Max Cleland's August 25th Texas Road Trip

MapQuest ^

[counterpunch]

Max Cleland's schedule on August 25 in Texas needs to be fully examined. Cleland tried to deliver a letter to President Bush around 1pm in Crawford, followed immediately by a short press conference. When did he leave Texas, where did he leave from, and what did he do in the time in between?

Only days prior to Cleland's impromptu visit to Texas, he began discussions with Bill Burkett, who is now known to be CBS's source for the forged documents.

Later the same day of Cleland's Texas trip, Burkett announced in a rant to President Bush on the progressive onlinejournal that, "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'."

What time was this rant posted?
Did Cleland help him write it?
Who is the "we" Burkett is referring to concerning the documents being "reassembled"?
Did Cleland help Burkett forge the documents on that day?

Crawford, Texas, where Cleland was at 1pm on August 25, is only 162 miles from Baird, Bill Burkett's home.

Did Cleland make a visit there that day?

Did someone in the Kerry campaign act as a middleman in passing along the information to CBS that Burkett had these documents?

Did someone in the Kerry campaign lobby CBS to use these documents or vouch for their authenticity?

CBS claimed that these documents came from "unimpeachable sources."
Other than Burkett, who are the other sources?
Why did CBS consider Burkett "unimpeachable"?

CBS must answer the question of how they learned that Burkett now had these memos. Did the discovery of these new documents play a part in Ben Barnes decision that he was now ready to talk to 60 Minutes on air, after Mary Mapes had long been urging him to do so? Is there a connection between this sudden change of heart by Barnes just two days before CBS hit "paydirt" with these forged documents?
Did Ben Barnes see these documents even before CBS did?

[ConservativeMan55]

Interesting......

[MJY1288]

Good questions and good work

[FesterUSMC]

as I said before the DNC's fingerprints are all over this, and also all over Dan Rather's lips...

[MJY1288]

I would bet that Burkett met Cleland near Crawford

[nevergore]

If I remember correctly, Dan Rather's daughter (a very liberal democrat) ran for Mayor of Austin, just a short drive away......

Dan's almost hyper-knee jerk protection of his source and the Network's insistence that the source was "un-impeachable.....

Could Dan's daughter be involved somehow?

This could explain Dan's trip to Dallas this weekend to convince B.B. to fall on his sword.....

NeverGore :^)

[andie74]

I promise I heard like a Ramon or Raymond name given in what I heard Burkett say to Rather.

MY question is: Could it have been Jim Rassmann, the man who accompanied Cleland to Crawford?

See this thread:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1221763/posts

[Huck]

Beautifully done. I hope someone is truly advancing that line of questioning and that body of evidence in a way that will have national impact.

[crazyhorse691]

Max's itinerary for that date would be most enlightening. August 25th.
Excellent post.

[umgud]

Ah,,,,,,,,, $hit, is this gonna be another one of those pajama journalist hit pieces?

I sure hope so.

[mimmson]

I think your right on the money. Would Burkett have enough credibility to have CBS and Rather run with the story?

Answer: No.

Would someone directly involved in the Kerry campaign, such as Cleland, give them the confidence to run with story as they did.

I believe the answer is obvious.

Someone fairly high up, with extremely high credibility passed these documents to CBS. That's why they went with story with not so much as a cursory examination of whether the papers were authentic or not.

[Txslady]

VERY interesting!

[MJY1288]

Didn't Cleland show up at the Bush Ranch with a bunch of people with him?

If so! maybe we can find a list of who he was traveling with

[andie74]

I love being a pajama journalist...and I love even more that we make the networks nervous just by adding two and two together!

[76834]

Another thing that raises my interest is the fact that Ben Barnes was a big player in Brownwood politics for years, yet not a word in the Brownwood paper.

For that matter, I have seen very little local reporting in any of the Abilene media. With something this totally huge one would think be all over the papers and electronic media.

Just thankful that the route didnt take him thru Coleman....

[get'emall]

This is explosive.

While on the stump for Kerry, Max has the arm put on him by Burkett. Burkett knows Max is a wheel in the Kerry machine. Max wants to lend a hand but can't. Burkett drops the bomb on Cleland. Max fumbles the explosive information, and it blows up in his face.

