CBS to air interview with suspected source

By Howard Kurtz of The Washington Post

CBS News anchor Dan Rather has interviewed the retired lieutenant colonel widely believed to have helped provide ''60 Minutes'' with the disputed National Guard documents about President Bush that have created a credibility crisis for the network, and CBS plans to air the interview in the coming days.

The on-camera sit-down with Bill Burkett, who has urged Democratic activists to wage “war” against Republican “dirty tricks,” could help resolve whether CBS continues to stand by its story or concedes the purported 30-year-old memos are forgeries, as numerous document experts have contended.

Rather was in Texas over the weekend for the interview with Burkett, a former National Guard official, who would not comment in an e-mail to The Washington Post on whether he had been CBS's confidential source.

CBS News President Andrew Heyward, while declining to comment on what interviews the network might be conducting, said Sunday: “We've said we are trying very hard to get to the bottom of these questions.”

Under mounting pressure from critics for standing by questionable memos that indicate Bush received favored treatment in the Texas Air National Guard, CBS executives are aiming to broadcast a story by midweek that would put the controversy behind them.

Burkett, who retired from the Austin, Texas headquarters of the Guard in 1998, has said he once saw some of Bush's military records in a trash can. He also says he overheard a conversation among Guard officials about sanitizing the president's military records, which Guard officials strongly deny.

Burkett's motivation could be suspect because he said in a Web posting last month that he tried to contact John Kerry's presidential campaign. He said he had urged former Democratic senator Max Cleland to counter Republican tactics—in a brief conversation confirmed by Cleland—and tried to provide the Kerry operation with information to “counterattack,” but that campaign officials did not call him back.

The Burkett interview follows Bush's comments to the Manchester, N.H., Union Leader that “there are a lot of questions” about the CBS documents “and they need to be answered.” The president, while reiterating that he had fulfilled his requirements in the Guard, said of the disputed memos from his late squadron commander in the Guard: “I think what needs to happen is people need to take a look at the documents, how they were created, and let the truth come out”'

Asked about Bush's remarks, Heyward said: “I don't feel any more pressure than before. I agree with President Bush that the sooner we can resolve these questions the better.”