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I was very curious to see this movie---I followed this story for years here on Dkos, did dozens of diaries on it. (search: Bush Military History Project. Tag: rathergate) I came onto it when they released Bush' papers Feb 14, 2004 and I wondered how he got such a chickenshit discharge. (I'm an ex-GI). When Fleischer walked into the press room on a Friday afternoon and dumped them on the table, then walked out without taking questions, I knew they were hiding something---that's what they did when they wanted to hide something, well duh.
I was curious to find out what they were hiding so I printed out all of Bush's papers, then put them in proper order. then I could see the crimes in it. That's why they messed up Bush's papers before releasing them and why the Bush White House released the papers instead of the Pentagon, as would be normal. The military would never have released them in a jumbled up mess nd that's not how they were kept, either.
This is a very long and complicated story that's been confused by experts for years so it takes a while to explain. I've done dozens of diaries on this, to which I will refer you. All of the links are dead now in these diaries but I have every document and can provide pertinent ones. You can find the crimes of Bush and the TXANG explained in much more detail here and here You can find my debunking of the forgery allegations here. (EVERY claim I could research was phony!!) I give a comprehensive timeline of his paper trail showing how the CBS document mesh here. I explain the CBS Dog and Pony Show here. There's plenty more
I talked on the phone to Mary Mapes, she got onto me through these diaries.
What the movie Truth reveals is that they(Mapes, Rather, et al) never understood the amount and depth of the crimes the CBS documents revealed and still don't. They thought they were merely embarrassing Bush but the truth was that Bush's military documents revealed an extensive series of crimes and coverups that would have put Bush and his corrupt superiors in jail and if real the CBS documents are absolute evidence of a conspiracy to defraud the government. ("Staudt has obviously pressured Hodges about Bush... is pushng to sugarcoat....I will not rate...Bush was not here")
Everybody was made to think that the ruckus was all about missing a few meetings, about merely being AWOL a few times. But it was way more than that. George W Bush was suspended from flying for failure to take his physical---but he was paid as a pilot to be a pilot until his discharge, 14 months (55 paid days) later. I could take you on a long and involved explanation on how to read his Pay records but its easier to prove than that: during this time he is ONLY listed as a pilot "on fly" in all of his records so that's what he was getting paid to do, no doubt about it. He is listed as that only throughout his records..
And he wasn't showing up! George W Bush was getting paid to be a pilot, when he wasn't showing up, wasn't even on the rolls of the only 2 units he could have been in.
George Bush is credited for many of these phony days towards his discharge which means he received a discharge through false pretenses. There's a lot of other evidence of this too. This is all hidden out there in plain sight too--they just have people believeing it takes experts to interpret this----BS!! they write military orders so idiots can understand them.
And the crimes of his corrupt chain of command are equally spectacular. what they did, when he could no longer take his physical was keep him suspended in a paperwork limbo, not attached to any unit, until they could get him discharged. (This was called "Ghosting" in the Vietnam era, in WWII it was "goldbricking.") This took well over a year and during that year he was paid 55 days as a full pilot, to be a pilot, with flight pay, when he wasn't flying, wasn't even showing up, wasn't even attached to a unit. You may have heard it said (truly) that the only record of him being there is in his pay records---THAT'S what that means!! The only thing he was doing to serve his country was getting paid---illegally!
Ladies and Gents of America, this is embezzlement!! of federal funds!! You can't bank federal money you didn't earn and he knew it when he signed the checks. There's also desertion. Tho undoubtedly his defense would be he was just following orders, he knew the orders were illegal. And he knew it was illegal to accept money for work he had not performed when he cashed the checks. No wiggle room at all for Georgie, he had to know it was wrong when he did it.
These were the stakes CBS was playing for but judging by this movie they never knew it.
The first thing to remember is that the papers were never declared forged by ANY law enforcement agency, although they purport to be federal documents. This could be done very easily by the proper authorities (think; FBI or military agencies) look at this one: this purports to be a lawful order from a commander of a federal military unit (NOT state!) to a subordinate. It has letterhead of a federal unit and the signature of the commander. Forged or not, this represents a federal military order.
