CBS News soon created an "independent" board, co-chaired by former President George H.W. Bush's Attorney General Richard Thornburgh, to examine the procedures followed by Mapes and other CBS producers, not the question of whether Bush actually had blown off his National Guard duties.
The investigation concluded that Mapes and three other producers had violated internal CBS protocols although the panel could not establish definitively whether the questioned documents were indeed forgeries. Despite her past accomplishments, including the Abu Ghraib disclosures, Mapes was booted out of CBS along with the other producers. Rather was soon to follow.
It seems that even an honest mistake is a firing offense when a member of the powerful Bush Family is involved.
In his new memoir, Bush gloats over the outcome. Referring to the "60 Minutes-2" broadcast, Bush wrote, "I was amazed and disgusted. Dan Rather had aired a report influencing a presidential election based on a fake document. Before long, he was out of a job. So was his producer. After years of false allegations, the Guard questions finally began to abate."
But Bush left out the context for the CBS review of his spotty National Guard record. During the summer of 2004, pro-Bush groups, including the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth, had lodged false accusations against Sen. John Kerry by claiming that the Democratic nominee exaggerated his heroism during combat in Vietnam.
At the Republican National Convention that re-nominated Bush, pro-Bush delegates wore Purple Heart Band-Aids as a way to mock Kerry's war wounds.
However, instead of holding Bush's campaign at all accountable for the ugly smears against Kerry, the U.S. news media instead piled on Rather and Mapes for failing to follow proper journalistic procedures. George W. Bush came out as the victim en route to a narrow election victory and a second term.
The Bush Guard Record
The dust-up over the memos also left many Americans with the impression that Bush was innocent of the charges that he had skipped out on his National Guard duty. However, the evidence against Bush had been accumulating for years, although rarely getting much media attention.
As a young man, Bush said he supported the Vietnam War. "My first impulse and first inclination was to support the country," Bush recalled in an interview. [NYT, July 11, 2000]. But Bush avoided service in the war by joining the Texas Air National Guard, which was nicknamed the "champagne unit" because so many sons of the rich and powerful got in to avoid Vietnam.
Bush has said no one to his knowledge helped him get into the National Guard. "I asked to become a pilot," Bush said. "I met the qualifications, and ended up becoming an F-102 pilot," The Associated Press reported. Bush insisted that he knew of no special treatment. [AP, July 5, 1999]
But the record indicates that, despite having the lowest acceptable score for entry, Bush jumped over other young men waiting to get into the unit.
Other accounts suggest that a "good friend" of Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, then a congressman from Houston who supported the war, weighed in with Ben Barnes, the Texas Speaker of the House, to arrange a slot for George W. Bush. [The Guardian (U.K.), July 29, 1999]
Sometime in late 1967 or early 1968, Barnes "personally asked the top official of the Texas Air National Guard to help George W. Bush obtain a pilot's slot in a Guard fighter squadron," The Washington Post reported. [Sept. 21, 1999]. On Sept. 27, 1999, Barnes submitted a sworn statement that he helped Bush by contacting Brig. Gen. James M. Rose.
Bush also had a one-year gap in his National Guard duty from 1972-1973 when he was supposed to have transferred from the Texas Air National Guard to the Alabama Air National Guard, a move permitted so he could work on a political campaign.
According to the Boston Globe, "In his final 18 months of military service in 1972 and 1973, Bush did not fly at all. And " for a full year, there is no record that he showed up for the periodic drills required of part-time guardsmen." [Boston Globe, May, 23, 2000]
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
1
1
