Burkett is the Source of the Memos!

[jefferson_dem]

Not sure what to make of this finding, but the source has been ID'd according to the WP and NYT.

<SNIP>

There is only one Kinko's in Abilene, and it is 21 miles from the Baird, Tex., home of retired Texas National Guard officer Bill Burkett, who has been named by several news outlets as a possible source for the documents.

Burkett, who has accused Bush aides of ordering the destruction of some portions of the president's National Guard record because they might have been politically embarrassing, did not return telephone calls to his home. His lawyer, David Van Os, issued a statement on Burkett's behalf saying he "no longer trusts any possible outcome of speaking to the press on any issue regarding George W. Bush and does not choose to dignify recent spurious attacks upon his character with any comment."

In news interviews earlier this year, Burkett said he overheard a telephone conversation in the spring of 1997 in which top Bush aides asked the head of the Texas National Guard to sanitize Bush's files as he was running for a second term as governor of Texas. Several days later, he said, he saw dozens of pages from Bush's military file dumped in a trash can at Camp Mabry, the Guard's headquarters.

<SNIP>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A24635-2004Sep15?language=printer

[Renew Deal]

1. Does that mean that they are not forgeries?

or that they were cleaned up?

[alcuno]

7. I'm so confused. All I know is that Bush didn't show up for duty.

Mission Accompished?

[wurzel]

14. They were "reconstructions".

He probably typed them from memory. But the content was accurate.

[LTR]

2. So...Drudge just royally embarassed himself

He's the main media whore who's been trying to keep this whole story artificially afloat, and the WaPo article he cites says that Bush was trying to scrub his records.

Bush: Stick a fork in him.

[jefferson_dem]

18. BINGO!

NO doubt that this is looking worse and worse for Chimpster. The deeper the story gets, the more it's looking like a monumental presidential scandal. Record-scrubbing...cover-ups. More to come and the house of cards is about to collapse! At the very least, the wild-eyed claim about Democratic dirty tricks has just been blasted away.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

3. I laughed reading this tonight

It's so obvious what happened:

....Mr. Burkett declined to return telephone calls to his home near Abilene, Tex. His lawyer, David Van Os, on Tuesday repeatedly refused to say in a telephone interview whether the officer had played a part in supplying the disputed documents to CBS. Mr. Van Os said "the real story is and should be, where was George Bush?" and that Mr. Burkett "is not the proper object of attention."

Mr. Van Os called Mr. Burkett "a man of impeccable honesty who would not permit himself to be a party to anything fake, fraudulent or phony." He also said, in response to questions, and stressing that he was speaking only hypothetically, "If Bill Burkett were to later discover that something he was a party to were fake or phony, as a man of honor who lives by a code of honor of the military, he would not permit the falsity to continue." But, the lawyer hastened to add, "This is not intended to be any kind of specific statement."

Asked what role Mr. Burkett had in raising questions about Mr. Bush's military service, Mr. Van Os said: "If, hypothetically, Bill Burkett or anyone else, any other individual, had prepared or had typed on a word processor as some of the journalists are presuming, without much evidence, if someone in the year 2004 had prepared on a word processor replicas of documents that they believed had existed in 1972 or 1973 - which Bill Burkett has absolutely not done'' - then, he continued, "what difference would it make?"

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/15/politics/campaign/15guard.html?pagewanted=print&position=

[sonicx]

8. LOL, that lawyer is funny. nt

[NewYorkerfromMass]

12. Yes. But Bush going down will be even 'funnier'. eom

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

19. He's a Dem running for judge in TX

he was endorsed by Democracy for America, Dean's grassroots organization.

[madfloridian]

28. This part I love, very cryptic.

SNIP..."Asked what role Mr. Burkett had in raising questions about Mr. Bush's military service, Mr. Van Os said: "If, hypothetically, Bill Burkett or anyone else, any other individual, had prepared or had typed on a word processor as some of the journalists are presuming, without much evidence, if someone in the year 2004 had prepared on a word processor replicas of documents that they believed had existed in 1972 or 1973 - which Bill Burkett has absolutely not done'' - then, he continued, "what difference would it make?"

[crispini]

17. David Van Os

is Burkett's lawyer?

This the same Van Os that is our candidate for Tx Supreme court?

whoa.

[madfloridian]

21. yes, indeed, it is.

From the recent rally with Dean and Morrison.

