton reign of terror!
Just as Linux challenged the MS monopoly ...
'open source' blogging is challenging the MSM monopoly.
That's low, cruel and despicable, but oh so appropriate. :)
I was stationed at AFLC HQ from 1 Aug 77 to 1 May 81. DCS Plans and Programs.
At this guy's level in the ANG, you would have had to jump through hoops to get a Memo copied. Just didn't happen. At MAJCOM we had Xerox machines but the only one you didn't have to get approval was the one we had in the Command Section for our use. Memo's for the Record were not something in those days you could have gotten copied.
Thanks, that's what I suspected. My recollection is that a carbon copy was immediately recognizable; never having the crispness of the original. I wonder if the fraudbusters out there are old enough to remember what an original carbon copy looked like?
"Hmm ... is it slander or libel if defamation of character is performed on TV ?"
Spoken words are slander - written is libel. Oddly, this seems to be both.
I think it will turn out to be proven that Blather and CBS knew these docs were phony..and that they know who created them...a well-known rat who will be exposed to save Blather from going to jail. [I can always wish]
They are often copyrighted as well.
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