The Command Post - 2004 US Presidential Election - Transcript of Dan Rather / CBS Monday Eve. News Response On Memos

September 14, 2004

Bush | Transcript of Dan Rather / CBS Monday Eve. News Response On Memos

From Ratherbiased, who has asked that we (and others) mirror the transcript of CBS Evening News’ Monday night response to the memo controversy:

DAN RATHER: Coming up on the “CBS evening news,” more on the controversy the president’s national guard record. It’s tonight’s “inside story.” [commercial break]
Besides checking on John Kerry’s service record, CBS has been checking president Bush’s service in the national guard, including whether or not he did or did not fulfill his commitment. We’re gathering information, asking questions and probing. CBS is also addressing questions about documents used to corroborate some of the information in our reporting. Documents used to corroborate some of the information in our reporting. Some of these questions come from people who are not active political partisans. It is tonight’s inside story. At a democratic national press conference today, some of the shots fired at military men were aimed at president Bush’s national guard service.
But official records showed he skipped a physical and was grounded. Do you know how hard it is to get your annual physical? I took 37 of them in a row.
RATHER: There has also been criticism of the new documents obtained by CBS. But CBS used several techniques to make sure these papers should be taken seriously. Talking to handwriting and document analysts and other experts who strongly insist that the documents could have be created in the 70s.
Everything in those documents that people are saying can’t be done, as you said, 32 years ago, is totally false. Not true. Like I said, proportional spacing was available, superscripts was available as a custom feature. Proportional spacing between lines was available. You could order it any way you like.
RATHER: Richard Katz, a software designer found other indications in the documents. He noticed the lower case l is used in documents instead of the actual numeral one. That would be difficult to reproduce on the computer today.
If you were doing this a week ago or a month ago on a normal laser jet printer, it wouldn’t work. The font wouldn’t be available to you.
RATHER: Katz noted the documents have the superscript “th” and a regular-sized “th”. That would be common on a typewriter, not a computer.
RICHARD KATZ: There is one document from may of 1972 which contains a normal “th” at the top. To produce that in Microsoft word, you would have to go out of your way to type the letters and then turn the th setting off or back over them and type them again.
RATHER: CBS news relied on an analysis of the contents of the documents themselves to determine the contents authenticity. It is in line with is known about the service and dates.
For instance, the official record shows that Mr. Bush was suspended from flying on august 1, 1972. That date matches the one on a memo given to CBS news, ordering that Mr. Bush he be suspended. Shortly after “60 minutes” broadcast the new documents last week, “usa today” obtained another new document. In the memo dated February 2, 1972, Colonel Killian asked to be “updated as soon as possible on flight certifications, specifically Bush.” That appears to be in line with newly released white house documents that indicate changes in Mr. Bush’s flight certification in early 1972. An analysis shows that instead of exclusively flying the f-102 he’d been certified in, the president began additional training in a lower level plane and flight simulators.
CBS news asked the White House today to answer a number of wuestions: Did a friend of the Bush family use his influence with the Texas house speaker to get George W. Bush into the National Guard? Did Lieutenant Bush refuse an order to take a required physical? Was he suspended for failing to perform up to standards? And did he, in fact, complete his commitment to the guard?
In reply, a White House spokesman told CBS’s John Roberts: “As you know, we have repeatedly addressed these issues, including during the interview you conducted on behalf of Mr. Rather last Wednesday.” The White House and the Bush-Cheney campaign always point out President Bush received an honorable discharge.
What is in the “60 Minutes” report CBS news believes to be true and believes to be authentic. Straight ahead on the “CBS Evening news,” they’re supposed to inspect your bags, not steal from them. He got caught red handed.

Posted by Alan at September 14, 2004 02:18 AM | TrackBack

Comments

oh for pity’s sake

This is why secretaries and clerks run the show. What in God’s Green Heaven are Blather and Katz talking about in how “difficult” it is to get by MSWord’s superscripting? All one does is type the phrase with a SPACE between the last number and the “t”…type another word or two, then go back and remove the space. Voila.

Course, somepeople just get lazy and forget. Then you get the situation where you have a regular th and a superscripted th in the same document.

Funny how it was actually MORE difficult to do a true superscript th on a typewriter… cuz you had to stop and turn the roller one click down, type the th, then one click back up to the type line. Sure, some typewriters had a special “th” key, but it was just a smaller th slightly above the bottom line…but such a small th NEVER WENT ABOVE THE TOP OF THE LETTER NEXT TO IT if you didn’t move the roller. That’s why the supposed “aha” moment when CBS produced a known authentic document with a small th they just happened to fail to note it didn’t rise above the preceeding text.

