Hmmmm. They had to say they were personal papers because falsifying official documents is a felony, and the Justice Department could have launched an investigation.<p.However, if these were personal papers, released without permission of the estate, perhaps there is a possibility of a lawsuit against CBS for defamation of the late Col. Killian's character.
That's the direction I was thinking--but I'd prefer Ben Ginsberg's advice on this particular matter.
Ah- but if they were "personal papers"- then CBS is being inaccurate to characterize one memo as being a "direct order" to Bush (to obtain a flight physical)
No military order is ever a personal paper.
My experience of stuff like personal letters and poetry is that the heirs of the writer--that is, the family--have the right to forbid or allow publication. That's why Holly Stevens got to edit the letters of Wallace Stevens--because she had the copyright as her father's heir. Similarly, when I wanted to quote a few lines of Yeats in a book I wrote, I needed permission from Yeats's heirs.
There are definite rules involved, which a copyright lawyer or some similar expert would need to look at. But you can't just appropriate or steal someone's private memos and publish them without paying for permission. You might get away with publishing a brief extract for purposes of discussion, but not the whole thing, and especially not actually reproductions of the alleged documents.
If a scholar finds someone's letters squirreled away in a trunk in the attic, he still needs permission to publish them. I don't see why these principles wouldn't apply in this case if the documents are genuine. If they are forgeries, as I think they are, then other rules apply. But CBS is denying that they are forgeries.
Miss Marple, they can't on the one hand be forgeries and on the other hand be claimed as the private papers of the late Col. Killian. They are one or the other, but not both, unless it is alleged that Killian created the fraudulent documents. This statement sounds like the family is trying to cover all their bases because they don't know for certain that the documents are frauds. They may not have intended it that way, but it's how the statement reads.