CBS “news” magazine 60 MInutes heeded Terry McAuliffe’s call for help last night.
This morning, Powerline is taking a close look at the memos cited in the show (and by others) that purportedly prove that Bush was AWOL from national guard service. (PDF’s of the memos are available on the CBS site). A Powerline reader:
I was a clerk/typist for the US Navy at the Naval Underwater Systems Center (NUSC) in Newport RI for my summer job in 1971 when I was in college. I note the following with regard to the Killian memos:
1) Tom Mortensen is absolutely correct. Variable type was used only for special printing jobs, like official pamphlets. These documents are forgeries, and not even good ones. Someone could have at least found an old pre-Selectric IBM (introduced around 1962). Actually, I believe we were using IBM Model C’s at the time, which was the precursor to the Selectric.
2) I also used a Variype machine in 1971. I fooled around with it in my spare time. It was incredibly difficult to set up and use. It was also extremely hard to correct mistakes on the machine. Most small letters used two spaces. Capital letters generally used three spaces. I think letters like “i” may have used one space. Anyway, you can see that this type of machine was piloted by an expert, and it would NEVER be used for a routine memo. A Lt. Colonel would not be able to identify a Varitype machine, let alone use it.
3) US Navy paper at the time was not 8 1/2 x 11. It was 8 x 10 1/2. I believe this was the same throughout the military, but someone will have to check on that. This should show up in the Xeroxing, which should have lines running along the sides of the Xerox copy.
4) I am amused by the way “147 th Ftr.Intrcp Gp.” appears in the August 1, 1972 document. It may have been written that way in non-forged documents, but as somone who worked for ComCruDesLant, I know the military liked to bunch things together. I find “147 th” suspicious looking. 147th looks better to me, but the problem with Microsoft Word is that it keeps turning the “th” tiny if it is connected to a number like 147. And finally……
5) MORE DEFINITIVE PROOF OF FORGERY: I had neglected even to look at the August 18, 1973 memo to file. This forger was a fool. This fake document actually does have the tiny “th” in “187th” and there is simply no way this could have occurred in 1973. There are no keys on any typewriter in common use in 1973 which could produce a tiny “th.” The forger got careless after creating the August 1, 1972 document and slipped up big-time.
Now, there’s a story for an enterprising young reporter to pick up – exposing dupes at 60 Minutes. It’s not like Dan Rather is likely to beat you to it.
update – Documents reconstructed at LGF:
I opened Microsoft Word, set the font to Microsoft’s Times New Roman, tabbed over to the default tab stop to enter the date “18 August 1973”, then typed the rest of the document purportedly from the personal records of the late Lieutenant Colonel Jerry B. Killian.
And my Microsoft Word version, typed in 2004, is an exact match for the documents trumpeted by CBS News as “authentic.”
A screenshot of the “original” document as found at CBS:
The memo produced on Microsoft Word;
The two images, superimposed.
Drudge is now reporting the story, citing “internet sources”.
It’s not insignificant that the “memo” was “written” by a deceased witness who cannot be interviewed AND was written “to file” so that no supposed recipient can be interviewed either. There are probably no fingerprints on the paper either.
It’s not insignificant that the “memo” was “written” by a deceased witness who cannot be interviewed AND was written “to file” so that no supposed recipient can be interviewed either. There are also probably no fingerprints on the paper. A clean hit.
Amazing. Kudos to you for going to the trouble of exposing the lie.
This is just too good to be true. And too easy. Did some evil genius do a con job on 60 minutes? Did Dan “The Whistler” Rather just take the fake bait and run with it?
Tune in tomorrow for another exciting chapter of:
Candidate Kerry and his imaginary friend Jenjuss Kahn.
What next, 30-dollar bills with a portrait of Groucho Marx?
Dan Patterson
I personally don’t care what Bush was doing in 1972, I don’t even remember what I was doing in 1972. The point is no one, not Republicans, not Bush, no one, has been attempting to say Bush did anything at all meaningful after he was done flying F-102s in about 1971. They won’t accomplish anything even if he was goofing off, drunk, snorting coke, and generally being irresponsible back then. He doesn’t claim to have been anything but young and irresponsible in those days. He only matured later. So what?
It certainly says a lot about the media that they would be so anxious to lap up crude forgeries on the topic, though.
Absolutely incredible. However, I do not believe that the Mass Media will pick up on this forgery – they are desperate for Kerry to win. It is unfortunate, but at least we live in the times when information like this is available, usable, repeatable, and can be confirmed.
Wow.
Jalut
OK, someone in the Air Force has to help. In the Army, there was no such thing as a “Memo to File.” It was always a “Memorandum For Record” or MFR. What was the Air Force practice?
Wow.
A new low in campaigning has been plumbed, even if it was an “honest” -cough- mistake by 60 minutes, this really discredits the establishment news media. But given it seems to have taken about 35 microseconds to debunk…
If it;s not a mistake, then, well some fairly serious consequences are in order.
The only real question for the paranoid among us is whether this was Karl Rove VRWC black ops boys feeding this to the gullible or if they had enough brains to do such a half-assed job themselves.
The other real question, not the less paranoid, is how fast the media will issue a serious substantive public apology.
Fred
I’m not really surprised that these guys jumped to a conclusion without really examining the evidence at hand. “Dateline” did it with forging the exploding GM truck for their “expose”.
The thing I don’t understand is why. For those who are going to vote for W, this wouldn’t change anything – his alleged misconduct during Vietnam is old news, along with many of his other “youthfull indiscretions”.
Or (turning up the consipacy meter to high), maybe it was written by a W supporter, knowing that it would inflame anti-Kerry passions.
Neither do dead men wear plaid.
The hypothesis that it came from Karl Rove speaks more for the writer.
My hypothesis suggests that the provenence of the memo may trace to a storage with other boxes stenciled “Rose Law Firm”… (prepare for ’08)
It does look like a forgery just waiting to be discovered. Or something done by someone on a lark, who never dreamed it would travel so far. College kids?
OTOH, there are some theories that make some sense. Instapundit has been tracking some of that.
The superimposition might be more meaningful to the eye in two colors.