Bush advisers discussed ’cleansing’ National Guard record

Ex-officer: Bush file’s details caused concern;

White House denies allegation about Guard records

Dave Moniz and Jim Drinkard.

Washington

WASHINGTON — As Texas Gov. George W. Bush prepared to
run for president in the late 1990s, top-ranking Texas
National Guard officers and Bush advisers discussed ways
to limit the release of potentially embarrassing details
from Bush’s military records, a former senior officer of
the Texas Guard said Wednesday.

A second former Texas Guard official, who spoke only on
condition of anonymity, was told by a participant that
commanders and Bush advisers were particularly worried
about mentions in the records of arrests of Bush before
he joined the National Guard in 1968, the second
official said.

Bill Burkett, then a top adviser to the state Guard
commander, said he overheard conversations in which
superiors discussed "cleansing" the file of damaging
information.

The White House dismissed Burkett’s charge Wednesday. It
is an "outrageously false statement," said White House
communications director Dan Bartlett, who handled the
records in the late 1990s as an aide to Gov. Bush.
Administration officials dismiss Burkett as a
disgruntled former Guardsman who had a falling-out with
his superiors.

Two forms in Bush’s publicly released military files —
his enlistment application and a background check —
contain blacked- out entries in response to questions
about arrests or convictions. Bush acknowledged in
biographies published in 1999 that he was arrested twice
before he enlisted in the Air National Guard: once for
stealing a wreath and another time for rowdiness at a
Yale- Princeton football game.

The nature of what was blacked out in Bush’s records is
important because certain legal problems, such as drug
or alcohol violations, could have been a basis for
denying an applicant entry into the Guard or pilot
training. Admission to the Guard and to pilot school was
highly competitive at that time, the height of the
Vietnam War.

The National Guard cited privacy as the reason for
blacking out answers. The full, unmarked records have
never been released. Bartlett did not respond Wednesday
to a request to release the records with nothing blacked
out, which Bush could do as the subject of the records.

Burkett says that the state Guard commander, Maj. Gen.
Daniel James III, discussed "cleansing" Bush’s military
files of embarrassing or incriminating documents in the
summer of 1997. At the time, Burkett was a lieutenant
colonel and a chief adviser to James. He says he was
just outside James’ open office door when his boss
discussed the records on a speakerphone with Joe
Allbaugh, who was then Gov. Bush’s chief of staff.

In Burkett’s account, Allbaugh told James that Bush’s
press secretary, Karen Hughes, was preparing a biography
and needed information on Bush’s military service.

In an interview, Burkett said he recalled Allbaugh’s
words: "We certainly don’t want anything that is
embarrassing in there." Burkett said he immediately told
two other officers about the conversation and noted it
in a daily journal he kept. The two officers, George
Conn and Dennis Adams, confirmed to USA TODAY in 2002
that Burkett told them of the conversation within days.

Soon afterward, there was a series of meetings of top
commanders at Texas Guard headquarters at Camp Mabry.
Bush’s records were carried between the base archives
and the headquarters building, according to Burkett and
the second Guard official, who was there.

The meetings were confirmed in a 2002 interview by USA
TODAY with William Leon, who was the state Guard’s
freedom-of-information officer in the 1990s. He was
involved in discussions about what to release. Leon
declined to comment on the substance of the meetings
except to say, "We were making sure we released it
properly and made sure we did it in a timely manner."

Contacted at home Wednesday night, he refused to talk to
a reporter. He said: "Don’t ever call me again at home.
I’ll call your publisher and sue you."

Burkett first made his allegation just before the 2000
election, when it was carried on some Internet sites but
went largely unreported by mainstream news media. The
issue resurfaced Wednesday in the Dallas Morning News as
Bush’s military record took center stage in the
presidential campaign.

Allbaugh, James and the White House denied Burkett’s
story. As president, Bush has since elevated James to be
director of the Air National Guard for the entire
country.

In an interview that aired Sunday on NBC’s Meet the
Press, Bush said he fulfilled his Guard commitment and
offered to make his records public. Host Tim Russert
asked, "Would you authorize the release of everything to
settle this?" Bush replied, "Yes, absolutely."

Since then, White House officials have released only
documents concerning whether Bush fulfilled his service
obligations. White House statements have not addressed
the release of any papers that could show disciplinary
actions, medical exams, legal scrapes and the like.

On Tuesday, the White House released pay records from a
military archive in Denver that it said showed Bush was
paid for at least the minimum training time he was
obligated for in 1972 and 1973.

But the records showed only what days he was paid for,
not where he was or what duty he performed. Neither did
they address outstanding questions about why Bush missed
a required physical in 1972, forcing him to stop flying,
or what happened during a five- month gap in 1972 when
Bush didn’t show up for training.

When reporters asked for further evidence Tuesday, Bush
press secretary Scott McClellan said, "Obviously, if
there’s any additional information that came to our
attention that was relevant, we would make that
information available."

On Wednesday, McClellan said those seeking additional
details on Bush’s records are "trolling for trash for
political gain," and engaging in "gutter politics."

He didn’t directly answer a question about why Bush had
missed his physical.

And Bartlett said: "The issue is about the president’s
service in the National Guard. The president said he was
committed to releasing any records we have to show that
he served."