For Immediate Release: November 4, 2000

Full documents available at: www.smokingjet.com

Bush Aides Possibly Altered National Guard Records To Conceal Grounding and Missed Duty

by Bob Fertik

Aides to Texas Governor George W. Bush visited the Air National Guard archives at Camp Mabry in 1997 and possibly altered Bush's military service records to conceal Bush's grounding from flight in 1972 and subsequent missed duty, according to a former senior official of the Texas National Guard.

Bill Burkett, a Lt. Colonel who was the State Plans Officer of the Texas National Guard at the time, said Bush operative Dan Bartlett headed a high- level operation to "scrub" Bush's Air National Guard record, to make sure it was in synch with the biography that the campaign was preparing.

The book, "A Charge to Keep," was authored by Bush and his principal spokeswoman, Karen Hughes. Hughes was recently exposed during the DUI sidebar involving reporter Wayne Slater as the person who strictly controls what Bush is allowed to say.

At the time, Bartlett was Governor Bush's liaison to the Texas National Guard. Bartlett is now the campaign spokesman who has provided misleading information to the press on several occasions about Bush's military service.

In "A Charge to Keep," Bush briefly mentioned his National Guard service. After completing flight training in June 1970, Bush wrote, "I continued flying with my unit for the next several years."

In fact, according to reports by the Boston Globe, Democrats.com and TomPaine.com, Bush stopped flying only 22 months later in April 1972. He was subsequently grounded from flight on August 1, 1972 because he "failed to accomplish his annual physical."

There is no mention of the grounding in Bush's biography, which falsely implies that Bush continued flying until he left the National Guard.

When questioned by the press, Bush spokesman Dan Bartlett has offered several different reasons for this grounding. Initially Bartlett said that Bush could not get to Houston for his physical, but this was proved wrong (a lie!) when it was shown that Bush could have visited flight surgeons stationed in Alabama. Bartlett then said the F-102 fighter that Bush was trained to fly was removed from service, but this was proved wrong (a lie!)when it was shown that the F-102 remained in service in Bush's unit for two more years.

Democrats.com has speculated that Bush skipped his annual physical in 1972 because the Pentagon that year imposed random drug testing for the first time, and Bush feared he would fail the exam. Bush has admitted drinking heavily at the time, and has refused to deny using cocaine before 1974. Similar allegations have been reported in the Times of London and the New York Post.

Democrats.com has stressed the significance of Bush's grounding. Bush's pilot training cost the government nearly $1 million, and this was a huge investment that the Pentagon would not lightly abandon with two years remaining of a pilot's obligation. Moreover, pilots were badly needed at the time because of the war in Vietnam.

According to Democrats.com, Bush's grounding would normally have been reviewed by a Flight Inquiry Board of three senior officers, but there is no record that such a board was convened in Bush's case. Democrats.com has called for Bush to reveal his full military records, to put these and other charges to rest.

Moreover, Democrats.com and TomPaine.com have revealed that Bush did not report for duty for at least a year after he stopped flying, and possibly two years. Bush's official record shows no duty after April 1972, and his superior officers in both Alabama and Texas say they never saw him after that.

An official report issued on April 30, 1973 says "Lt. Bush has not been observed at this unit during the period of this report," from May 1 1972 to April 30, 1973. Rewards for proof that Bush reported for duty have been offered in Alabama and Texas and on the Internet, but no one has claimed the rewards.

During the campaign, Bush has attempted to fend off charges that he did not report for duty. When charges were raised about the time he spent in Alabama in the fall of 1972, Bush insisted that he reported for duty. "I can't remember what I did. I just - I fulfilled my obligation," he said. Bush has specifically disputed the recollection of ret. Brig. Gen. William Turnipseed, who says he is "dead-certain" that Bush did not report for duty in Alabama. ''I read the comments from the guy who said he doesn't remember me being there, but I remember being there," Bush said.

Internet activists led by Iowa farmer Martin Heldt and retired Air National Guard pilot Bob Rogers have been campaigning to expose Bush's failure to report for duty since May 23, 2000, when the Boston Globe first reported on a "one-year gap" in Bush's military duty. Heldt created a discussion board at Salon Magazine charging that Bush was "AWOL", which spurred an explosion of grassroots Internet activism.

Heldt and Rogers filed a Freedom of Information Act request for Bush's military records, which provided overwhelming evidence of Bush's missed duty, and served as the basis of the articles in Democrats.com and TomPaine.com.

