Number 878: The Farthest Man From Home: Wainwright

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Mapes

Mary Mapes

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mary Alice Mapes (born May 9, 1956) is an American journalist, former television news producer, and author. She was a principal producer for CBS News, primarily the CBS Evening News and primetime television program 60 Minutes Wednesday.

Early life

Mapes grew up with four sisters in Burlington, Washington. Her parents were Republicans. Her father, from whom she was estranged, was an abusive alcoholic. Mapes graduated from Burlington-Edison High School in 1974, and studied communications and political science at the University of Washington. In the 1980s she worked at KIRO-TV in Seattle. There she also met her husband Mark Wrolstad when she was a producer and he was a reporter. They married in 1987.

Work at CBS

Mapes went to work for CBS News in Dallas, Texas, in 1989, and joined 60 Minutes Wednesday in 1999, working as a producer assigned to Dan Rather. She worked at CBS News for 15 years.

Killian documents controversy

Further information: Killian documents controversy

Following the investigation, Mapes and others involved were accused of lapses in judgment and were fired.

http://articles.latimes.com/2005/jan/11/nation/na-cbs11

Los Angeles Times

Report Condemns CBS News; 4 Lose Jobs

January 11, 2005 Josh Getlin and Scott Collins Times Staff Writers

NEW YORK — CBS News dismissed four staffers and appointed a new standards executive Monday after an independent panel issued an exhaustive and highly critical report on how questionable documents -- and a frenzied rush to trump competitors -- led the network to air a high-stakes story about President Bush's military service that turned into a journalistic and political debacle.

Now the venerable news division, home of pioneering broadcaster Edward R. Murrow and for years the crown jewel of the "Tiffany Network," must repair the damage as it seeks to restore its credibility under difficult circumstances: Its prime-time newscast ranks third among the big three networks. It remains beset by conservative critics who say the organization is driven by liberal bias.

And although he was not among those forced out, anchor Dan Rather, who presented the controversial "60 Minutes Wednesday" piece, retires in March, leaving the network in the hunt for a successor to be its new public face.

Aired on Sept. 8 in the midst of a tight presidential race, the segment raised serious allegations about Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard.

The 224-page report, scathing in its summation, said CBS' handling of the story was flawed at almost every turn -- in the reporting that began in haste in late August, the internal process for reviewing the authenticity of documents, and even afterward, when questions were raised by Web loggers and journalists.

CBS News' problems with the story, the panel said, were the result of "a myopic zeal" to be first with the story, causing the network to fall short of its own core principles of accuracy and fairness. Although the report did not find evidence of political bias, it sharply criticized a producer for contacting the John F. Kerry campaign before the segment aired.

The panel, led by former Atty. Gen. Richard L. Thornburgh and former Associated Press executive Louis D. Boccardi, lambasted the network for "considerable and fundamental deficiencies" in preparing and later defending the story.

The story, titled "For the Record," alleged that Bush had received favorable treatment during his service during the Vietnam War era.

The story offered as evidence four documents allegedly written by Bush's late former commanding officer, Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian, in 1972 and 1973. One of the documents stated that a retired Air National Guard general had put pressure on officers to "sugarcoat" Bush's evaluation; another indicated Killian recommended that Bush's flight status be suspended for failing to meet National Guard standards and not taking a required physical. All of the documents were said to be photocopies from Killian's personal files and were not part of the military's official records.

In the end, the panel was not able to determine whether the documents were authentic.

Even after serious questions had been raised about the story, the panel found, CBS News offered a "strident defense" of the story without fully investigating potential problems.

The news division also allowed many employees who worked on the original story to work on subsequent pieces defending it, the panel found. And the network issued inaccurate news releases that, among other things, declared that the source of the documents was "unimpeachable," the panel said, and that experts had deemed them authentic.

The panel said some CBS staffers called the events leading up to the story's airing a "perfect storm" in which multiple factors led to an overall failure of institutional safeguards. Among them: Executive Producer Josh Howard had just taken over as chief of "60 Minutes Wednesday," other producers deferred to Rather and his producer Mary Mapes, and a "zealous belief in the truth of the segment" that may have "led many to disregard some fundamental journalistic principles."

The panel also said that Mapes might have created the appearance of political bias by agreeing to put Burkett in touch with Joe Lockhart, a senior aide to Sen. Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate. But the report said the mistakes made in preparing the "60 Minutes" report were due more to competitive haste than any political agenda.

"There's no proof of any political bias" involved in preparing the "60 Minutes" story, Thornburgh said in a conference call with reporters.

The network terminated Mapes, the once-acclaimed producer who prepared the report.

