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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[CurlyDave]

I doubt they feel honor bound to protect a source that supplied forged documents.

I bet if someone, say Killian's widow, were to file a slander suit, the first setp in discovery would be a sub poena for their source. And I bet they would have no defense against it.

Of course this wouldn't happen until after the election, but I bet a re-elected Bush administration could make things pretty hot for CBS if they wanted to, and they would have good reason to.

My bet is that CBS coughs up the name voluntarily to avoid all sorts of unpleasantness and credibility problems.

[GoLightly]

Six weeks ago!!! Gived a whole new meaning to what Kamp Kerry said in response to the first SWB ad. It's been taken care of!!!

[tophat9000]

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

LMAO!... Well you saw the docs ....obviously they did!

[justshutupandtakeit]

How about this - this was Hillary's October Surprized designed to sink W at the last moment. But the Kerry campaign is in such desperate shape that it fired off the nuclear option now rather than wait.

[CurlyDave]

and using the signature of a dead man to place at the bottom of the paper to make it look authentic!!

Oh, come on now. I'm sure he's voted the straight RAT ticket ever since the funeral.

[Bonaparte]

"A CBS producer ... says that despite seeking professional assurances that the documents were legitimate ..."

Lots and lots of contradictory stories coming out about what CBS did/didn't do to authenticate these docs. On early threads, CBS was saying they had "experts" validating these docs. Then on another later thread, it was reported that a CBS spokeswoman corrected that to "witnesses." Witnesses to what? Did these "witnesses" stand over the reportedly non-typist Killian while he typed these particular memos?

I'm expecting CBS to tell lots more lies in their effort to cover up their initial lies about these docs.

It won't matter. I've already sent out a bunch of faxes to CBS sponsors, letting them know that I won't buy their products if they advertise them on CBS. I'll be sending out more tomorrow. Anybody who pays money to CBS loses my patronage.

[Redcoat LI]

[abner]

This is almost too good to be true.

You are right. The possibility here is that Kerry has taken the MSM down and his campaign all in one day.

They CAN'T be that dumb, can they?

[snarkytart]

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



Hmm I am not sure. Something tells me they will name the Kerry campaign. Heck, they already have, look at this thread. This news is leaking from somewhere.

I do not think Dan Blather is going to get on CBS news tonight and say "The Kerry campaign gave us this fake document".
CBS will let it be known by leaking it to the media.
Subversive!

[avant_garde]

You know the 60 Minutes crew was popping champagne after their hit piece on Bush's National Guard duty. They were high fiving and congratulating themselves on the back. They believe the could bring the Lurch back from the walking dead. They were so wanting to bring the President down, and blinded by ambition, they didn't want to hear the negative about the documents. Are these the same people who put explosives in the gas tanks of trucks and crashed them. Then ran a show showing them bursting in flames and claiming the trucks were a consumer menace.

[razorback-bert]

About DriveDemocracy

What is DriveDemocracy.org?

DriveDemocracy is a Texas-based organization initially funded through a generous start-up grant from MoveOn.org. Like MoveOn, DriveDemocracy wants to help ordinary people make their voices heard in the political arena. For too long the voices of ordinary Texans have been silenced by a system that depends on big money, influence peddling, and elite control of political institutions. DriveDemocracy wants to revitalize our democracy by creating new avenues for political involvement.


http://www.drivedemocracy.org/about/

[Bonaparte]

"Notice how CBS just couldn't WAIT to air the story, even though it was bogus, because they thought it would hurt Bush. CBS-Kerry-DNC COLLUSION!"

This cannot be over-emphasized. If reports we're hearing are true, the Kerry campaign obtained or created these documents, then handed them off to CBS and Rather, and then CBS and Rather, with scant investigation and apparently no authentication, reported these documents as authentic and as verified by "experts."

This has to be hammered hard till the media are forced to come clean, including names, all of them, both with the kerry campaign and CBS.

[El Gato]

Forging military records isn't exactly on par with jaywalking.

Indeed, most of the documents were mere "Memos" for the Record or for the file, and of legal significance. One however was framed as an order to Bush. If that one is fake, then that is forging a Military/Government document, with fraudulent intent. The intent being to accuse Bush of a crime under the UCMJ, failure to obey a direct order. If it can be determined who committed the crime, the revelation alone is gonna leave a mark.

[razorback-bert]

Texans for Truth, established by the 20,000-member Texas online activist group, DriveDemocracy.org, has produced a 0:30 second television advertisement, "AWOL." The ad features Robert Mintz, one of many who served in Alabama's 187th Air National Guard -- when Bush claims to have been there -- who have no memory of Bush on the base. In other words, Bush failed to fulfill his military duty while others were dying in Vietnam.

http://www.texansfortruth.com/


About Us

Texans for Truth, an organization from Bush's home state, believe time has come for America to learn the truth about Bush's shadowy past.

Texans for Truth was established by Glenn W. Smith, also the Director of the 20,000-member Texas online activist group, DriveDemocracy.org.

[Mike Fieschko]

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

[El Gato]

FONTGATE!!!

The "Gate" stuff is so 70s. We need something new. FontFraud maybe? FontFailure? FontFollies I don't it's too late to think of something jazy.

[tophat9000]

"You know, Tom, it's not inconceivable that the Bush campaign released [these forgeries] to make the Kerry campaign look bad."

The thing is no matter where they came from... HOW is it that a bunch of "simple minded, dumb, goofball, right wing nuts "at Free Republic (that is what the left think of us) spot the obvious problems in these docs in a few hours that all the Ivy League genius cream of the crop types in the Kerry camp and all the national superstar reporters and newsmen at CBS miss after having these docs for?.. what six weeks?.. to check out and verify ?

[El Gato]

He must have an angel watching over him. He did say something about an angel in the whirlwind directing this storm...who knew!

Bush did, and he still does.

[L.N. Smithee]

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.

I can't imagine why they would do that. I mean, it isn't like there is a record of SeeBS ever having done such a thing on behalf of the Democrats!</sarcasm>

[Freee-dame]

Texans for Truth, established by the 20,000-member Texas online activist group, DriveDemocracy.org, has produced a 0:30 second television advertisement, "AWOL." The ad features Robert Mintz, one of many who served in Alabama's 187th Air National Guard -- when Bush claims to have been there -- who have no memory of Bush on the base. In other words, Bush failed to fulfill his military duty while others were dying in Vietnam.

I think that there were about 800 people attached to that unit. That someone doesn't remember one person who came a few times and read flight manuals is not at all surprising. They may have never even been on the base at the same time. What a thin accusation.