Besides all the American Thinker points, as I've been trying to tell you Bill and Allah for months:

There is no such thing as an OETR!!!! And the only place I ever saw this acronym (or its "full name", Officer Effectiveness Training Report) is on Paul Lukasiak's glcq.com site!

The author MUST have used Lukasiak's site (if the author is not Lukasiak himself) as a basis for the forgeries.

It's a good tip, JFH. Let me tell you the truth: I didn't ignore you, and I didn't think you were necessarily wrong.

I just didn't want to start anything that could result in a libel suit, you know?

You had a hunch, and a good one, but I can't prove it, and so I've been wary of following up on that sort of tip which seems to point towards one person.

"RatherBiased asks a good question: When, exactly, did Dan Rather learn about Bill Burkett's rather colorful past?"

Balls.

I'm just a lower-middle-class Texan with absolutely no direct contacts in the politics business, and I knew who Burkett was as soon as I saw the name.

Rather's supposed to be this high-powered clued-in newsman with hotlines to all the players. There is no, repeat no, chance that anybody like that -- most especially somebody with relatives in the Austin political scene -- didn't know who Burkett was.

He's either lying or senile.

Regards,
Ric Locke

I thought the reference to "unimpeachable source" was to Conn, not Burkett.

Am I wrong on this?

My recollection, admittedly sketchy, is that CBS had some concerns about Burkett, which is why they were pressing him to say where he got the docs. That's when he lied and said he got them from Conn. My understanding is that this name satisfied them.

I don't think Lukasiak created the docs. I asked Paul, point-blank.

I can't say for sure, of course, but he strikes me as simply deluded, not malicious enough to forge documents.

Must my opinion, of course.

There's virtually no doubt that the forger read Lukasiak's site, though.

That's the only place I've found that mistakenly uses OETR. And Paul agrees it is his error.