Anatomy of a Forgery

The American Spectator ^ | 9-10-4 | Washington Prowler

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Anatomy of a Forgery

By The Prowler

Published 9/10/2004 12:09:06 AM

More than six weeks ago, an opposition research staffer for the Democratic National Committee received documents purportedly written by President George W. Bush's Texas Air National Guard squadron commander, the late Col. Jerry Killian. The oppo researcher claimed the source was "a retired military officer." According to a DNC staffer, the documents were seen by both senior staff members at the DNC, as well as the Kerry campaign. "More than a couple people heard about the papers," says the DNC staffer. "I've heard that they ended up with the Kerry campaign, for them to decide to how to proceed, and presumably they were handed over to 60 Minutes, which used them the other night. But I know this much. When there was discussion here, there were doubts raised about their authenticity." The concerns arose from the sourcing. "It wasn't clear that our source for the documents would have had access to them. Our person couldn't confirm from what file, from what original source they came from." The documents that CBS News used were not documents from any of Bush's personnel files from his time in the National Guard. Rather, CBS News stated that they were documents uncovered in the personnel files of Killian. That would explain why the White House or the Pentagon had never before released or even seen them. According to a Kerry campaign source, there was little gossip about the supposedly hot documents inside the office of the campaign on McPherson Square. "Those documents were not something anyone was talking about or trying to generate buzz on," says the staffer. "It wasn't like there were small groups of people talking about this as a bombshell. I think people here weren't sure what to make of it, because provenance of these documents was uncertain." A CBS producer, who initially tipped off The Prowler about the 60 Minutes story, says that despite seeking professional assurances that the documents were legitimate, there was uncertainty even among the group of producers and researchers working on the story. "The problem was we had one set of documents from Bush's file that had Killian calling Bush 'an exceptionally fine young officer and pilot.' And someone who Killian said 'performed in an outstanding manner.' Then you have these new documents and the tone and content are so different." The CBS producer said that some alarms bells went off last week when the signatures and initials of Killian on the documents in hand did not match up with other documents available on the public record, but producers chose to move ahead with the story. "This was too hot not to push. If there were doubts, those people didn't show it," says the producer, who works on a rival CBS News program. Now, the producer says, there is growing concern inside the building on 57th Street that they may have been suckered by the Kerry campaign. "There is a school of thought here that the Kerry people dumped this in our laps, figuring we'd do the heavy lifting on the story. That maybe they had doubts about these documents but hoped we'd get more information," says the producer. "If that's the case, then we're bigger fools than we already appear to be judging by all the chatter about how these documents could be forgeries." ABC News' political unit held a conference call at 7:00 p.m. Thursday evening to discuss the memo and its potential ramifications should the documents turn out to be a forgery. That meeting took place around the time that the deceased Killian's son made public statements questioning the documents' authenticity. According to one ABC News employee, some reporters believe that the Kerry campaign as well as the DNC were parties in duping CBS, but a smaller segment believe that both the DNC and the Kerry campaign were duped by Karl Rove, who would have engineered the flap to embarrass the opposition.

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[TASMANIANRED]

ROFLMAO

[Redcoat LI]

I was kidding,but if it was him, I hope he's lurking on F.R and laughing his a$$ off.

[Redball2202]

Retired officer does not imply John Kerry, but retarded officer would fit nicely.

[intolerancewillNOTbetolerated]

"I didn't realize there were enough hours in the day for Rove to do all of the things he is being accused of."

Just like there isn't enough money in the world for all the "right-wing" schemes Richard Mellon Scaiffe is accused of supporting.

[Travis McGee]

Yep, mark down the date: 9-9-2004.


That was the day the New Media meteor slammed into the dumbfounded Old Media dinosaur.

[Cosmo]

I probably didn't contribute a thing to the uncovering of this scandal, but I sure am proud to have been, if nothing else, part of the FR cheering section. We Freepers really are a significant part of 2004 election history. Pretty remarkable, really.

