Friends and FamilyThere is the argument against these based just on the testimony of those who knew Col. Killian:
Source: USA Today/AP
Headline: Authenticity of new Bush military papers questioned
Date: 2004-09-10
LINK , print version
. . .
Former colleagues of Killian disagreed Friday on the authenticity of the documents.
. . .
Retired Col. Maurice Udell, the unit's instructor pilot who helped train Bush, said Friday he thought the documents were fake.
"I completely am disgusted with this (report) I saw on '60 Minutes,'" Udell said. "That's not true. I was there. I knew Jerry Killian. I went to Vietnam with Jerry Killian in 1968."
Killian's son also questioned some of the documents, saying his father would never write a memo like the "sugar coat" one.
. . .
And from Steve Antler at Econopundit:
Source: Econopundit
Date: 6:04 AM, 10 SEP
LINK , LINK
. . .
But Killian's son, one of Killian's fellow officers and an independent document examiner questioned the memos Gary Killian, who served in the Guard with his father and retired as a captain in 1991, said he doubted his father would have written an unsigned memo which said there was pressure to "sugar coat" Bush's performance review.
"It just wouldn't happen," he said. "No officer in his right mind would write a memo like that."
The personnel chief in Killian's unit at the time also said he believes the documents are fake.
"They looked to me like forgeries," said Rufus Martin. "I don't think Killian would do that, and I knew him for 17 years." Killian died in 1984.
. . .
ReferencesAnd there are even just mistaken references in the CBS memos themselves. Jeff Harrell, at Shape of Days, noticed:
Blogger Donald Sensing of One Hand Clapping learned that the Air Force manual cited in one of the memos, AFM 35-13, never existed. There was an regulation designated AFR 35-13, but it referred to special pay for proficiency in a foreign language and had nothing to do with pilot physicals.
And this is a good one:
Source: USA Today/AP
Headline: Authenticity of new Bush military papers questioned
Date: 2004-09-10
LINK , print version
. . .
Casting further doubt on the memos, The Dallas Morning News said in a report for its Saturday editions that the officer named in a memo as exerting pressure to "sugar coat" Bush's record had left the Texas Air National Guard 1.50 years before the memo was dated.
The newspaper said it obtained an order showing that Walter B. Staudt, former commander of the Texas Guard, retired on March 1, 1972. The memo was dated Aug. 18, 1973. . . .
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