10/10/04 Bush's Interpreter Says: Bush Uses Earpiece

[grasswire]

To the mods: Below are portions of a letter from Bush contract interpreter Fred Burks to Bob Fertik of democrats.com detailing Burks' exclusive assessment of Bush wearing an earpiece. If you must, move this thread but I urge you not to since this is the FIRST news from someone with first-hand knowledge.


From: Fred Burks

As a deep insider myself, I have independent confirmation of President Bush using an earpiece to assist him in communicating intelligently with others. I've worked as a contract Indonesian language interpreter with the US State Department for over 18 years. I first started interpreting at the presidential level in 1995 at a White House meeting for President Clinton and President Suharto of Indonesia with their top advisors. You can read a short story of the many small miracles that led me to interpret for presidents at www.gcforall.org/inspirations (scroll down to Issue #1, where it is the second story).

On September 19, 2001, just eight days after 9/11, I was in the White House interpreting for an important 90-minute meeting between President Bush and President Megawati Soekarnoputri of Indonesia. This meeting made national news on all the TV networks, as at the time, the administration wanted to show they were supportive of our Muslim friends. Indonesia has the largest population of Muslims in the world. Over 80% of Indonesia's 220 million people are Muslim.

This was my first time interpreting for Bush. The previous day, I had been given the 22 points Bush would be covering in this meeting in order to familiarize myself with the topics to be discussed. About half of these "talking points" had to do with terrorism, which was to be fully expected given what had just happened. The other points, however, involved many details of Indonesian politics which even I would have had a tough time addressing, let alone Bush, who I assumed had limited knowledge of Indonesia.

During those 90 minutes, President Bush not only covered all the points, he covered them quite well and without any notes! Not once during the entire meeting did he look at any notes or receive cues from anyone present in discussing the Indonesian political situation with depth and intelligence. I was astonished! "How could this be?" I asked myself. It was a huge surprise. I concluded either that Bush was much more intelligent than we had been led to believe, or that somehow someone was feeding answers to him through a hidden earpiece. At the time, I really didn't know which of these was true.

Having worked directly with President Bush twice since then, and having additionally talked with many of my fellow interpreters who have worked directly with him, I am now certain that he could not have had that much knowledge of Indonesia. He doesn't even read the daily newspaper to keep up with what's being reported in the press. I am convinced that he must have been using some sort of earpiece through which someone was telling him what to say.

Having interpreted for media guests touring large TV studios, I've seen how the news anchors all have hidden earphones, and how the news producers are feeding them all sorts of information even as they talk live on TV. "20 seconds to a commercial," "15 seconds of filler here," "wrap it up quick " etc... This is standard practice for live TV shows. The "let me finish" comment made by Bush in the debate was only confirmation of something I already knew.

http://community.democrats.com/forums/discussions.cfm?forumid=170&topicid=139727

Lots more at the link -- extremely interesting.

[Merlin]

1. Very interesting, but...

still not first hand evidence.

[Roy]

6. Evidence............ Smevidence

Let them try to prove a negative for a change.

They have no problem trying to force others to do it.

I say get the questions out there loud, clear, and hypothetically accusatory.

(this may be freeperish, but appropriate.)

[wryter2000]

9. I tend to agree

Sadly, I've come to the point of hoping an unsupported story won't go away. At least, we know it isn't an out-and-out lie, like the Swift Boat smears.

[The Icon Painter]

17. Johnson

As Lyndon Johnson said in another context. "Let the summabitch deny it."

[Momof1]

2. I liked this paragraph

Snip:
I will also mention that a number of months ago a colleague of mine was in the room with President Bush and his advisors when Bush threw a full blown temper tantrum filled with foul language and all. He ranted and raved at his advisors for a number of minutes to the shock and dismay of my colleague who was standing unseen in the refreshment corner. When he finally finished blowing off steam, Bush turned towards the refreshment table only to see my colleague standing there. He instantly switched into his "good ol' boy" friendly demeanor and said, "Hey, how ya doin' buddy?"

http://community.democrats.com/forums/discussions.cfm?forumid=170&topicid=139727

This idiot has his finger on the button...

:nuke:

[NMDemDist2]

3. yeah, but if he didn't see Bush stick it in his ear it's still speculation

but funny how this thing just keeps growing legs

[HereSince1628]

11. I agree...

I'd like something with a little more smoke coming out of the barrel.

Nonetheless, I have put away the tinfoil on this story. There is enough circunstantial evidence to force the thugs to try to prove Bush isn't wearing an earpiece...IT is entirely consistent that a contemporary puppet president would be high tech, and Bush needs to be in a room with some one in order to keep the synapse count above zero.