Howard and a top deputy, Mary Murphy, will also lose their jobs, as will Betsy West, CBS News' senior vice president of prime time. West was the highest-ranking news executive to be disciplined in the matter. CBS also appointed a longtime news executive, Linda Mason, as a standards czar to help vet investigative stories in the future.

http://articles.latimes.com/2005/jan/11/nation/na-cbs11/2

Los Angeles Times

(Page 2 of 4)

Report Condemns CBS News; 4 Lose Jobs

January 11, 2005 Josh Getlin and Scott Collins Times Staff Writers

Though Rather was not fired for his role in the broadcast, CBS chief Leslie Moonves faulted him for "overzealously" defending the report after it was attacked by bloggers and other commentators. Rather had announced that he would retire in March after 24 years behind the anchor's desk.

"We feel that Dan has announced already that he's leaving the [anchor] chair shortly," Moonves said in an interview. "And he will remain with '60 Minutes.' We feel that Dan did his job."

Also spared the ax was Rather's boss, CBS News President Andrew Heyward, who, the independent panel and Moonves said, had conscientiously attempted to verify the report before broadcast.

Many observers were struck by the harshness of the panel's report. Although CBS commissioned the report, the panel said its conclusions were reached independently and the network had no control over the content of the report.

"It's the sharpest criticism any news organization has ever been subjected to in public," said Marvin Kalb, a former CBS correspondent and senior fellow at Harvard University's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.

Still, the panel's report seems unlikely to be the last word on the scandal. Even Rather's role in the controversy may not be entirely resolved. The panel's report said that despite his delivery last fall of a widely reported apology for the story, the anchor did not "fully agree" with CBS' decision to stop defending the Bush piece and "still believes that the content of the documents is accurate."

Through a representative, Rather declined to comment. "We can't possibly issue a statement today, because we have to read" the report, said Kim Akhtar, the anchor's spokeswoman.

Bob Schieffer, who sometimes substitutes for Rather on the "Evening News," filled in for the anchor on Monday's broadcast, which led with a story about the panel's report.

It also seems unlikely that the network will settle the future of the "Evening News" any time soon.

"There's no news on that," Moonves said of the search for a new anchor. "We're not even close to a decision."

Attempts to reach Howard, Murphy and West were unsuccessful. But in an e-mail sent to reporters covering the story, Mapes said she was "terribly disappointed in the conclusions of the report and its effects on the four of us who will no longer work at CBS News."

She also criticized Moonves for "vitriolic scape-goating" in his prepared response to the panel's report.

Of the panel's view that the report had been rushed to air, Mapes said: "Airing this story when it did was ... a decision made by my superiors, including Andrew Heyward. If there was a journalistic crime committed here, it was not by me."

Meanwhile, the panel's report was criticized Monday by radio host Rush Limbaugh and other conservative commentators, who thought that it did not adequately address the liberal bias that they believed led CBS to rush the Bush story to air.

CBS News has been a target of such complaints for years, including a bestselling 2001 book "Bias," by former CBS staffer Bernard Goldberg.

The panel said that CBS relied heavily on retired Texas Army National Guard Lt. Col. Bill Burkett, who provided Mapes with the documents used in the report and who had been critical of the Bush administration in the past.

Although many media experts praised the panelists for doing a thorough and judicious job, enough questions remained that CBS News would still face a difficult challenge moving past the scandal.

"They have this giant millstone around their neck," said Richard Wald, a media professor at Columbia University and advisor to ABC News. The scandal "will be raised by every conservative commentator and every press critic there is."

The incident is also another black eye for American journalism, which has been reeling from an array of scandals in recent years, including New York Times reporter Jayson Blair's plagiarisms and fabrications, and the Tailwind report of 1998, in which CNN was forced to retract a story alleging that the U.S. military had used nerve gas on defectors during Vietnam.

Almost as soon as the "60 Minutes Wednesday" story aired on CBS, bloggers raised sharp questions about the veracity of the documents. In particular, critics argued that the proportional spacing, superscript "th" and Times New Roman font used in the documents could not have been produced by typewriters in the early 1970s.

CBS News initially insisted that the documents were genuine and stood by the report. The documents had been "thoroughly examined and their authenticity vouched for by independent experts," the news division said in a Sept. 9 news release.

But the panel said that statement, as well as others issued by CBS News over the following two weeks, was inaccurate. "No expert had vouched for the authenticity of the documents," the panel report said.

http://articles.latimes.com/2005/jan/11/nation/na-cbs11/3

Los Angeles Times

(Page 3 of 4)

Report Condemns CBS News; 4 Lose Jobs

January 11, 2005 Josh Getlin and Scott Collins Times Staff Writers

The following day, Sept. 10, Heyward asked West, CBS News' senior vice president of prime time, to investigate some of the material used in preparing the "60 Minutes" report, including opinions from the forensic document examiners retained by the producers to authenticate the documents. But the panel said no such investigation was ever done.

"Had this directive been followed promptly, the panel does not believe that '60 Minutes Wednesday' would have publicly defended the segment for another 10 days," the report says.