The memos are fake.

Posted by: Darleen at September 14, 2004 02:35 AM

Why is it difficult to use a lowercase l instead of a 1?

Forescore and 11 years ago…
Forescore and ll years ago…

Oh man, I just broke a sweat using the lowercase l’s. I guess they’re right after all.

Posted by: John Davies at September 14, 2004 02:53 AM

Yes, it’s really difficult to write

III th

Rather than

111th

Posted by: aebrain at September 14, 2004 06:12 AM

This has gone on long enough. With so many people coming out now years later with fragments of actual events, I cannot hold back on the truth any longer. Lt Bush was on a secret mission in 1972. In a now apparently clumsy attempt to cover this, some false documentation was inserted into military records to cover the faint possibility that there might be a future investigation into this period of his life.

Lt Bush was taken off the F-105 to fly some special missions on a new version of the F-4. I cannot give details about the particular aircraft because it remains classified, but, everyone knows the airframe existed at the time and therefore it is not at all impossible that he could have flown one. Let’s call this a “superscript” version of the original aircraft.

TexANG never had F-4’s at that time, well, none that were known, but that was part of the clever subterfuge. Senior officers who had connections to Bush snr thought it might be good cover to insinuate they were doing something as common as sweet talking for Lt Bush. Since this was likely to be quickly grabbed by anyone doing later investigations, it was considered an excellent cover for the more nefarious secret mission in which the young lieutenant was engaged.

His log showed he was flying trainers, but there is also documentation purporting to state he spent some time in simulators. Some of the trainer entries are correct, merely to lead the curious away from the secret part of the mission. But the simulator was certainly not a standard one, nor were some of the flights allegedly attributed to training aircraft.

Perhaps some of you could Google “F-4.5”. You might find some surprising information. I put it to you that the words “canon” and “lens” are not coincidental by any means, and are just more proof of the elaborate cover that went into this operation.

Security constraints prevent me from saying for the record that this mission was over Cambodia, but I will say that anyone checking the information available will notice that Lt Bush was missing from his regular unit over the Christmas of 1972. There is no documentation to substantiate his whereabouts, and that in itself is proof positive that he was involved in these secret activities.

Then Lt, now Pres, Bush has maintained his required classified silence over this matter for more than three decades. It is a tribute to his tenacity that he continues to do this, but those of us in the know refuse to remain silent any longer.

I cannot in all good conscience sit by and not talk about the scars on his body which no one has seen. The scars that attest to wounds in action that only he can verify, and for which he steadfastly refused to claim token recognition. It was rumored at the time that he said “Why do I need medals that in a pique of political frenzy any fool could throw away?”

Perhaps the whole truth will never be known, but as more and more of us speak out, the spidered web of military subterfuge, mixed with shadowy covert operations and now, even political intrigue, becomes more and more apparent.

Posted by: SevenT at September 14, 2004 06:34 AM

I got it! I got it!

Rahter just took the little l and replaced it with a big L on his forehead…

Posted by: Cap'n DOC at September 14, 2004 07:49 AM

Uhhhh. That should be Rather for Rahter. My fingers are Rather dyslexic.

Posted by: Cap'n DOC at September 14, 2004 07:53 AM

111
l l l

Posted by: Dan Kauffman at September 14, 2004 08:10 AM

John

Funny thing is, the very old tank of a manual Royal typewriter my dad hauled home when I was a kid didn’t have a “one” key, you just used the lower case “L”.

Seven T

LOL

Posted by: Darleen at September 14, 2004 09:24 AM

LOL Cap’n,

I caught that reference. Very good!

Posted by: TexasGal at September 14, 2004 10:43 AM

“CBS news relied on an analysis of the contents of the documents themselves to determine the contents authenticity. … For instance, the official record shows that Mr. Bush was suspended from flying on august 1, 1972. That date matches the one on a memo given to CBS news, ordering that Mr. Bush he be suspended.”

Is he actually saying that they believed it as long as the dates matched? Is he really this dumb or does he just think we’re dumb enough to buy it? This makes absolutely no sense in terms of verifying authenticity.

Posted by: submandave at September 14, 2004 12:07 PM

Killian’s secreatry didn’t type the memos, says they’re fake, and that the typewriters they had could not have produced them

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/091504dnpolnatguard.1185eb4ae.html

Posted by: Gabriel Hanna at September 14, 2004 06:41 PM