Bush Military History Project #4

[exlrrp]

This is being written as a journal in democraticunderground at http://journals.democraticunderground.com/exlrrp This is also being cross posted on DailyKos and Myleftwing
I hope that those following this series so far have started to see the dishonesty and evasion put out by the Bush administration concerning the CBS Memos and their part in Bush's military record.
The Bush adminsitration stonewalled or obfuscated every question about whether Bush was ordered to take the physical or not. They stonewalled or obfuscated the fact that Bush WAS suspended on 1Aug772, that Bush was given a copy of this order and had to sign for it. Let me say again, this is very important: There is NO believable scenario in which Bush doesn't know if the CBS memo is the real order or not and no believable scenario in which Bush doesn't know whether he was ordered to take the physical or not.
So, when the CBS memos are understood fully, there is no doubt that Bush--and his aides--know whether theyre real or not. Ive cited McClellans evasions, here's Bartlett's. It should be understood in advance that Bartlett has been Bush's pointman on his military record since the 90's. It should definitely be noted that Bartlett was accused by Bill Burkett --> in a SWORN STATEMENT<-- of cleansing Bush's files (we'll be discussing this later see ) If ANYBODY knows if Bush was ordered to take the physical, yes or no, its Bartlett (and Bush, Hodges and others) Bartlett knows also all about Bush's suspension. CBS went to the White HOuse with the CBS papers, the WH had a chance to look them over for a couple of days.
Here's Bartlett's response (from Truth& Duty, Mapes, Page 186)
Bartlett starts the interview: "Well, I think , generally, its obvious that its election season now. Every time President Bush gets near another election, all the innuendo and rumors about President Bush's service in the National Guard come to the forefront....."
CBS John Roberts: " What about these two official documents signed by Jerry Killian is rumor and innuendo?"
B: "Well its impossible for anyone to read the mind of a dead man. Killian writes memos to hiimself in this file."
Roberts: "I'm not talking about the memos to himself. I'm talking about the two official documents."
There is a gap in the interview here (what was said?)then the book picks up again.
R: This first document, dated fourth of May 1972, specifically says: you are ordered to report for a physical examination. So he either ignored, or didn't fullfill a direct order, not an option."
B: "In fact the emorandum shows, the other memorandum in your possession shows, that he spoke to his commander who made that order to talk about his personal situation in the fact that he was going to Alabama. So at every step of the way, President Bush wwas meeting his requirements. And thats why President Bush got an honorable discharge... He met his requirements, he satisfied his commander's requirements and thats why he was given an honorable discharge."
----
R: "Is your suggestion that these documents, at least a couple of them, could have been fabricated?"
B: "I'm not saying that at all. I'm kust saying that the fact that documents like this are being raised, when, in fact, all they do is reaffirm what we've said all along is questionable:

