Statement from RNC Communications Director Jim Dyke
Saturday, September 18, 2004
Contact: Christine Iverson 202-863-8614
Washington, DC—RNC Communications Director Jim Dyke made the following statement today
"Bill Burkett, Democrat activist and Kerry campaign supporter, passes information to the DNC; Kerry campaign surrogate Max Cleland discusses "valuable" information with Bill Burkett; Bill Burkett talks to "senior" Kerry campaign officials; an apparently unsuspecting news organization uses faked forged memos and an interview with Ben Barnes at the same time the Democratic National Committee launched Operation Fortunate Son; and Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill was among the first to call Ben Barnes and congratulate him after his interview. The trail of connections is becoming increasingly clear."
NEW YORK, Sept. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- A principal source for the CBS story about President Bush's National Guard duty was Bill Burkett, a disgruntled former Guard officer who lives in Baird, Texas, who says he was present at Guard headquarters in Austin in 1997 when a top aide to then Governor Bush ordered records sanitized to protect the Boss, Newsweek reports in the current issue. Typed memos from the early '70s suggesting officers were pressured to give Bush special treatment and "sugarcoat" increasingly negative evaluations were a central part of the CBS report.
| Other Guard officials disputed Burkett's account and the Bush aide involved, Joe Allbaugh, called it "absolute garbage." Burkett may have a motive to make trouble for the powers that be. In 1998, he grew gravely ill on a Guard mission to Panama, causing him to be hospitalized, and he suffered two nervous breakdowns. He unsuccessfully sued for medical expenses. | 
newsweek  |
Still, in theory, Burkett may have had access to any Guard records that, in a friend's words, "didn't make it to the shredder," report Chief Political Correspondent Howard Fineman and Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff in the September 20 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, September 13). Fellow officers say Burkett wasn't a crank, but rather a stickler for proper procedure-a classic whistle-blower type. Burkett was impressive enough to cause CBS producer Mary Mapes to fly to Texas to interview him. "There are only a couple of guys I would trust to be as perfectly honest and upfront as Bill," said Dennis Adams, a former Guard colleague. The White House, through Communications Director Dan Bartlett, called Burkett a "discredited source."
Newsweek also reports that a hard-core group within the John Kerry campaign is setting up a new "oppo" squad aimed at countering what they perceive as Republican-backed smears against Kerry. Tentatively called Sealords II-Kerry's Mekong Delta mission in Vietnam was known as Sealords -- the group has a $1 million budget and will be housed at the Democratic National Committee, where, one of its members says, the mission will be "message, debate prep, attack, attack."
bush guard documents newsweek article
"That's right, folks... Don't touch that dial Well, I am the slime from your video Oozin' along on your livingroom floor I am the slime from your video Can't stop the slime, people, lookit me go" ~ Frank Zappa
Former Guard official says he contacted Kerry campaign
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