A Desperate Campaign, an Eager Media, and Fraudulent Documents

George C. Landrith

John Kerry's campaign has been in a free fall since proclaiming he was "reporting for duty" at the Democratic Convention. Then came along Dan Rather and CBS News to Kerry's rescue. The story was perfect Š it even had "documentation" that young Lt. George W. Bush did not complete his service in the National Guard. There is only one problem for Kerry, Rather and CBS - the story is based on a fraud. The documents were forgeries and their key source was untruthful.

The documents were purportedly written in 1972 and 1973 by one of Bush's commanders, Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, who died in 1984. But forensic document experts say that the memos are so obviously forgeries that it is surprising CBS ran the story.

William Flynn, a nationally renowned forensic document expert, said, "These sure look like forgeries ... these documents could not have existed" in the 1970s. Flynn concludes that the documents are a "hoax."

Richard Polt, a professor at Xavier University and an expert on typewriters, said, "...they are crude and amazingly foolish forgeries. I'm a Kerry supporter, but I won't let that cloud my objective judgment. I am 99% sure these documents were not produced in the early 1970s."

Gary Killian, the son of Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, said the documents did not come from his family and they are "very dubious" because the signatures were not his father's and the wording was not his father's style. He said his father thought very highly of young Lt. George W. Bush. In fact, unquestionably authentic National Guard documents show that Lt. Col. Killian rated Lt. Bush "an exceptionally fine young officer and pilot."

But beyond all this, there at least six reasons even an untrained eye can tell the documents are forgeries.

First, the forged documents are not monospaced, which was standard for typewriters in the 1970s. Instead, the forgeries are proportionally spaced, which is the standard for current word processors Š which did not exist in 1973. (In monospaced format, all letters, whether wide or thin, are spaced the same. In proportional spacing, thin letters like "i" take less space than wide letters like "M.")

Second, if one retypes the forged documents using Microsoft Word with the default settings, a perfect copy is produced. The spacing, the font, the line height, even the line breaks are all exactly the same as on the forged documents.

Third, the forgeries use a font called Times New Roman, which was not available to the public in 1973. But the font is the current default setting in Microsoft Word.

Fourth, a 1970s typewriter could not produce the apostrophes in the forgeries. Apostrophes produced by 1970s typewriters were straight vertical marks with no curlicues. The apostrophes in the forged documents were perfect copies of those produced by current word processors.

Fifth, the forged documents used small superscripts to describe the 111th Fighter Squadron. The "th" after the number is much smaller than the other text. However, 1970s typewriters produce the "th" in the same size as surrounding text.

Sixth, one of the forged memos named a Col. Walter "Buck" Staudt as pressuring others to "sugar coat" the record. However, Col. Staudt retired and was honorably discharged 18 months before the date on the forged memo.

Notwithstanding all these warning signs, Dan Rather was so excited to have the gotcha story of the year blasting Bush that he failed to notice what average Joes on the Internet could plainly see - the basis of his story was a fraud.

To make matters worse, Rather's star witness, Ben Barnes, who claimed he pulled strings to get young George W. Bush into the National Guard, turns out to have no credibility. Only a few years ago, he said he never helped Bush enter the National Guard. Today, as a key fundraiser for John Kerry, he says otherwise. Barnes' own daughter laments her father's story as false, politically motivated, and an opportunistic way to sell his upcoming book.

Now the only questions to be answered are who forged the documents and who gave them to the willing and useful dupe, Dan Rather. It now appears there are close ties to Kerry's campaign.

Pat Caddell, a long time Democratic strategist, opined that if the documents are proved to be forgeries the presidential race "is over" - repeating twice, "It would be the end of the race." Others have suggested that Dan Rather may have ensured the reelection of George Bush. WouldnÕt that be a surprise?

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Mr. Landrith is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was Business Editor of the Virginia Journal of Law and Politics. He had a successful law practice in business and litigation. In 1994 and 1996, Mr. Landrith was a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia's Fifth Congressional District. He served on the Albemarle County School Board. Mr. Landrith is an adjunct professor at the George Mason School of Law. He is recognized as an authority on constitutional law and jurisprudence, federalism, global warming, and property rights.

george@ff.org