The network's defense of the story began to crumble on Sept. 16, when the chief source, Burkett, began to change his story. He backed away from his initial claim that he got the documents from George Conn, a former Texas Army National Guard officer.

Getlin reported from New York, Collins from Los Angeles. Times staff writers Paul Lieberman and James Rainey contributed to this report.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Figures behind the CBS scandal

Key players in the drama surrounding the September broadcast on President Bush's National Guard duty

LEAVING:

Mary Mapes, producer, "60 Minutes Wednesday"

Mapes was primarily responsible for the research and development of the segment on President Bush and his military service. Many at CBS News viewed Mapes as a "superstar" reporter and producer; some of her superiors said they were in awe of her work. Mapes, a CBS staffer for 16 years, earned a reputation as a fearless journalist. She covered the 1992 Los Angeles riots and worked as a producer in Kabul just after the U.S. forces entered Afghanistan in 2001. Based in Dallas, she landed the first TV interviews with Strom Thurmond's biracial daughter and with Hillary Rodham Clinton after President Clinton's impeachment. Working with Dan Rather, Mapes was the first to obtain photographs showing the Abu Ghraib prison abuses. Mapes and Rather had worked together for more than five years. Rather gave Mapes significant responsibility to produce stories, "in part due to the great confidence and respect he had for her work," the panel said.

Betsy West, CBS News senior vice president

West was asked by CBS News President Andrew Heyward to make sure the vetting of documents and sources in the "60 Minutes Wednesday" report was complete, and that the report was fair and unbiased. As one of the highest-ranking women at CBS News and an Emmy Award-winning news executive, West oversaw all prime-time news programming and was responsible for giving stories a final "fairness and accuracy" screening. Before joining CBS, West held a series of important assignments for ABC News. She was executive producer of the now-defunct "Turning Point" (1994-97) and created and oversaw the medical and legal units for ABC News. The panel faulted her for not heeding a Sept. 10 request by Heyward to investigate the opinions of documents experts who reviewed the National Guard memos before the Sept. 8 broadcast. No investigation was done, and the network would publicly defend its story another 10 days.

Josh Howard, executive producer, "60 Minutes Wednesday"

Howard joined CBS in 1981 and had begun a new job as executive producer of "60 Minutes Wednesday" three months before the Bush National Guard story aired in September. The panel determined that Howard helped rush the report onto the air without thoroughly questioning Mapes about the story's sources and documentation. According to the report, he did little to assert his role as the producer ultimately responsible for the broadcast and all its content. He has served for nearly all of the last 14 years at "60 Minutes," becoming executive editor of the Sunday night broadcast in 2003. He took his last post in June. He was a senior producer for the CBS News magazine "Eye to Eye With Connie Chung" and was a producer for the "CBS Evening News with Dan Rather" from 1986-89. Howard has won 13 Emmy Awards for reports broadcast on the "CBS Evening News with Dan Rather" and "60 Minutes."

Mary Murphy, senior broadcast producer, "60 Minutes Wednesday" and Howard's deputy

Murphy's job was to ride herd over the production of the segment at every stage, making sure it conformed to CBS News' standards. Like other CBS staffers who were asked to vet the 30-year-old memos, Murphy deferred to Mapes and her production team and did not perform her supervisory function, according to the report.

She worked as senior producer of "48 Hours" and executive producer of "Before Your Eyes," a 1998 documentary on a deportation battle over three former members of the Irish Republican Army.

She was senior broadcast producer of "CBS Sunday Morning" and senior editor of CBS News' "Campaign 2004" unit, which was the editorial hub for election-year coverage on all broadcasts. She served in the same capacity for CBS News' coverage of the war in Iraq.

STAYING:

Dan Rather, anchor and managing editor, "CBS Evening News"; correspondent, "60 Minutes Wednesday"

http://articles.latimes.com/2005/jan/11/nation/na-cbs11/4

Los Angeles Times

(Page 4 of 4)

Report Condemns CBS News; 4 Lose Jobs

January 11, 2005 Josh Getlin and Scott Collins Times Staff Writers

Rather was the on-camera face of the National Guard story. Busy with the Republican National Convention in New York and then a hurricane in Florida, he was not able to put extensive time into its development. Rather did not appear to participate in any of the vetting sessions, the independent panel said, "or to have even seen the segment before it was aired." After questions were raised about the veracity of the Guard memos, Rather defended the story but then publicly apologized and acknowledged the memos could not be authenticated.

Rather began his career in journalism 50 years ago as a wire service and radio reporter in Texas.

He joined CBS News in 1962, holding prestigious positions ranging from co-editor of "60 Minutes" to anchor of "CBS Evening News." He served as bureau chief in London and Saigon and covered the White House during the Johnson and Nixon administrations.

