Texan Involved in CBS Report Tried to Help Kerry Campaign

BAIRD, Tex., Sept. 17 - Bill Burkett, the former Texas National Guard officer who has been caught up in the mystery of how CBS News acquired memos that seem to question President Bush's Vietnam-era National Guard service, unsuccessfully offered information and advice to help the Kerry campaign attack Mr. Bush, according to a posting Mr. Burkett wrote in an e-mail newsletter.

"I spent some time on the phone with the Kerry campaign seniors yesterday," Mr. Burkett wrote on Aug. 21 in an e-mail letter circulated to a list of about 600 Texas Democrats.

He complained that he had to "get through seven layers of bureaucratic kids trying to get a job after the election."

"I talked with Max Cleland," Mr. Burkett continued, referring to the former senator from Georgia who has been supporting Senator John Kerry's Democratic presidential bid.

Alluding to advertisements by a veterans group that deprecates Mr. Kerry's Vietnam service, Mr. Burkett continued, "I asked if they wanted to counterattack or ride this to ground and outlast it, not spending any money. He said counterattack."

"So I gave them the information to do it with," Mr. Burkett wrote. "But none of them have called me back."

Mr. Burkett did not say what information he offered. Earlier this year, he gained attention for saying that in 1998 he saw aides to Gov. George W. Bush of Texas and Guard officials dispose of pieces of Mr. Bush's National Guard record that could prove politically embarrassing. Mr. Bush's aides have denied his account.

Mr. Burkett, who was at home on his ranch in Baird, near Abilene, on Friday, declined to comment.

Mr. Cleland said in a telephone interview that Mr. Burkett called him "a couple of weeks ago," as he was out campaigning for Mr. Kerry.

"I couldn't swear to it whether he used the term documents or information," Mr. Cleland said. "It was some kind of stuff, some kind of information he wanted to get to the campaign, or something, regarding Bush's National Guard service. I referred him up to somebody in the campaign."

Mr. Cleland said he received up to 100 calls a week from people with tips and ideas. "He sounded like he had something," Mr. Cleland said. "But of course, in this business, you go around, every friend, everyone around the corner, has some something or other."

Campaign officials said Mr. Cleland had referred Mr. Burkett to someone at the campaign who passed his message on to the research department, where the message was set aside amid the deluge of other calls.

Mr. Burkett has returned to national attention since CBS News and "60 Minutes" reported last week on four memos reportedly from the personal files of Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, Mr. Bush's squadron commander, who died 20 years ago. The memos said that Colonel Killian was under pressure to "sugar coat" the record of the young Lieutenant Bush and that the officer had disobeyed a direct order to take a physical.

Forensic experts, a secretary who said she typed Lieutenant Killian's memos and members of his family have said that they doubt the authenticity of the documents. CBS News has said it is evaluating their legitimacy and has declined to identify its sources. But one person at CBS confirmed an account in Newsweek that Mr. Burkett had helped with the reports. The official was unable to say what role he played.

Mr. Burkett is an avid Democrat and a frequent contributor to the Texas Democratic e-mail list. His name also shows up occasionally as a contributor of criticism of the Bush administration on a Web site, onlinejournal.com. Asked about his contributions to that site, Mr. Burkett on Friday declined to comment. His wife, Nicki, later confirmed that the articles were indeed his.

His many online musings provide a glimpse of his thinking, including his intense desire to remove Mr. Bush from office. They include some inconclusive references to the possibility of more documents appearing about Mr. Bush's Guard service. Aside from the CBS report, the Pentagon on Friday released new documents from Mr. Bush's files.

Addressing Mr. Bush rhetorically in an article on the Web site on Aug. 25, Mr. Burkett wrote, "I know from your files that we have now reassembled, the fact that you did not fulfill your oath, taken when you were commissioned to 'obey the orders of the officers appointed over you.' " On Sept. 4, shortly before CBS News broadcast its report, Mr. Burkett told the Democratic e-mail list he had a hunch that more material might soon emerge to embarrass the president. "No proof, just gut instinct," Mr. Burkett added.

Mr. Burkett's lawyer, David Van Os, said his client had not fabricated any documents. "From my knowledge of Bill's character, I am 100 percent positively, unequivocally certain that Bill Burkett has not created or falsified any documents," Mr. Van Os said.