This is all too tragic and beyond comprehension.

[andie74]

Of course! Despite the whole being for the little guy schtick, the Rats wouldn't have given someone like Burkett the time of day.

My hypothesis is much like yours: Rather saw this bit and rolled with it because he trusted the source. AND Burkett was added to be the fall guy because after all, he had had a vendetta against Bush from the beginning. Not too educated, not slick...the perfect patsy.

This is SO sick! It would make a great novel plot though.

[HalleysFifth]

Anybody still have news coverage from that day on video. (Wish I did.) Who was there outside the Bush ranch?

[InterceptPoint]

I wonder who else missed the subtle difference between what Rather said: "unimpeachable sources" and what we thought he said: "unimpeachable source". This infers that Rather knows at least one other person (and perhaps more) besides Burkett who is a "source". He should be called on this - if there is actually a way to do it.

[SolomoninSouthDakota]

Please refresh us. What was the big issue that Cleland, famed man who can't get over his defeat, was trying to raise in his letter to President Bush. I'm having a mental block.

[76834]

Lets see now:
Os is Burkett's lawyer and is also a big dim player
Os and Robin Rather are both major figures in Austin politics.
Ben Barnes was a player in Brownwood politics, just a stone throw from Burkett's residence.

One thing for certain, they play politics very rough here in Texas.
November 22, 1963 for example

[kellynla]

Max Cleland, the dumbest soldier the U.S. Army ever produced!!!

[Use It Or Lose It]

Doubts raised on Bush accuser

Key witness disputes charge by Guard retiree that files were purged

By Michael Rezendes, Globe Staff, 2/13/2004

...snip

Burkett's allegations also will be a major focus of a book on Bush to be published next month.

But the book's author, James Moore, a former Houston TV news correspondent, concedes he never interviewed some of the key players who could have verified Burkett's charges, including Conn and retired National Guard Colonel John Scribner -- the officer Burkett says he saw removing items from the Bush file.

Moore, told yesterday that Conn contradicts Burkett's story, said he believes Burkett's allegations are true. "I think we're into a classic he-said, she-said," Moore said.

...snip

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/02/13/doubts_raised_on_bush_accuser/

Resendez appeared on "Hannity and Colmes" last week. He said again that Moore refused to talk to those who would discredit Burkett's account.

[counterpunch]

It was some whining for Bush to end the Swift Boat Vets attacks on Kerry, even though they are an independent organization who don't take orders from the Bush campaign, and Bush could not by law even communicate with them to try.

[MadelineZapeezda]

The letters stalemate: Former Sen. Max Cleland, center, and fellow Vietnam veteran Jerry Patterson, left, in Crawford, Texas.

Max Cleland turned away from Bush ranch

[andie74]

http://blog.johnkerry.com/blog/archives/002569.html

[OldGuard]

>>Who is the "we" Burkett is referring to concerning the documents being "reassembled"?
Perhaps "reassembled" was from the "memory" of the old secretary. If you saw her interviewed, she said "she did not type those docs, but similar to them"

>>Did Cleland help Burkett forge the documents on that day?
No, not even Cleland would be stupid enough to do that. But if the documents were presented to Cleland in a fashion that be was made to believe they were originals, by Burkett and old secretary, I'm sure he'd head straight to Boston with them.

>>Other than Burkett, who are the other sources?
>>Why did CBS consider Burkett "unimpeachable"?
Rather's CBS apolgy interview on the web this evening, claims there to be another source besides Burkett for the documents. I believe there was a trio of tale spinners, Ms. Knox, Burkett, and Cleland.

[andie74]

I'd add Jim Rassmann to the ranks.

[Pharmboy]

Whoa...quite impressive.

And, you just might be correct.

[maggief]

Kewl ... Max and Bill's Excellent Adventure.

[andie74]

And now we add Joe Lockhart to the mix:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1221907/posts

[G L Tirebiter]

Can we tell if the forged docs were typed by a one-handed typist?

[get'emall]

I feel your pain.

I'm sure Max would reach out to you and lend a hand if he could.

