CBS 60 Minutes’ Colonel Killian anti-Bush memos are crude forgeries, and a bigger fraud than Ben Barnes
Powerline and its readers have already revealed the Colonel Killian Bush memos to be crude forgeries. I added this to the mix in a note to that blog:
I was a clerk/typist for the US Navy at the Naval Underwater Systems Center (NUSC) in Newport RI for my summer job in 1971 when I was in college. I note the following with regard to the Killian memos:
1) The so-called Killian memos are crude forgeries. They use variable type, which was available to us only for special printing jobs, like official pamphlets, using something called a Varitype machine. Our typewriters were IBM Model C’s, the cheaper Standard version, not the more expensive Executive version (which also had some variable type capabilities).
2) I also used a Variype machine in 1971. I fooled around with it in my spare time. It was incredible difficult to set up and use. It was also extremely hard to correct mistakes on the machine. Most small letters used two spaces. Capital letters generally used three spaces. I think letters like “i” may have used one space. Anyway, you can see that this type of machine was piloted by an expert, and it would NEVER be used for a routine memo. A Lt. Colonel would not be able to identify a Varitype machine, let alone use it. (Similarly, IBM Executive series typewriters were quite difficult for anyone to use who was not an experienced typist.)
3) US Navy paper at the time was not 8 1/2 x 11. It was 8 x 10 1/2. Government paper was 8 x 10 1/2 until Ronald Reagan changed that in the 1980’s according to the American Forest and Paper Association. This should show up in the Xeroxing, which should have lines running along the sides of the Xerox copy.
4) I am amused by the way “147 th Ftr.Intrcp Gp.” appears in the August 1, 1972 document. It may have been written that way in non-forged documents, but as somone who worked for ComCruDesLant, I know the military liked to bunch things together. I find “147 th” suspicious looking. 147th looks better to me, but the problem with Microsoft Word is that it keeps turning the “th” tiny if it is connected to a number like 147. And finally……
5) THE DEFINITIVE PROOF OF FORGERY: I had neglected even to look at the August 18, 1973 memo to file. This forger was a fool. This fake document actually does have the tiny “th” in “187th” and there is simply no way this could have occurred in 1973. There are no keys on any typewriter in common use in 1973 which could produce a tiny “th.” The forger got careless after creating the August 1, 1972 document and slipped up big-time.
In summary, the variable type makes it highly likely the Killian memos are crude forgeries, the tiny “th” in the 8/18/73 memo establishes the memos as forgeries beyond any doubt, and I offer my other points as icing on the cake.
The CBS “document expert” should be fired, and CBS should apologize. Don’t hold your breath.
We dealt with Barnes days ago. This used to be the Tiffany network, but that was long ago.