In another development, ABC News reported on Friday that former Col. Walter B. Staudt - who interviewed Mr. Bush for enrollment to the Texas Air National Guard in 1968 and who was named in a disputed Killian memo as exerting influence on behalf of Mr. Bush - said he "never pressured anybody about George Bush." He also told ABC News that he planned to vote for Mr. Bush.

David D. Kirkpatrick reported from Baird for this article, and Jim Rutenberg from New York. Nathan Levy contributed reporting from Baird.

Great work today with those links.. did you see this one? Burkett apparently was a "charter member" of the Progressive Populist Caucus of the Texas Democratic Party. His lawyer, Van Os, created the group with this Stan Merriman guy. These idiot Dems are helping us connect the dots by themselves. From: "Stan Merriman" Date: Fri Sep 17, 2004 9:11 pm Subject: Bill Burkett and David Van Os vs. Karl Rove Fellow Progressive Populist Caucus Members: Our brother, Bill Burkett is under siege by the Carl Rove smear machine. Bill is a charter member of the PPC and our friend. Co-founder of the PPC with me, David Van Os assures me that as Bill's legal Counsel on a longstanding basis, any assertions that Bill has engaged in "forgery" vis a vis the now infamous documentation of the Bush desertion of duty as a Texas National Guardsman is total smear with the footprints of the Karl Rove modus operandi all over it. Representing the PPC, I stand with both our brothers Burkett and Van Os and applaud their guts to stand up to the right wing slander machine; President Kerry and many of our DNC brethren can take a lesson from our two populist fellow-Texans who have the cajones to look contemptuously in the eye these ruthless cowards bringing down our formerly proud democracy and tell them to go to h*ll. Stan Merriman Chair, Progressive Populist Caucus of the Texas Democratic Party.

Darnit.. here's a formatted version.

Burkett apparently was a "charter member" of the Progressive Populist Caucus of the Texas Democratic Party.

His lawyer, Van Os, created the group with this Stan Merriman guy.

These idiot Dems are helping us connect the dots by themselves.

From: "Stan Merriman" Date: Fri Sep 17, 2004 9:11 pm Subject: Bill Burkett and David Van Os vs. Karl Rove

Fellow Progressive Populist Caucus Members: Our brother, Bill Burkett is under siege by the Carl Rove smear machine. Bill is a charter member of the PPC and our friend. Co-founder of the PPC with me, David Van Os assures me that as Bill's legal Counsel on a longstanding basis, any assertions that Bill has engaged in "forgery" vis a vis the now infamous documentation of the Bush desertion of duty as a Texas National Guardsman is total smear with the footprints of the Karl Rove modus operandi all over it.

Representing the PPC, I stand with both our brothers Burkett and Van Os and applaud their guts to stand up to the right wing slander machine; President Kerry and many of our DNC brethren can take a lesson from our two populist fellow-Texans who have the cajones to look contemptuously in the eye these ruthless cowards bringing down our formerly proud democracy and tell them to go to h*ll.

Stan Merriman Chair, Progressive Populist Caucus of the Texas Democratic Party.

8/23/2004

communications director Stephanie Cutter, communications aide Katie McCormick Lelyveld, research director Mike Gehrke and spokesman Chad Clanton, who heads the campaign's rapid response group

In fact, according to a Kerry campaign volunteer, staff members and volunteers of the Kerry campaign in New York, Washington, and Los Angeles have been in almost constant contact with MoveOn.org staffers, including advanced viewing and reviews of MoveOn.org television commercials, online ads, and web content. As well, MoveOn.org staffers provided the Kerry campaign with opposition research within the past two months, as well as advance looks at speeches made by MoveOn.org speakers, including former Vice President Al Gore.

"We're always running into those guys," says a Kerry campaign volunteer in Washington, about MoveOn.org staffers. "We socialize with them, we see them at meetings, we can't avoid it. And of course we talk about the campaign. In some cities, we get our volunteers from MoveOn. No one has ever raised an issue about it."

In some cases, it isn't just volunteers that the Kerry campaign is getting from MoveOn.org. They are hiring them too. In April, the Kerry campaign hired MoveOn's special projects and research director Zach Exley to oversee Kerry's campaign's website. At the time, the Kerry campaign made a point of saying that Exley was joining the campaign with not a single scrap of paper or computer disk from his time with MoveOn.

But Exley didn't need to bring much. According to another Kerry adviser, there were already so many back-channel relationships between the two organizations, Exley's presence to foster more was unnecessary. "As soon as it was clear Kerry had the nomination, we began coordinating. It's all done through the DNC and the AFL-CIO, which is financing many of the other groups out there running anti-Republican advertising. We will sit on conference calls, but we won't take part. We just take notes, then confer with our folks inside the DNC. That's the way it's done."

