Rathergate: Finding the mystery man
<font size=4>CBS, trying to defend its indefensible assumption that evidently-forged documents are real, is relying on Robert Strong's supposed authentication of the documents. I tracked down the former Texas Air National Guard administrative officer in Austin, TX, and he said he did not authenticate them, but observed that <font color=blue>"They look like they could be real."<font color=black> Sunday, CBS reported Strong was <font color=blue>"standing by his judgment that the documents are real."<font color=black>
Read the transcript below and marvel: Is this CBS's key witness?
HOW WELL DID YOU KNOW JERRY KILLIAN?
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Well Jerry Killian was a squadron commander down at the 111th fighter squadron. I was the administrative officer in charge of the air operations office on a full time basis. I talked with him a couple times a week at least on the telephone. If I was in Houston, I saw him. If he was in Austin, which was fairly frequently, I saw him.
He was one of the officers… There were three flying units – 147th, 149th and 136th – I did just about the same level of business with all of them. Anytime that we had business between the state headquarters and the flying units – if it was on a Monday through Friday basis – I was usually the one he talked to. It was a professional relationship.
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WHEN DID CBS FIRST CONTACT YOU?
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Actually, CBS first contacted me four years ago. This was a…... What you saw on 60 minutes [sic] was a follow up - a second interview.
I did an initial interview with 60 minutes before the 2000 campaign which was never used - because they couldn’t get [Ben] Barnes to talk. There were just too many holes and they never aired it.
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WHO TALKED TO YOU THEN, WAS IT MAPES?
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Well, I did an interview with Rather. They have two-and-a-half hours worth of tape from an interview in 2000 that they’ve never used, that’s never been touched.
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AND WHO TALKED TO YOU THIS TIME?
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The same person. It was all Mapes.
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OK.
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I mean Mary was the producer then and Mary was the producer now.
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WHEN THEY CAME BACK TO YOU FOR THIS TIME – I’M TRYING TO BUILD A TIMEFRAME – I GUESS WHEN DID THEY CONTACT YOU THIS TIME AROUND?
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They contacted me the Friday before the program aired on Wednesday.
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AND WHAT DID THEY TELL YOU ABOUT THE MEMOS THAT THEY HAD. THE NEW INFORMATION THAT THEY HAD?
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They just said they had uncovered these documents that appeared to come from some sort of desk file or personal file of Col. Killian’s and would I look at them, and would I consider doing another interview with Dan Rather? And I said, yes and yes.
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DID THEY FAX THEM TO YOU, OR WAS MAPES IN TEXAS?
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I just don’t know how much detail I ought to be telling you about all of this. This seems to be CBS’s business. They contacted me asked me if I’d do an interview. We set up the interview. When I got to the interview they handed me a folder with the documents in them. I spent maybe 20-30 minutes before Rather was ready do the interview. I looked the documents over and we did the interview.
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OK. NOW, TELL ME ABOUT KILLIAN IN HIS PROFESSIONAL LIFE AS FAR AS YOU KNOW. DID YOU EVER OBSERVE HIM TYPING?
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No. I didn’t work in the same unit with him then. He was in Houston. I was in Austin. I have no knowledge personally or otherwise of his typing skills; whether he typed the memos; whether someone else typed the memos. I don’t know. I just don’t know.
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AND YOU TOLD CBS THAT YOU DIDN’T SEE ANYTHING INCONSISTENT WITH HOW BUSINESS WAS DONE…
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That is being republished daily. I got two Google hits today that say… Yet again those lines from the paper are being quoted. We lived in the Air Guard – we lived in a highly-charged political atmosphere. Memos for record – or CYA memos – were common practice. I know I wrote my share and stuck them in my desk drawer. Everyone did. Particularly if you were caught between the rock and the hard place.
I’m not a forensics expert. I’ve never held myself forward
to be a forensics expert. I can’t attest to that. I do
know we had the Selectrics in the Air Guard at that time
that were capable of producing superscript/subscript. We
had them in Austin and we had them in the units.
Now I don’t know if Jerry Killian ever touched a
typewriter in his life. I have no way of knowing. I don’t
know whether he typed them or he had someone else type
them, or what. He was a Lt. Colonel. He was a full-time
guard technician. He was a full-time guard employee. He
had a support staff that could have typed them. I don’t
know. I don’t care.
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CBS HAS USED YOUR NAME TO GIVE SUPPORT FOR THESE DOCUMENTS. I’M JUST WONDERING… YOU SAID YOU DIDN’T SEE ANYTHING INCONSISTENT WITH HOW BUSINESS WAS DONE AT THE TIME. DID YOU GIVE THEM ANY MORE THAN THAT? DID YOU GIVE THEM ANY REASON TO THINK THAT YOU MIGHT HAVE AUTHENTICATED THEM?
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I would not say that I authenticated the documents. What
they asked me about the documents… I basically said if
these documents are what they purport to be, then I don’t
see anything inconsistent with the way we did business or
the man I knew Jerry Killian to be. You know, I’m looking
at third or fourth generation copies of memos that look
perfectly OK to me. But it’s been 30-odd years, man.
I can’t do much about how people use what I tell them.
They warned me they were going to do what they did on
Friday. And I don’t have any problem with what they did.
They repeated one piece and put on another that really
didn’t have much to do with the authenticity of documents
anyway. They’re trying to get people to look at the
content.
The people I’m ticked off with right now is the New York Times because the New York Times misquoted me on Saturday.
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HOW DID THEY MISQUOTE YOU?
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There’s a line in the article in which I’m quoted as saying that I was skeptical that Killian had access to that kind of equipment. And I was not skeptical that he had access to that kind of equipment. That’s a direct misquote. I’m trying to get a correction in the New York Times. Not that it will do a hell of a lot of good. It’s four days later. Frankly, the New York Times misquoted me.
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DO YOU THINK THEY MISHEARD YOU?
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I don’t know – I ripped off an email on Saturday saying you misquoted me guys, please write a correction. I heard from the public editor yesterday and I replied to his reply.
It was just background is what it was. I can’t
authenticate the documents; I never attempted to
authenticate the documents. They look like they could be
real. Based on what they showed me I didn’t see anything
that said these couldn’t be real. I’m not saying these are
real. Just, they could be.
Everyone including Ratherbiased.com has found me.
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HOLY COW.
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They were polling my colleagues trying to find someone to diss me. I was no fool. I knew what was going to happen.
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