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September 14, 2004

Killian's Secretary: I Didn't Type Those Memos

She says they're fake, but claims that "similar memos" existed at one time.

On the other hand, she's a political partisan of the sort that I'm sure Dan Rather would never trust:

Mrs. Knox, 86, who spoke with precise recollection about dates, people and events, said she is not a supporter of Mr. Bush, who she deemed “unfit for office” and “selected, not elected.”

We seem to be heading towards that predicted denouement-- an admission that the memos themselves are fake, but that they were "meticulously reconstructed by memory" from real documents that Evil Republican Operatives destroyed.

UPDATE: Confirmation of prediction!

I wasn't able to access the article in question when I wrote the above (in fact, I still haven't, since the site looks down due to too much traffic), but the fine folks at NRO's The Corner have read the whole thing:

"She also said the memos may have been constructed from memory by someone who had seen Lt. Col. Killian's private file but were not transcriptions because the language and terminology did not match what he would have used."

I'm not going to say a word.

Not a word.

All right, two words:

Plan Fucking B.

As predicted:

This ridiculous "Plan B" defense, however, is similar to what I expect we will soon be hearing: Someone really saw these documents, and they said almost exactly what the forgeries say, only the witness in question didn't take the documents or make copies of them.
Therefore, to get out "the truth" which he cannot unfortunately prove with documentary evidence, he typed up what he knew was in the documents (working from a nearly perfect memory).

I don't even think our liberal Spirit Squad media would dare run with such a "forgery-but-nevertheless-accurate" defense, but I was shocked by Dan Rather's blazingly dishonest performance on Friday; before this is over, I expect to be shocked three or four more times.

Does that defense sound too ridiculous?

Is it any more ridiculous than what you've heard so far?

Is it any more ridiculous than trained reporters at CBS beginning to spin tales about real handwritten documents being "typed up" to look pretty for TV?

They are in trouble and they almost know it. When you get to this level of desperation, you begin spinning pleasing but absurd "what-if" scenarios that will get you out of the jam.

But they won't get out of this jam. This will not stand.

Update: NPR's Mara Liason just pitched Plan B on Brit Hume, just to see if it would fly.

I have generally liked Mara, but she just disgusted me. No matter how thoroughly refuted these forgeries are, liberals like herself are still determined to treat the allegations contained in them as true.

Now Drudge:

"I did not type these particular memos. I typed memos like these," Knox told the DRUDGE REPORT from her home in Houston.
"I typed memos that had this information in them, but I did not type these memos. There are terms in these memos that are not Guard terms but that are Army terms. They use the word 'Billets'. I think they were using that to refer to the slot. That would be a non-flying slot the way we would use it. And the style... they are sloppy looking."

But Marion Carr Knox stands by the accusations contained in the allegedly fraudulent documents that Bush skirted a medical and flight exam without suffering institutional repercussions.

"The information in these memos is correct -- like Killian's dealing with the problems."

"It was General Staudt, not then Lt. Colonel Hodges [who succeeded Staudt], that was putting on the pressure to whitewash Bush. For instance he didnt take his flight examination or his physical. And the pilots had to take them by their birthdays. Once in a while there would be a reason why a pilot would miss these things because some of them were commercial pilots. But they had to make arrangements to take their exams."

Knox speculated as to how she thought the forgeries were created saying, "My guess is that someone in the outfit got hold of the real ones and discussed it with a former Army person."

Ahem.

No comment.

Okay, one word:

Plan Fucking B.

It seems very curious that this woman's "recollections" just happened to show up on forged documents.

posted by Ace at 05:52 PM

Comments

"Mrs. Knox, 86, who spoke with precise recollection about dates, people and events, said she is not a supporter of Mr. Bush, who she deemed “unfit for office” and “selected, not elected.”

Got those DNC talking points memorized pretty good, doesn't she?

Call me skeptical, but "precise recollection" of a no doubt obscure event from 30+ years ago from an 86 year old?

Posted by: Joe Mama on September 14, 2004 06:13 PM

Neither Killian's widow nor son confirm that Killian felt this way about George Bush. How does the 86-year-old account for that? Of course, we've never heard from the living Killians on CBS News.

Posted by: Melissa on September 14, 2004 06:16 PM

And that general who retired in 1972, but kept coming back to pester Killian about Bush? What about that little detail? Was that in the original or was that a "dramatization" or a "re-enactment" of the source material, sort of like when they filed through those wheel rims to get them to explode on camera? (See here: http://walterolson.com/articles/crashtests.html)

Whatever--CBS has staked its claim on the literal truth of the memos we see. If they were recreations they should have said so.

Posted by: See-Dubya on September 14, 2004 06:36 PM

That's going to be part of the next phase. The Microsoft Memos are fake, but the spirit of the memos is true.

Fark a duck...it's 'penumbras' all over again.

Posted by: Blacknimbus on September 14, 2004 06:40 PM

That seems pretty unfair to put words in the mouth of a man who died 20 years ago. I don't care if LTC Killian and his secretary enjoyed a Clintonesque relationship, (NOTE: That is hyperbole, do not read in that I am trying to tarnish anyone's reputation that way.) its a poor thing to put words in someone's mouth about how the LTC felt about 1LT Bush. She does NOT have the authority for a valid appeal to authority argument. (Especially in light of the family's already on record comments to the contrary.)