Press Here for more...

2003 early, Jan: (NSC : RICHARD CLARKE & RAND BEERS LEAVE THE DEPARTMENT AT ROUGHLY THE SAME TIME, THEN GO ON TO BECOME LECTURERS AT HARVARD'S JOHN F KENNEDY SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT) There was talk in the NSC of Clarke quitting just as his self-described "best friend," NSC Senior Director for Combating Terrorism Rand Beers, was readying to leave to become coordinator of national-security and homeland-security issues for Kerry's presidential campaign in early 2003. After leaving the NSC, Clarke and Beers became adjunct lecturers at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, coteaching a course called "Post-Cold War Security: Terrorism, Security and Failed States," according to a Harvard Website. ... Clarke's January 2003 resignation letter... expressed no dissatisfaction or concern about the president's policies. --- "Clarke's colleagues say he's lost credibility; Until just before 9-11 nearly all officials were Clinton holdovers" by J. Michael Waller, Insight Mag via World Net Daily, March 30, 2004

JANUARY 2003 : (NIGERFLAP : FORMER AMBASSADOR WILSON SPEAKS AT ANTIWAR EVENT SPONSORED BY "WIN WITHOUT WAR") Wilson Spoke At Win Without War Press Conference In January 2003. “Why risk increased terror attacks on American soil when we can contain and disarm Saddam Hussein without an invasion?” said Ambassador Joe Wilson...” (Win Without War, “Organized Antiwar Effort Grows - National Campaign Intensifies,” Press Release, 1/31/03) via - "SAY IT AIN’T SO JOES? Joe Lieberman & Joe Wilson Make Bold Assertions That Facts Don’t Support, "RNC Research, Republican National Committee, October 5, 2003

JANUARY 6, 2003 : (CHB ARTICLE : DEMOCRAT PLANS TO UNDERMINE THE PRESIDENT : EFFORT TO BE LED BY DICK GEBHARDT) Democrats plan to undermine public confidence in President George W. Bush by challenging his credibility and raising doubts about America, sources within the party tell Capitol Hill Blue. A multi-pronged attack against Republicans and the President will focus not only on economic issues, but question American values, raise doubts about how this country is viewed by other nations and question the patriotism of Bush and his party. The extensive campaign, developed by senior Democratic consultants and party leaders, was launched last week with attacks on the Bush economic plan by Democratic presidential hopeful Rep. Richard Gephardt. -----Capitol Hill Blue.

JANUARY 8, 2003 : (SPIES : SUSAN LINDHAUER DELIVERED A LETTER TO A US GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL WHICH INDICATED SHE HAD ACCESS TO MEMBERS OF SADDAM HUSSEIN'S REGIME) On Jan. 8, 2003, prosecutors said, Lindauer tried to influence U.S. foreign policy by delivering to the home of a U.S. government official a letter in which she conveyed her access to and contacts with members of Saddam's regime. The official was not identified in the indictment.
[The official would turn out to be a distant relative of hers, Andrew card, who didn't take the bait and reported her instead...]

JANUARY 8, 2003 : (SPIES : SUSAN LINDHAUER DELIVERS A LETTER TO US GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL WHICH REVEALED HER ACCESS TO AND CONTACTS WITH MEMBERS OF IRAQI LEADER SADDAM HUSSEIN'S REGIME) On or about January 8, 2003, SUSAN LINDAUER, a/k/a “Symbol SUSAN,” delivered, to the home of an United States Government official, a letter in which LINDAUER conveyed her established access to, and contacts with, members of the Saddam Hussein regime, in an unsuccessful attempt to influence United States foreign policy. - "Text of indictment against American spying for Iraq," Findlaw. com, March 11, 2004

Another wacko group:

FEBRUARY 2003 : (CITIZENS FOR RESPONSIBILITY AND ETHICS IN WASHINGTON aka CREW IS ACTIVATED)
http://www.citizensforethics.org/news/20030719_natljrnl.php
CREW has been active only since February [2003] , so its profile is still relatively low. Yet Republicans detect a strong Democratic orientation. Sloan, most recently an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, is a former aide to Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del.; then-Rep. (now Sen.) Charles Schumer, D- N.Y.; and Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich. In addition, CREW's three board members are Mark Penn, President Clinton's former pollster; Daniel Berger, a trial lawyer from Philadelphia and a Clinton fundraiser; and Louis Mayberg, the president of a mutual fund company. 10 posted on 01/28/2004 10:52:10 AM PST by jimbo123

