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.
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.