Andrew Heyward, CBS News president

Heyward had explicitly urged caution before the report aired. Afterward, he issued instructions to Betsy West to investigate the sourcing of the story and authentication of the documents.

Before his promotion to president in 1996, he was executive producer of the CBS News magazine "Eye to Eye" from 1993 to 1994 and executive producer, "CBS Evening News," and vice president, "CBS News" from 1994 to 1996.

Since Heyward was named president, CBS News launched "60 Minutes Wednesday" and the Saturday "Early Show" and developed ventures in new media. Heyward began his career with CBS in 1976 as a news writer for WCBS-TV, the CBS-owned television station in New York. He joined "CBS Evening News" as a field producer in 1984 and later became senior broadcast producer of the "CBS Evening News With Dan Rather" from 1986 to 1987. In 1988, he helped launch "48 Hours," the primetime CBS news hour.

Los Angeles Times

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Events in the scandal

An independent panel criticized CBS News for a controversial "60 Minutes Wednesday" story last fall about President Bush's military service. Here are the events surrounding the controversy:

Aug. 23, 2004: A week before the Republican National Convention, Mary Mapes, a CBS correspondent and producer, learns that Lt. Col. Bill Burkett is rumored to have important documents regarding Bush's military service.

Sept. 2: Mapes receives two memos from Burkett. She and other CBS staffers begin "a frenetic effort to 'crash,'" or quickly assemble, the story for broadcast, according to the independent panel.

Sept. 3: An associate producer is assigned to have the documents authenticated. Yvonne Miller has no background in this process but finds four handwriting and document experts willing to look at them.

Labor Day weekend: Mapes speaks by phone with Joe Lockhart, a senior advisor to Sen. John F. Kerry's presidential campaign. They would later give conflicting versions of the discussion.

Sept. 8, 2004: Rather presents the report on Bush's service, based largely on four typed memos that it said were written by Bush's late squadron commander, Lt. Col. Jerry Killian.

Sept. 9: Four hours after broadcast, a blogger named "Buckhead" is the first to challenge the authenticity of the documents. Other challenges follow.

Sept. 10: Rather says CBS stands by its story. CBS News defends the original report for several more days.

Sept. 20: After handwriting experts and the clerk typist for Bush's supervisor question the authenticity of the memos, Rather apologizes and says CBS can no longer vouch for them.

Sept. 22: CBS names an independent panel to investigate the National Guard story.

Nov. 23: Rather announces he will step down as anchor and managing editor of the "CBS Evening News" on March 9, 2005.

Jan. 10, 2005: The independent panel releases its findings in a 224-page report.

https://www.google.com/maps/@32.8422903,-96.7757172,3a,48.4y,245.48h,88.18t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sjri74SpMcO0XVkUpdZ0mZw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Google Maps

N Central Expy

Dallas, Texas

From 3/24/1970 ( George Walker Bush was never a pilot qualified or even capable of controlled flight in any jet aircraft of any branch of the United States of America military ) To 9/26/1996 is 9683 days

From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 5/7/1992 ( the first launch of the US space shuttle Endeavour orbiter vehicle mission STS-49 includes me Kerry Wayne Burgess the United States Marine Corps officer and United States STS-49 pilot astronaut ) is 9683 days

From 10/18/1993 ( the launch of the US space shuttle Columbia orbiter vehicle mission STS-58 includes me Kerry Wayne Burgess the United States Marine Corps officer and United States STS-58 pilot astronaut ) To 9/26/1996 is 1074 days

From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 10/11/1968 ( my biological brother Thomas Reagan the United States Navy Commander circa 1968 was United States Apollo 7 spacecraft United States Navy astronaut entering orbit of the planet Earth ) is 1074 days

From 1/19/1993 ( in Asheville North Carolina as United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess I was seriously wounded by gunfire when I returned fatal gunfire to a fugitive from United States federal justice who was another criminal sent by Bill Gates-Nazi-Microsoft-George Bush the cowardly violent criminal in another attempt to kill me the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 9/26/1996 is 1346 days

1346 = 673 + 673

From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 9/6/1967 ( premiere US TV series "Custer" ) is 673 days

From 10/1/1927 ( Tom Bosley ) To 7/19/1989 ( the United Airlines Flight 232 crash ) is 22572 days

22572 = 11286 + 11286

From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 9/26/1996 is 11286 days

From 1/15/1974 ( premiere US TV series "Happy Days" ) To 9/26/1996 is 8290 days

From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 7/14/1988 ( Ronald Reagan - Remarks at the WOC Radio Station Dedication Ceremony in Davenport, Iowa ) is 8290 days

From 5/28/1929 ( Herbert Hoover - Remarks at the First Meeting of the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement ) To 3/16/1991 ( my first successful major test of my ultraspace matter transportation device as Kerry Wayne Burgess the successful Ph.D. graduate Columbia South Carolina ) is 22572 days

