Posted on 09/16/2004 1:52:12 PM PDT by Spackidagoosh
Edited on 09/16/2004 2:17:33 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
WASHINGTON - A federal judge has ordered the Pentagon (news - web sites) to find and make public by next week any unreleased files about President Bush (news - web sites)'s Vietnam-era Air National Guard service to resolve a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by The Associated Press.
U.S. District Judge Harold Baer Jr. handed down the order late Wednesday in New York. The AP lawsuit already has led to the disclosure of previously unreleased flight logs from Bush's days piloting F-102A fighters and other jets.
Pentagon officials told Baer they plan to have their search complete by Monday. Baer ordered the Pentagon to hand over the records to the AP by Sept. 24 and provide a written statement by Sept. 29 detailing the search for more records.
"We're hopeful the Department of Defense (news - web sites) will provide a full accounting of the steps it has taken, as the judge ordered, so the public can have some assurance that there are no documents being withheld," said AP lawyer David Schulz.
White House officials have said Bush ordered the Pentagon earlier this year to conduct a thorough search for the president's records, and officials allowed reporters to review everything that was gathered back in February.
Through a series of requests under the federal open records law and a subsequent suit, the AP uncovered the flight logs, which were not part of the records the White House released earlier this year.
Both Bush's and John Kerry (news - web sites)'s service records in Vietnam have become a major issue in the presidential race. New records that have surfaced in recent weeks have raised more questions.
Bush's critics say Bush got preferential treatment as the son of a congressman and U.N. ambassador. Critics also question why Bush skipped a required medical examination in 1972 and failed to show up for drills during a six-month period that year.
Bush has repeatedly said he fulfilled all of his Air National Guard obligations.
The future president joined the Texas Air National Guard in 1968, when he graduated from Yale. He spent more than a year on active duty learning how to fly and then mostly flew in the one-seat F-102A fighters until April 1972.
The pilot logs show a shift to flights in two-seat trainer jets in March 1972, shortly before Bush quit flying. Former Air National Guard officials say that could have been because F-102A jets were not available for Bush to fly or because of other reasons, such as concerns about Bush's flight performance.
Bush skipped his required yearly medical exam in 1972 in the months after he stopped flying in April. Bush has said he moved to Alabama to work on the unsuccessful Senate campaign of a family friend.
Bush never showed up for Guard service between late April and mid-October 1972. He won approval to train with an Alabama Air National Guard unit during September, October and November 1972, but more than a dozen members of the unit at that time say they never saw him there.
The only direct record of Bush appearing at the Alabama unit's base is a January 1973 dental exam performed at that base. Bush's Texas commanders wrote in May 1973 they never saw him between May 1972 and April 1973, a time when his pay records show he trained on 14 days.
Although military regulations allowed commanders to order two years of active duty for guardsmen who missed more than three straight months of drills, that never happened to Bush. Commanders had leeway at the time to allow guardsmen to make up for missed drills.
ok first panic set it. Now I think it is a good thing because Bush signed his 180 and do you see that it is right above Kerry is at odds with Navy. Bush's campaign people are the best and they will handle this I'm sure. And he is a federal judge and I think he can order the Pentagon to produce anything because AP filed lawsuit. But where is Judicial Watch. I think they did too against Kerry but he didn't sign his 180
THE JUDGE JUST IGNORED THAT. He is saying that any paperwork witherge Pres. Bush's name on it must be released, and if that includes going into other personnel files or releasing group orders and other stuff then do it. This is a clear over stepping of authority.
Its yet another example of the clear contempt for the military the dims have.
http://www.courttv.com/archive/legaldocs/misc/baer.html
Yep he's the druggie guy
....Who brought the action that the judge ruled on?.....
The AP story says the AP brought the suit.
The issue is not Laura Bush. The issue is what has been proven by everyone.
Just remember, Kerry can't SIGN a 180, he can only FLIP FLOP 180. :) (Degrees, that is.)
Okay, he was Yale graduate and nominated/appointed by another Yale graduate, the Clintoon.