On Thursday, Congressional Medal of Honor recipients Bob Kerrey and Daniel Inouye brought these charges to the attention of the national media, which has almost entirely ignored the work of Heldt and Rogers. "The question is where were you, Governor Bush?," said Inouye. "During my service, if I missed training for two years, at the least, I would have been court- martialed. I would have been placed in prison," he said.

To rebut this charge, the Bush campaign has relied on two mysterious documents. The documents are neither dated nor signed, which makes their legitimacy entirely questionable. Moreover, the document that the campaign claims covers the year from May 1972 to May 1973 is badly torn and can only be linked to Lt. George W. Bush by the letter "W". Finally, these documents are directly contradicted by Bush's official record, several signed memoranda, and the testimony of several witnesses.

Still, both the New York Times and George Magazine have used these mysterious documents as the basis for dismissing all of the other documents and witnesses which overwhelmingly show that Bush did not report for duty.

Thus, the assertion by Bill Burkett that Dan Bartlett and his operatives modified Bush's Air National Guard records takes on exceptional significance. Bartlett's "scrubbing" operation in 1997 could have inserted these mysterious documents, or removed significant information from the torn document. In addition, Bartlett's operation could have removed or altered other revealing documents.

Indeed, there is corroborating evidence that Bush campaign operatives have devoted considerable effort to "scrubbing" public records to conceal other evidence of Bush's wrongdoing. For example, Bush got a new driver's license after he was elected Governor, which appears to be completely unprecedented. This prevented reporters from discovering Bush's DUI arrest in Maine in 1976.

This new license may also be concealing a subsequent DUI or drug arrest in 1972 or 1973, when Bush went to work with an inner-city community service group in Houston called Project PULL. There has been considerable speculation that Bush performed this work as a form of alternative sentencing for a DUI or drug arrest, but reporters have been stymied by the fact that Bush's 1995 driver's license contains no prior information.

Moreover, Newsweek reported on July 9, 2000 that the Bush campaign "launched a secretive research operation designed to scour all records relating to his Vietnam-era service" during preparation for Bush's 1998 re- election campaign. They paid "hard-nosed Dallas lawyer named Harriet Miers" $19,000 to review the records. According to Newsweek, one result of her work was to deflect charges that former Texas House Speaker Ben Barnes helped Bush get into the Texas Air National Guard despite low qualifications and a long waiting list. Barnes was later forced to testify under oath that he helped Bush.

The same Newsweek article also discusses the absence of evidence that Bush fulfilled his orders to report for duty in Alabama in the fall of 1972. According to the article, "Dan Bartlett conceded that the records 'were either lost or misplaced... we are not sure.'" If Burkett's charges are true, Bartlett may have had a hand in losing or misplacing these records.

The Newsweek article also credits the Bush operation with locating as a corroborating witness "an old girlfriend, Emily Marks, who got to know Bush in Alabama. Marks said Bush told her he had to go back to Montgomery after the election to make up some reserve requirements. 'This corroborates what the governor has been saying,' Bartlett said." However, Marks told the Decatur Daily that she "never actually drove him to Guard duty."

Newsweek concluded that: "For the moment, at least, it seemed that Bush's damage-control team had gotten matters under control again."

Not any more.

-- Cherri (sams@brigadoon.com), November 05, 2000

Cherri,

"There is no mention of the grounding in Bush's biography, which FALSELY IMPLIES that Bush comtinued flying until he left the National Guard".

"Falsely implies", huh?

What does this imply?

"I did not have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky".

"Falsely implies", indeed.

-- J (Y2J@home.comm), November 05, 2000.

Just how many tags did you leave open?

-- J (Y2J@home.comm), November 05, 2000.

J, 2 wrongs don't make a right. Where is the outrage from the very same people who raised hell about the "Miss Lewinsky" incident? All of a sudden, the shoe is on the other foot, and it seems to have hindered their ability to speak. LOL

-- (you.should@be.outraged), November 05, 2000.

The big difference for those of you that are logically impaired is that Clinton and his idiot savant Gore are misbehaving, lying, and deceiving while BIN OFFICEB. GWB has never been accused of any indiscretions during his tenure as Governor of Texas. Can you see the difference here? If not, you are just too fucking stupid to discuss important matters with. Out!

-- I (h@ve.spoken), November 05, 2000.

