- Just four days after pledging to open up his entire military
file1, President Bush has reneged on the pledge, with "Administration
officials declining yesterday to commit to releasing further records"2
on top of the inconclusive ones they have already released. Additionally,
new charges have surfaced that Bush actually deployed his Texas gubernatorial
staff to destroy incriminating records.
-
- As first reported by the Dallas Morning News, retired
National Guard Lt. Col. Bill Burkett said that, in 1997, Joe Allbaugh (chief
of staff for then-Governor Bush) told the National Guard chief to get the
Bush file and make certain "there's not anything there that will embarrass
the governor." Burkett said that a few days later at Camp Mabry in
Austin, he "saw Mr. Bush's file and documents from it discarded in
a trash can."3
-
- While the White House has claimed the attack is baseless,
Burkett's credibility was bolstered today after the New York Times reported
that he made his complaint known right after the incident. In 1998, he
sent a letter to a member of the Texas State Senate saying Bush and his
aides improperly reviewed the file to "make sure nothing will embarrass
the governor during his re-election campaign." Burkett repeated in
interviews this week that Bush and his aides "ordered Guard officials
to remove damaging information from Mr. Bush's military personnel files."4
-
- Yesterday, the commander of the Alabama unit Bush claimed
he served in during his year-long absence said "[Bush] never did come
to my squad. He was never at my unit."5 Additionally, in a signed
report, commanding officers in Houston said Bush "has not been observed."6
In order to clear up the controversy, the president would have to follow
through on his Sunday pledge to release all of his records rather than
continue stonewalling.
-
- Sources:
- Meet the Press, 02/08/2004.
- "1973 Document Puts Bush on Guard Base", Washington
Post, 02/12/2004.
- "Aides say records prove Bush served", Dall
Morning News, 02/10/2004.
- "Move to Screen Bush File in 90's Is Reported",
New York Times, 02/12/2004.
- "Bush met military obligation, aide says",
The Birmingham News, 02/11/2004.
- "Guard Records On President Are Released",
Washington Post, 02/11/2004.
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- http://www.misleader.org/daily_mislead/Read.asp?fn=df02122004.html
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