So Bartlett, who spent years defending Bush's military career, and can be assumed to know all about it, deliberately steeered the conversation from the truth: that Bush WAS suspended from flying for failure to take his physical and that the CBS memo represents that suspension order. Bartlett withholds that information although its critical to understanding the situation. Bartlett also knows, like Bush and Hodges, for sure, whether Bush was ordered to take the physical or not. Did Bartlett ever answer that yes or no question? did McClellan, in the press conference cited in the 2d report of this series? Why wouldn't they deny that Bush was ordered to take the physical?
What would an Honest Man say?
I bring this interview into the conversation for several reasons. The first is to show how evasive the Bush administraation is over the actual specifics of Bush's military career. Why? Why are they so evasive about a record they say theyre proud of? They pretend they don't know whether the papers are real or not--information they HAVE to know. Their tactic here and throughout is to smoke and mirror any connection between the CBS memos and Bush's record. They want you to believe that Killian was writing these memos and order to himself and G Bush never saw any of them, they have no connection to Bush's career.
The 2d reason is to show how lame the CBS coverage of this was from the beginning. Mapes writes her book like its a total mystery why her story didn't go across--its not, all thorugh the book you can see the lameness of the CBS coverage and here especially. Did CBS not figure out that the Bushy's suepension memo--the one Killiaan wrote--is NOT in Bush's records? The lameness is in how they were satisfied with McClellans and Bartletts answers.
There's plenty of evidence in this story that CBS took a dive, some of it subtle, some of it obvious.
Remember the CBS story I cited back in BMHP#1? http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/30/politics/main646621.shtml Remember the line I cited? "...The White House did not answer whether Bush disobeyed a direct order to take the exam...."
Look at the date: think about it. While under the most ferocious assault on a media news outlet in modern history,CBS had, in their hands, a story that the White House refused to answer a direct question whether Bush disobeyed a direct order to taake the physical--while they had in their hands a signed order from Bush's commander saying exactly that. "WHITE HOUSE REFUSES TO ANSWER QUESTIONS ABOUT ORDERS TO TAKE THE PHYSICAL!!" Should have been blazen across the front page in 48 point type. Instead, CBS helped the BUsh administration bury the story by putting the mostr important line on the 2d to bottom line, where it would be the first to get cut offf if the story got shortened. CBS is not the only one carrying that story, it was covered in the rest of the media--and sometimes that lihne got cut off.
To this day, the American people still don't know whether their President refused to obey a direct order to take his physical. And we probably won't ever find out because the result of all this was to competely scare off ANYBODY questioning Bush's record--except a few folks like Paul Lukasiak and me. And we're just pariahs out in the cold. The Republican victory here was complete--they got these official documents declared false
And we also have no copy of Killian's original suspension order, that would sweep away all doubt. That order is the most important document in Bush's record--it states the reasons why he was suspended from flying. You KNOW Bush would be waving this around if it exonerated him.
The Republican victory here was complete--they got these official documents declared false without ANY official investigation and without the one man who knows for sure whther th papers are real or not, ever denying them. CBS and Rather took a trouncing and conservative bloggers were elevated to the role of "Factscheckers to the MSM"
AND THEY NEVER PROVED A THING!!! Never even really tried.
What they did was "create controversy," one of the Bush administrations most signature smoke and mirror moves. Some of their other smoke and miror signature moves are obvious--like their never ansewring an embarassing question, just reciting their talking points. The way they always say: thats old, recycled news, its all been settled. The way they garble up the sequence and then say the records show that:
But their best smoke and mirror move was the document dump of Feb 10, 2004 when they just walked into the press room -->on a Friday afternoon!<-- and dumped all of Bush's documents in a jumbled heap, with no explanation or narrative at all. Come ON folks!! Don't we aall realize by now that when the Bush Administraation wants to hide something they do it on Friday afternoon?? There's too many examples of this to count (latest example: Porter Goss's resignation)
And nobody--NOBODY!-- in the media ever bothered to ask why they did this. But what could the only reason be? Is that the way an Honest Man displays his record that he wants people to uinderstand and respect? Not hardly, its what you do when you want to hide something--thats the ONLY reason you do it. and not one person in the media has ever bopthered to wonder why they did it wthat way.
I have come to believe over the course of this investigation that there is a Republican campaign to highjack the media equivalent to the K Street project,. You can see evidence all over, and ESPECIALLY in this case.
Nobody in the media ever bothered to aask for Bush's real suspension order or noted that it was misssing from Bush's files. No one in the media has ever gotten a yes or no answer as to whether Bush refused to obey a direct order of not. CBS cold have resolved their problem very easily by just having Rather stand up front and keep demanding to know whether Bush was ordered to take the physical orr not! Wave the suspension order and demand that Bush identify it or not as his suspension order. And then demand a federal investigation.
Notice that in the interview above that CBS refers to the paapers aas "official." Well, what does official meean in this case? it means -->F-E-D-E-R-A-L<--!!! But look at how no one ever says that--because then the federal government would be obligated to prove or disprove the papers.
And Bush and the Republicanss CAN'T have that!!
More to come

PS--its possible to tell what was in the mind of a dead man--its what a written language is for.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

1. Thank you this. There are so many other things, too, that have

been swept under the carpet. I was really hoping that Dan Rather, post-retirement, would delve into this and clear his name, somehow. You would think with his long background in investigative journalism, coupled with a desire to clear his reputation, he'd be on the case.
Yet another Rove crime which probably can never be proved.

Maybe there should be a fund set up - where people can be paid to come forward to whistleblow. (The mysterous lady who delivered the "forged" ?? memo) Many of Bush's crimes will have to have people turning to prove...

[rman]

2. kick