[TaxRelief]

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/bush/articles/2004/09/11/authenticity_backed_on_bush_documents/

"Philip D. Bouffard, a forensic document examiner in Ohio who has analyzed typewritten samples for 30 years, had expressed suspicions about the documents in an interview with the New York Times published Thursday, one in a wave of similar media reports. But Bouffard told the Globe yesterday that after further study, he now believes the documents could have been prepared on an IBM Selectric Composer typewriter available at the time.

Analysts who have examined the documents focus on several facets of their typography, among them the use of a curved apostrophe, a raised, or superscript, ''th," and the proportional spacing between the characters -- spacing which varies with the width of the letters. In older typewriters, each letter was alloted the same space.

Those who doubt the documents say those typographical elements would not have been commonly available at the time of Bush's service. But such characters were common features on electric typewriters of that era, the Globe determined through interviews with specialists and examination of documents from the period. In fact, one such raised ''th," used to describe a Guard unit, the 187th, appears in a document in Bush's official record that the White House made public earlier this year."

"Bouffard, the Ohio document specialist, said that he had dismissed the Bush documents in an interview with The New York Times because the letters and formatting of the Bush memos did not match any of the 4,000 samples in his database. But Bouffard yesterday said that he had not considered one of the machines whose type is not logged in his database: the IBM Selectric Composer. Once he compared the Bush memos to Selectric Composer samples obtained from Interpol, the international police agency, Bouffard said his view shifted.

In the Times interview, Bouffard had also questioned whether the military would have used the Composer, a large machine. But Bouffard yesterday provided a document indicating that as early as April 1969 -- three years before the dates of the CBS memos -- the Air Force had completed service testing for the Composer, possibly in preparation for purchasing the typewriters.

As for the raised ''th" that appears in the Bush memos -- to refer, for example, to units such as the 111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron -- Bouffard said that custom characters on the Composer's metal typehead ball were available in the 1970s, and that the military could have ordered such custom balls from IBM."

[GailA]

I went to HS 1962-66 we had ONE Selective machine in our typing class. It was large. They didn't use them in the office either. I would imagine that the military, especially the TANG were not given the most modern cerical supplies just as schools are not given them. Things like typewriters were not that important, and the ones you got lasted for decades.

[MindBender26]

I used one of those IBM composer typewriters for about an hour once, in about '78. They were not for typing. They were for setting copy for offset printers. They were very expensive, huge, unwieldy, very difficult to use, the last thing an unskilled operator would use, of the National Guard would own..

This is all CBS trying to ignore the obvious. They were fooled by bad fakes. or were they even fooled at all. Was their hate of Bush so strong they HAD to go with them.

This would not have passed muster at a station in Glendive. Montana, (the smallest TV market.) Why was it on network.

Rather's performance last night was appalling. Network friends say it was the broadcast journalism equivalent of "I did not have sex with that woman, Ms. Selectric."

[Aquinasfan]

as early as April 1969 -- three years before the dates of the CBS memos -- the Air Force had completed service testing for the Composer, possibly in preparation for purchasing the typewriters.

If so, maybe for their printing office. These were high end machines used by printers or type houses. Besides, the above statement only claims that the Army tested the typewriters, it doesn't say that they purchased any.

[COBOL2Java]

The IBM Selectric Composer:

Oh yeah, I'm sure there was one in every TANG office...NOT

[Robert A Cook PE]

On a separate forum, run by typesetters and printer groups, Bouffard has specifcally been quoted (by a phone interview to the webmaster) that the statements attributed to him by the Boston Gloabe are wrong, taken out of context, and do NOT represent his conclusions.

[dirtboy]

In the Times interview, Bouffard had also questioned whether the military would have used the Composer, a large machine. But Bouffard yesterday provided a document indicating that as early as April 1969 -- three years before the dates of the CBS memos -- the Air Force had completed service testing for the Composer, possibly in preparation for purchasing the typewriters.

Now someone tell me why a colonel in the Texas Air National Guard with limited typing skills would use such a sophisticated machine for mundane personnel memos. It would take a tremendous amount of skill and effort to replicate what we see in those memos - especially the centering of the headings. Why would crude memos for an officer's personal file be typed on such a machine?

CBS is trying to divide and conquer the various problems with the memos. We can't let them do that.