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September 14, 2004

"Someone from the Army," Part II

Down below I was rather sarcastic about Ms. Knox's suggestion that "someone from the Army" might have typed up the forgeries, based upon seeing the actual documents previously.

I was thinking, "She's trying to send us looking at someone from the Army, because she knows/suspects it's someone from the Air National Guard."

But, gee willickers, turns out that maybe I forgot who was who among the players. Cabal of Doom reminds me:

For instance, she said, the use of the words “billets” and a reference to the “administrative officer” of Mr. Bush’s squadron reflect Army terminology rather than the Air National Guard. Some news reports attribute the CBS reports to a former Army National Guard officer who has a longstanding dispute with the Guard and has previously maintained that the president’s record was sanitized.

So let me take back my sarcasm about looking at "someone from the Army." Let's cast a wide net here. We don't want to leave any stone unturned.

Kerry/Rather Spot opens the New York Times and finds that one particular stone is getting a bit turned:

But one person at CBS, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed a report in Newsweek that Bill Burkett, a retired National Guard officer who has charged that senior aides to then-Gov. Bush had ordered Guard officials to remove damaging information from Mr. Bush's military personnel files, had been a source of the report. This person did not know the exact role he played. Mr. Burkett declined to return telephone calls to his home near Abilene, Tex. His lawyer, David Van Os, on Tuesday repeatedly refused to say in a telephone interview whether the officer had played a part in supplying the disputed documents to CBS. Mr. Van Os said "the real story is and should be, where was George Bush?" and that Mr. Burkett "is not the proper object of attention."
Mr. Van Os called Mr. Burkett "a man of impeccable honesty who would not permit himself to be a party to anything fake, fraudulent or phony."

It's not fraudulent if you're creating a "forgery" out of "the truth," of course.

Update: And remember Allah's argument that someone from the ANG wouldn't have made the acronymic errors seen in the forgeries.

Not to cast any suspicions, but Mr. Bill Burkett was not in the Air National Guard. In fact, he was in the Army National Guard.

Someone from the army, as it turns out.

posted by Ace at 11:14 PM

Comments

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

Posted by: Eric Pobirs on September 14, 2004 11:42 PM

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.

Posted by: BR on September 15, 2004 04:43 AM

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.

Posted by: BR on September 15, 2004 05:53 AM

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.

Posted by: Phil on September 15, 2004 08:22 AM

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.

Posted by: BR on September 15, 2004 07:32 PM

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).

Posted by: BR on September 15, 2004 08:41 PM

poker me up

Posted by: poker me up on December 29, 2004 02:28 PM

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Top Headlines

TJM definitively ranks the films of Alfred Hitchcock

@KFILE 21m

Politico is reporting that multiple people have abruptly resigned from Eric Swalwell's gubernatorial campaign: "Members of senior leadership have departed the campaign, including Courtni Pugh, a strategic adviser who served as Swalwell's top liaison to organized labor groups."

So the campaign is collapsing due to the truth of the sexual harassment allegations.
That hissing sound you hear is the air going out of the Swalwell campaign. UPDATE: No it wasn't, it was just Swalwell one-cheek-sneaking out a fart on camera
Eric Swalwell more like Eric Farewell amirite
thanks to weft-cut loop.

This is the dumbest AI bullslop I've seen in a while: the CIA can use "quantum magnetometry" to track an individual man's heartbeat from twelve miles away
I wouldn't click on it, it's not interesting, it's just stupid clickslop. I just want to share my annoyance with you.

Oil prices plunge on bizarre realization that Eric Swalwell may actually be straight. A rapey molester, allegedly, but a straight one.

Artemis II Crew releases clearest images of the Far Side yet recorded

Classic Rock Mystery Click
This is super-obscure and I only barely remember it. Given that, I'll give you the hint that it's by the Red Rocker.
And I guess you think you've got it made
Oh, but then, you never were afraid
Of anything that you've left behind
Oh, but it's alright with me now
'Cause I'll get back up somehow
And with a little luck, yes, I'm bound to win
Now twenty people will tell me it's not obscure, it was huge in their hometown and played at their prom. That's how it usually goes. When I linked Donnie Iris's "Love is Like a Rock," everyone said they knew that one and that his other song (which I didn't know at all) Ah Leah! was huge in their area.

Sarah Longwell spotting

Tuq'r's makeover is 100!

Alfred Hitchcock learns to talk with TJM

Ryan Long goes to the No Kings rally to pick up young liberal hotties and is greatly disappointed in the quality of the mish
thanks to stevey

You know we "joke" about the GOPe just "conserving" leftist things?
David French just posted:

Populists ask what conservativism has ever conserved?
Well its about to conserve birthright citizenship!
Posted by: 18-1

I couldn't hate this queen of the cuck-chair more if it paid seven figures and came with a corner office.

