July 09, 2004

Pentagon Says Bush Records of Service Were Destroyed

The Emperor has no uniform...

Ralph Blumenthal, New York Times: Military records
that could help establish President Bush's whereabouts
during his disputed service in the Texas Air National
Guard more than 30 years ago have been inadvertently
destroyed, according to the Pentagon.
It said the payroll records of "numerous service
members," including former First Lt. Bush, had been
ruined in 1996 and 1997 by the Defense Finance and
Accounting Service during a project to salvage
deteriorating microfilm. No back-up paper copies could
be found, it added in notices dated June 25.
The destroyed records cover three months of a period
in 1972 and 1973 when Mr. Bush's claims of service in
Alabama are in question.
The disclosure appeared to catch some experts, both
pro-Bush and con, by surprise. Even the retired
lieutenant colonel who studied Mr. Bush's records for
the White House, Albert C. Lloyd of Austin, said it
came as news to him.

Cleanse the White House of the Chickenhawk Coup and
Its War-Profiteering Cronies, Show Up for Democracy in
2004: Defeat Bush (again!)

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/09/politics/campaign/09records.html--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

July 9, 2004
Pentagon Says Bush Records of Service Were Destroyed
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL

OUSTON, July 8 - Military records that could help
establish President Bush's whereabouts during his
disputed service in the Texas Air National Guard more
than 30 years ago have been inadvertently destroyed,
according to the Pentagon.

It said the payroll records of "numerous service
members," including former First Lt. Bush, had been
ruined in 1996 and 1997 by the Defense Finance and
Accounting Service during a project to salvage
deteriorating microfilm. No back-up paper copies could
be found, it added in notices dated June 25.

The destroyed records cover three months of a period
in 1972 and 1973 when Mr. Bush's claims of service in
Alabama are in question.

The disclosure appeared to catch some experts, both
pro-Bush and con, by surprise. Even the retired
lieutenant colonel who studied Mr. Bush's records for
the White House, Albert C. Lloyd of Austin, said it
came as news to him.

The loss was announced by the Defense Department's
Office of Freedom of Information and Security Review
in letters to The New York Times and other news
organizations that for nearly half a year have sought
Mr. Bush's complete service file under the
open-records law.

There was no mention of the loss, for example, when
White House officials released hundreds of pages of
the President's military records last February in an
effort to stem Democratic accusations that he was
"AWOL" for a time during his commitment to fly at home
in the Air National Guard during the Vietnam War.

Dan Bartlett, the White House communications director
who has said that the released records confirmed the
president's fulfillment of his National Guard
commitment, did not return two calls for a response.

The disclosure that the payroll records had been
destroyed came in a letter signed by C. Y. Talbott,
chief of the Pentagon's Freedom of Information Office,
who forwarded a CD-Rom of hundreds of records that Mr.
Bush has previously released, along with images of
punch-card records. Sixty pages of Mr. Bush's medical
file and some other records were excluded on privacy
grounds, Mr. Talbott wrote.

He said in the letter that he could not provide
complete payroll records, explaining, "The Defense
Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) has advised of
the inadvertent destruction of microfilm containing
certain National Guard payroll records."

He went on: "In 1996 and 1997, DFAS engaged with
limited success in a project to salvage deteriorating
microfilm. During this process the microfilm payroll
records of numerous service members were damaged,
including from the first quarter of 1969 (Jan. 1 to
March 31) and the third quarter of 1972 (July 1 to
Sept. 30). President Bush's payroll records for these
two quarters were among the records destroyed.
Searches for backup paper copies of the missing
records were unsuccessful."

Mr. Talbott's office would not respond to questions,
saying that further information could be provided only
through another Freedom of Information application.

But Bryan Hubbard, a spokesman for Defense finance
agency in Denver, said the destruction occurred as the
office was trying to unspool 2,000-foot rolls of
fragile microfilm. Mr. Hubbard said he did not know
how many records were lost or why the loss had not
been announced before.

For Mr. Bush, the 1969 period when he was training to
be a pilot, is not in dispute. But in May 1972, he
moved to Alabama to work on a political campaign and,
he has said, to perform his Guard service there for a
year. But other Guard officers have said they had no
recollection of ever seeing him there. The most
evidence the White House has been able to find are
records showing Mr. Bush was paid for six days in
October and November 1972, without saying where, and
the record of a dental exam at a Montgomery, Ala., air
base on Jan. 6, 1973.

On June 22, The Associated Press filed suit in federal
court in New York against the Pentagon and the Air
Force to gain access to all the president's military
records.

The lost payroll records stored in Denver might have
answered some questions about whether he fulfilled his
legal commitment, critics who have written about the
subject said in interviews.

"Those are records we've all been interested in," said
James Moore, author of a recent book, "Bush's War for
Re-election," which takes a critical view of Mr.
Bush's service record. "I think it's curious that the
microfiche could resolve what days Mr. Bush worked and
what days he was paid, and suddenly that is gone."

But Mr. Moore said the president could still authorize
the release of other withheld records that would shed
light on his service record.

Among the issues still disputed is why, according to
released records, Mr. Bush was suspended from flying
on Aug. 1, 1972. The reason cited in the records is
"failure to accomplish annual medical examination."

Mr. Bartlett, the White House spokesman, said in
February that Mr. Bush felt he did not need to take
the physical as he was no longer flying planes in
Alabama. Mr. Lloyd, the retired colonel who studied
the records, gave a similar explanation in an
interview.

But Mr. Lloyd said he was surprised to be told of the
destruction of the pay records that might have
resolved some questions.

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Posted by richard at July 9, 2004 11:01 AM