Posted on 09/12/2004 7:52:37 AM PDT by macsmind76
In a development that could have devastating implications for John Kerry's presidential campaign, CBS News is refusing to say whether the top Democrat, his campaign aides or any other prominent party officials had anything to do with supplying "60 Minutes" with a National Guard memo about President Bush that experts say was forged.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
Could it be? If Rather is further exposed and resigns, and BETTER yet there are DNC finger prints on the memos, no one has to ever buy me another Christmas present!
And per CBS's own analysis... if they don't deny it, means it is true!
Hey CBS - It's the seriousness of the charge that matters, so answer the question!
I heard it on Fox within the past hour. Something about Killan retired a year before the date on his memo. heh!
Dan Rather will never resign. His arrogance will never allow that.
Smells like some of the clinton works.
Tick, tick, tick, tick,...
There may be a reason that CBS does not want to answer this question....
Game, Set, Match
http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=7096
Washington Prowler
Anatomy of a Forgery Print Friendly Format
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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.
No, but he can be forced to if CBS ratings go in the tank.
Is that burning TOAST I smell???
No unless something new, a General Standt that Killian referred to in the memo as putting pressure on him, retired a year before that date.
Gee, perhaps we could see a presidential candidate concede before Election Day.
One can dream can't one?
NO, Killian's BOSS -- who was the subject of one of the memos saying he was putting pressure on Killian -- retired in 1972 (17 months before memo on him).
No, it was Staudt who was retired. This is the "sugar coat it" memo.
Dave - thanks, I was getting read to reply.
It is important we keep the facts straight, those on the other side are waiting for us to overstep ourselves.
Licorice: "Our feral bet is that it went from Soros and my savior's brother
through the Boston Globe and finally to Dan Rather's daughter's in Texas."
Sunday, Sept. 12, 2004 10:18 a.m. EDT
CBS Won't Deny Kerry Link to Forged Docs
In a development that could have devastating implications for John Kerry's presidential campaign, CBS News is refusing to say whether the top Democrat, his campaign aides or any other prominent party officials had anything to do with supplying "60 Minutes" with a National Guard memo about President Bush that experts say was forged.
Asked about a Kerry connection to the forged memo, a senior CBS official told the New York Post, "I can't answer that question."
The unnamed CBS executive then promptly hung up.
Since Wednesday, when he first aired the Bush Guard document as authentic, CBS anchorman Dan Rather has steadfastly refused to identify its source. Ruling out the Kerry campaign, however, certainly wouldn't violate that confidentiality pledge.
On Friday, Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe vehemently denied that his office or anyone at the Kerry campaign was involved.
"No one here at the Democratic National Committee had anything at all to do with any of those documents," McAuliffe told reporters. "I can unequivocally speak for the Kerry for President Campaign Committee, nor do they have anything to do with these documents. Absolutely not."
It's unclear whether McAuliffe had actually investigated a possible Kerry link to the forged documents, or was just offering his opinion.
****ASKED BY WHOM???
As usual, a Newsmax article with NO ATTRIBUTIONS.
> Asked about a Kerry connection to the forged memo, a
> senior CBS official told the New York Post,
> "I can't answer that question."
> The unnamed CBS executive then promptly hung up.
I'm sorry, but NewsMax is reaching here.
From this inquiry/response, exactly no conclusions can
be drawn about the chain of custody, except that CBS
doesn't want to talk about it.
Now we already have reports that the chain was
- some "ex military" buy, to
- DNC, to
- Kerry campaign, to
- CBS
For CBS to push blame back upstream, they would have to
be willing to hurt the Kerry campaign even more than
they already have. Dan faces a terrible choice:
- fall on the sword, or
- stab Kerry with it
Where we stand today:
* creation of sloppy fakes (not news, happens all the
time on the internet)
* fakes mistaken for real (amusing, but common)
* fakes fake out DNC/Kerry/CBS (quite revealing)
* fake finally explodes in Dan Rather's face (priceless)
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