This is being written as a journal in democraticunderground.com and crossposted on Dailykos and Myleftwing.
I urge readers of this series to obtain a copy of Unfit Commander by Glenn Smith, the only source of Bush's military papers in chronological order. Where internet references are not easily available I will give page numbers of this book for reference.
I also urge readers to become familiar with the report by Lt Col Gerald Lechliter, published in the NY Times, available at:
http://www.nytimes.com/....
Or Google: NY Times Gerald Lechliter. I will be referring to both of these sources in this study.
Many, many Thanks and an Airborne salute to Paul Lukasiak and his AWOL Project:
http://www.glcq.com/
I can be reached at concernedexlrrp@hotmail.com
Journal entry 22
I realize I've given a bunch of information in the past 21 installments and it's a lot to assimilate. I hope that Ive given my Constant Readers a lot to think about--now you realize there's a whole lot more to the CBS /Killian/Bush Papers story than just fonts.
This story is huge and getting huger, yet the media looks the other way entirely. I hope my Constant Readers start to understand by now that all this recent talk about Rather and CBS are more of the scheme from Bush's planted people in the media.
CBS/Rather/forged documents are now accepted history. Conventional media "wisdom" is now that the CBS/Killian papers are false--yet there has been NO official investigation, nor even any media investigation at all, other than the bogus CBS investigation which proved nothing but how far CBS would go to help the federal government hide its duty to resolve this issue. Yet the media pretends this has all been resolved and that the papers are false, without any reference to Bush's service. Mission Accomplished, Bush spinners!! We will be definitely be taking a lengthy look at CBS's, and the rest of the media's, participation in this debacle in future BMHP installments.
Its important to understand the information in the proper order to perceive the true nature of these crimes. That's why the Bush administration scrambled up Bush's papers before releasing them--to hide what is there and to smoke and mirror what isn't there. That's the ONLY believable reason that they would have scrambled Bush's papers and that's no way to treat a record you say you're proud of and want people to understand and respect. Its what you do when you're trying to hide something. Despite this obvious ploy, not one single person in the media questioned why they did it that way. As far as I know I'm the only one who pointed out that it was done to conceal--and what it conceals--but its an important part of this story.
One must first understand that there ARE falsifications, done by Bush's superiors, in Bush's records to understand the part the CBS papers play in them. They're what Killian would have kept to cover all the falsifications he did in Bush's records--falsifications we've covered in BMHP extensively. Once one understands about the falsifcations, one starts to understand the massive, decades-long spin/disinformation done about the true facts of the way his TXANG service ended. And one can start to pick apart their story.
I hope my Constant Readers now understand that the reason there was no official investigation/prosecution of the CBS papers is because ANY official investigation would have disclosed all the faslsifications Bush's superiors did in his paper work to get him an "honorable" discharge. The crimes involved were many and manifold.
Are the CBS/Killian/Bush papers real?? Are they forged?? We don't know for sure officially but we know that the one man who absolutely knows if theyre forged or not--George W Bush-- won't say and has never denied they are real, nor have his aides. Nor have ANY of his former chain of command although if the papers are forged--which they know--they LIBEL Bush and his superiors by creating a false order to take his physical and falsifying Killian's original suspension order. (When I say never denied the papers are real I mean under oath in legal proceedings--Hodges denied they were real in the CBS "investigation" which had no force of law at all)
Instead of taking the legal, due process approach to discrediting these papers, through official investigation, they chose to disprove them only the back door way--through their Blogger's Corps which had obviously been set up in advance with just such highjinks as these in mind. Isn't that suspicious, America? The Bush administration trumped the CBS entirely with their Blogger's Corps attack, not with facts---and CBS and the rest of the media helped them get away with it.
This is the most incomprehensible part of this whole affair--why the media, especially CBS, lay down for Bush, killed the story and then backed off entirely, even though they were holding all the cards. Why didn't CBS demand an official investigation? Why didn't they demand that Bush give a simple yes or no answer to whether he'd been ordered to take his physical? The answer to that one question would have broken this whole case wide open. America needs to know whether their Commander in Chief refused to obey a direct order to take his physical and they needed to know before the election--and as of this writing they STILL don't. One thing for sure: BUSH knows this--so does Rove, Bartlett, McClellan et al. And they've only given the most spun answers to a yes or no question.
Example: (From BMHP #2, a press conference quotation)
"Q: I'm just wondering, even if these were old charges, and even if the President was honorably discharged, did he or did he not defy an order to get that physical?
McClellan: Holly, again, these are the same kind of recycled attacks the Democrats are trying to engage in. The President fullfilled all his obligations and that is why he was honorably discharged from the National Guard in Oct '73. He was given permission to perform equivalent duty in Alabama and he met his obligations and he met his obligations when he returned to Texas. And he met his obligations when he was in Texas prior to going to Alabama...."
Definitely not a Yes or NO answer to a question that should receive a loud and final NO---if that really was the answer. Its ridiculous to think that Bush and his aides don't know whether he was ordered to take the physical or not, and have no resources to find out, yet thats what they want you to think. And the media! Don't you think they should have at least asked what Bush did to earn his pay after he had been stripped of ALL his qualifications--as the discharge plainly shows? And how could he have "met all his obligations before going to Alabama" if the 111th's records, and his pay records, show a 6 month hiatus between the time he quit flying and the time he allegedly showed up in Alabama-. How can you say you're fulfilling all your obligations when the record clearly shows you weren't showing up and weren't getting paid? Yet the Bush Administratiion says it and the media obediently stenographs it, with no further investigation at all.
And once its understood that there ARE significant falsifications in Bush's records--that CAN'T be looked at or Bush and his superiors go down in flames (pun intended)--then we can start to understand the spin and counterspin that's been done around the CBS/Killian/Bush Papers and Bush's military career all its life. Its been his major problem his whole career, although the most hidden one. You can spin off Bush's youthful highjinks, you can spin off his low GPA or the fact that none of his businesses ever produced a profit. But spinning off the fact that he left the TXANG in disgrace with a Kiss of Death discharge--and that his discharge proves it--is the work of a genius: Karl Rove.
Its time to introduce Karl into this story. Rove was Bush's pointman on defense before Bartlett was. Rove and Bartlett know every detail of Bush's service record--anyone foolish enough to claim they don't?
That's why its so ridiculous to believe that some "forger" thought he (or she) could introduce whole new facts into Bush's service record--like the physical order--and that the Bush administration wouldn't know it--or couldn't prove it was false. Bush and his aides know right now whether Bush was ordered to take the physical--yet they pretend they don't--and the media only helps them along with the lie.
We'll be talking about this in the next installment of the Bush Military History Project.