22572 = 11286 + 11286

From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 9/26/1996 is 11286 days

From 4/21/1960 ( Dwight Eisenhower - Message to President Kubitschek of Brazil on the Occasion of the Inauguration of the New Capital, Brasilia ) To 3/16/1991 ( my first successful major test of my ultraspace matter transportation device as Kerry Wayne Burgess the successful Ph.D. graduate Columbia South Carolina ) is 11286 days

From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 9/26/1996 is 11286 days

From 9/10/1945 ( Harry Truman - Executive Order 9611 - Reestablishing the Advisory Board on Just Compensation ) To 9/26/1996 is 18644 days

18644 = 9322 + 9322

From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 5/12/1991 ( I was the winning race driver at the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix ) is 9322 days

From 9/10/1945 ( Harry Truman - Citation Accompanying the Congressional Medal of Honor Presented to General Jonathan M. Wainwright ) To 9/26/1996 is 18644 days

18644 = 9322 + 9322

From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 5/12/1991 ( I was the winning race driver at the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix ) is 9322 days

From 2/23/1960 ( Dwight Eisenhower - Remarks at the Civic Reception for President Eisenhower in Brasilia ) To 1/17/1991 ( the date of record of my United States Navy Medal of Honor as Kerry Wayne Burgess chief warrant officer United States Marine Corps circa 1991 also known as Matthew Kline for official duty and also known as Wayne Newman for official duty ) is 11286 days

From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 9/26/1996 is 11286 days

From 2/23/1960 ( Dwight Eisenhower - Remarks at the Civic Reception for President Eisenhower in Brasilia ) To 1/17/1991 ( RACKETEER INFLUENCED AND CORRUPT ORGANIZATIONS US Title 18 - the Persian Gulf War begins as scheduled severe criminal activity against the United States of America ) is 11286 days

From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 9/26/1996 is 11286 days

From 8/4/1964 ( Lyndon Johnson - Radio and Television Report to the American People Following Renewed Aggression in the Gulf of Tonkin ) To 6/29/1995 ( the Mir space station docking of the United States space shuttle Atlantis orbiter vehicle mission STS-71 includes me Kerry Wayne Burgess the United States Marine Corps officer and United States STS-71 pilot astronaut ) is 11286 days

From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 9/26/1996 is 11286 days

From 5/21/1957 ( Judge Reinhold ) To 4/14/1988 ( the minefield and Soviet Union-George Bush torpedo damage to United States Navy warship USS Samuel B. Roberts FFG 58 and crew because my biological brother United States Navy Fleet Admiral Thomas Reagan the United States Navy SEAL was onboard that United States Navy warship USS Samuel B. Roberts FFG 58 while I US Navy FC2 Kerry Wayne Burgess was somewhere in the area in my assignment onboard the US Navy warship USS Wainwright CG 28 ) is 11286 days

From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 9/26/1996 is 11286 days

From 3/8/1963 ( John Kennedy - Letter to the President of the Senate and to the Speaker of the House on the Need for Improving the Administration of Criminal Justice ) To 9/26/1996 is 12256 days

12256 = 6128 + 6128

From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 8/13/1982 ( premiere US film "Fast Times At Ridgemont High" ) is 6128 days

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d104:HJ00196:@@@L&summ2=m&

H.J.RES.196

Title: To recognize Commodore John Barry as the first flag officer of the United States Navy.

Sponsor: Rep King, Peter T. [NY-3] (introduced 9/26/1996) Cosponsors (1)

Latest Major Action: 10/1/1996 Referred to House subcommittee.

SUMMARY AS OF:

9/26/1996--Introduced.

Recognizes Commodore John Barry as the first, and therefore senior, flag officer of the U.S. Navy.

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=51988

The American Presidency Project

William J. Clinton

XLII President of the United States: 1993 - 2001

Remarks in a Telephone Conversation With Astronaut Shannon Lucid

September 26, 1996

The President. Hello.

Ms. Lucid. Hello.

The President. Welcome home.

Ms. Lucid. Why, thank you so much. It's so kind of you to call.

The President. Well, we're all so proud of you. We've been watching you, and I couldn't believe you walked off the shuttle.

Ms. Lucid. Well, I'm just really proud to be an American, and I'm just really proud to be part of this cooperative program that we have going with the Russians. It was just a great mission. And I just had a great time.

The President. Well, it was wonderful. And as I said, the whole country followed you, but I appreciate what you said about the cooperation with Russia, too. It really sets the stage for the work on the international space station. And it's very, very important. And I believe the way you captured the public imagination will also help us to build long-term support for the space program.

Ms. Lucid. Well, I think so. Of course, I don't know from a political standpoint or from the big boss standpoint, but I just know from the people that are actually working, you know, like the Cosmonauts and the Astronauts working together, that this works out just great. They were just wonderful people to work with.

