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  • From: "Wendy" <crazygardens AT nationi.net>
  • To: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] CBS recant ... NOT!
  • Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2004 15:55:52 -0400

Sorry Drew, CBS does NOT recant the documents. Here's what is currently
posted on the CBS web site now.



Bush Documents Debate Rages On

NEW YORK, Sept. 11, 2004


(CBS/AP) Controversy about the authenticity of memos obtained by CBS News's
"60 Minutes" continued to be an unusual campaign issue, one focused on Texas
National Guard personnel and the mechanics of early 1970s typewriters.

The memos seem to show President Bush's National Guard commander believed Mr.
Bush at times shirked his duties and used his political influence.

The network is adamantly defending the authenticity of the memos, saying
experts who examined the memos concluded they were authentic documents
produced by Mr. Bush's former commander, Lt. Col. Jerry Killian. CBS News
added that contemporary colleagues of Killian also believed the memos were
genuine.

On Saturday, there were reports that retired National Guard Maj. Gen. Bobby
W. Hodges - who corroborated the CBS News account - now says he believes the
documents were not real, in part because of recent statements of Jerry
Killian's relatives.

CBS News responded, saying, "We believed General Hodges the first time we
spoke with him. We believe the documents to be genuine. We stand by our story
and will continue to report on it."

Casting further doubt on the memos, The Dallas Morning News said in a report
for its Saturday editions that the officer named in a memo as exerting
pressure to "sugar coat" Bush's record had left the Texas Air National Guard
18 months before the memo was dated.

The newspaper said it obtained an order showing that Walter B. Staudt, former
commander of the Texas Guard, retired on March 1, 1972. The memo was dated
Aug. 18, 1973. A telephone call to Staudt's home Friday night was not
answered. Other obersevrs noted that Staudt could have remained active and
influential in National Guard affairs after his formal retirement.

Saturday's edition of the Boston Globe reports that one document expert,
Phillip Broussard, who had expressed suspicions about the documents, said "he
now believes the documents could have been prepared on an IBM Selectric
Composer typewriter available at the time."

Anchor Russ Mitchell of the Saturday edition of the CBS Evening News says CBS
News contacted Broussard Saturday, and Broussard said he could not dismiss
the documents as fake, but he needs to do more analysis before coming to a
final conclusion.

In a report on Friday night's "CBS News Evening News," Dan Rather noted that
many of those raising questions about the documents have focused on something
called superscript, a key that automatically types a raised "th."

Critics claim typewriters didn't have that ability in the 1970s. But some
models did, Rather reported. In fact, other Bush military records already
released by the White House itself show the same superscript - including one
from as far back as 1968.

Some analysts outside CBS News say they believe the typeface on these memos
is New Times Roman, which they claim was not available in the 1970s.

But the owner of the company that distributes this typing style told CBS News
that it has been available since 1931.

In a statement Friday, CBS News said it stands by its overall story.

"This report was not based solely on recovered documents, but rather on a
preponderance of evidence, including documents that were provided by
unimpeachable sources, interviews with former Texas National Guard officials
and individuals who worked closely back in the early 1970s with Colonel Jerry
Killian and were well acquainted with his procedures, his character and his
thinking," the statement read.

"In addition, the documents are backed up not only by independent handwriting
and forensic document experts but by sources familiar with their content,"
the statement continued. "Contrary to some rumors, no internal investigation
is underway at CBS News nor is one planned."

Document and handwriting examiner Marcel Matley analyzed the documents for
CBS News. He says he believes they are real. And he is concerned about
exactly what is being examined by some of the people questioning the
documents, because deterioration occurs each time a document is reproduced.
And the documents being analyzed outside of CBS News have been photocopied,
faxed, scanned and downloaded, and are far removed from the documents CBS
News started with.

Matley did an interview with "60 Minutes" prior to Wednesday's broadcast. He
looked at the documents and the signatures of Col. Killian, comparing known
documents with the colonel's signature on the newly discovered ones.

"We look basically at what's called significant or insignificant features to
determine whether it's the same person or not," Matley said. "I have no
problem identifying them. I would say based on our available handwriting
evidence, yes, this is the same person."

Matley finds the signatures to be some of the most compelling evidence.

Reached Friday by satellite, Matley said, "Since it is represented that some
of them are definitely his, then we can conclude they are his signatures."

Matley said he's not surprised that questions about the documents have come
up.

"I knew going in that this was dynamite one way or the other. And I knew that
potentially it could do far more potential damage to me professionally than
benefit me," he said. "But we seek the truth. That's what we do. You're
supposed to put yourself out, to seek the truth and take what comes from it."

Robert Strong was an administrative officer for the Texas Air National Guard
during the Vietnam years. He knew Jerry Killian, the man credited with
writing the documents. And paper work, like these documents, was Strong's
specialty. He is standing by his judgment that the documents are real.

"They are compatible with the way business was done at that time," Strong
said. "They are compatible with the man I remember Jerry Killian being. I
don't see anything in the documents that's discordant with what were the
times, the situation or the people involved."

Killian died in 1984.

Strong says the highly charged political atmosphere of the National Guard at
the time was perfectly represented in the new documents.

"It verged on outright corruption in terms of the favors that were done, the
power that was traded. And it was unconscionable from a moral and ethical
standpoint. It was unconscionable," Strong said.

The president's service record emerged as an issue during the 2000 race and
again this winter. The Killian documents revived the issue of Mr. Bush's time
in uniform after weeks in which Democratic challenger John Kerry, a decorated
Vietnam combat veteran, has faced questions over his record as a Navy officer
and an anti-war protester.

The questions about Mr. Bush's service center on how Mr. Bush got into the
Guard and whether he fulfilled his duties during a period from mid-1972 to
mid-1973.

What the Killian memos purport to show is that Mr. Bush defied a direct order
to appear for a physical exam, that his performance as an officer was lacking
in other ways and that Mr. Bush used family connections to try to quash any
inquiry into his lapses.

In a separate development, the Boston Globe this week reported that Mr. Bush
promised to sign up with a Boston-area unit when he left his Texas unit in
1973 to attend Harvard Business School. Mr. Bush never signed up with a
Boston unit.


©MMIV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press
contributed to this report.



Wendy

----- Original Message -----
From: DSanner106 AT aol.com
To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Sunday, September 12, 2004 8:50 AM
Subject: Re: [Homestead] CBS recant


In a message dated 9/11/2004 8:53:45 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
lurine AT softcom.net writes:
Well, as a typist from way back and still owning many old typewriters, I can
tell you that the supposed "expert" who says the documents "may" be faked is
full of poop!
Sorry Lurine, but the CBS expert they quoted in the story, now says CBS
mislead him and he too, now believes the papers to be forgeries. Turns out
the
officer who wrote the memos the story is based on, retired 18 months prior
to the
dates on the letters. Could not possibly be actual documents in other
words.
So the question is, did this guy decide to fake these documents himself and
do
this, did someone at CBS mastermind the forgeries and hire this guy, or did
another person or party do this. Also, the "expert who says the documents
may be
faked" is the drudgereport investigator, normally very anti-Bush. Not prone
to make stuff up to cover for the government.\\

Drew
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