Excerpted from looooong USA Today story...
...In interviews in recent days with USA TODAY, both in person and on the phone, Burkett said he had merely been a conduit for the records purported to be from the private files of Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, one of Bush's former Guard commanders, who died in 1984. Burkett admitted lying to USA TODAY about the source of the documents but said he did not fabricate the papers.
In earlier conversations with USA TODAY, Burkett had identified the source of the documents as George Conn, a former Texas National Guard colleague who works for the U.S. Army in Europe. Burkett now says he made up the story about Conn's involvement to divert attention from himself and the woman he now says provided him with the documents. He told USA TODAY that he also lied to CBS.
| Ahah! Somehow there always has to be a woman involved! A mysterious lady, wearing a veil, perhaps? |
Burkett now maintains that the source of the papers was Lucy Ramirez, who he says phoned him from Houston in March to offer the documents.
| "M'sieur Burkett! The documents! I must geeve them to you for safekeeping! You will know what to do with them!" |
USA TODAY has been unable to locate Ramirez.
"Miss Ramirez regrets
She's unable to lunch today,
Mister!" |
When Burkett gave copies of the documents to USA TODAY, it was on the understanding that his identity would not be disclosed. USA TODAY honored that agreement until Burkett waived his confidentiality Monday. "I didn't forge anything," Burkett said. "I didn't fake any documents. The only thing I've done here is to transfer documents from people I thought were real to people I thought were real. And that has been the limitation of my role. I may have been a patsy."
| "Yeah! Dat's it! I been set up! Framed, I tells yez! Why, dat floozy!" |
The White House on Monday welcomed the network's admission but said it "raised more questions than answers." Communications director Dan Bartlett called for an investigation that includes "whether the president's political opponents were behind these attacks." He added, "Since CBS News and USA TODAY had both obtained these forged documents, we now urge them to lead the way in finding the truth."
| Y'mean, like, "Forge ahead"? |
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush was told of the CBS statement as he flew to Derry, N.H., for a campaign appearance. McClellan said Burkett "is not an unimpeachable source as was previously claimed. Bill Burkett is a source who has been discredited, and so this raises a lot of questions."
| ... most of which are easily answerable. |
Burkett's own doubts about the authenticity of the memos and his inability to supply evidence to show that Ramirez exists also raise questions about his credibility. Burkett has strong anti-Bush views. He has posted comments on Internet Web sites critical of Bush and has chastised Sen. John Kerry's organization for what he called its inept campaign.
| Ummm... I think he just ended up making it look even more inept. When was the last time a campaign got caught up in a forged document scandal? |
Burkett's emotions varied widely in the interviews. One session ended when Burkett suffered a violent seizure and collapsed in his chair.
| "Nurse! Quick! He's doing it again!" |
Earlier, he said he was coming forward now to explain what he had done and why to try to salvage his reputation.
| Too late, bub. There went your ambassadorship... |
In the past week, Burkett was named by many news reports as the probable source of the documents. "It's time," Burkett said. "I'm tired of me being the bad guy. I'm tired of losing everything we've got," a reference to his financial and health struggles since he left the Guard. Turning to his wife, Nicki, he said: "We've lost it all, baby. We've lost everything." Sitting in a rocking chair in his weathered ranch house south of Baird, Texas, Burkett recounted his continuing efforts — beginning before he was kicked out of discharged from the Texas Army National Guard in 1998 — to clean up what he saw as Guard corruption and mismanagement.
"Liars and thieves, Nicki! They're all liars and thieves!"
"Yes, dear. Would you like another pill?" |
He said that activity led to a telephone call in March from Ramirez and her offer to provide documents damaging to President Bush. Burkett said Ramirez told him she had seen him the previous month in an appearance on the MSNBC program Hardball, discussing the controversy over whether Bush fulfilled all his obligations for service in the Texas Air Guard during the early 1970s. "There is something I have that I want to make sure gets out," he quoted her as saying.
| "M'sieur Burkett! The documents! I must leave zem wiz you!" |
He said Ramirez claimed to possess Killian's "correspondence file," which would prove Burkett's allegations that Bush had problems as a Guard fighter pilot. Burkett said he arranged to get the documents during a trip to Houston for a livestock show in March.
"Awright, baby! I'll be at the livestock show in Houston on the 29th. But they better be good!"
"Zey will be good, M'sieur Burkett! Wear a red rose in your cowboy hat so you weel be recognized!"
"I thought you saw me on the Chris Matthews show?" |
But instead of being met at the show by Ramirez, he was approached by a man who asked for Burkett, handed him an envelope and quickly left, Burkett recounted. "I didn't even ask any questions," Burkett said. "Should I have? Yes. Maybe I was duped. I never really even considered that."
| "Yes. He was a small man, maybe 18 inches tall, I'd say. He said nothing. Just stuffed the documents into the top of my cowboy boot and left!" |
| Humm, look anything like Sandy Burger? |
By Monday, USA TODAY had not been able to locate Ramirez or verify other details of Burkett's account. Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego Lucy Ramirez? |
"[RING!] USA Today calling! You know anybody named Ramirez?"
"This is Texas. We got mebbe 3 million people named Ramirez. Which one y'want?"
"Lucy Ramirez."
"Oh, well. That's diff'rent. Half that three million's men. That leaves a million and a half women. Half o' them are named Lucy. Pick the one y'want." |
Three people who worked with Killian in the early 1970s said they don't recognize her name. Burkett promised to provide telephone records that would verify his calls to Ramirez, but he had not done so by Monday night.
| "I... uhhh... musta left 'em in my other pants." |
An acquaintance of Burkett, who he said could corroborate his story, said he was at the livestock show on March 3. The woman, who asked that her name not be used, said Burkett asked if he could put papers inside a box she had at the livestock show. Often, she said, friends ask to store papers in her box that verify their purchases at the livestock auction. She said she did not know the nature of the papers Burkett gave her, and he did not say anything about them.
| "No. No. Can't say that I did see any leprechauns. Sorry." |
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