SwiftVets.com

[ThaLeena]

This came in of the AP just 44 minutes ago.

Ex-Guardsman: I Contacted Kerry Campaign

44 minutes ago

By KELLEY SHANNON, Associated Press Writer

AUSTIN, Texas - A retired Texas National Guard official mentioned as a possible source for disputed documents about President Bush (news - web sites)'s service in the Guard said he passed along information to a former senator working with John Kerry (news - web sites)'s campaign.

In an Aug. 21 e-mail to a list of Texas Democrats, Bill Burkett said after getting through "seven layers of bureaucratic kids" in the Democrat's campaign, he talked with former Georgia senator Max Cleland about information that would counter criticism of Kerry's Vietnam War service. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the e-mail Saturday.

"I asked if they wanted to counterattack or ride this to ground and outlast it, not spending any money. (Cleland) said counterattack. So I gave them the information to do it with," Burkett wrote.

Burkett, who lives just outside of Abilene, wrote that no one at the Kerry campaign called him back.

The e-mail was distributed to a Yahoo list of Texas Democrats. The site, which had about 570 members Saturday, is not affiliated with the state party.

Republican National Committee (news - web sites) spokesman Jim Dyke suggested collaboration between Burkett and the Kerry campaign. "The trail of connections is becoming increasingly clear," he said.

"The Kerry campaign had absolutely nothing to do with these documents, no ifs, ands, or buts," spokesman David Wade said. "Jim Dyke inhabits the fantasy world of spin where George Bush (news - web sites) pretends we haven't lost millions of jobs and everything in Iraq (news - web sites) is coming up roses. He'd be better served getting answers from the president, not hurling baseless attacks."

Burkett, who identifies himself as a Democrat, did not return several phone messages left by The Associated Press over the past week. There was no answer at his telephone number Saturday.

Burkett's lawyer, David Van Os, a Democratic candidate for the Texas Supreme Court, issued a statement this week saying Burkett "no longer trusts any possible outcome of speaking to the press on any issue regarding George W. Bush."

Burkett, who retired from the National Guard in 1999, has been cited in media reports as a source for a CBS News "60 Minutes" story about documents allegedly written by one of Bush's former commanders that indicated the future president ignored an order to take a physical.

The authenticity of the documents has been called into question by some experts and relatives of the late Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, who supposedly wrote them when he supervised Bush in 1972 and 1973. One of the memos indicated that Killian had been pressured to sugarcoat Bush's performance.

CBS has stood by its reporting, but said the network would redouble its efforts to determine the authenticity of the documents.

Leading operatives for the Texas Democratic Party did not receive Burkett's August e-mail, said Kelly Fero, one of the state party's strategists.

"The Democrats who run the party and are sort of the main strategists in Texas never saw it," Fero said. "We have lots of groups of Democrats who communicate among themselves constantly by e-mail."

Burkett, 55, told the AP in a lengthy telephone interview in February that he now is a supporter of Democrats, although at the time he said he didn't necessarily back Kerry.

He said he overheard a conversation in 1997 between then-Gov. Bush's chief of staff, Joe Allbaugh, and then-Adjutant Gen. Daniel James of the Texas Air National Guard in which the two men spoke of getting rid of any military records that would "embarrass the governor."

Burkett said he saw documents from Bush's file discarded in a trash can few days later at Camp Mabry in Austin. Burkett described them as performance and pay documents. Allbaugh and James denied the allegations.

Burkett retired from the National Guard after more than 28 years of service because of medical reasons. He was involved in a lawsuit against the Guard over his medical benefits, which he lost on appeal.

___

Associated Press writer Liz Austin in Dallas contributed to this report


Someone has to be able to put is all together.

Admin Note - Please include a link to the AP story online - this post absolutely requires attribution. Thanks.

[fanningp]

The Yahoo Group in question is:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TexasDemocrat2/

You have to be approved by a moderator to become a member of the group to view messages tho....
_________________
Pete Fanning
US Navy, DP1, '84-'92
http://peterepublic.org

[ccr]

This is the crack smoking gun.

Very, very major admission.

My perspective on this story from day 1 has been the real story is the dirty tricks aspect.

This COULD be nail in coffin.

The American people are many things. Not the least of those is they are a fair people. They have no tolerence for political dirty tricks.
_________________
Whose side is John Kerry really on? Take this quiz and decide for yourself.

http://www.learnthat.com/quiz/

[eXcel]

Kerry's quote "Bring it on" is starting to make a LOT more sense.. Did he say it before or after this supposed email?

edit:
yahoo story:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=694&u=/ap/20040918/ap_on_el_pr/bush_guard_questions&printer=1

[ThaLeena]

Okay,not really good with the whole computer thing.


http://www.ap.org/ is the site, and story is

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BUSH_GUARD_QUESTIONS?SITE=VAROA&SECTION=HOME

The Yahoo site has the story above in 1st post, while the AP is edited a little differently. Same story though.

[Scott]

Thanks.
_________________
Bye bye, Boston Straggler!

[CandiM]

If I'm reading this and the slightly different one I read that's linked on Drudge right, he didn't say that he gave them to the Kerry campaign--Sounds more like he's saying that he just gave them to a bunch of Texas activist Democrats who aren't directly connected to the party operations or to the campaign, which is a different thing entirely--

I think there are a whole lot of details to this that need to be sorted out here--C
_________________
“I haven’t seen anyone milk this much out of a bad boat ride since Gilligan” -- Dennis Miller

[ThaLeena]

I do certainly admit that it does read differently once you really get into the story, but the title from the AP is "Ex-Guardsman: I Contacted Kerry Campaign."

[neverforget]

I believe we are seeing the first tangible evidence of an attempted non-military coup (I know, it's legally fraud) by Burkett, Cleland, the DNC as represented by the Texas Democrats, the Kerry campaign, and CBS. The hints of prior knowledge are going to now have a strong spotlight shown upon them and will be very revealing if the media does its job.

These people must go to jail. If, this pans out to be as widespread as I believe this is, this election is over.
_________________
US Army Security Agency
1965-1971

[poseidon]

[CandiM]

My guess is that the farthest up the food chain this will go is Cleland, if that far--

Not saying that I think that's as far up as it went, just as far as it'll go--If they can trace it to him, my bet is that he'll fall on his sword in an attempt to save Kerry--

It won't work--

Then again, there's no such thing as honor amongst that gang, so maybe not--C
_________________
“I haven’t seen anyone milk this much out of a bad boat ride since Gilligan” -- Dennis Miller

[ccr]

Cleland is far enough to bring it all down.
_________________
Whose side is John Kerry really on? Take this quiz and decide for yourself.

http://www.learnthat.com/quiz/

[CandiM]

[The Balloon Artist]

Amazing absolutely amazing. Some wacko in West Texas contacts the DNC and gets Mac Clelands attention. Faxes the documents to SeeBS and Dan Rather spends 2 episodes on them and his connections to the dems in West Texas is well documented. But the DNC is not involed in any way.

But the goings on of the night shift at Abu Graab (sp) were discussed by Cheney, Rummy, and Bush in the Oval office. hmmmmmm
_________________
What about John Kerry's four months in Vietnam qualify him to be president?
Al Gore was there for five.

[LewWaters]

According to one site I visited, Burkett wrote or stated in an article in the Houston Chronicle in February of this year, that his own charges were baseless, or something like that.

Anybody in the Houston area a suscriber that can access their archives free? I'd love to see him earlier claiming it was untrue, if he in fact did.
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Clark County Conservative