Further scrutiny lessens doubts on Bush memos

[seemslikeadream]

Further scrutiny lessens doubts on Bush memos
Some skeptics now say IBM typewriter could have been used

After CBS News trumpeted newly discovered documents Wednesday that referred to a 1973 effort to "sugar coat" President Bush's service record in the Texas Air National Guard, the network almost immediately faced charges that the memos were forgeries with typography that was not available on typewriters used at that time.

But specialists interviewed by the Globe and some other news organizations say the specialized characters used in the documents, and the type format, were common to electric typewriters in wide use in the early 1970s, when Bush was a first lieutenant.

Philip Bouffard, a forensic document examiner in Ohio who has analyzed typewritten samples for 30 years, had expressed suspicions about the documents in an interview with the New York Times, one in a wave of similar media reports. But Bouffard told the Globe Friday that after further study, he now believed the documents could have been prepared on an IBM Selectric Composer typewriter available at the time.

Analysts who have examined the documents focus on several facets of their typography, among them the use of a curved apostrophe, a raised, or superscript, "th," and the proportional spacing between the characters -- spacing that varies with the width of the letters. In older typewriters, each letter was allotted the same space.

more
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/09/11/MNGO68NEKR1.DTL

[Bozita]

1. Wish they'd saved this for the Sunday paper ...

... but a good article nevertheless.

[readmylips]

2. That is the purpose, to Lessen AWOL's guilt...

I can't believe CNN did a 5 minute presentation on behalf of bush. CNN was not questioning why there's such a huge gap in bush's military record, why no one shows up to be his buddy?...etc. The whole CNN presentation was to prove that the papers were a forgery....bush in the clear.

That is exactly how the framed the Kerry...did not earn his medals crap...they left up to Kerry to defend himself not only the swift lier, but against the media reporting. God knows that's bad enough Fox is a round the clock republican network. The white supremacy network.

[Judi Lynn]

3. If it weren't important for Kerry's campaign to move along briskly

you could say it was funny seeing the random, massive panic, and heavy gibbering being engaged as the freepworld ran amok, grasping at puzzling, pathetic straws.

Anything to keep their smelly kingdom intact.

[MaryH]

4. Dan Rather Backed up his story last nite

and in the strongest terms stood by the story and backed it up with expert testimony.

Not a good idea to mess with Dan Rather. He is always etremely careful about the information he puts out.

[Moderator]

5. Duplicate

same article with a different headline

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=818446