The President. Yes, they are good people, and we're making real progress in working with them, I think.

Ms. Lucid. I think so. And it couldn't have been a better experience. And I just thoroughly enjoyed working with the Cosmonauts.

The President. The other thing that I wanted to say was that—on behalf of my wife and daughter, is that you have been a terrific inspiration for young women around the country and all around the world. And I know as you get out and around and people get to congratulate you, you'll see that. But it's a wonderful thing for these young girls that may have nontraditional aspirations to see someone like you up there doing that.

Ms. Lucid. Well, thank you, sir. Yes, I just didn't really give a thought to that. It was just something that I'd always wanted to do. And I was just very glad that it worked out.

The President. Did you have a good reunion with your kids?

Ms. Lucid. I sure did. [Laughter] And they're here nagging me already.

The President. Did you get your M&M's I sent you?

Ms. Lucid. Oh, I sure did. I wanted to thank you first thing. That was so nice. They're already into them.

The President. That's good.

Ms. Lucid. That was so nice and so thoughtful of you. I really, really appreciate that.

The President. Thanks. I'm going down to Texas tomorrow, and I just got a note that said you might be there at the time I land in Houston. If so, I hope I get to see you.

Ms. Lucid. Oh, well, that would be very nice. I hope that works out. That would just be great.

The President. Me too. Well, congratulations. I know you want to go back to your family, but I just wanted to say hello. You've given us all a great deal to be proud of and a lot of thrills, and we're glad you're home safe and sound.

Ms. Lucid. Thank you very much, Mr. President. And it was very nice of you to call. I really appreciate that. Thank you so much.

The President. Bye-bye.

NOTE: The President spoke at 2:52 p.m. from the Oval Office at the White House.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/Apollo_7_Launch_-_GPN-2000-001171.jpg

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4009/contents.htm

NASA

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

The Apollo Spacecraft - A Chronology.

Published as NASA Special Publication-4009.

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4009/v4p2o.htm

Part 2 (O)

Recovery, Spacecraft Redefinition, and First Manned Apollo Flight

October 1 through October 21, 1968

October 11-22

Apollo 7 (AS-205), the first manned Apollo flight, lifted off from Launch Complex 34 at Cape Kennedy Oct. 11, carrying Walter M. Schirra, Jr., Donn F. Eisele, and R. Walter Cunningham. The countdown had proceeded smoothly, with only a slight delay because of additional time required to chill the hydrogen system in the S-IVB stage of the Saturn launch vehicle. Liftoff came at 11:03 a.m. EDT. Shortly after insertion into orbit, the S-IVB stage separated from the CSM, and Schirra and his crew performed a simulated docking with the S-IVB stage, maneuvering to within 1.2 meters of the rocket. Although spacecraft separation was normal, the crew reported that one adapter panel had not fully deployed. Two burns using the reaction control system separated the spacecraft and launch stage and set the stage for an orbital rendezvous maneuver, which the crew made on the second day of the flight, using the service propulsion engine.

Crew and spacecraft performed well throughout the mission. During eight burns of the service propulsion system during the flight, the engine functioned normally. October 14, third day of the mission, witnessed the first live television broadcast from a manned American spacecraft. The SPS engine was used to deorbit after 259 hours 39 minutes of flight. CM-SM separation and operation of the earth landing system were normal, and the spacecraft splashed down about 13 kilometers from the recovery ship, the U.S.S. Essex, at 7:11 a.m. EDT October 22. Although the vehicle initially settled in an apex-down ("stable 2") attitude, upright bags functioned normally and returned the CSM to an upright position in the water. Schirra, Eisele, and Cunningham were quickly picked up by a recovery helicopter and were safe aboard the recovery vessel less than an hour after splashdown.

All primary Apollo 7 mission objectives were met, as well as every detailed test objective (and three test objectives not originally planned). Engineering firsts from Apollo 7, aside from live television from space, included drinking water for the crew produced as a by-product of the fuel cells. Piloting and navigation accomplishments included an optical rendezvous, daylight platform realignment, and orbital determination via sextant tracking of another vehicle. All spacecraft systems performed satisfactorily. Minor anomalies were countered by backup systems or changes in procedures. With successful completion of the Apollo 7 mission, which proved out the design of the Block II CSM (CSM 101), NASA and the nation had taken the first step on the pathway to the moon.

http://www.americaspace.com/?p=52152

AmericaSpace

'Ready for a Margarita': 17 Years Since the Shuttle’s Second Hubble Servicing Mission (Part 2)

By Ben Evans

Seventeen years ago this week, NASA launched its second shuttle Servicing Mission (SM-2) to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The $1.5 billion observatory has earned itself a well-deserved reputation as one of the most successful space-based instruments ever launched.

