Salon: Stung! (swarm of new media stories on *)

[kskiska]

A swarm of new media stories on young George W. Bush's dereliction of duty pops his heroic-leadership bubble.

By Eric Boehlert

On Feb. 13, as controversy swirled around President Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War, the White House released more than 400 pages of documents on the press corps, proving, it claimed, that Bush had served honorably and fulfilled his commitment. The sudden rush of records, often redundant, jumbled and out of chronological order, generally left reporters baffled. From Bush's point of view, the document dump was a political success, as the controversy cooled and the paper trail ran dry.

In retrospect, it's doubtful that even White House aides understood all the information embedded in the records, specifically the payroll documents. It's also unlikely they realized how damaging the information could be when read in the proper context. Seven months later, the document dump is coming back to haunt the White House, thanks to researcher Paul Lukasiak, who has spent that time closely examining the paperwork, and more important, analyzing U.S. Statutory Law, Department of Defense regulations, and Air Force policies and procedures of the 1960s and 1970s. As a result, Lukasiak arrived at the overwhelming conclusion that not only did Bush walk away from his final two years of military obligation, coming dangerously close to desertion, but that he attempted to cover up his absenteeism through swindle and fraud.

(snip)

But for the last several months, Lukasiak has practically had the AWOL story to himself, as the mainstream media mostly seemed silenced by the big February document release, the daunting task of decoding military personnel records, and the repeated refrain from the Bush White House that the president was honorably discharged. Among the three most compelling conclusions reached by Lukasiak in his new, meticulous research, are:

• Bush's request to transfer to an Alabama Guard unit in 1972, in order to work on the Senate campaign of a family friend, Lukasiak found, was not designed to be temporary, but rather was Bush's attempt to sever ties completely with the Texas Air National Guard and find a new, permanent unit in Alabama for which he was ineligible, where he wouldn't have to do any training during his final two years. His superiors in Texas essentially covered for Bush's getaway. However, the Air Reserve Personnel Center (ARPC) in Denver, Colo., which had final say, uncovered the attempted scam, put an end to it, and admonished Bush's superiors for endorsing Bush's bogus request. (The CBS News report shows that the locals were chafing at interference from "higher-ups" presumably connected to the powerful Bush family). In the interim, Bush simply ignored his weekend duties for nearly six straight months, not bothering to show up at military units in either Alabama or Texas.

more…
http://salon.com/news/feature/2004/09/09/bush_guard_duty/index.html

[demgrrrll]

1. I am glad that Paul Lukasiak is finally getting the recognition he

deserves for his tireless work on this issue. But Martin Heldt, who I believe was also mentioned in the original Boston Globe article was the person who obtained the original FOIA documents IIRC. I may be mistaken about that but it seems that he was the first person who really started digging. There were others who worked on this issue too day and night. I can't imagine what they must be feeling after years and years of trying to get someone to pay attention.

[Cha]

2. Was that Fascinating or What?!

"As new information at last begins to emerge about what he really did, Bush and his aides are still at work covering up the record. His ultimate war is with the truth about his past."

Thanks! And many thanks to researcher Paul Lukasiak(a Philadelphia caterer).

[Bozvotros]

3. This is a must read....

Lots of damning information, some of it new (to me) of fraud, collusion, coverups, and blatant dishonesty. If this makes it into the major media and then the debates....Bush could be in serious shit. All his old statements can come back to haunt him and nicely contrasted with the bullshit he disseminated about Iraq and Saddam.

It makes me wonder if Kerry held his fire on this till the debates were imminent and if he plans to ambush Bush with it there. There is NO evidence besides his honorable discharge paper to suggest Bush served with anything resembling honor.

[City Lights]

4. Fantastic article.

Connects all the dots. When will the MSM connect the dot between blowing off the flight physical and random drug testing?

[giant_robot]

5. Wow

That article almost makes me sorry I let my subscription lapse.