http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/arti...10001702ba.txt
Schieffer: CBS needs to prove memos on Bush were authentic
By Dave Dreeszen, Journal business editor
CBS News' Bob Schieffer said Tuesday he hopes the network does more reporting to definitively prove the authenticity of memos 60 Minutes II received about President Bush's service in the Air National Guard.
"I think we have to find some way to show our viewers they are not forgeries,'' Schieffer, CBS' chief Washington correspondent and host of the network's "Face the Nation,'' said at a news conference in Sioux City. "I don't know how we're going to do that without violating the confidentiality of sources.''
Schieffer was responding to a 60 Minutes II report last week that referenced memos allegedly written by Bush's former squadron commander, the late Lt. Col. Jerry Killian. The typed memos were part of anchor Dan Rather's investigation that asserted Bush benefited from political favoritism in getting into the Air National Guard.
But there has been growing evidence that the documents are forgeries, with national news organizations citing dozens of inconsistencies, ranging from different word-processing techniques to conflicting military terminology.
CBS has stood by its story, with Rather saying there is "no definitive evidence'' that has emeged to prove the documents are fake.
"He is very confident of his sources,'' said Schieffer, who has talked to Rather daily during the flap. "He says he is absolutely convinced these documents are real.''
CBS, which has declined to reveal the source of the memos, has pointed to its own experts who have verified that documents could have been produced on typewriters of the 1970s. But the Washington Post reported Tuesday that the lead expert CBS retained said he examined only Killian's signature and made no attempt to authenticate the documents themselves.
Casting further doubt on the documents, the Dallas Morning News reported Saturday that the officer named in a memo as exerting pressure to "sugar coat'' Bush's record had retired from the Texas Air National Guard 1.5 years before the memo was dated. Killian's widow and son also have told reporters that they doubt he wrote the memos, they did not come from his personal possessions and that he admired Bush while in served in the Air National Guard.
Though Schieffer discounted suggestions that Rather received fraudulent documents, he acknowledged the source could have been a Bush opponent.
"People ask me, 'Do I think somebody was trying to set up Dan Rather?' I say, "No that's completely out of the question,'' said Schieffer, who addressed the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce's annual dinner/meeting Tuesday night. "Would somebody do this in an effort to smear George Bush? That may be so. We're in the middle of a political campaign, and this would not be the first campaign where somebody on one side slipped something to a reporter because he feels it would hurt the guy on the other side.''
Dave Dreeszen can be reached at (712) 293-4211 or
davedreeszen@siouxcityjournal.com
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