FEBRUARY 2003 : (SPECIAL INTEREST NONPROFIT GROUP 'CREW' aka CITIZENS FOR RESPONSIBILITY AND ETHICS BECOMES ACTIVE - IT IS FILLED WITH FORMER CLINTON ADMINISTRATION PEOPLE, INCLUDING MELANIE SLOAN, FORMER ASSISTANT US ATTORNEY IN DC) ... CREW aims to counterbalance the conservative legal watchdog groups that made such a strong impact over the past decade. These groups focused their attention on their left-wing adversaries, leaving the right relatively free from scrutiny. CREW focuses equal attention on misconduct by all, including the right. - CREW website *
(* Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a non-profit legal watchdog group, ....Melanie Sloan serves as CREW's Executive Director. - source: CREW website)

MAY 2003 late : (UK : BBC NEWS BIAS, ATTACK ON BLAIR & UK WAR EFFORT) Late May 2003 The “Dodgy Dossier” scandal arises in Britain. Ex-allies of Blair and some media peruse the September 2002 dossier finding some faults within it. They link the dossier’s reference to uranium in Africa to the fraudulent Niger documents, perhaps inspired by American media reports above. But most focus on Blair’s “45 minute” claim to ready biological or chemical warfare weapons. In short, the BBC interviewed scientist David Kelly and reported, anonymously, that this expert doubted the 45 minute claim and someone said the report was “sexed up.” (Kelly committed suicide.) Later it emerged the BBC omitted Kelly’s statements that he too thought Saddam had WMDs and that he claimed the loading of CB weapons could happen, but would take more than 45 minutes - not the impression the BBC had previously given. -- "Joseph Wilson, Niger, Uranium and Bush’s Famous Sixteen Words: Evolution of a Confused Story," FreeRepublic's Shermy, April 16, 2004, Posted on 04/16/2004 1:01:46 PM PDT by Shermy

Evidence that Burkett was involved in Texas DNC politics

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Texas-Democrats/message/4906

From: BBurkett16@a...
Date: Wed Sep 17, 2003 6:45 pm
Subject: Re: [TX-Demos] Mary Moore [for TDP Chair]

There are many of us out here that fight the everyday battles at the local and regional level who would like to know more about all of the potential candidates for the job BEFORE everything is cut up in backroom deals. I'd like
to know more about Mary Moore and what she can and will do for the party, including her approaches.

I've heard the name of Jim Mattox mentioned and know of Jim's history a little better. John Courage, I know of from a short distance. David Van Os, I know personally. But there are other names already being kicked around.
Believe me, I will be talking with the SD24 folks and want their take on everything BEFORE deals are cut or ballots are taken. That's better for me - better for
the SDEC members and better for the party.

Bill Burkett

Should have pinged you previously...

One of the moneybags behind the DNC assault on the US war effort stirs:

JUNE 2003 : (SOROS CUTTING BACK ON THE WORK HIS FOUNDATION, THE OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE, DOES IN RUSSIA SO THAT HE COULD FOCUS ON ATTACKING THE US BUSH ADMINISTRATION) ... the billionaire investor George Soros announced that he was cutting back the work his foundation, the Open Society Institute, did in Russia so that he could focus his attention on the United States. The change was needed, Soros told reporters in Moscow, because the political scene in America had become "quite dangerous." In the Bush administration, Soros explained, "the executive branch has come under the influence of a group of ideologues who have forgotten the first principle of an open society: that they don't have a monopoly on truth."
Soros, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Hungary, said President Bush had "abused" the September 11 terrorist attacks as a pretext to expand his own power and to run roughshod over other nations. Soros has included these concerns in a book, The Bubble of American Supremacy, due out next January [2004], which will attack the so-called arrogance of the president's policies. --- "By George: The Democratic party is now brought to you by super-investors," by Byron York, National Review, 11/10/03, http://beta.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1019439/posts

speaking of MoveOn.org...