LOL! You keep saying everyone else is "too fucking stupid", but in reality you are in denial and actually talking about yourself.

Bush never did anything wrong while Governor? LMAO - give us a break!

PERJURY - just one of many "indiscretions"

-- (I@have.farted), November 05, 2000.

Hey J go fuck yourself.

If you cant see the difference between an sexual affair and getting kicked out of the National Guard for drug use during the Vietam War...well, just go fuck yourself.

-- GFY (@ .), November 05, 2000.

And BTW dumbass, its GORE not Clinton that's running for office.

Moron.

-- LOL (@ .), November 05, 2000.

smokingjet.com? This is your source? Shall we all leave our brains at home and go read? This thing gets funnier by the minute, we're being flooded by the New Gary North's of the Presidential Election doomsday machine....

The first casualty when war comes is truth." Sen. Hiram Johnson (1917)

-- David (David@bzn.com), November 05, 2000.

smokingjet.com? This is your source?

As opposed to say, WorldNet Daily?

-- (hmm@hmm.hmm), November 05, 2000.

Not everyone else needle dick, just you.

-- I (h@ve.spoken), November 05, 2000.

David FF is right. Do you have any credible sources Cherri?

-- Tinman Jones (calvinist_meanie@baptistmail.com), November 05, 2000.

GFY is obviously a product of the public indoctrination system. My what colorful language he uses when he gets angry.

Now, now, GFY, remember that it is not politically correct to use such language.

Also, based on your examples of spelling and punctuation, I wouldn't be calling too many people "moron" if I were you.

-- J (Y2J@home.comm), November 05, 2000.

If you go to this website you can click on the links provided and see copies of GW Bush's military orders that were gotten through the freedom of information act.

http://www.tompaine.com/opinion/2000/09/27/index.html

-- Cherri (sams@brigadoon.com), November 06, 2000.

Politically correct language? You mean like "He's a major leage asshole"?

BWHAHAHAHHAHAH

-- LOL (@J.the.fool), November 06, 2000.

Cherri, for someone that so faithfully served your country, I am amazed that you would support someone like Gore and by extension his draft dodging pimp master. You obviously have lost any current contact with our military or you would not even waste your spit on Gore. I say this not to defend GWB but to highlight the sad direction that Clinton/Gore have taken our armed forces. Wake up girl!

-- I (h@ve.spoken), November 06, 2000.

I say this not to defend GWB but to highlight the sad direction that Clinton/Gore have taken our armed forces.

Indeed, this appears to be the main reason people are voting for Bush. Not for anything that he has said or done, but simply because he is not Al Gore.

-- (hmm@hmm.hmm), November 06, 2000.

I LOVE the direction that our armed forces are going. Use high technology weaponry so that men and women need not place themselves at risk. IT'S ABOUT TIME!

-- (soldier@go.home), November 06, 2000.

Not everyone else needle dick, just you.

-- I (h@ve.spoken), November 05, 2000.

Um, hi Hawk, great to see ya, um, I 'think'.

-- consumer (shh@aol.com), November 06, 2000.

Consumer dear,

You are correct in assuming that our dear friend Hawk is actively with us but I am not he. You will find the Hawkster posting under many different meaningless handles just as he said he would. He is a big fan of George Bush and his comments are splattered though out many threads. I admire his stand even though he is up to his lips in bullshit.

I hope that everyone on this forum will get your ass to the polls tomorrow where your input will really count for something. And please donBt forget, all Democrats are scheduled to vote on Wednesday. Happy Trails!

-- I (h@ve.spoken), November 06, 2000.

Dear I:

Sorry for the confusion, but you do bare a sweet resemblence to my dear old friend Hawk.

Also, thanks for the tip on the polls, as I shall be attending on Wednesday, I am sooooo glad that you took the time to let me know the real voting day is Wed. Those damn Media people, told us all it was Tomorrow, I KNEW they were lying. But you my dear one, are a true friend and a scholar and most noble to inform me of the correct day.

To wit I say------ A HEARTY thnks.

-- consumer (shh@aol.com), November 06, 2000.

GFY,

You silly boy, we Republicans don't care if we are politically correct or not. It is you Democrats who care about political correctness.

Also, since you have called me both a moron and a fool, I thought it only appropriate to point out to you that "leage" is not the correct way to spell the word "league".

You should run along now; you don't want to be late for your job at Taco Bell.

-- J (Y2J@home.comm), November 06, 2000.