Bravo! Greg Palast explains the CENSORING of the Bush Texas Air-Guard AWOL story and the LYNCHING of Dan Rather.

Greg Palast explains the CENSORING of the Bush Texas Air-Guard AWOL story, and the LYNCHING of Dan Rather.

If C-dems.blgspt.com has ONE message, it is the ABJECT NECESSITY that Dems and 'the opposition party' work to CONTROL THE MESSAGE.... DEFINE THE ISSUES, by RELENTLESSLY GOING ON THE ATTACK against Republican Party lies, corruption, and misdeeds.

Greg Palast explains what happens when you only try to tell HALF of the story. In the summer of 2004, Dan Rather had a perfectly good story to tell his CBS 'news' viewers, about how family connections had gotten George W. Bush in the Texas Air National Guard (ANG), a "champagne unit" where Texas families placed their sons to get some military credentials, and to keep them out of the Vietnam War. An absolutely UNDENIABLE part of this story was that the Air National Guard put the young George W. Bush on a "FAST TRACK" to become an officer and a fighter-pilot trainee, despite his abysmal test scores and NO prior military training. Not only did the young Bush skip over (literally) a thousand prior applicants to the ANG slot, but, almost unprecedented, he was commissioned directly as a second Lieutenant WITHOUT GOING TO OFFICERS CANDIDATE SCHOOL. (OCS) No one, anywhere, can contest that Lt. Bush received expensive flight instruction, and that he became an officer without going to OCS.

The question is, "HOW did Lt. Bush avoid going to the FLIGHT MEDICAL that ALL Air Force (and ANG) pilots MUST DO periodically; and that Lt. Bush was SPECIFICALLY ORDERED to do by his base commander at his Texas ANG outfit?" long after Bush was commissioned as a First Lieutenant and won his wings as a fighter pilot.

This simple question HAS NEVER BEEN ANSWERED on the national-media scale.

In large part, this is because AL GORE ****REFUSED**** to do the basics of running ANY political campaign, namely "run your OPPOSITION RESEARCH on your opponent, and inform voters of any major flaws in your opponent's record."

Millions of us Americans are suffering the consequences of Al Gore's REJECTION of politics rule #1: find out about your opponents shortcomings, and, if they are serious enough, inform voters about them." (to repeat ourselves!)

FAILING to take a flight physical as ordered is a serious breach of military orders.

Receiving tens of thousands of dollars in expensive fighter-pilot training WITHOUT COMPLETING YOUR OBLIGATIONS (or explaining some major, compelling reason for not doing so) is a serious flaw in one's character.

Being ORDERED to REPORT FOR DUTY to another ANG unit (Lt. Bush was ordered to report to an Alabama ANG unit) and NOT DOING SO is a serious breach of military order, ESPECIALLY in time of war. This is considered "AWOL" - Absent Without Leave - or desertion.

Using terrific political connections the young George W. Bush never had to pay any consequences for either, #1. Not fulfilling his flying obligations; or #2. Not reporting as ordered to the Alabama ANG unit, that is, "going AWOL."

During his 2000 presidential campaign, Al Gore REFUSED to INFORM VOTERS of these egregious gaps in Mr. Bush's military record.

In part, this is understandable. Gore had just fought a vicious battle for the Democratic nomination against former Senator Bill Bradlee of New Jersey. Bradlee quit (refused to run for reelection despite a "safe" senate seat where he was almost guaranteed reelection) his senate seat during the years that Newt Gingrich was running his "Contract with America" campaign. A dozen years later, or course, we now know that "TERM LIMITS" wasn't quite so important to the Congressional class of 1994 as that issue was during the campaign - many of those Gingrich "TERM LIMITS!" Representatives are in office 6 terms later, enjoying redistricting and campaign fundraising advantages that make it harder to oust them today than back in 1994! But Gore had to take on the insurgent Bradlee campaign, and despite winning the primary, Gore was savaged (by "liberal" and "lefty" Democrats, mostly) for being "savage and cutthroat."

Then, when campaigning against Gov. Bush in the presidential election, Gore decided NOT to "go negative" at all!

