Re: the General who helped scrub Smirk's records

[donsu]

http://www.buzzflash.com/mailbag/04/03/mai04073.html

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Subj: Re: The General who helped Governor Bush scrub his records issues a classic non-denial denial

Dear BuzzFlash:

It's odd that a newspaper in Spokane Washington is doing a better job of follow through on the Bush AWOL story than the major U.S. newspapers (www.spokesmanreview.com/breaking-news...), but I suppose I'm not surprised.

I learned two interesting things from it. First, orders have been issued to clamp down on all information related to the president's military service. This means that there is more to learn about his disgraceful record than he has released, and that he and his handlers are still very afraid of this issue. Read:

At the National Guard Bureau, now headed by a Bush appointee from Texas, officials last week said they were under orders not to answer questions.

The bureau's chief historian said he couldn't discuss questions about Bush's military service on orders from the Pentagon.

"If it has to do with George W. Bush, the Texas Air National Guard or the Vietnam War, I can't talk with you," said Charles Gross, chief historian for the National Guard Bureau in Washington, D.C.

Rose Bird, Freedom of Information Act officer for the bureau, said her office stopped taking records requests on Bush's military service in mid-February and is directing all inquiries to the Pentagon. She would not provide a reason.

Air Force and Texas Air National Guard officials did not respond to written questions about the issue.

James Hogan, a records coordinator at the Pentagon, said senior Defense Department officials had directed the National Guard Bureau not to respond to questions about Bush's military records.

Second, the general who helped Bush scrub his records and was rewarded with a fourth star and command of the entire Air National Guard issued a classic non-denial denial:

Bush's file was scrubbed for embarrassing information, Burkett alleges, at the direction of Daniel James III. James headed the Texas National Guard, and Burkett was his chief military adviser when Bush was governor of Texas.

After becoming president in 2000, Bush appointed James to head the National Guard Bureau in Washington, D.C., which oversees all state Air Guard operations.

In a prepared statement released Thursday, James denied Burkett's allegation.

"I have never been involved in, nor would I condone, any discussion or any action to falsify any record in any circumstance for anyone," James said.

But no one is accusing the general of falsifying records. He is accused of removing records from a file. And from the brave guardsman who blew the whistle on the cover up:

The issue of Bush's military records, Burkett told The Spokesman-Review, "has gone into a can so tight you wouldn't believe it."

RA in LA

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we will get snotty nosed Smirk yet

[zbdent]

1. Hmm, what was that stuff (circa mid-late 90s) about how the coverup

was worse than the crime?

Somehow, I remember a lot of people saying about that, don't hear them saying it now . . .