CLUE 2004

We at the Markowski Monthly in our endless quest to create wholesome family entertainment have decided to issue an updated version of the board game Clue. In our brand new modern version of this classic board game you must use the clues available to figure out who created the fraudulent Texas Air National Guard memos, who they are connected to, and why. We have compiled a series of clues for your game playing pleasure; see if you can put two and two together before the network news does. Good luck!

Clue #1

On April 27, 2004 The Kerry campaign literature suddenly claimed that there were “verbal orders” from Killian to suspend Bush for failing to take his medical exam. Shortly afterward (in “May” according to Burkett’s ex-lawyer, Van Os) Burkett began getting calls from “national newspapers and TV.” How did these reporters suddenly and mysteriously find their way to Baird, Texas within days of the Kerry campaign piece? Maybe the Media Magi or Miss Cleo showed them the way. *

Clue #2

CBS indicates Mary Mapes, the segment producer, had been in communication with Burkett for 18 months prior to the Sixty Minutes show, which puts her in this pack of reporters. But who else was in on the scam? We are told that Mapes and the CBS team were obsessed with their “scoop,” so they certainly didn’t tip-off the competition. Members of the national press corps know something critical about the story; who was peddling the documents? Yet none have yet revealed themselves. In the midst of largest journalistic scandal in decades, they are holding their tongues? Who directed them to Burkett and when?*

Clue #3

We do not know when all of these memos were created, but based on technical evidence; one appears to have been created on February 6th, 2004. One of the memo files had an internal Acrobat file creation date of 2/6/04. If anyone’s going to check for computer sales/returns, check February and look for an HP PrecisionPro Scanner sale. The whole fax claim is bogus. We only know that happened based on forged documents. They could have pasted in a fax header as easily as those signatures. The only way that it would be possible for memos to have been on paper at some point is the rumpled page marks someone found by boosting the grays. However, that too could have been stripped in. They used Illustrator 6.66 to create the PDF. Nobody uses that except computer graphics experts. Maybe that is standard at CBS, but the entire process is shady at best. **

Clue #4

On February 12th, 2004 the USA Today reported that there had been efforts to cleanse Bush’s record. The source for this story was Burkett. The next day the Boston Globe contacted George O. Conn, former Chief Warrant Officer in the Texas Air National Guard, who flatly denied Burkett’s claim, saying he never saw anyone combing through the Bush records or discarding any of them. Shortly afterward, according to Van Os (Burkett’s ex-lawyer) Burkett received a call from a man (Burkett says a woman, Lucy Ramirez) telling him he had documents confirming Burkett’s story that Bush was ordered to take his medical exam and refused to do so. Burkett says he was
busy but agreed to pick them up at Houston on March 3rd, and says he did so. So how did these reporters, so close in time to the Kerry communication on this same point, suddenly get the idea, in late April, early May, that Burkett had documents on Bush’s Texas Air National Guard service? And why would they seek documents which probably could not have existed, if they gave credence to Conn, who said the story was false? Was someone spreading the word? How would the person who gave the cue to the press know there was something there,