Casting Further Doubt
Document Analysts: CBS News Ignored Concerns About Disputed Bush Military Records
Sept. 14, 2004— Two of the document experts hired by CBS News say the network ignored concerns they raised prior to the broadcast of a report citing documents that questioned George W. Bush's service in the National Guard during the Vietnam War.
The authenticity of the documents in the report by CBS News' 60 Minutes II has been widely questioned. The documents were allegedly written by Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, who died in 1984.
Emily Will, a veteran document examiner from North Carolina, told ABC News she saw problems right away with the one document CBS hired her to check the weekend before the broadcast.
"I found five significant differences in the questioned handwriting, and I found problems with the printing itself as to whether it could have been produced by a typewriter," she said.
Will says she sent the CBS producer an e-mail message about her concerns and strongly urged the network the night before the broadcast not to use the documents.
"I told them that all the questions I was asking them on Tuesday night, they were going to be asked by hundreds of other document examiners on Thursday if they ran that story," Will said.
But the documents became a key part of the 60 Minutes II broadcast questioning President Bush's National Guard service in 1972. CBS made no mention that any expert disputed the authenticity.
"I did not feel that they wanted to investigate it very deeply," Will told ABC News.
Full Story @ ABCNEWS.com
Posted by Muddy at September 15, 2004 10:07 PM | TrackBackwhy doesnt any media company release teh documents to the public? its not that difficult to tell and i have not seen them published anywhere. so far, this is only one "expert" analysis of the document. how many experts did cbs hire? how do we know she is only one of 5 experts cbs hired, and she was the only one that questioned the authenticity?
besides all of that, it still doesnt take away from the fact bush pretty much didnt show up the last year or so for his duty. it always amazes me how everytime something comes out about bush [though this has been out, but mostly on internet and talk radio]. everytime there Really begins to have info leaked on bush, something comes up to divert attention from the main accusation. this turned from bush not being there, to now it being about a document that really proves or adds nothing to fact he was AWOL.
Posted by: mooseboy84 at September 16, 2004 02:24 AMIf he were AWOL he would not have recieved an *honorable* discharge....but then again, I guess his family bought that for him didn't they
Posted by: mrs. muddy at September 16, 2004 08:04 AMActually mooseboy, accoording to his record, he didn't show up for his last year because he'd already aquired the minimum (actually it was mor elike twice the minimum) amount of points he needed to get out, so he requested an early discharge when he went to grad school. Originally he had planned to join a Massechusetts unit, but was soon after granted his discharge. Being that I'm all to familiar with the reserve components, I'll tell you that this is not unusual, I just had 2 guys in my unit do it.
We had three guys, 2 of which had spent alot of time activated, they were moving due to new jobs, both submitted requests for early discharge, while they waited, they began procedures to change units. By the time they were checking out of our unit, they were granted discharges. A third guy actually did this also, but he had not acquired enough points to be discharged so he simply changed units.
This was even more common place in the reserves and national guard at the time, especially the air national guard. You see, Vietnam was winding down. Troops were coming home to stay. There was a huge surge of active-duty pilots. They did not need ANG pilots. Plus, flying is an inherently dangerous thing. Bush had already voluntarily removed himself from flight status as many pilots were doing (all it takes is skipping your flight physical...which is what he did and what that business is all about, i had a crew chief in my unit do this.) Not to mention that if you are a pilot, in order to stay on flight status, you generally have toc ome in more than once a month. More like 10 times a month. IOW, he was there constantly having to fly, so going off flight orders means just coming in and fulfilling whatever his billet was (pilots act as supply officers, logistics, and whatever else as there secondary job.) that's why in his first 3 years he aquired almost 400 points year, whent he minimum was 50, the last 2 years he aquired 50-60 points and the 6th year he was discharged. That means in his first year he aquired all the points he needed to fulfill his contractual obligation. Wow. Sounds AWOL to me too.
BTW, the experts CBS interviewed for the handwriting, we now know were xpert sin handwriting representation of sexual prowess. Just thought I'd mention that.
Look, I can tell you that military documents haven't changed much in 40 years. There is no way in hell that those are military documents.
Guys, get over it, Kerry ran away and came back to pull Rasmussen out of the watter, 2 of his purple hearts were self-inflicted, at least one while not under enemy fire, his silver star was for shooting a fleeing viet cong. Bush was not AWOL, he didn't go to Vietnam, he signed up for Palace Guard but was not selected (Palace Guard was a program to send national guardsmen to Vietnam for one tour.) Kerry saved a guy's life, Bush wasn't in Vietnam. Kerry admitted to comitting war crimes, Bush enver had a chance to commit any. Get over it.
Posted by: skywalker at September 16, 2004 11:41 AMhttp://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040916/pl_nm/campaign_cbs_dc_4
Posted by: mooseboy84 at September 16, 2004 05:22 PMSo, CBS is insisting that even though their evidence is blatantly and obviously fake, the story is true? Geez. That's sad.
Posted by: skywalker at September 18, 2004 02:32 PM"So, CBS is insisting that even though their evidence is blatantly and obviously fake, the story is true?"
Yes, but have no fear. The moment that CBS feels their "evidence" has been proven false....they'll be the first to break the story.