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["Wendy" <crazygardens AT nationi.net>]

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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