[Billthedrill]

Well, well, well. The DNC gets this stuff from some mysterious retired military officer, ships it to the Kerry staff, who turn it around and place it in the hands of CBS, who were - yeah, right - "suspicious" but not enough so to avoid trashing what little reputation they had left in order to smear Bush with a questionable accusation.

Why do you suppose the DNC would do that? Because they are as credulous as the Kerry-ites? Or because they knew better from the beginning? And if they did know better, why would they let the Kerry people twist in the breeze like this? Doesn't the DNC (snicker!) want Kerry to win?

[TASMANIANRED]

"The Kerry campaign issued suspected forgeries with no more providence than a staffer's say so? "


You wondered what documents that Sandy Berger had stuffed in his shorts. Been carrying them since 1972. No wonder they reeked.

[Mike Fieschko]

Like watching the Watergate scandal unfold in a 24 hour timeframe.

Good analogy. I lived in Takoma Park, MD, back from 1973 - 1976, and that took months, if not more than a year to break.

Remember listening on the radio to the House committee voting on the articles of impeachment.

[Redball2202]

Retired officer does not imply John Kerry, but retarded officer would fit nicely.

[Bonaparte]

I can't believe the AS swallows this malarkey about CBS producers being "duped" by anybody. Nobody is that dumb. Rather and CBS went right ahead with a story they knew to be a lie. Either that or they don't know how to research a story and are extremely low IQ, borderline moron. I don't buy it.

[Publius6961]

The CBS producer said that some alarms bells went off last week when the signatures and initials of Killian on the documents in hand did not match up with other documents available on the public record, but producers chose to move ahead with the story.

When irrational animosity takes root in a business where the players are pretty much the bottom of the gene pool, those emotions, justified or not trigger pretty stupid acts.
Pathology worth studying.

[Tennessean4Bush]

This election is over. This story is the Dukakis tank ride.

[savedbygrace]

bump

[tophat9000]

Maybe we should ask "Buckhead"(he seem to be the first one to point out the docs. "problems" here) if he really is Karl Rove

This is starting to play out like a Road Runner cartoon where Wild E. Coyote(Kerry)has all theses genius plans and ideas that ALWAYS blow up in his face and the Road Runner (Bush) just speeding away

[snarkytart]

"Karl Rove is Dan Rather's friend - he made sure Dan set this up to discredit Kerry. This is the new DU spin"


SUUURE , let the idiots believe that!

We were told by the Dims that they were going to conduct a smear campaign soon.
Well they tried and they failed...whew oh boy did they fail.

LOL

[Mike Fieschko]

How many days until Kerry is forced to hold a press conference, where he annuonces the "resignation" of an "overzealous junior staffer who instigated a hoax, which got out of hand."

No, Kerry'll say he's behind the staffer 1,000 per cent, (Search on the Broder article I linked.)

[Redcoat LI]

Did they use the "Acme Air National Guard Document Forger"?

[LTCJ]

PREDICTION! [Jonah Goldberg]
If they turn out to be forgeries, expect the Salonish types to very quickly float the idea that Karl Rove orchestrated the whole thing to make the anti-Bush side look desperate.
Posted at 03:33 PM

Chris Lahane(sp?) of the Gore/Kerry teams essentially just said this not moments ago on Nightline - "You know, Tom, it's not inconceivable that the Bush campaign released [these forgeries] to make the Kerry campaign look bad."

Thanks to the internet, we can predict and timestamp their responses hours before they commit them.
In the military we call that GETTING INSIDE THEIR DECISION CYCLE.

Hoohah!

[NYCVirago]

It will be very bad for Kerry if they trace this back to his campaign and I bet CBS is going to be really angry over this. I can see them outting whoever gave them the documents, or if they don't, they will see that it leaks out.

I disagree. If CBS admits it came from the Rats, then this will hurt their credibility even more.