Separate investigations by CBS News and the Boston Globe, published in September 2004, put President George W. Bush's Texas Air National Guard service under renewed scrutiny and gave Democrats new material to contest his credibility ahead of the November election.
A CBS "60 Minutes" segment featured former Texas House Speaker Ben Barnes, who admitted arranging a Guard placement for Bush through a family connection, an act he described as preferential treatment that reduced the future president's exposure to Vietnam deployment. The program also aired memos attributed to the late Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, Bush's former squadron commander, indicating Bush had been grounded for skipping a mandatory physical and failing to meet performance standards, and that Killian had resisted political pressure to improve Bush's annual review. White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett dismissed the Barnes account as partisan but did not directly address the Killian documents.
The Boston Globe concluded that Bush's drill attendance between 1972 and 1974 was irregular enough that his superiors could have disciplined him or recalled him to active duty. They did neither.
A group called Texans for Truth launched television spots in which a former Guard officer said Bush never appeared at an Alabama unit where he was supposed to serve in 1972.
The Guard controversy unfolded as Democratic challenger John Kerry attacked Bush's Iraq war management, citing the US military death toll having just passed 1,000. Bush acknowledged the figure briefly at the White House: "We mourn every loss of life."
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in September 2004, in its own words.