(2004-09-09) -- CBS reporter Dan Rather today released the text of a recently discovered email from then-Lt. George W. Bush's Air National Guard commanding officer which casts more doubt upon the military service of the man who would become the 43rd President of the United States.

The revelation of the email comes just hours after questions were raised about the authenticity of typewritten memos from the same officer, shown yesterday by Mr. Rather on 60 Minutes.

According to the previously unseen email message sent in May 1972 by squadron commander Jerry Killian, Lt. Bush phoned Col. Killian because "his internet connection was on the fritz and he couldn't IM me."

Lt. Bush apparently wanted to talk about "how he can get out of coming to drill from now through November."

According to Col. Killian's email, the young Bush wanted to go to Alabama to work as webmaster for a Republican candidate's website.

Mr. Rather said the authenticity of the 32-year-old email has been confirmed by several Nigerian officials who specialize in electronic funds transfer by email.

... "It's a particular kind of religiosity," he told the magazine. "It's the American version of the same fundamentalist impulse that we see in Saudi Arabia, in Kashmir, in religions around the world: Hindu, Jewish, Christian, Muslim. They all have certain features in common.

"In a world of disconcerting change, when large and complex forces threaten familiar and comfortable guideposts, the natural impulse is to grab hold of the tree trunk that seems to have the deepest roots and hold on for dear life and never question the possibility that it's not going to be the source of your salvation. And the deepest roots are in philosophical and religious traditions that go way back. You don't hear very much from them about the Sermon on the Mount, you don't hear very much about the teachings of Jesus on giving to the poor, or the beatitudes. It's the vengeance, the brimstone."

Gore also slammed Bush's leadership in the White House, calling him a "weak man."

"I wasn't surprised by Bush's economic policies, but I was surprised by the foreign policy, and I think he was, too," Gore told the New Yorker. "The real distinction of this presidency is that, at its core, he is a very weak man. He projects himself as incredibly strong, but behind closed doors he is incapable of saying no to his biggest financial supporters and his coalition in the Oval Office. He's been shockingly malleable to Cheney and Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz and the whole New American Century bunch. He was rolled in the immediate aftermath of 9-11. He was too weak to resist it. 


"I think he is a bully, and, like all bullies, he's a coward when confronted with a force that he's fearful of. His reaction to the extravagant and unbelievably selfish wish list of the wealthy interest groups that put him in the White House is obsequious. The degree of obsequiousness that is involved in saying 'yes, yes, yes, yes, yes' to whatever these people want, no matter the damage and harm done to the nation as a whole—that can come only from genuine moral cowardice."

(2004-09-08) -- A lawsuit filed by the Associated Press (AP) has pressured the federal government into releasing previously unseen transcripts of 1973 testimony by a young George W. Bush before a Senate panel investigating atrocities committed by stateside National Guardsman during the Vietnam era.

"How do you ask a man to be the last man to give up his weekend for a mistake?" the young Mr. Bush asked the panel as he began to talk about his experience with fellow guardsmen who participated in the "Winter Weekend Warrior" investigation with Jane Fonda.

The investigation, Mr. Bush claimed, brought together 150 honorably discharged National Guardsman, many of them highly-decorated, who testified to atrocities committed both on and off base, "not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command."

"They relived the absolute horror of what this country, in a sense, made them do, Mr. Bush said. "They told the stories of times they had personally goofed off, skipped weekend duty, gone out drinking, short-sheeted a fellow guardsman's bed, telephoned local stores and asked if they had Prince Albert in a can, drove faster than the speed limit, used salty language in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot mailboxes and road signs for fun, raided the base commissary for Pop Tarts and generally ravaged the country side of South Texas."

President Bush, responding yesterday to persistent questions about the new revelations, said, "I defended this country as a young man, and I will defend it again as President of the United States...again."