That's right. He may be an obsessed looney but he is an impeccably honest one.

Did the Air Guard and the Army Guard share offices there in Houston? I thought all this time, from the various writings by Burkett that he was working quite close in the same building as Col. Killian.

My goodness, I just checked at veteransforpeace.org/what_do_you_say_032203.htm again - you're right, of course! It does say Army Guard. Early on (so much has happened, it seems like it was weeks ago) when I read that article of his, I only focused on "Guard" and didn't realize it's Army! Wow!

So that's strange that he would even have seen Air Guard personnel documents at all - like the ones in the trashcan he claims to have seen in 1997.

Also I now notice in this March 19, 2003 article of his, he now claims HE refused to alter these documents.

"...refusing to falsify readiness information and reports; confronting a fraudulent funding scheme which kept 'ghost' soldiers on the books for additional funding, and refusing to alter official personnel records [of George W. Bush]."

The brackets were in the original on the site.

But elsewhere (and I can't remember now where, but I'm still looking) he gives a very, very detailed description of how his co-worker walked him out to a large room to show him where OTHERS were allegedly vetting Bush's files and that's where he saw the trashcan.

Holy crap, I've been sceptical of your Burkett theory because I didn't think Burkett could make such a boneheaded mistake. But while I knew he was in the military, I simply assumed he was in the ANG. If he was in the Army, that changes things. Doesn't mean he knew what OETR meant, but he might have seen it and just assumed the ANG used a different acronym. Wouldn't jump out at him as blatantly wrong.

ARMY CONNECTION II

DAN RATHER PROFILES THE FORGER

Reference http://nyobserver.com/pages/frontpage1.asp September 15, 2004 2:36 pm (They seem to update the time every time I check there, so hopefully it will still contain this quote when you look.)

Here's an excerpt:

Mr. Rather said that it would require an exceptional amount of knowledge to craft a forgery—and not just the typographical kind. "You’d have to have an in-depth knowledge of Air Force manuals from 1971," he said. "You’d have to have Bush’s service record, you’d have to have the Air Force regulations from 1971, you’d have to know nearly all of the people involved directly at that time, including the squadron commander, who was Bush’s immediate superior, and his attitude at the time—you’d have to know all those things and weave all those things in."

********

Sounds like long time Bush attacker, COL. GERALD LECHLITER in his 36-page dissertation of August 2004 (possibly written earlier). It deals with the same subject matter as Michael Moore's 7-point checklist - internet posting of 2/11/04 and The Boston Globe 9/9/04 article is based on Lechliter's 36-pager (see redstate.org below).

In it, Lechliter shows his in-depth research of Air Force Manuals (if you search for "AFM" in that essay, it comes up 45 times) and he acknowledges assistance for his 36-pager from Martin Heldt, Lukasiak and two reporters at the Boston Globe, Latour and Walter Robinson (who wrote the 9/9/04 article).

....41, 42, 43, 44, 45 - I felt like the 60 Minutes clock counting down as I was counting the AFMs.

Links:
Lechliter's connection to the Globe: www.redstate.org/story/2004/9/10/135321/013. It also links to the 36-pager.
Lechliter's 36-page dissertation: www.glechliter.glcq.com/critical_analysis.htm
Michael Moore's 7-point checklist posted on 2/11/04: www.calpundit.com/archives/003240.html#102131
Info on Paul Lukasiak - at glcq.com, another Bush attacker, who claims to be in Philadelphia, but Fresh Air 9/14/04 at 12:40 pm found his ISP to be in Massachusetts. (Ace of Spades HQ site)
Info on Marty Heldt: see Spiny Norman's post at Ace of Spades HQ at September 12, 2004 06:33 PM - which quotes this post by "Brooks Gregory":

"When all of this crap began back in 1999, I was a political consultant for several Democratic candidates, as well as later being a senior consultant for Janet Reno in her run for Governor. I bought the document package from Marty Heldt and we subjected them to the most thorough investigation one could imagine. Why? Because if there was anything there, we damn sure wanted to use it. But guess what? Only two of those documents proved to be authentic and they were not even related to the charge being levelled. Many of them are so blatant in their alterations it is almost funny. Several purport to be signed by real live military personnel, yet they don't even know the proper format for a military date. -- Brooks Gregory 2004-01-28 08:27:57 PST" at Google Newsgroup: talk.politics.misc.

OETR - it appears spelled out fully on page one of Lechliter's 36-pager:

" Bush’s Performance as Documented on AF Form  77, “Officer Effectiveness/Training Report” (F77)."

Someone with low IQ and unfamiliarity with AIR Guard (vs. ARMY Guard where Burkett was) might think it's "OETR" forgetting there's a slash in between.

So, bottom line: A "mastermind" writes the thesis, with the help of various anti-Bush researchers and journalists, then a flunky (Heldt, Burkett, whoever) does the grunt work to actually create the forgeries, then CBS completes the circle by publishing it.

THAT'S RICO ! (federal and civil - conspiracy to commit fraud).

poker me up