Commander says CBS misled him on Bush documents

by on September 12th, 2004

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/12/politics/campaign/12guard.html

HOUSTON, Sept. 11 – A former National Guard commander who CBS News said had helped convince it of the authenticity of documents raising new questions about President Bush’s military service said on Saturday that he did not believe they were genuine.

The commander, Bobby Hodges, said in a telephone interview that network producers had never showed him the documents but had only read them to him over the phone days before they were featured Wednesday in a “60 Minutes” broadcast. After seeing the documents on Friday, Mr. Hodges said, he concluded that they were falsified.

Mr. Hodges, a former general who spoke to several news organizations this weekend, was just the latest person to challenge the authenticity of the documents, which CBS reported came from the personal files of Mr. Bush’s former squadron commander at the Texas Air National Guard, Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian, who died 20 years ago.

Etalkinghead Staff