Gore "zinged" when he should have "bagged" -- he should have gone "soft" on Bradley by courting the "lefties" of the Democrat Party, and he should have gone "hard" on Bush's record.

Besides generally trying to Not appear negative, Gore also wanted to focus on the positive - ironically, exactly the "liberal" issues that he was so beat-up-on (Vilified! Trashed!) by "Lefties" in both the Dem. Party (Bradley supporters) and independents (Nader-Greens).

Gore being SAVAGED from the LEFT as a "pro big-business corporate democrat!" and from the right (Bush campaign) as "OZONE MAN tree-hugging owl-lover" is why he "only" won the popular vote in that election by 500,000 votes across America. (And the Florida vote count by only a few thousands of disenfranchised voters.)


In 2004, Dan Rather stepped in to fill THE VOID left in the press-media by Gore's REFUSAL in 2000 to urge the press/media TO EXAMINE Bush's record, Rather stepped up his own CBS report and conducted a news investigation into those legitimate questions of Mr. Bush's Vietnam-era military record.

Rather got some military papers from his producers which purported to be the original orders ordering a young Lt. Bush to attend the Flight Surgeon for a routine flight physical - a medical inspection and order Lt. Bush NEVER COMPLIED WITH.

Yet, as Greg Palast explains, because Rather nibbled on only a section of the larger story; and because Rather pinned his whole report on some "secret" papers that came into his hands (the papers signed by unit commander ordering Lt. Bush to report for a flight physical); he made himself vulnerable to the Rove-Republican COUNTERATTACK MACHINE.

It has NEVER been conclusively proven that the papers that Rather broadcast were forgeries... but the Republican media machine immediately made those papers THE focus of their counter-reporting, using the font that the papers were typed in, and the failure of the Colonel's secretary to remember typing the orders, as the basis for portraying the papers as forgeries. (Top-line IBM typewriters, such as a base-commander's secretary might use, were indeed using the font that the papers were typed in at that time, but this factoid was buried under the sensationalistic "FORGERIES!" story.)

What is important is that a politician running for high office HAS A DUTY and an OBLIGATION to inform voters of serious flaws in his opponent; especially for a candidate running for the US presidency, with control over the treasury, taxation, law enforcement, and the US military.

THIS AL GORE REFUSED TO DO.

Dan Rather was despised by the Bush family (for playing Tim Russert-esque "GOTCHA!" questions with Pres. Bush Sr. during the first Bush administration), and Not very popular among his coworkers ('underlings') nor management at CBS. As Mr. Palast's article (below) explains, Rather did Not understand "the big picture" story of the Bush AWOL/failed flight medical escapades, in part because Mr. Rather bought into the mainstream-media narrative about Mr. Bush's military record. And, finally, Mr. Rather tried to play "SCOOP!", instead of carefully examining and then laying out the context of the "no flight physical" story.

For all these journalistic flaws, Mr. Rather has been forced to depart CBS, Not exactly covered in glory.

But don't weep for Dan Rather, or even for Albert Gore - both of them enjoy a lifestyle and security that entitles them to all the benefits of being members of that sliver of America that benefits from the "Bush tax cuts for America's wealthiest citizens." If either had asked a simple question in a timely manner in the summer of 2000; "Why did Lt. Bush REFUSE to take a flight physical AS ORDERED, and why then did he REFUSE to report for duty at the Alabama ANG station AS ORDERED?" then tens of thousands of American families might Not now be nursing worries or wounds about their family members wounded or traumatized in the Iraq war.

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Note: Greg Palast's reporting is Not without flaws, which of course is understandable trying to keep up with the Mt. EVEREST of misreporting and outright disinformation produced regarding the Bush government and record.