Lets take a quickie civics quiz:
Who's duty is it to maintain the integrity of federal documents? Who maintains extensive crime labs and has every legal power it needs to do exactly this? who's doing it right now as you read this? Who's word is final?
A) bloggers
B)CBS
C)Dan Rather and MAry Mapes
D) the Federal government with all its crime labs and legal powers.
Take your time. Everybody got it wrong but me, including CBS and Mary Mapes.
Yes, America, SURPRISE!!--the answer is "D." and your federal government, G Bush commanding, with the Republicans completely in charge, let you down completely on this: they absolutely ran away from their duty to maintain the integrity of federal documents, which this document plainly represents. They abdicated their duty to bloggers and CBS, pretending they were no business of the federal government or military. Ever wonder why CBS "investigated" documents with the letterhead of the TXANG for authenticity BUT THE TXANG NEVER DID? Do you realize the TXANG, whose legal order this purports to be, has NEVER investigated this or issued ANY statement at all about this? Nor any other federal agency?
The biggest lie in this incredible story is that the papers can't be verified. They could be verified VERY easily by the proper authorities and they may not even have to look at the fonts (tho they know ALL about subscripts, spacing and fonts, they are the experts) All they have to do is ask Bush, under oath, if he ever got this order and to explain the circumstances. This Bush has NEVER done, he has never given any accounting for the irregularities in his service record and he only will when forced to, while taking the 5th amendment. And they need to ask him how he got paid to be a pilot, with flight pay, for a whole year after he was suspended from flying and when he was on the rolls of no unit at all.
George Bush knows the answer to those questions. So do his commanders.
[this is a copy of the suspension order that Killian was required to read to him and have him sign on Aug 1, 1972. Bush was suspended on this day, by Killian, according to 2 confirmation documents. We have 2 confirmation documents for Bush's suspension but not the one they're confirming--the one he was required to sign and was required by law to be in his records ( another reason they mixed them up was to hid its absence)
This is another apparently lawful order, for which there is a place in the paper trail. We have 2 confirmation dcuments of this but not the one theyre confirming!! Bush should have signed a copy of his suspension and it should be in his file--it's NOT!! and it should be by law. The fact that this has been removed (or never was there) is drop dead evidence of a federal crime: alteration of public documents (Bush's service record)
Bush needs to be asked whether he was there that day for Killian to read the order and have him sign it---that was the requirement. I think the best guess is that he wasn't there which would mean a wealth of corruption and falsified documents. One of the reasons I say this is that it wasn't shown as a paid day in his pay records, as it should have been.
This is just the tip of the iceberg CBS missed, there's so much more.
So I would say that judgng on this movie, Mapes, Rather and CBS are still missing the main points of this thing:
--That Bush's records were plenty enough to convict him without the contested documents and their documents only shed light on the bigger crime.
---That the documents, forged or not, represent federal military documents and that it is the federal government's duty to authenticate them because they indicate serious crimes, which they well know. they an d this very easily, they have all the powers and capabilities it takes.
--That George Bush was and is the one person in the world who can say with certainty whether or not theyre real because theyre about him---about events in his life that DID occur, that he should have been at, but he has never addressed. That the one man who knows for sure if theyre real has never made any statement at all on them, only said, through Bartlett, that he "didn't remember seeing them before." Er, that's NOT a denial from someone looking at papers that, if understood, would put him in jail.
I think the takeaway was this for me: This was the biggest scam Ive ever seen pulled, during a time when they were leading the media by the nose. Bush got away with never making a comment about papers that had his name all over them and neither he, nor his surrogates have ever given ANY explanation of the obvious irregularities in his records. The one man who has to know for sure whether the CBS documents are real has never expressed ANY curiosity about them or any desire to have them investigated, even tho, if forged, they libel him (and others).
The federal government completely abdicated its duty to solve this and if you understand Bush's military record you understand why. We would have seen the president of the United States go to jail in the middle of 2 wars.
CBS had all this in their hands---the biggest political story of the century-- but blew it---intentionally dropped the ball. If they had demanded a federal investigation of federal papers all their troubles would have gone away, but they didn't. I think they took a dive from the top down because they knew how serious it was.
I wouldn't recommend seeing ths movie unless youre a political junkie