In spite of delays to several shuttle flights in 1996, the mission held firm to its target launch date of February 1997.

http://www.americaspace.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/sts58-launch.jpg

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/archives/sts-58.html

NASA

Space Shuttle

STS-58

Mission: SLS-2

Space Shuttle: Columbia

Launch Pad: 39B

Launched: October 18, 1993 10:53 a.m. EDT

Landing Site: Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

Landing: November 1, 1993. 07:05:42 a.m. PST

Landing Weight: 229,753 pounds

Runway: 22

Rollout Distance: 9,640 feet

Rollout Time: 61 seconds

Revolution: 225

Mission Duration: 14 days, 0 hours, 12 minutes, 32 seconds

Returned to KSC: November 9, 1993

Orbit Altitude: 155 nautical miles

Orbit Inclination: 39 degrees

Miles Traveled: 5.8 million

Crew Members

Image above: STS-58 Crew photo with Commander John E. Blaha, Pilot Richard A. Searfoss Mission Specialists M. Rhea Seddon, William S. McArthur, Jr., David A. Wolf, Shannon W. Lucid and Payload Specialist Martin Fettman. Image Credit: NASA

Launch Highlights

STS-58 Mission Patch First launch attempt on Oct. 14 was scrubbed at the T-31 second mark due to a failed range safety computer. Second launch attempt on Oct. 15 scrubbed at the T-9 minute mark due to a failed S-band transponder on the orbiter. The launch was reset for Oct. 18. Countdown proceeded smoothly to liftoff, delayed only by several seconds because of an aircraft in launch zone.

Mission Highlights

Second dedicated Spacelab Life Sciences mission (SLS- 2). Fourteen experiments conducted in four areas: regulatory physiology, cardiovascular/cardiopulmonary, musculoskeletal and neuroscience. Eight of the experiments focused on crew; six on 48 rodents. Crew collected more than 650 different samples from themselves and rodents, increasing statistical base for life sciences research. Combined data from SLS-1 and SLS-2 will help build comprehensive picture of how humans and animals adapt to weightlessness.

Cardiovascular investigations: Inflight Study of Cardiovascular Deconditioning; Cardiovascular Adaptation to Zero Gravity; Pulmonary Function during Weightlessness. Regulatory physiology investigations: Fluid Electrolyte Regulation during Space flight; Regulation of Blood Volume during Space flight; Regulation of Erythropoiesis in Rats during Space flight; Influence of Space flight on Erythrokinetics in Man. Musculoskeletal investigations: Protein Metabolism during Space flight; Effects of Zero Gravity on the Functional and Biochemical Properties of Antigravity Skeletal Muscle; Effects of Microgravity on the Electron Microscopy, Histochemistry and Protease Activities of Rat Hindlimb Muscles; Pathophysiology of Mineral Loss during Space flight; Bone, Calcium and Spaceflight. Neuroscience investigations: Study of the Effects of Space Travel on Mammalian Gravity Receptors; Vestibular Experiments in Spacelab.

For one of the neurovestibular experiments, the Rotating Dome Experiment, crew worked with first flight prototype of Astronaut Science Advisor (ASA), a laptop computer designed to assist astronauts conducting experiments; also called "principal investigator in a box" because it can increase efficiency of experiment activities.

Six rodents were killed and dissected during mission, yielding first tissue samples collected in space and not altered by re-exposure to Earth's gravity.

Other experiments: Orbital Acceleration Research Experiment (OARE); Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX). Also performed: Pilot Inflight Landing Operations Trainer (PILOT), portable laptop computer simulator to allow pilot and commander to maintain proficiency for approach and landing during longer missions.

http://the-walking-dead.hypnoweb.net/episodes/saison-1/episode-101/script-vo---101.186.42/

hypnoweb.net

The Walking Dead

Days Gone Bye

Episode 101 [ Sunday 31 October 2010 ]

Duane: Daddy, I got this sumbitch. I'm gonna smack him dead.

Morgan, Duane's father, runs over and shoots the other man in the street in the head.

Morgan: He say something? I thought I heard him say something.

Duane: He called me Carl.

Morgan: Son, you know they don't talk.

Morgan notices the bandage.

Morgan: Hey, mister! What's that bandage for?

Rick: What?

Morgan: What kind of wound? You answer me, damn you! What's your wound?

Rick doesn't respond.

Morgan: You tell me! Or I will kill you.

Rick passes out.

Bedroom - House

Rick wakes up in a house and sees Duane with a baseball bat.

Morgan: Got that bandage changed out. It was pretty rank. What was? The wound?

Rick: Gun shot.

Morgan: Gun shot? What else? Anything?

Rick: Gun shot ain't enough?

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=9591

The American Presidency Project

John F. Kennedy

XXXV President of the United States: 1961 - 1963

Letter to the President of the Senate and to the Speaker of the House on the Need for Improving the Administration of Criminal Justice

March 8, 1963

Dear Mr.___________:

To diminish the role which poverty plays in our federal system of criminal justice, I am transmitting for consideration by the Congress proposed legislation to assure effective legal representation for every man whose limited means would otherwise deprive him of an adequate defense against criminal charges. The need to protect this basic right makes enactment of this measure imperative.