In this case, Lt. George W. Bush was never a Naval Aviator, nor did he ever try to become one. He became an Air National Guard fighter pilot under US Air Force command, superiors, and training. Lt. Bush's father (George H.W. Bush, Sr) was a combat naval aviator in WWII, flying Grumman Avenger torpedo-bombers in the Pacific, where he was shot down by antiaircraft artillery and rescued on a bombing mission against a radio station on the Japanese held island of Chici Jima.
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Dan Rather crashes - Bush flies high
The power and the pay-off

By Greg Palast
Published by Greg Palast June 21st, 2006 in Articles
http://www.gregpalast.com/dan-crashes-bush-flies-high


They finally put Dan Rather out of his misery. Today, CBS finally terminated him and sent him to the electronic glue factory — all for reporting the truth. But not all of it.

Rather’s “unsubstantiated story of Bush’s military service” (says USA Today) got him canned. Yet, all the poor man did was repeat a story we put on BBC Television a year earlier — that Poppy Bush put in the fix to get his son out of ‘Nam and into the Texas Air Guard, spending his war years guarding Houston from Viet Cong attack.

But Dan never reported this: the documentation from inside the US Department of Justice detailing the fix. Why not? Because it opened up a far more serious charge: that those who kept Little George out of war’s way ended up very well rewarded. We ran that full story — from the evidence of the fix to the evidence of the lucrative pay-backs — on the world’s biggest network, BBC, and we’ve never retracted a comma of it. Nor, by the way, has the White House denied our accusations despite our repeated offers to respond.

George’s slithering out of combat turned into big pay-days for those in on the fix and its cover-up: Harriett Miers (remember her?), Karen Hughes and Texas lobbyists.

The Necklace-ing of Dan Rather

You aren’t stupid, they just talk to you that way. It’s 2004. Falluja’s on fire, your pension’s burning away, the last General Motors worker is turning out the lights in Detroit — and the biggest issue of the election, aside from Christians who don’t want homosexuals to have families, was whether some elderly news celebrity, Dan Rather, had besmirched the reputation of our President, a former Naval Aviator. They can’t get you to ignore that man behind the curtain, Dorothy, unless there’s a fascinating show on stage to distract you. And, for the final days of the presidential campaign, they gave us the lynching of Dan Rather.

We know George Bush was a Naval Aviator because it says so right on his toy box. Actually, he never was a Naval Aviator and never once landed a plane on the deck of an aircraft carrier. During the Vietnam War, our future President flew in the Texas Air National Guard protecting Houston from Viet Cong attack. Our President obtained that job the same way he got the current one: The fix was in.

Congressman Poppy Bush, said Rather, put in the fix for his son, despite Junior’s too-dumb-to-fly test scores, by putting in a call to the head of the Texas Air Guard via Texas Lt. Governor Ben Barnes. That’s what Dan Rather reported on 60 Minutes, that Bush Jr. got the Texas top gun post, and thereby dodged the draft and the bullets of Vietnam. It was a hell of a scoop and his network rewarded him and his producer, Mary Mapes, by firing their sorry asses. That wasn’t enough.

The president of CBS, Leslie Moonves, bullwhipped his network’s stars and, with his own spit, polished the soiled war record of our President, declaring that Rather’s producer: …ignored information that cast doubt on the story she had set out to report — that President Bush had received special treatment thirty years ago, getting to the Guard ahead of many other applicants.
Really? Well, Mr. Moonves, look at this evidence: “His [George W. Bush’s] dad called then - Lt. Gov. Barnes to ask for his help to get his son not just in the Guard, but to get one of the coveted pilot slots which were extremely hard to get. [Barnes, through a “cut-out,” a third party,] contacted General Rose at the Guard and took care of it.

George Bush was placed ahead of thousands of young men, some of whom died in Vietnam.”

This is from a letter which had remained locked for years in the file cabinets of the U.S. Justice Department prosecutor in Austin, Texas. How I got it does not matter. Our War President has not challenged authenticity. And its contents, Mr. Moonves, were confirmed by the “cut-out” himself, the man who made the call to the Texas Air Guard for young George. (Would the cut-out, a major figure in the Lone Star State, allow BBC to film his statement? He said, “Do I look like the dumbest Texan on the prairie?”) But you knew that, if you’re not American. At the Guardian and on BBC we also reported, before the presidential election, that Lt. Governor Barnes had put in the fix for George Jr. at the Air Guard. We reported that in 1999, before Bush’s first run for office.

