Posted on 09/10/2004 8:01:21 PM PDT by jern
Dr. Philip Bouffard, a forensic document specialist in Georgia who has compiled of database of more than 3,000 old fonts, said people who bought the I.B.M. Selectric Composer model could specially order keys with the superscripts in question. Dr. Bouffard said that font did bear many similarities to the one on the CBS documents, but not enough to dispel questions he had about their authenticity.
A spokesman for I.B.M., John Bukovinsky, said he knew only that it introduced proportional spacing to some typewriters in 1944, most notably in the Executive line.
At Lexmark, a spokeswoman, Maria W. Gambrell, said typewriters were part of the too distant past for her office to be able to help.
"We are solely focused on printers, and there's no one here to discuss typewriters,'' Ms. Gambrell said.
Some former engineers who worked in the typewriter division said they were not aware of a standard typewriter that could have produced the Killian documents because the superscript letters in question were so rare.
Robert A. Rahenkamp, a former I.B.M. manager who wrote a scholarly history on its typewriters for a company journal in 1981, said, "I'm not aware that we had any superscript technologies back in those days.''
Bill Glennon, a technology consultant in New York who worked for I.B.M. in Midtown Manhattan for 14 years and repaired typewriters throughout that time, said that the Executive had proportional spacing and that its typebar could be fitted with superscript characters. Documents from the period show that the Air Force tested the Selectric Composer as early as April 1969. But spokesmen for the National Guard and Texas Air National Guard said it was impossible to trace the machines that would have been used by Colonel Killian's unit, the 111th Fighter Intercept Squadron, or any unit, so long ago.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I bet the Times was burning the phonelines all day to start this cover up piece..
Mr. Matley said the documents the network sent him were so deteriorated from copying that it was impossible to identify the typeface.
"It's sheer speculation to say that you couldn't have done that until a computer came along,'' he said.
As a result, he said, he focused on the signatures. CBS
So CBS's own expert admits that he didn't judge the text itself! We already knew that, but it's a pretty devastating admission, nonetheless.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/NotedNow/Noted_Now.html
HODGES SAID HE WAS MISLED BY CBS: Retired Maj. General Hodges, Killian's supervisor at the Grd, tells ABC News that he feels CBS misled him about the documents they uncovered. According to Hodges, CBS told him the documents were "handwritten" and after CBS read him excerpts he said, "well if he wrote them that's what he felt."
Hodges also said he did not see the documents in the 70's and he cannot authenticate the documents or the contents. His personal belief is that the documents have been "computer generated" and are a "fraud".
Washington Post (Howie) is not buying Rather's explanation. I just posted new article.
Notice how the Times ignores Killian's widow saying that he couldn't type!
Especially hard to do a cover up when anyone with MicroSoft Word can replicate the text easily. I wonder if they ever heard of Occam's Razor.
As a former enlisted Air Guardsman of 5 years and an AF Reserve officer for 10 more and counting, I can tell you, the LAST thing a Guard unit is going to have is ANYTHING "high end"!
It is unlikely that a TANG unit would have a sophisticated typesetting machine like the top of the line IBM. After all, these things cost about half as much as a new car. But there is a killer point. No typewriter in the known universe, then or now, has the ability to produce "kerned" type. And these documents are kerned as anyone who knows what to look for, can see.
It's a bit sad, because in this particular political story, the Times is actually trying to tell the story truthfully. They would have gotten it right had they talked to one of the people working in their graphic design department doing layouts. All those folks know kerned type like the backs of their hands, including the former one who is a longtime friend of mine.
Congressman Billybob
Latest column, "I'm Mad as Zell, and I'm Not Going to Take It Anymore."
If you haven't already joined the anti-CFR effort, please click here.
analysis of the bush memo
http://img41.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img41&image=60minbusted.swf
This needs a separate thread if it doesn't already have one. It's a big development.
I'm Liking that toon
Agree
This guy just burned himself worse than he can imagine. Check out this post by Sonar5 that lays Killian's signatures on the faked memos and signatures from genuine correspondence side-by-side. Now I'm just a dumbass engineer, but even I can tell that different people signed the "suspect" memos, the same person signed the genuine ones, and that none of the signatures on the suspect memos are even remotely like Killian's signature. If I can see this, what does it say about Dan's "handwriting expert" that he didn't see it?
Yep. coverup, as best they could do. They picked the least damning of Dr. Bouffard's comments. He has others...
Occam's Razor is SCREAMING forgery!
As a result, he said, he focused on the signatures. CBS
He made a signature determination from a copy? Has this twerp heard of scanners? Rather's expert is as fraudulent as the documents. Another career scuttled by the noble folks at CBS.
More typeface.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.