Baer, Harold Jr.
Born 1933 in New York, NY
Federal Judicial Service:
U. S. District Court, Southern District of New York
Nominated by William J. Clinton on April 26, 1994, to a seat vacated by Robert W. Sweet; Confirmed by the Senate on August 9, 1994, and received commission on August 10, 1994.
agreed, what lawsuit is this in reference too?
If it is a witchhunt then it opens a whole 'nother realm of just who has standing to pursue an action to prevent this.
Although, I have to tell you my gut instinct is that there are wheels within wheels here and I think the dems have fallen into a trap. A huge one because of Kerry's nonrelease and because aces are that the records corroborate Bush.
Just a gut feeling.
This may be what Scott McClelland was alluding to yesterday about potentially finding more documents.
Should we flood drudge with this information? We need to get this information out ASAP. Maybe it can make a difference in the news cycle.
We've got a Class A New York judicial moonbat, on the loose:
Another Baer Mauling in NYC
Infamous District Court Judge Harold Baer has come up with another stinker of a decision:
"NEW YORK (Reuters) - In a victory for a Ku Klux Klan group, a federal judge on Tuesday ruled that a New York state law violates the U.S. Constitution by barring public demonstrators from wearing masks.
In his decision, U.S. District Judge Harold Baer held that the law violates the free speech rights of the Butler, Indiana-based Church of the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. If the judge's decision is upheld, members of the group would be able to hide their identities by wearing hoods and masks at future New York rallies.
The city said it would appeal."
You may recall that in March 1996, Judge Howard Baer, Jr., a Manhattan U.S. District Court jurist and Clinton appointee, set off a storm of criticism when he ruled that 80 pounds of cocaine and heroin found by police in a car could not be used as evidence.
The incident in Washington Heights (a lower middle class, largely Hispanic neighborhood in Northern Manhattan) involved two New York City police officers who observed a woman slowly drive down a street at 5 a.m., double park her car and open her trunk. Four men then emerged from between parked cars and placed two large duffel bags in the trunk. When the men spotted the police officers they ran away from the car and the woman drove off. After following the out-of-state rental car for several blocks, the officers stopped the car, searched the trunk, found the drugs and arrested the woman.
In declaring the drugs inadmissible, Judge Baer said there was no probable cause to search the car because it is not unusual for people to be leery of police in an inner-city neighborhood like Washington Heights.
After the public outcry about this ruling, including criticism from President Clinton and calls for his impeachment by Senator Dole, Baer reversed his decision and removed himself from the case.
In the current case, Judge Baer ruled that an 1840s NY State statute that prohibits two or more persons from "congregating" in public while wearing masks to obscure their identities was unconstitutional. To my way of thinking, preventing anonymous mobs from congregating in our cities is hardly an infringement of political speech. The law did nothing to restrict people's rights of assembly or free expression: it merely required that they show their faces while doing so.
This is just another example of the left shooting themselves in the foot. They get wind that the Pentagon is going to finally release all of the files they have found (which was already called for by the POTUS) so they get a judge to rule a few days before so that they can make it appear they did something. Meanwhile all they will find is documentation that W completed his 50 required days in 73 and was discharged early. Same non-story we already know. They can talk AWOL all they want but you aren't AWOL if you have already been discharged.
Thanks!
Baer, Harold Jr.
Born 1933 in New York, NY
Federal Judicial Service:
U. S. District Court, Southern District of New York
Nominated by William J. Clinton on April 26, 1994, to a seat vacated by Robert W. Sweet; Confirmed by the Senate on August 9, 1994, and received commission on August 10, 1994.
No he cant thats the problem, They, the press is suing for other paperwork outside of Bush's personell file. THats an overreaching of authority.
EXACTLY!!
Everyone please understand this isn't about incriminating evidence being released about G.W., which I don't believe exists.
This Judge may have just ordered a WITCHHUNT into ALL service records of every past and present service member in an attempt to find incriminating information!!!
Does everyone understand how serious this is????
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