CBS stands by accuracy of Bush’s Guard memos

Washington ? CBS News mounted an aggressive defense Friday of its report about President Bush’s service in the Air National Guard, with anchor Dan Rather saying broadcast memos questioned by forensic experts came from “what we consider to be solid sources.”

On Friday’s “CBS Evening News,” Rather said that “no definitive evidence” had emerged to prove the documents were forgeries.

“If any definitive evidence comes up, we will report it,” Rather said.

The show also showed excerpts of interviews with Marcel Matley, a San Francisco document expert, who said he believed the memos were genuine.

CBS can state “with absolute certainty” that the disputed memos could have been produced on typewriters available in the early 1970s when the memos are purported to have been written, the network said. Rather said the typeface and style of the memos were available on typewriters since well before the 1970s.

Some forensic experts were quoted by news organizations, including The Associated Press, saying the memos appeared to have been computer-generated with characteristics that weren’t available three decades ago.

But CBS News said in a statement: “The documents are backed up not only by independent handwriting and forensic document experts but sources familiar with their content.” Matley was the only expert cited, and he focused on signatures on the memos.

Matley and Rather acknowledged the memos were difficult to definitively authenticate because CBS has only photocopies, not the originals. Matley did not return a telephone message left at his office immediately after Friday’s report.

At question are memos that carry the signature of the late Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, who was the commander of Bush’s Texas Air National Guard fighter squadron. They say Killian was under pressure to “sugar coat” Bush’s record, and Bush refused a direct order to take a required medical examination and discussed how he could skip drills.

Casting further doubt on the memos, The Dallas Morning News, said in a report for its Saturday editions that the officer named in a memo as exerting pressure to “sugar coat” Bush’s record had left the Texas Air National Guard 1 1/2 years before the memo was dated.

The newspaper said it obtained an order showing that Walter B. Staudt, former commander of the Texas Guard, retired on March 1, 1972. The memo was dated Aug. 18, 1973. A telephone call to Staudt’s home Friday night was not answered.

Washington (ap) — After routinely piloting a fighter jet solo for most of his career, George W. Bush began flying a two-seat jet designed for training in the weeks just before the Texas Air National Guard stripped him of his pilot’s privileges in 1972, flight logs show.The logs indicate Bush did half of his final 21 flights in a training jet or simulator, and on four occasions he sat in the co-pilot’s position after more than a year of commanding a single-seat F-102A fighter by himself.The logs also show the future president was heavily focused at the end of his pilot time on flying by instruments — a skill he mastered during his initial training three years earlier with near-perfect scores of 97 and 98.The White House said it could not explain why Bush was using a training plane when he had risen to the rank of first lieutenant as a solo flyer of a fighter jet.But officials noted the activities occurred in the spring of 1972 when Bush was trying to cram in extensive required flying time before he left the Guard for six months to work on a political campaign in Alabama.”He did his training and was honorably discharged,” White House spokesman Trent Duffy said.