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Wednesday, September 15, 2004
WaPo story points to Burkett as CBS News' source
That this Michael Dobbs article will be tucked away back on page A6 of tomorrow's WaPo is a huge professional courtesy from WaPo's editors to CBS News, but the contents are pretty significant — "CBS Guard Documents Traced to Tex. Kinko's":
Documents allegedly written by a deceased officer that raised questions about President Bush's service with the Texas Air National Guard bore markings showing they had been faxed to CBS News from a Kinko's copy shop in Abilene, Tex., according to another former Guard officer who was shown the records by the network.
The markings provide one piece of evidence suggesting a source for the documents, whose authenticity has been hotly disputed since CBS aired them in a "60 Minutes" broadcast Sept. 8. The network has declined to name the person who provided them, saying the source was confidential, or to explain how the documents came to light after more than three decades.
There is only one Kinko's in Abilene, and it is 21 miles from the Baird, Tex., home of retired Texas National Guard officer Bill Burkett, who has been named by several news outlets as a possible source for the documents.
Robert Strong, who was one of three people interviewed by "60 minutes," said he was shown copies of the documents by CBS anchor Dan Rather and producer Mary Mapes on Sept. 5, three days before the broadcast. He said at least one of the documents bore a faxed header indicating it had been sent from a Kinko's in Abilene....
Asked what role Burkett may have played in CBS's reporting of the report, [CBS News President] Heyward said: "I'm not going to get into any discussion of who the sources are."
How ironic that Mr. Strong, one of CBS News' original "sources," plus two of its original experts, Ms. Will and Ms. James, are helping explode CBS News' stonewall on its own shoddy conduct.
Update (Wed Sep 15 @ 10:33pm): You can get a fair amount of information about Mr. Burkett — his background, his credibility, the axes he has to grind — from Dobb's article, but NRO's Jim Geraghty has more, including his connections with TV correspondent/author Jim Moore (whom CBS featured in its first lame defense last Friday night).
Posted by Beldar at 09:57 PM in Mainstream Media, Politics (2006 & earlier) | Permalink
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Comments
(1) Dan made the following comment | Sep 15, 2004 10:13:56 PM | Permalink
Wouldn't this be a line of investigation - there were forged docs as well as actual docs in the infamous package, yes? Therefore, the forger either had to get the real docs from 1) Freedom of Information Act filing, or 2) a co-conspirator with access. If these were gotten (the real docs) through the FIA, that would explain no originals for them. If any "originals" of legitimate docs turn up, they would have had to have been lifted right from the Guard office some years, ago. Just thinking outloud.
(4) MaDr made the following comment | Sep 15, 2004 11:30:31 PM | Permalink
It wouldn't surprise me to find out that Burkett's discredited fingerprints were all over this, but that's the problem. I've even heard "liberal" journalists and commentators refer to him as discredited. How could this be CBS's "unimpeachable source"? I guess it's possible that this source was actually someone else who sweet talked Burkett out of the documents, then drove to the nearest Kinko's.
OK, CBS can't be this stupid. The source is someone else. The source ran the documents by Burkett to make sure it fit with what he knew. If we had a timeline on this, like when were the docs faxed, we might begin to understand why the source faxed rather than couriered the docs. When were they faxed? When did each of the experts receive their copies to examine? Was this a last minute rush job? Couldn't they wait or they had to meet their coordinated Guard Week ?
(5) recon made the following comment | Sep 15, 2004 11:32:42 PM | Permalink
Geraghty reports:
BILL BURKETT USES ABILENE KINKOS [09/15 10:50 PM]
The Blogosphere has resources like nobody else.
Blogger and radio talk show host Kevin McCullough:
JUST GOT OFF THE PHONE WITH ABILENE KINKOS: Bill Burkett has a standing account with the Kinkos in Abilene Texas, and while the lady who answered the phone would not be more specific she did say Burkett was in there last week - she waited on him on last (a week ago) Tuesday....
ALSO:
WANT ANOTHER REASON TO SUSPECT BURKETT? [09/15 11:25 PM]
Marion Carr Knox, the secretary to Col. Jerry Killian, President Bush's National Guard commander, this evening, during her interview with Dan Rather:
"And there are words in there that belong in the Army, not to the Air Guard. We never used those terms."
From the Veterans for Peace web site:
Lt. Col. Bill Burkett completed 28 years of decorated service and was medically retired from the US Army National Guard in 1998.
(6) Beldar made the following comment | Sep 16, 2004 1:07:37 AM | Permalink
Thanks, Roundguy fixed the link.
(7) MD made the following comment | Sep 16, 2004 7:33:26 AM | Permalink
Beldar, is there a federal statute making it a crime to forge a govt/military document? If there is, who is the US Attorney in Abilene, Texas? Is a grand jury investigation in order? As I recall, federal grand juries have nationwide subpoena power, meaning it could subpoena witnesses and documents from New York. Any prosecutors out there who can help on this?
(8) J_Crater made the following comment | Sep 16, 2004 9:44:07 AM | Permalink
Seems like we now have all the elements of wire fraud, a federal crime.
(9) Anarchus made the following comment | Sep 16, 2004 9:46:08 AM | Permalink
Sure looks like wire fraud to me.
Best part is, a schmuck like Burkett probably thinks that he removed the files from his computer when he them.
(10) Corky Boyd made the following comment | Sep 18, 2004 4:25:07 PM | Permalink
Does anyone know if the Kinkos fax of the CBS doc has a date/time tag? I'm trying to reconstruct a time line. Burkett says on 8/25 that "we reassembled" files. CBS said they got the documents on 9/5. Tryingto fill gaps.
Corky Boyd
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