Bush was no "badass" pilot-He backed away after screwing up-Interestingly, he couldn't land a plane

[creeksneakers2]

8. The story contains

an explosive new fact that bolsters the theory that the Bush White House was well aware that the documents were forgeries hours before the story aired, but let CBS swallow the hook. The White House plotted to get Dan Rather and they succeeded.

From the Texas monthly piece:

"The morning before the broadcast was scheduled to air, CBS showed the memos to the White House for a response. Dan Bartlett was the network’s contact. Before Bartlett was interviewed, he emailed copies of the memos to Albert Lloyd, Bush’s longtime National Guard expert. In an interview in 2008, Lloyd told me he immediately recognized them as forgeries: “I looked at them and I said, ‘Don’t do a damned thing with these, because these are fake.’  Bartlett, however, appears to have ignored Lloyd’s assessment."

Bartlett possessed the documents by 7AM the morning before the story aired. After the story blew up, Bartlett was quoted in at least one newspaper saying that he showed the documents to Bush that morning and Bush said some of what was in the documents was true but that he had never been ordered to take a physical. I can't find links to any of those articles, probably because they no longer exist. But I do have:

"He also disclosed that he had shown the documents that morning to President Bush. "He had no recollection of these specific documents," Bartlett said, though the president said some of the information seemed accurate. For instance, he did go to Alabama. But he denied having defied orders from his superiors, Bartlett said."

http://articles.latimes.com/2004/sep/18/nation/na-cbs18

If Bartlett knew that events in the documents never really happened, he must have known the documents were forgeries. For example, if someone claimed to have a fan letter written by Franklin D. Roosevelt to Lindsay Lohan, it wouldn't take a document expert to instantly realize the letter was a forgery. Likewise, Bartlett must have known instantly.

Bartlett was interviewed by CBS before the story and never let on anything about the possibility that the documents were forgeries.

What is even more incriminating from the TexasMonthly piece is:

"Bartlett told me that the online attacks began “before I started any outreach” to the press. He added that Bush himself didn't learn of the Killian memos until after the segment had already aired, because Bartlett felt the documents didn't show anything revelatory. He initially dismissed them as “old news.”

So Bartlett has completely changed his story since its been realized that Bartlett must have known the memos were forgeries. Bartlett now says he didn't discuss the documents with Bush at all in advance.

One more bit of evidence that the White House knew in advance the documents were forgeries, the USA today timeline of events. The Bush/Guard story aired at 8:00 on September 8th, 2004. By 9:30 the same evening, the White House had E-mailed copies of the documents to editors and reporters all over the country. Reports at the time said 500 copies went out. If the White House thought that the documents were incriminating, why would they send them out? They must have known what was coming, and that they could make the whole story backfire on CBS. The White House must have started discussing releasing the documents before 9:30, probably for some time considering the size of the risk. So the White House knew well before doubts about the authenticity of the documents gained steam on the blogs.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/president/2004-09-21-guard-scoops-skepticism_x.htm

One person who agrees with the theory that the White House let Rather swallow the hook on the guard story is Albert Lloyd, quoted in the TexasMonthly article:

"When I asked Lloyd why Bartlett ignored his assessment, he said, “I guess he was trying to set Rather up for getting mauled.”