[crispini]

23. I was at that rally!

Ok, I guess I need to get back to work on that fundraiser we're doing for Van Os. methinks they're going to be REALLY busy down at campaign hq right about now. :7

[madfloridian]

24. LOL

Go for it.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

4. Pages in the trash can?

Why wouldn't they shred them? That's standard practice for sensitive documents.

[LTR]

6. Shit, didn't they have shredders back then?

(insert IBM Selectric typewriter joke in here)

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

13. Good one

You had me going for a second

[alittlelark]

15. These people are evil geniuses

...but they're not too bright.

[tridim]

I think Burkett swiped himself a handful

Maybe what he swiped were rewrites of original documents that were much worse, with mentions of coke use and orders to join active duty in Vietnam.

[KC21304]

26. This is starting to make a lot of sense to me.

If I remember the story Burkett told a year or so ago, he said he heard talk about having to scrub Bush's records of anything embarrassing to him. This was in 98 I believe. After this he saw the records in the trash. Of course he didn't say that he took any of them but obviously he did.

In a story I read yesterday, maybe USA Today, was mentioned that CBS has been working on this since 1999. Said it took them this long to get their source to give them proof. I'm paraphrasing. And source still is very scared this will be traced to him.

If Burkett had given up the originals he was terrified someone would have figured out he took them from the trash that day, so he retyped them so they couldn't be traced to him. Looks like they will be anyway. So sad. He wanted to do what is right.

[mbali]

5. But I thought the WH had already released all of W's records!!!

Don't tell me they weren't being truthful!

In a related development, White House press secretary Scott McClellan hinted that more documents regarding Bush's National Guard service may soon be released. Asked whether officials in the White House have seen unreleased documents, McClellan called that "a very real possibility." Other officials with knowledge of the situation said more documents had indeed been uncovered and would be released in the coming days.

[blitzen]

9. Karen Hughes implicated in WP story!!!

"In news interviews earlier this year, Burkett said he overheard a telephone conversation in the spring of 1997 in which top Bush aides asked the head of the Texas National Guard to sanitize Bush's files as he was running for a second term as governor of Texas. Several days later, he said, he saw dozens of pages from Bush's military file dumped in a trash can at Camp Mabry, the Guard's headquarters.

The Bush aides Burkett named as participants in the telephone conversation were Chief of Staff Joe M. Allbaugh and spokespersons Karen Hughes and Dan Bartlett. All three Bush aides and former Texas National Guard Maj. Gen. Daniel James have strongly denied the allegations."


But, of course, the "filter" makes it seem like Burkett is "under suspicion" of some wrongdoing! Let's force them to put the suspicion where it belongs!

[Doosh]

10. maybe somebody pulled the from the trash, made a copy

sent them to Burkett.....

so many possibilities

[madfloridian]

11. Burkett's lawyer is Van Os, a Dean Dozen for TX Supreme Court.

http://www.democracyforamerica.com/candidates/candidate.php?district_id=50
Dean was in TX campaigning with him and Richard Morrison. Interesting.

[Pirate Smile]

16. But I thought these documents or the information came from Killian

not *'s files?????

Would these have been in Shrub's files? I don't think the CYA one would be.

Any ideas?

[Lex]

22. Did Burkett fish the files out of the trashcan way back then?

I would have!

[Pirate Smile]

20. Did anyone else see Burkett on Hardball last Spring? I thought

it was going to be explosive, a huge story and then absolutely nothing came from it. He said all this stuff back then (maybe this is the interview they are referring to).

[A_Possum]

25. This is why I wonder if Burkett is just another red herring

CBS is protecting this "unimpeachable" source fiercely, because he/she is afraid of attacks and retribution.

Burkett has already gone public.

[KC21304]

27. But he never admitted to taking them out of the trash,

and I think that is what he must have done.

[madfloridian]

29. CNN article on Burkett from Feb.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/02/12/elec04.prez.bush.texas.records/

"Retired Lt. Col. Bill Burkett, who was then an adviser to the Texas adjutant general, who in that capacity serves as the commander of the state's National Guard, made the allegations.

He said that in 1997 he overheard Joe Allbaugh -- who was Bush's chief of staff at the time -- ask Guard commander Maj. Gen. Daniel James to gather Bush's files and "make sure there wasn't anything there that would embarrass the governor."

Allbaugh reacted angrily to Burkett's charges, calling them "hogwash" and "absolute garbage." Allbaugh, who went on to direct the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the Bush administration, said he doesn't even know who the "goober" is, referring to Burkett. "