Memos Questioning Bush's Guard Service May Be Fake
The Houston Chronicle is publishing a story by the Boston Globe that memos aired by CBS last night appear to show evidence “embellished” his record. Among other records:
The four pages of documents also contain an August 1972 order from Killian, suspending Bush from flying status for “failure to perform” up to Air Force and Texas Air National Guard standards and failing to take his annual flight physical. The suspension came three months after Killian had ordered Bush to take his physical, on May 14, 1972.
It appears on closer inspection today that some or all of these memos are fake. CBS news has the memo they relied on here for inspection.
For one, a proportional font which was only available on the most expensive word processors appears to have been used. The Air Force used typewriters with fixed-pitch typeface Courier.
“That would not be possible on a typewriter or even a word processor at that time,” said John Collins, vice president and chief technology officer at Bitstream Inc., the parent of MyFonts.com.
Even more telling is the use of a superscript font. The “th” at the end of “111th” is superscript, something not possible with 1972 technology, but is automatic with today’s Microsoft Word.
These memos purportedly came from the “personal files” of squadron commander Jerry B. Killian, deceased.
Update: Little Green Footballs has a complete shakedown.
60 Minutes should offer a complete apology.
Update 2: Powerline has the original shakedown and first broke the story. In addition to the above, the letter were typed in Times Roman 12 which didn’t exist back then, the characters were ‘kerned’ or squeezed closer together that cannot exist on a typewrite, and the memo says the pressure was coming from General Staudt who had retired over a year earlier and was not in a position to pressure anybody.
CBS is now saying:
CBS verified the authenticity of the documents by talking to individuals who had seen the documents at the time they were written. These individuals were close associates of Colonel Jerry Killian and confirm that the documents reflect his opinions at the time the documents were written.
In other words, they’re saying the documents might be fake but the opinions are real and based on anonymous people who remembered what Killian thought 32 years ago.
And if all that wasn’t enough, the forged Killian signature doesn’t even match. :/
Update 3: Here’s the CBS / 60 Minutes story that the world media picked up that turns out to be fake. You can see all four faked memos. I’m wondering how long till the story is pulled. 
The person(s) who perpetrated this fraud should go to prison. Forgery of government documents for political purposes can not be tolerated. There should also be stiff penalities for CBS’s negligence in airing this obviously fraudulant material. Sixty minutes USED to be a credible program, but over the years has turned into a program with a clearly liberally biased agenda.
Jean
September 10, 2004
As of this morning, Dan Rather is standing by his story that the memos are genuine. Then, apparently, even if they’re fake, the story is still true. Somehow.
I think anybody 40 years old, once shown the superscript, would absolutely have to conclude the memos were fake. Typewriters don’t do that.
We know the what and the why. I’m still waiting for the who.
Michael
September 10, 2004