Justice for Miers

But there’s much, much more to the story than Rather had cojones to report. Barnes had two tasks — one, to get little George into the Air Guard and the other was to shut up about it. Keep it quiet. Barnes’s good deeds and long silence were, indeed, well rewarded.

Barnes, who left office under a cloud of impropriety, stayed on in Austin as a big-fee lobbyist. And the biggest fee he received, maybe the biggest ever in the history of the lobbying art, was at least $23 million for representing a company called GTech when it got the contract to operate the Texas lottery. GTech’s creepy ways of doing business caught up with it in 1997, when, after questionable payments to the Texas lottery director’s boyfriend were exposed, GTech lost its contract by order of the new, uncorrupted, lottery director. The lottery work was put up for bid and GTech’s replacement chosen.

But then something quite extraordinary happened: The new state lottery director was fired, the bids tossed out and GTech given back the lottery work — no bidding required. The governor at the time: George W. Bush. Now, let’s go back to the letter buried at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Austin: Governor Bush through [another cut-out] made a deal with Ben Barnes not to re-bid because Barnes could confirm that Bush had lied during the ‘94 campaign. During that campaign [for Governor of Texas], Bush was asked if his father…had helped him get in the National Guard. Bush said no he had not, but the fact is his dad called then - Lt. Gov. Barnes…. Silence has a price and Barnes, the letter says, got his: safety for his client GTech, with whom he maintained hidden ties. I can’t imagine that Barnes would make such a raw demand on Bush.
But the war hero Governor’s team made damn sure that no harm came to Barnes and his business associates. The Governor talked to the chair of the lottery two days later and she then agreed to support letting GTech keep the contract without a bid. Did Governor Bush put in the fix for GTech as alleged?

I wasn’t on the phone when he spoke to the lottery board Chairwoman. Maybe they talked about their newfound faith in the Lord, which they both discovered together at the same time. The Chairwoman? Harriet Miers. We don’t know if Miers gave the overpriced GTech its contract back to help the governor keep his Air Guard secret a secret or simply because she liked GTech’s record of high costs and corruption.

In 2005, George W. Bush’s attempted appointment of Miers to the United States Supreme Court surprised the U.S. media and even the President’s own supporters. But I wasn’t surprised at all.

Silence of the Media Lambs

In 2004, he knew exactly what would happen when he finally asked those questions. He had already delivered his own eulogy.

On June 6, 2002 on the program I report for, BBC Newsnight, Rather said:

“It’s an obscene comparison but there was a time in South Africa when people would put flaming tyres around people’s necks if they dissented. In some ways, the fear is that you will be neck-laced here, you will have a flaming tyre of lack of patriotism put around your neck. It’s that fear that keeps journalists from asking the toughest of the tough questions and to continue to bore-in on the tough questions so often. Again, I’m humbled to say I do not except myself from this criticism.”

The lynching of Dan Rather is a cautionary tale of how news is made in the USA — and unmade — and topics permissible during an election. The story that cannot be reported is not about George Bush’s special treatment but about the special treatment of the specially privileged.

The real story, for me, is that Little George was just one of a dozen privileged princelings saved from the dangers of their powerful daddies’ wars. Barnes did not give help to Bushes only. The man who actually made the call to the Air Guard for Little George at Barnes’ request also confirmed that at Barnes’ request, he also put in the fix for sons of Democratic big-wigs, Governor John Connally and Congressman, later Senator, Lloyd Bentsen.

Vietnam was one front in a class war, and only one class was sent to fight it. I don’t blame Congressmen Bush Sr. or Bentsen for keeping their sons out of Vietnam. I do blame them for sending other men’s sons in their place.


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Read the entire story, The Necklace-ing of Dan Rather, in Armed Madhouse - the new book by Greg Palast.

Armed Madhouse: Who’s Afraid of Osama Wolf?, China Floats Bush Sinks, The Scheme to Steal ‘08, No Child’s Behind Left, and Other Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Class War. Order your copy today at http://gregpalast.com/ or get it from your local book store.