My suspicion was step one would be deny, step two would be laugh at people looking at it seriously.

I predict step three will be renegotiation with the networks so no pictures from the back can be shown.

Step 4...I don't want to go there, but Rove has already attacked 2 of the national free-tv news networks.

[ninainsf]

4. That is interesting, thanks

Man, this earpiece story better not fade away. I hope mainstream media is on it. I keep wondering tho, how would Bush prove or disprove?

[wryter2000]

10. Welcome to DU

:hi:

[ninainsf]

21. Thanks Wryter!

I'm a d/u addict already!

[tabasco]

5. Wouldn't surprise me a bit.

The neocon power grab has been an act of fraud against the American people. This would just be one more act of deceit.

The sad part for me is that so many Americans swallow the lies and deception of the republicans. This is not the same republican party as in Eisenhower's day. The power behind the neocons is ruthless war profiteers who don't give a damn about the People of the USA.

[MatrixEscape]

8. Yeah, I wish this was on National television:

http://hijackingcatastrophe.org/

The press has barely touched anything in that documentary and I must say, it is very hard-edged and cuts deeper than F911.

American Democracy has clearly been hijaked and admist all the rhetorical divisions, the Country sleeps through it? Spectator politics? Fear?

[sundancekid]

7. it's still only an educated guess ... first-hand what??? not IMHO ... and

I would be THRILLED to have any first-hand confirmation that there is a puppet show in progress behind that ear-drum ... no doubt any smart run through of details on Indonesia STRAIN a belief that smarmysmirk had it all in his own head, but this story doesn't yet pass the joe-six-pack test

[Misunderestimator]

12. Like any college student suspected of cheating, he should be forced

to sit in a room by himself and be submitted to questions to which he has so knowingly provided intelligent answers in the past... after being submitted to an "ear search." :D

[LiberalFighter]

25. How about a 30 second delay in the broadcast??

And all campaign members have to be in the open!!

[HuckleB]

13. It's clear he had something unusual on his back.

He wasn't wearing a vest, so we know that's not it. So let's have the White House show us what he was wearing, and then have someone put it on, with a coat over it, and show us that it makes the same type of mark. It's very simple, really. Something was there. Show us what it was. A simple denial doesn't exonerate him on this one. The picture shows something. So show us what it was or admit that he cheated.

[peacemeal]

14. Here's a picture of something in his ear

I searched for "bush ear" in the google images and found this. It's dated 2/5/2004 - according to the White House he spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast that day.

[AlienGirl]

15. Either he's wearing something, or he really needs...

...THIS!

http://www.myhealthcare21.com/Conair/Deluxe_Chrome_Nose_Ear_Hair_Trimmer/0,CON326/Deluxe_Chrome_Nose_Ear_Hair_Trimmer.jpg

Tucker

[TrogL]

16. Just a word of warning

There was a scandal sometime in the past where an interpreter hired by one of the presidents didn't know the language well enough to do a proper job and ended up screwing up. I believe the language involved was Polish. Nevertheless, it the language was Indonesian, this is not a credible source.

Sorry to be vague but I can't remember what language and what president but I don't want yet another fiasco.

[Jackpine Radical]

23. It was Jimmy Carter

using a Polish interpreter whose primary skill was in Russian. He mistranslated something Carter said into something embarrassing in Polish because of some idiomatic difference between the two languages.

[Skittles]

18. the earpiece speculation did NOT start with the first debate

many of us have long suspected the moron uses an earpiece and several of us DUers had suggested the first question of the debate be ARE YOU WEARING ONE.

[vetwife]

19. Will a technical jammer please cut the feed......?

There should be at least one dem on independent to cut the feed so Bush doesn't get to cheat. He is terrible even when he does. Cut the feed ! We have waaaaaaaaay too many tech folks and not all of them could be partisan republican !

[Skittles]

20. perhaps it's not possible with all the security going on

I dunno. But at the very least Bush and Kerry should be required to take their jackets off in the next debate.

[Thor_MN]

22. Put them in a Faraday cage...

Basically, an enclosure of metal window screen that is grounded would keep out any eletromagnetic sigal that an in-the-ear or implanted device could receive. It could be billed as a cage match for the NASCAR crowd...

Put the cameras and microphones outside the cage and let see what dipshit can do on his won.

[Jackpine Radical]

24. Instead of cutting the feed, would it be technically feasible

to override & give him some "interesting" answers?