Bush Guard papers ‘forged’

DALLAS — New information casts additional doubts about the authenticity of the memos purportedly written concerning President Bush by a former superior officer in the Texas Air National Guard in the 1970s, as Dan Rather and CBS News doggedly stuck to their guns defending the documents.

“They’re forged as hell,” said Earl W. Lively, 76, who during the era in question was director of Texas Air National Guard operations in Austin.

Mr. Lively said he had proof that Col. Walter “Buck” Staudt — who supposedly forced an underling to favorably alter reports on Mr. Bush’s activities as a member of the Guard in the early 1970s — had been honorably discharged nearly 18 months before the date of the memos, purportedly written by Lt. Col. Jerry Killian.

After Mr. Lively’s revelation, the Dallas Morning News discovered records amid the newspaper’s archives, from when the paper investigated Mr. Bush’s Guard career in 1999, that show Mr. Staudt had left the Guard on March 1, 1972.

One of the memos concerning Mr. Staudt’s supposed pressure to ensure that Mr. Bush’s record was to be “sugar coated” was dated Aug. 18, 1973.

Mr. Killian at the time was Mr. Bush’s squadron leader.

“And there’s no way that Jerry Killian would have written what they’ve come up with,” added Mr. Lively, now one of the most successful real estate agents in Dallas.

Mr. Lively was referring to CBS’ “60 Minutes” story Wednesday night that revealed what the network claimed were memos and notes written by Mr. Killian that strongly suggested Mr. Bush got special privileges during his stint in the Texas Guard and failed to perform adequately.

The same claims, without written documentation, were raised back in 1999.

Since last week’s broadcast, considerable comment has been forthcoming that casts a dark shadow on the memos authenticity.

Mr. Killian’s widow, Marjorie Connell, refused to believe the notes were legitimate.

“I was angry,” she told ABC Radio on Friday, “because here they are going back and pulling records of a man who is deceased 20 years, who is not here to explain what any of these documents said or supposed to have said, and I just find it appalling.”

His stepson, Houston businessman Gary Killian, who followed him into the Guard and retired as a captain in 1991, said one of the documents, supposedly signed by his father, seemed legitimate, but he strongly doubts Col. Killian would have written the one that says he had been pressured to “sugar coat” Mr. Bush’s performances.

“It just wouldn’t happen,” Mr. Killian said Friday. “The only thing that can happen when you keep secret files like that are bad things. No officer in his right mind would write a memo like that.”

Beyond the “he did, he didn’t” aspect of the controversy, there remains what seems to be strong evidence that the memos might have been generated on a computer using computer software that was not available at the time. Included in some of the documents was a “superscript,” a smaller, raised “th,” for example, in 111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron.

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