JUNE 15, 2003 : (MOVEON.ORG CREATES WEB SITE MISLEADER.ORG) Organization: EliPariser, Registrant ; 452W57thSt , NewYork ,:NY , 10019, US , 646/326-6333; Email:eli.pariser@moveon.org - sourcec: whois.publicinterestregistry.net*
The Mislead is a new project of the increasingly influential liberal organization MoveOn.org, which claims to reach more than two million activists and recently received a donation of up to $5 million from philanthropist George Soros, who is working to prevent President Bush's re-election.
The Daily Mislead claims that it provides "an accurate daily chronicle for journalists of misrepresentations, distortions and downright misleading statements by President Bush and the Bush Administration," but in most cases since its first issue on Sept. 15, it has done nothing of the kind. Instead, despite numerous examples of actual deception by the Bush administration, the Mislead has generally presented a series of partisan accusations of dishonesty based on nothing more than political disagreement. Like too many participants in the media bias debate, MoveOn is churning out a series of analyses designed to support a preconceived agenda--whether the facts fit the case or not.- "Who's Lying Now?," Opinion Journal via http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1037366/posts

Note that Wilson is the Kerry campaign staffer who was exposed in the 911 commission findings; according to various pajama people, after the findings came out concerning Niger and Iraq and making Wilson look foolish, or should I say more foolish, the Kerry campaign quickly purged its web site of references to Wilson. Maybe we should inspect the Niger forgeries for odd kerning...

FR's Shermy noted in reference to the excerpt below that " Wilson makes another anonymous appearance" - certainly the description fits Wilson] :

JUNE 29, 2003 : (US OFFICIAL, POSSIBLY AMBASSADOR JOE WILSON, JOINS THE ATTACK AGAINST THE UK WAR EFFORT) A high-ranking American official who investigated claims for the CIA that Iraq was seeking uranium to restart its nuclear programme accused Britain and the US yesterday of deliberately ignoring his findings to make the case for war against Saddam Hussein.
The retired US ambassador said it was all but impossible that British intelligence had not received his report - drawn up by the CIA - which revealed that documents, purporting to show a deal between Iraq and the West African state of Niger, were forgeries.
When he saw similar claims in Britain's dossier on Iraq last September, he even went as far as telling CIA officials that they needed to alert their British counterparts to his investigation. ...
...The former diplomat - who had served as an ambassador in Africa - had been approached by the CIA in February 2002 to carry out a "discreet" task....
--- "Ministers Knew War Papers Were Forged, Says Diplomat," Independent, June 29, 2003 -- via "Joseph Wilson, Niger, Uranium and Bush’s Famous Sixteen Words: Evolution of a Confused Story," FreeRepublic's Shermy, April 16, 2004, Posted on 04/16/2004 1:01:46 PM PDT by Shermy

JULY 13, 2003 : (UK FOREIGN MINISTER STRAW REPEATS THAT BRITISH INTEL DID NOT RELATE TO THE FORGED NIGER DOCUMENTS) Foreign Minister Jack Straw specifies, again, that the British intelligence did not relate to the fraudulent Niger documents. -- FreeRepublic's Shermy, commenting on Straw defends UK uranium evidence , http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/07/12/sprj.irq.uk.uranium.straw/index.html
-- "Joseph Wilson, Niger, Uranium and Bush’s Famous Sixteen Words: Evolution of a Confused Story," FreeRepublic's Shermy, April 16, 2004, Posted on 04/16/2004 1:01:46 PM PDT by Shermy

AUGUST 2003 : (NIGERFLAP: FORMER AMBASSADOR JOE WILSON GETS A BOOK DEAL) In August, Wilson got his book deal. -- "The Rise and Decline of Joe Wilson," by Matthew Continetti, Weekly Standard, 05/17/2004

CBS Relied On Dems for Documents
RatherBiased.com ^

Posted on 09/17/2004 11:45:54 PM PDT by RatherBiased.com

The Washington Post and The New York Times both have huge stories in today's editions on the connections between Bill Burkett, CBS News, and the Democratic Party. Memogate is the story that just keeps giving.

First from the Post's:

The former Texas National Guard officer suspected of providing CBS News with possibly forged records on President Bush's military service called on Democratic activists to wage "war" against Republican "dirty tricks" in a series of Internet postings in which he also used phrases similar to several employed in the disputed documents. [...]

In e-mail messages to a Yahoo discussion group for Texas Democrats over the past few months, Burkett laid out a rationale for using what he termed "down and dirty" tactics against Bush. He said he had passed his ideas to the Democratic National Committee but that the DNC seemed "afraid to do what I suggest."

In another message, dated Sept. 4, Burkett hinted he might have had advance knowledge of some details in an explosive segment that aired Sept. 8 on the CBS News program "60 Minutes." [...]

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