What's important is that we remain on sound footing and have a good grasp of the issues involved. We mustn't be caught spinning our wheels when we should be taking every step forward to advance the ideas Max is stumping for.

Please give us a hand as we creep out on that limb and take that crucial step as we grab that grenade on the floor and replace the pin before it blows up in our faces.

[SolomoninSouthDakota]

Thanks. Yes it was the Swiftboat vets.

Interesting that that propaganda piece starts right out with a statement hinting at some extraordinary long trip made by Cleland and Rassman. It would be good to know the truth of their contacts that day.

Also, I found this interesting in the linked article you sent.
"calling on the Commander-in-Chief to quit dishonoring the service and sacrifice of veterans by standing silent as John Kerry’s combat record is smeared by Bush’s close allies. "

How ironic that the libs have stupidly impugned the service of all Guard members who served in Vietnam. Never did they come out for Kerry to denounce the CBullShit fraudulent story.

[MadelineZapeezda]

The senators signing the letter Cleland delivered to President Bush included Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, Ernest "Fritz" Hollings of South Carolina, Tom Harkin of Iowa, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Tom Carper of Delaware and Jon Corzine and Frank Lautenberg, both of New Jersey.

Maybe one of them helped Burkett write it?

[counterpunch]

I believe you may be correct on many points.
Just as someone else suggested that it was probably Burkett who arranged to go to Crawford or Waco to meet Cleland on that day.

We do not know the answers to these questions for sure.
What matters is that someone asks them, and they get fully investigated (by someone else besides Dan Rather.)

One of my biggest questions, which I implied by on retrospect realize I didn't ask in certain enough terms is whether or not it is even possible for 60 Minutes to have considered Burkett to be "unimpeachable."

I believe he HAD to have had someone with more credibility -- someone like Cleland or Barnes -- playing a role in supplying or vouching for the documents.

Knowing what has been widely known about Burkett for years, it would be the ultimate journalistic fraud for 60 Minutes to take the sole word of Burkett on these documents. It would be the absolute end for CBS News. There is no way the story could have gotten as far as it did without someone else that CBS trusted highly giving them assurances these documents were legit.

[pointsal]

Where was Molly Ivins????
Anyone of NOTE that might have hauled old Max C. up to the meeting????

[AmericanVictory]

Ditto to that.

[PhiKapMom]

If you can find where he flew into and out of and what time, you theory IMHO will be confirmed. My guess is that he met him in Dallas/Ft Worth after landing or before he took off. People going to Waco usually fly into Dallas/Ft Worth. Cleland wouldn't be landing at the Army base at Killeen like AF One.

[Mrs Zip]

ping

[Inspectorette]

Rassmann is just a campaign prop, with no say in anything. Kerry's gonna dump his sorry butt on the night of Nov. 2, if not before. Rassmann served his purpose, and is of no further use to this fiasco.

[SolomoninSouthDakota]

You're definitely on the right track here IMHO. I recall reading a pretty good analysis of the motives of the fraud perpetrators. It was within 24 hours of the fraud breaking open. Don't remember the poster but he sounded sharp as a tack and he was convinced based on Kerry's management style that the story led right straight to J effin K himself. It's seeming more and more likely to be the case. Wish I could recall which freeper it was.

[Inspectorette]

Where was Molly Ivins????

Probably doin' the horizontal boogie with Ma Richards after consuming a few snorts.

[counterpunch]

We know that Cleland arrived in Waco.
I've seen no information on when he left, or from where, or what time he departed.

Maybe someone in pajamas has some info on these questions.

[backinthefold]

Wow.... very interesting...

Bumping this back to the top.. and hoping the pajama brigade sees this...

[bert]

....because he trusted the source.....

or because he sensed there was adequate cover to push the vindicative hoax. If the shit hits the fan, who is going after a nolegged one armed man in a wheel chair?

Paraplegic hack.....perfect patsy for a criminal wanting an alibi.

[nopardons]

bttt

[mystery-ak]

Good job.....now if you could get Lockhart's cell phone records...LOL

[big bad easter bunny]

Hillary was crowing about a "Type of October surprise" did she know?