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To: Bushruffneck
USA Today
2 posted on 09/20/2004 10:26:44 PM PDT by counterpunch (The CouNTeRPuNcH Collection - www.counterpunch.us)
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To: 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"?
Was the journalistic fraud perpetrated by CBS so deep and corrupt that they actually relied on the sole testimony of a documented crazy person who had already been discredited on kook conspiracy theories involving Bush?
Or is it more reasonable to assume that CBS News would not put their credibility and even their careers on the line unless there was someone like Cleland or Barnes vouching for the documents as well who CBS is now protecting?

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?

Here is some insight into the question:

Rumors about the memos had circulated in the Democratic Party and media circles for weeks; in fact, CBS had used their existence to help persuade Barnes to talk. He told Democratic friends before the "60 Minutes II" broadcast that if documents the network was hunting for were found—and were authentic—"the election is over."

But now we learn that Barnes decided to talk to CBS just a few days before CBS received the documents:

During the Republican National Convention in New York, Rather got a call from Ben Barnes, a onetime Texas lieutenant governor and veteran Democrat who has known the anchor, a former Houston TV reporter, for 30 years. Barnes said he was ready to say before the cameras that he had pulled strings to get Bush a coveted slot in the Texas Guard in 1968. Mapes had long been urging Barnes to tell his story.

On Friday, Sept. 3, the day after the convention ended, Mapes hit pay dirt. She told Howard her source had given her the documents.


This would mean that the Kerry campaign -- which Barnes is co-chair of -- got the documents first, then CBS received them a few days later.
6 posted on 09/20/2004 10:27:32 PM PDT by counterpunch (The CouNTeRPuNcH Collection - www.counterpunch.us)
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To: counterpunch

WOW!! What a poor, sad man.


28 posted on 09/20/2004 10:34:26 PM PDT by starvingstudent (ask your favorite leftist: "If there is another civil war, who do you think will win?")
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To: counterpunch

This story gets more and more strange. I feel like I'm living in a O. Stone movie.


37 posted on 09/20/2004 10:38:19 PM PDT by starvingstudent (ask your favorite leftist: "If there is another civil war, who do you think will win?")
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To: counterpunch
So was Ramirez in the Army National Guard?

A bit of an odd coincidence that the language in the forged documents matches that of the Army National Guard and not the Air National Guard that Bush was in.

And who is it that served in the Army National Guard and would use that lingo?

Bill Burkett.

The same Bill Burkett that provided the "documents" to CBS and others.
56 posted on 09/20/2004 10:45:52 PM PDT by DB (©)
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To: counterpunch
I didn't forge anything, Burkett said. I didn't fake any documents.
The only thing I've done here is to transfer documents from people I thought were real to people I thought were real.

WTF!!!!
Am I reading this right or does this man have imaginary friends also?

And that has been the limitation of my role. I may have been a patsy.
Oswald & Burkett
What a pair of patsies!

94 posted on 09/20/2004 11:03:40 PM PDT by TeleStraightShooter (Sorry Kerry, you're 3 decimal places adrift: 3,000,000 not 3,000 "displaced"/murdered SE Asians)
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To: counterpunch

At one point Thursday, as he spoke on a cellphone to his San Antonio lawyer, David Van Os, Burkett's voice froze in midsentence and his body convulsed in a violent seizure. He was helped to the floor and then to a couch. He has had such bouts sporadically over the past several months, but this one was worse, his wife said.

The next day, Burkett resumed the interview. He lay on the couch with a wet cloth on his forehead.

...snip...

Burkett said he arranged to get the documents during a trip to Houston for a livestock show in March. But instead of being met at the show by Ramirez, he was approached by a man who asked for Burkett, handed him an envelope and quickly left, Burkett recounted.

“I didn't even ask any questions,” Burkett said. “Should I have?

Ummm... yeah... GAME OVER!

144 posted on 09/20/2004 11:49:29 PM PDT by freestyle
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To: counterpunch

Here are some Lucies. I hope she's the one in the lower right corner :)

http://images.google.com/images?q=%22Lucy%20Ramirez%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&sa=N&tab=wi


247 posted on 09/21/2004 9:54:09 AM PDT by ClintonBeGone (Take the first step in the war on terror - defeat John Kerry)
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To: counterpunch
After he received the documents in Houston, Burkett said, he drove home, stopping on the way at a Kinko's shop in Waco to copy the six memos. In the parking lot outside, he said, he burned the ones he had been given and the envelope they were in.

What is it with Democrats... Waco and burning?

271 posted on 09/21/2004 3:34:59 PM PDT by F-117A
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