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Burkett’s story fractures — source undergoes sex change
National Politics Comments (3)
The NY Sun has an interesting story on Bill Burkett suing CBS. Everyone is centering on that, and it seems that no one has noted that Burkett’s unfindable source has magically changed genders.
From the NY Sun story:
Mr. Burkett told the caller, whom Mr. Van Os identified only as “a Texas man with Air National Guard experience,” that he would not go to Houston for that but would be in the city March 4 for the Simmental cattle show, said Mr. Van Os.
At the show, a man approached the booth manned by Mr. Burkett and gave him a manila envelope with the now-controversial documents in it. (emphasis added)
Compare that to today’s USA Today story:
Burkett now maintains that the source of the papers was Lucy Ramirez, who he says phoned him from Houston in March to offer the documents. USA TODAY has been unable to locate Ramirez.
[. . .]
Sitting in a rocking chair in his weathered ranch house south of Baird, Texas, Burkett recounted his continuing efforts — beginning before he was discharged from the Texas Army National Guard in 1998 — to clean up what he saw as Guard corruption and mismanagement. He said that activity led to a telephone call in March from Ramirez and her offer to provide documents damaging to President Bush.
Burkett said Ramirez told him she had seen him the previous month in an appearance on the MSNBC program Hardball, discussing the controversy over whether Bush fulfilled all his obligations for service in the Texas Air Guard during the early 1970s. “There is something I have that I want to make sure gets out,” he quoted her as saying.
He said Ramirez claimed to possess Killian’s “correspondence file,” which would prove Burkett’s allegations that Bush had problems as a Guard fighter pilot.
Burkett said he arranged to get the documents during a trip to Houston for a livestock show in March. But instead of being met at the show by Ramirez, he was approached by a man who asked for Burkett, handed him an envelope and quickly left, Burkett recounted.
MickC @ September 21, 2004
Subject: “CYA”
Who is Lucy Ramirez? In earlier conversations with USA TODAY, Burkett had identified the source of the documents as George Conn, a former Texas National Guard colleague who works for the U.S. Army in Europe. Burkett now says he…
RatherGate!!! Below is a NewsMax.com article that says CBS steered the forged document source to the Kerry Campaign!!!
( http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/9/20/225421.shtml )
With Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff
For the story behind the story…
Monday, Sept. 20, 2004 10:52 p.m. EDT
CBS Steered Forged Doc Source to Kerry Campaign
In what may be the most damaging revelation yet in the Rathergate document scandal, CBS News is admitting that it steered the source of forged military records damaging to President Bush to the Kerry campaign.
In exchange for the meeting with Kerry communications director Joe Lockhart, that source – former National Guard Commander Bill Burkett – agreed to give CBS copies of the Bush records.
USA Today is set to report in Tuesday editions:
“Lockhart, the former press secretary to President Clinton, said a female producer talked to him about the “60 Minutes” program a few days before it aired on Sept. 8. She gave Lockhart a telephone number and asked him to call Bill Burkett.”
“At Burkett’s request, we gave his [telephone] number to the campaign,” Betsy West, senior CBS News vice president, confessed to USA Today.
Late Monday, CBS said it was investigating the role of “60 Minutes” star producer Mary Mapes in setting up the contact between Burkett and Lockhart.
“The network’s effort to place Burkett in contact with a top Democratic official raises ethical questions about CBS’s handling of material potentially damaging to the Republican president in the midst of an election,” the paper said.
Aly Colón, a news ethicist at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, said the collusion between CBS and the Kerry campaign to damage President Bush “poses a real danger to the potential credibility of a news organization.”
The White House reacted sharply to the Lockhart development, with Communications Director Dan Bartlett complaining, “The fact that CBS News would coordinate with the most senior levels of Senator Kerry’s campaign to attack the president is a stunning and deeply troubling revelation.”
RatherGate!!! Below is a NewsMax.com article that says the Kerry Campaign knew about the forged documents Sixty Minutes BEFORE the Sixty Minutes broadcast!!!
( http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/9/21/123950.shtml )
With Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff
For the story behind the story…
Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2004 12:17 a.m. EDT
Kerry Campaign Touted Forged Doc Info in April
The Kerry campaign made an explicit reference to information in at least one of four forged military documents broadcast 14 days ago by CBS’s “60 Minutes” – in a detailed campaign press release attacking President Bush’s National Guard service dated months before the Sept. 8 “60 Minutes” broadcast.
Appearing in Kerry campaign literature on April 27, 2004, under the headline “Key Unanswered Questions on Bush’s Record in National Guard” was the reference to “verbal orders” to recommend Bush’s suspension from flying because he missed a physical – issued by Bush’s commander, Lt. Col. Jerry Killian on Aug. 1, 1972.
One of the forged Killian memos broadcast by CBS is also dated Aug. 1, 1972, and chronicles Killian’s “verbal orders” to suspend Bush:
“I conveyed my verbal orders to commander, 147th [Fighter Interceptor Group] with request for orders for suspension and covening a flight review board IAW AFM 35-13.” [END OF FORGED KILLIAN MEMO EXCERPT]
The April 27 Kerry campaign press release cites Killian’s “verbal orders” for suspension as a “Fact”:
“FACT: The order suspending Bush from flight duty stated: ‘Verbal orders of the Comdr on 1 Aug 72 suspending 1STLT George W. Bush from flying status are confirmed Reason for Suspension: Failure to accomplish annual medical examination. Off will comply with para 2-10, AFM 35-13. Authority: Para 2-29m, AFM 35-13. (Aeronautical Orders, Number 87, 29 September 1972)’” [END OF KERRY RELEASE EXCERPT]
In the next paragraph, the Kerry campaign cited a provision in the Air Force Manual that served as a guideline for Killian’s decision to suspend Bush:
“AFM 35-13: … After reviewing the findings of the investigation, the local commander may convene a Flying Evaluation Board or forward through command channels a detailed report of the circumstances which resulted in the officer’s failure to accomplish a medical examination.” [END OF KERRY RELEASE EXCERPT]
The forged Aug. 1, 1972, memo alludes to the same Air Force Manual provision, with Killian saying he’s considering “covening a flight review board IAW AFM 35-13″ to handle Bush’s case.
Though the information contained in the April campaign release mirrors that in forged memos broadcast by CBS in September, the similarities may be a coincidence.
In a February 2004 document dump, the White House released a batch of President Bush’s National Guard records, which included material cited in the Kerry press release.
In a February 12 story headlined “Bush’s Loss of Flying Status Should Have Spurred Probe,” the Boston Globe covered some of the same material. The Kerry release, however, cited not the Globe report as its source but “Aeronautical Orders” apparently included in the White House document dump.
The April 27 press release does show, however, that the topic of Bush’s flight suspension by Killian was very much on the Kerry campaign’s radar screen at least four months before CBS broadcast forged military records to further document the story.