TJM definitively ranks the films of John Boorman.

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Podcast: CBD and Sefton talk birthright citizenship, the 14th Amendment and SCOTUS, no boots in Iran, Artemis II and refocusing NASA, the NBA's hatred of everything non-woke, and more!

In more marketing for Project Hail Mary, scientists say they've found the biosigns indicating life growing on an alien planet. It's not proof, just signatures of chemicals that are produced by biological metabolism, and it could be nothing, but scientists think it's a strong sign that this planet is inhabited by something.

In a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, a team of scientists announced the detection of dimethyl sulfide (along with a similar detection of dimethyl disulfide) in the atmosphere of an exoplanet called K2-18b. This is actually the second detection of dimethyl sulfide made on this planet, following a tentative detection in 2023.
Tons of chemicals are detected in the atmospheres of celestial objects every day. But dimethyl sulfide is different, because on Earth, it's only produced by living organisms.
"It is a shock to the system," Nikku Madhusudhan, first author on the paper, told the New York Times. "We spent an enormous amount of time just trying to get rid of the signal."

He means they tried to prove the signal was caused by things other than dimethyl sulfide but they could not.

Artemis moon shot a go, scheduled for 6:24 Eastern time tonight
Great marketing arranged by Amazon to promote Project Hail Mary. Okay not really but it does work out that way.

TJM talks John Boorman, director of Excalibur

Good rickroll

What? Skeleton of the most famous Musketeer, D'Artagnan, possibly discovered in Dutch church closet.
Dumas picked four names of real musketeers out of a history book, D'Artagnan, Athos, Aramis, and Porthos. So there was an actual D'Artagnan, though he made most of the story up. (Or, you know, all of it.)*

Charles de Batz de Castelmore, known as d'Artagnan, the famous musketeer of Kings Louis XIII and Louis XIV, spent his life in the service of the French crown.
The Gascon nobleman inspired Alexandre Dumas's hero in "The Three Musketeers" in the 19th century, a character now known worldwide thanks to the novel and numerous film adaptations.
D'Artagnan was killed during the siege of Maastricht in 1673, and there is a statue honoring the musketeer in the city. His final resting place has remained a mystery ever since.

A lot of Dumas's stories are based on bits of real history. The plot of the >Three Musketeers, about trying to recover lost diamonds from the queen's necklace, was cribbed from the then-almost-contemporaneous Affair of the Queen's Necklace. And the Man in the Iron Mask is based on real accounts of a prisoner forced to wear a mask (though I think it was a velvet mask).
* Oh, I should mention, Dumas says all this, about finding the names in an old book, in the prologue to his novel. But authors lie a lot. They frequently present fictions as based on historic fact. The twist is, he was actually telling the truth here. At least about these four musketeers having actually existed and served under Louis XIV.
Fun fact: You know the beginning of A Fistful of Dollars where the local gunslingers make fun of Clint Eastwood's donkey and Eastwood demands they apologize to the donkey? That's lifted from The Three Musketeers. Rochefort mocks D'Artagnan's old, brokedown farm horse and D'Artagnan is incensed.

A commenter asked which should be read first, The Hobbit of LOTR?
Easy, no question -- read The Hobbit first. It's actually the start of the story and comes first chronologically. It sets up some major characters and major pieces in play in LOTR.
Also, the Hobbit is Beginner-Friendly, which LOTR isn't. The Hobbit really is a delightful book, and a fast read. It's chatty, it's casual, it's exciting, and it's funny. In that dry cheeky British humor way. I love that the narrator is constantly making little asides and commentary, like he's just sitting next to you telling you this story as it occurs to him.
LOTR is a very long story. Fifteen hundred pages or so. The Hobbit is relatively short and very punchy and easy to read. If you don't like The Hobbit, you can skip out on LOTR. If you do like it, you'll be primed to read LOTR.
Oh, I should say: The Hobbit is written as if it's for children, but one of those smart children's stories that are also for adults. Don't worry, there's also real fighting and violence and horror in it, too.
LOTR is written for adults. (It's said that Tolkien wrote both for his children, but LOTR was written 17 years later, when his children were adults.) Some might not like The Hobbit due to its sometimes frivolous tone. Me, I love it. I find it constantly amusing. Both are really good but there is a starkly different tone to both. LOTR is epic, grand, and serious, about a world war, The Hobbit is light and breezy, and about a heist. Though a heist that culminates in a war for the spoils.