Posted by: Brett on September 14, 2004 07:04 PM

I saw the article before it got avalanched. She does say Killian kept a personal "cover your back" file in a locked drawer; what happened to that is a dead end. He died on base and the (unnamed!) Master Sergeant who would have taken control of his records was found by the DMN reporter but he ain't talking.

But she's damn sure she didn't type those memos and her typewriter was an Olympia with a special superscript th key--they got selectrics in the "early 70's".(Next blogoshperic query just to nail that line of inquiry shut: Did Olympia make any Times-capable machines in that era? In case Killian was feeling feisty and typed that one himself?)

In the first paragraph the report says the CBS memos are "based on real documents" but I recall reading through again and not seeing that contention nailed down at all in the body of the article.

Talk amongst yourselves.

(PrntScrn is my friend, PrntScrn is my friend...)

Posted by: See-Dubya on September 14, 2004 07:05 PM

Isn't it so ironic. The left hurls insult after insult, lie after lie, hate, libel and slander against the right and our President and they simply can't get it to stick.

I think its not a testament so much to their bad organizational skills (which helps), but to the lack of truth to so many of their claims. The "Republican Attack Machine" is code name for having facts and using them. Richard Clarke and co. succumbed to the "Republican Attack Machine", and so have most major critics of the president.

However, the charges from the right and from the SBVT, no matter how derided as 'scurrilous' and 'discredited' and false, they stick. 'Cause they've got truth in them.

Every major attack of the left falls to pieces, and the people aren't going to believe Plan B, although they'll certaintly try to foist it on us.

We're winning the war of ideas, and its clear from the effectiveness of the right vs. the left in political charges and such.

Posted by: Rob on September 14, 2004 07:09 PM

She's the new Bettie Currie!

Posted by: See-Dubya on September 14, 2004 07:17 PM

No surprise about the "Cover your back" file; a military poster on (I think) Roger L. Simon's site mentioned a few days ago that there was such an entity as an "CYA" file that would be kept in a desk drawer; the important things were that (a) this was pretty much a verbal designation; NO file would actually have "CYA" as the subject line (b) CYA memos did not tend towards the self-accusatory; they were accounts of an action someone else had taken which you felt to be dangerous/dubious (c) they were destroyed once their relevance was over. I wish I could remember the OP's name, but go a few days back on Roger Simon and it should be there.

Posted by: Sonetka on September 14, 2004 07:37 PM

One more thing - Mrs. Knox apparently has forgotten that Bush's birthday was more than two months after the supposed "Get your exam" memo. Well, she can't be expected to remember the birthdays of who-knows-how-many pilots. But it does kind of suggest that she hasn't been paying quite as much attention as she could have.

Posted by: Sonetka on September 14, 2004 07:41 PM

Not my normal style to beat up on an old lady...but....

Mrs Knox can easily be checked to see if she is blowing smoke or has been extensively "prepped" and coached by Kerry/DNC/Moveon operatives by asking her details of any other officer's OER from 1973 to check her "memory".

What, she only knows details of Bush from 1973!!! Fancy that!!!!

Well.....why should she remember just him? Bush was a nobody back then, another junior officer in a herd of junior officers. What about the others who left early? What conversations does she recollect about those guys, or major TANG events Killian dealt with?

At least the old liberal bag was smart enough not to lie and find herself in a golden years goo-pile.

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Days before the woman was stabbed in the neck by a taxpayer-supported Cultural Enrichment Officer, in the same general area, another taxpayer-supported Cultural Enrichment Officer attacked a boy and bloodied his head with a brick.
What is the UK Regime's plan for protecting the citizens from the savage criminals they've foisted on the populace? They offer NONE. They do, however, have a plan for protecting the savage criminals from the citizens: The citizens must STAY CALM and not get angry and not share videos of citizens being attacked by savage criminals.
The public keeps saying "protect us from the foreign savages you have imported against our wishes and over our objections" and the UK branch of The Regime keeps proposing plans to protect the foreign savages from the public. Soclose to what the public is demanding, just, you know, the complete opposite.
Just a thought: Maybe you wouldn't have to worry about the public attacking the savage criminals if you actually introduced a plan to protect the public from the savage criminals. Maybe they wouldn't feel as if it was necessary for them to protect the public through self-help.

Courtney Subramiam, one of the "journalists" who "previewed" her questions for the decrepit and demented Biden so that he could "answer" it with a pre-scripted response, rewarded by promotion to president of the White House Press Corps

Bonchie
@bonchieredstate

hahahahaha

This is the lady who gave her question to Biden beforehand, and he had it written verbatim in his notes with her picture.

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Whoops! I posted about Dan Goldman losing the NY congressional primary. He might do that, but it won't be tonight -- the primary isn't held until June 23.

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Antisemitism? In the anti-Nazi Democrat Party? Sounds crazy, I know, but apparently the anti-Nazi Party wants to eliminate Jews.

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Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., on Platner: "We know that Graham has lived not your typical political experience. He's been very clear and open with his wife, and they worked through whatever they worked through. At the end of the day, this man has had 60 more town halls than Susan Collins has. He's winning the polls, he's willing to accept that he has grown as a person, and I think we should accept that."

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"I think you guys are all in a bubble here right now. The drip, drip that's actually happening is Americans are really, really hurt the fact that gas is still high, food is still high, they can't buy a home, you can't afford rent. They're not going to care about text messages and everything else like that that happened years ago, especially when it was worked out between spouses."

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Except he was running: His own wife turned the sexts over to his campaign.
And obviously Reuben Gallego didn't let his "political life" get in the way of his extramarital dating life:

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