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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: combjelly who wrote (201174)	9/10/2004 8:52:50 AM
From: i-node	Respond to of 1574258

>> Guess so. But they will have to dig up better "experts" than they have so far... Well, no doubt, CBS will fight it to the bitter end. But there is nothing funnier than watching CBS cook in a blatant attempt to smear Bush. 60 Minutes really blew it this time around, I think... Now, if only they can find the document on Rather's PC...

To: combjelly who wrote (201174)	9/10/2004 9:04:43 AM
From: i-node	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574258

Independent document examiner Sandra Ramsey Lines said the memos looked like they had been produced on a computer using Microsoft Word software. Lines, a document expert and fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, pointed to a superscript - a smaller, raised "th" in "111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron" - as evidence indicating forgery. Microsoft Word automatically inserts superscripts in the same style as the two on the memos obtained by CBS, she said. "I'm virtually certain these were computer generated," Lines said after reviewing copies of the documents at her office in Paradise Valley, Ariz. She produced a nearly identical document using her computer's Microsoft Word software.

To: combjelly who wrote (201174)	9/10/2004 9:07:03 AM
From: i-node	Respond to of 1574258

William Flynn, a forensic document specialist with 35 years’ experience, said the CBS documents raise suspicion because they use proportional spacing. Documents generated by the kind of typewriters widely used in 1972 space letters evenly across the page, so that an “i” uses as much space as an “m.” In the CBS documents, though, each letter uses a different amount of space. While IBM had introduced an electric typewriter that used proportional spacing by the early 1970s, it was not widely used in government. In addition, Flynn said, the CBS documents appear to use proportional spacing both across and down the page, a relatively recent innovation. Other anomalies include the use of the superscripted letters “th” in phrases such as “111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron,” Bush’s unit. “It would be nearly impossible for all this technology to have existed at that time,” said Flynn, who runs a document authentication company in Phoenix. Other experts largely concurred. Phil Bouffard, a forensic document examiner from Cleveland, said the font in the CBS documents appeared to be Times Roman, which is widely used by word-processing programs but was not common on typewriters. CBS says its forensic document experts verified the papers' authenticity, but the network is declining to identify any of its experts.

To: combjelly who wrote (201174)	9/10/2004 9:11:31 AM
From: i-node	Respond to of 1574258

Thursday, the Post contacted several independent experts who said they appeared to have been generated by a word processor. An examination of the documents shows that they are formatted differently from other Texas Air National Guard documents whose authenticity is not questioned.

To: combjelly who wrote (201174)	9/10/2004 9:13:13 AM
From: i-node	Respond to of 1574258

On Thursday, a wide range of experts spoke out to say that the proportional font used in the documents was likely produced on a computer using a modern version of Microsoft Word or other word processing program -- technology not available in the early 1970s. IBM had produced a high-end typewriter capable of using a proportional font at the time but it was expensive and used in the printing business rather than in offices such as the National Guard office where Lt. Col. Killian worked. According to reports published by ABC News, the font used in the documents is said to be Times Roman, a font commonly found in word processing programs today, but not in use in typewriters in the 1970s. The documents also contained a superscript font feature which is found in computer word processing programs such as Microsoft Word but was not in use on typewriters in that era. Some experts say it was not possible at that time. The kind of spacing used in the documents was not available to typewriters of the era either.

To: combjelly who wrote (201174)	9/10/2004 9:14:26 AM
From: i-node	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574258

It seems the only "experts" are CBS' as-yet unnamed "experts", plus a former Guardsman interviewed by telephone. This looks pretty open and shut to me. The only question is whether CBS forged the documents themselves, or hired it done.