Ex-officer: Bush file's 'cleansed'

[Feanorcurufinwe]

As Texas Gov. George W. Bush prepared to run for president in the late 1990s, top-ranking Texas National Guard officers and Bush advisers discussed ways to limit the release of potentially embarrassing details from Bush's military records, a former senior officer of the Texas Guard said Wednesday.

A second former Texas Guard official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, was told by a participant that commanders and Bush advisers were particularly worried about mentions in the records of arrests of Bush before he joined the National Guard in 1968, the second official said. Bill Burkett, then a top adviser to the state Guard commander, said he overheard conversations in which superiors discussed "cleansing" the file of damaging information.

<snip>

The nature of what was blacked out in Bush's records is important because certain legal problems, such as drug or alcohol violations, could have been a basis for denying an applicant entry into the Guard or pilot training. Admission to the Guard and to pilot school was highly competitive at that time, the height of the Vietnam War.

<snip>

Burkett says that the state Guard commander, Maj. Gen. Daniel James III, discussed "cleansing" Bush's military files of embarrassing or incriminating documents in the summer of 1997. At the time, Burkett was a lieutenant colonel and a chief adviser to James. He says he was just outside James' open office door when his boss discussed the records on a speakerphone with Joe Allbaugh, who was then Gov. Bush's chief of staff.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-02-11-bush-guard-usat_x.htm

The contrast between Kerry war/anti-war heroism and Bush's cowardice and duplicity couldn't be more glaring.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

1. No one at DU is interested in the fact that Bush had his file purged?

lol, Drudge's rumors about Kerry's sex life are more important, I guess.

[ET Awful]

4. I find it very interesting. . . .

Especially considering the fact that there are now multiple people corraborating Burketts story.

As to Kerry's alleged fling . . . I'll say the same thing I said with Clinton. . . WHO GIVES A RATS ASS???? :)

[MoonRiver]

11. Only those rats who don't get any ass!

:evilgrin:

[aquart]

7. Knew about the file purge four years ago.

So did anyone at Table Talk. I'm not excited because it's old news.

I'm entertained that the rest of America is learning it now.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

10. 2004 is gonna be a good year to be a Democrat!

[Devil Dog Dem]

2. This SHOULD be a bombshell, but probably won't be.

Could you imagine if this had been Clinton or Gore?

[Terwilliger]

3. PU-PUSH IT REAL GOOD!

*hands up in the ayuh*

[robsul82]

5. I already posted this, and then the mods moved it.

Grr.

Later.

RJS

[Feanorcurufinwe]

8. Well, this is about primary politics, because it helps Kerry the most

and because it helps all our candidates in general.

I have no idea why the mods decided we shouldn't talk about it here.

[YouMustBeKiddingMe]

6. I love it!!

I wonder who finally gave the mainstream press permission to start covering Bush honestly?

[Feanorcurufinwe]

9. BUSH A NO-SHOW AT ALABAMA BASE, SAYS MEMPHIAN

Two members of the Air National Guard unit that President George W. Bush allegedly served with as a young Guard flyer in 1972 had been told to expect him and were on the lookout for him. He never showed, however; of that both Bob Mintz and Paul Bishop are certain.

<snip>

Recalls Memphian Mintz, now 63: “I remember that I heard someone was coming to drill with us from Texas. And it was implied that it was somebody with political influence. I was a young bachelor then. I was looking for somebody to prowl around with.” But, says Mintz, that “somebody” -- better known to the world now as the president of the United States -- never showed up at Dannelly in 1972. Nor in 1973, nor at any time that Mintz, a FedEx pilot now and an Eastern Airlines pilot then, when he was a reserve first lieutenant at Dannelly, can remember.

“And I was looking for him,” repeated Mintz, who said that he assumed that Bush “changed his mind and went somewhere else” to do his substitute drill. It was not “somewhere else,” however, but the 187th Air National Guard Tactical squadron at Dannelly to which the young Texas flyer had requested transfer from his regular Texas unit – the reason being Bush’s wish to work in Alabama on the ultimately unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign of family friend Winton "Red" Blount.

<snip>


“There’s no way we wouldn’t have noticed a strange rooster in the henhouse, especially since we were looking for him,” insists Mintz, who has pored over documents relating to the matter now making their way around the Internet. One of these is a piece of correspondence addressed to the 187th’s commanding officer, then Lt. Col. William Turnipseed, concerning Bush’s redeployment. Mintz remembers a good deal of base scuttlebutt at the time about the letter, which clearly identifies Bush as the transferring party. “It couldn’t be anybody else. No one ever did that again, as far as I know.” In any case, he is certain that nobody else in that time frame, 1972-73, requested such a transfer into Dannelly.

http://www.memphisflyer.com/content.asp?ID=2834&onthefly=1