US President George W. Bush has reviewed disputed documents that purport to show he refused orders to take a physical examination in 1972 and did not recall having seen them previously, a White House official said.
The long-running story on Bush's Texas Air National Guard service took an unusual twist when CBS broadcasted a report on what it said were the newly discovered records. The authenticity of the documents has come into doubt.
In his first public comment on the CBS documents controversy, the president told The Union Leader of Manchester, New Hampshire, "There are a lot of questions about the documents, and they need to be answered."
In the telephone interview published Saturday, Bush replied "I don't know" to a question whether the White House had evidence that either the campaign of Democratic rival John Kerry or the Democratic Party were involved in releasing the disputed papers.
A White House spokesman said Saturday that Bush himself looked at the papers when CBS first said it had obtained them early this month. The memos, said to have been written by Bush's late squadron commander, Lieutenant Colonel Jerry Killian, indicated Killian had felt pressured to sugarcoat Bush's performance, and the future president ignored instructions to take a physical. The president's communications director, Dan Bartlett, "showed the president the documents provided by CBS that allegedly came from Killian's personal files," said spokesman Brian Besanceney.
"The president had no recollection of ever seeing the documents previously."
Other records, released Friday by the Pentagon, showed that one commander took a strong interest in the congressman's son during his basic training. The officer in charge of the unit where Bush took his basic training wrote to then-Congressman George H.W. Bush in 1968. The officer's letter was not released Friday, but the elder Bush's reply was: "That a major general in the Air Force would take interest in a brand new Air Force trainee made a big impression on me."
Democrats called the exchange proof of preferential treatment.
"Now we know the president has reviewed the documents, but the American people still don't have answers," Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe said.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the