September 08, 2004
1LT Bush and his documents
In his autobiography and subsequent political campaigns, George W. Bush made a number of assertions about his National Guard service that were contrary to the facts as documented by contemporary military records.
During the 2000 election season, the Bush campaign claimed that George W. Bush had released all of his military records. That was false. Early this year, under pressure, the White House released another batch of records, claiming that it had now released all of Mr. Bush's military records. That, too, was false. Two days ago, under lawsuit from the AP, the White House released another batch of documents, claiming once again that all documents had now been released.
Yesterday, for reasons not publicly explained, the White House centralized authority over all responses to requests for Mr. Bush's military records. This seemed strange if all the records had already been released.
Tonight, after the 60 Minutes report, the White House released two of the documents 60 Minutes had just presented. Were they just copying CBS, or did they have those documents already? And what other documents do they have, or know about, that they're trying to prevent other parts of the government from releasing by centralizing authority to respond to FOIA requests?
There's no way to sugarcoat that record. The President, before becoming confused about whether or not America can win the war on terror, committed a serious crime under military law, and got away with it. He has been covering it up ever since.
The coverage in tomorrow's papers is pretty extensive, but the Post, the NY Times, and the AP stories all have one thing in common: they don't mention that disobeying a direct order is crime, and they don't recite the history of the cover-up.
Update The White House answers the question above: the documents they released last night were merely copies of the CBS documents. The authenticity of those documents is now in question.
