Memo to Rathergate

When I watched Dan Rather being interviewed on CNN’s Wolf Blitzer earlier today, he appeared to be trying to duck the issue of the memo’s authenticity by saying the larger questions of the story are the issue, not the memos. The issue raised in the blogsphere is the memos’ authenticity and the memos are the foundation for which the National Guard story rests on.

Watching CBS News tonight I experienced one of those lost in space moments. What I wanted to hear Dan Rather address did not happen. Dan and I weren’t on the same page as they say. It was interesting that CBS did a brief interview with Marcel Matley, who from what I have been able to determine is a well known handwriting expert. How a handwriting expert can speak with any kind of authority on the issues of proportionally spaced fonts, typeset, typewriters and kerning is one of those little mysterious of the universe I suppose. And if the signature on some of the memos was cut and pasted from an original authentic signature, how would he know?

What I wanted to learn was; who was the graphics expert that 60 Minutes ll used to authenticate the memos. I wanted to learn how 60 Minutes ll came to be in possession of those documents, and who was the source for those documents? Just telling me to trust you just isn’t good enough after age 10.

The "who" and "how" 60 Minutes ll came by those memos are important. Lt. Col. Killian’s wife and son both deny being the source; furthermore, both deny that Lt. Col. Killian would have typed those memos because he couldn’t type. Lt. Col. Killian is deceased so that we cannot ask him, and I would think that the wife and son’s grasp of their husband/father’s thoughts, abilities and opinions would be more accurate than colleague’s.

What I cannot comprehend is how those memos came to be found amongst the private papers of Lt. Col. Killian and ended up in the hands of some anonymous third party. The source of those documents is of paramount importance to the authenticity of the memos. Time to play it again, Dan.