In the typical criminal case the resources of government are pitted against those of the individual. To guarantee a fair trial under such circumstances requires that each accused person have ample opportunity to gather evidence, and prepare and present his cause. Whenever the lack of money prevents a defendant from securing an experienced lawyer, trained investigator or technical expert, an unjust conviction may follow.

The Attorney General's accompanying letter describes the deficiencies in the present system. These defects have prevailed for many years despite persistent pleas for legislation by the Judicial and Executive branches and the organized Bar. Fairness dictates that we delay no longer.

I commend the proposed Criminal Justice Act of 1963 for prompt and favorable action by the Congress. Its passage will be a giant stride forward in removing the factor of financial resources from the balance of justice.

Sincerely,

JOHN F. KENNEDY

Note: This is the text of identical letters addressed to the Honorable Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the Senate, and to the Honorable John W. McCormack, Speaker of the House of Representatives.

http://articles.latimes.com/2005/jan/11/opinion/oe-scheer11

Los Angeles Times

ROBERT SCHEER

Is Al Qaeda Just a Bush Boogeyman?

January 11, 2005 ROBERT SCHEER

Is it conceivable that Al Qaeda, as defined by President Bush as the center of a vast and well-organized international terrorist conspiracy, does not exist?

To even raise the question amid all the officially inspired hysteria is heretical, especially in the context of the U.S. media's supine acceptance of administration claims relating to national security. Yet a brilliant new BBC film produced by one of Britain's leading documentary filmmakers systematically challenges this and many other accepted articles of faith in the so-called war on terror.

"The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear," a three-hour historical film by Adam Curtis recently aired by the British Broadcasting Corp., argues coherently that much of what we have been told about the threat of international terrorism "is a fantasy that has been exaggerated and distorted by politicians. It is a dark illusion that has spread unquestioned through governments around the world, the security services and the international media."

Stern stuff, indeed. But consider just a few of the many questions the program poses along the way:

* If Osama bin Laden does, in fact, head a vast international terrorist organization with trained operatives in more than 40 countries, as claimed by Bush, why, despite torture of prisoners, has this administration failed to produce hard evidence of it?

* How can it be that in Britain since 9/11, 664 people have been detained on suspicion of terrorism but only 17 have been found guilty, most of them with no connection to Islamist groups and none who were proven members of Al Qaeda?

* Why have we heard so much frightening talk about "dirty bombs" when experts say it is panic rather than radioactivity that would kill people?

* Why did Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld claim on "Meet the Press" in 2001 that Al Qaeda controlled massive high-tech cave complexes in Afghanistan, when British and U.S. military forces later found no such thing?

Of course, the documentary does not doubt that an embittered, well-connected and wealthy Saudi man named Osama bin Laden helped finance various affinity groups of Islamist fanatics that have engaged in terror, including the 9/11 attacks. Nor does it challenge the notion that a terrifying version of fundamentalist Islam has led to gruesome spates of violence throughout the world. But the film, both more sober and more deeply provocative than Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," directly challenges the conventional wisdom by making a powerful case that the Bush administration, led by a tight-knit cabal of Machiavellian neoconservatives, has seized upon the false image of a unified international terrorist threat to replace the expired Soviet empire in order to push a political agenda.

Terrorism is deeply threatening, but it appears to be a much more fragmented and complex phenomenon than the octopus-network image of Al Qaeda, with Bin Laden as its head, would suggest.

While the BBC documentary acknowledges that the threat of terrorism is both real and growing, it disagrees that the threat is centralized:

"There are dangerous and fanatical individuals and groups around the world who have been inspired by extreme Islamist ideas and who will use the techniques of mass terror -- the attacks on America and Madrid make this only too clear. But the nightmare vision of a uniquely powerful hidden organization waiting to strike our societies is an illusion. Wherever one looks for this Al Qaeda organization, from the mountains of Afghanistan to the 'sleeper cells' in America, the British and Americans are chasing a phantom enemy."

The fact is, despite the efforts of several government commissions and a vast army of investigators, we still do not have a credible narrative of a "war on terror" that is being fought in the shadows.

Consider, for example, that neither the 9/11 commission nor any court of law has been able to directly take evidence from the key post-9/11 terror detainees held by the United States. Everything we know comes from two sides that both have a great stake in exaggerating the threat posed by Al Qaeda: the terrorists themselves and the military and intelligence agencies that have a vested interest in maintaining the facade of an overwhelmingly dangerous enemy.

Such a state of national ignorance about an endless war is, as "The Power of Nightmares" makes clear, simply unacceptable in a functioning democracy.

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http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0501/10/wbr.01.html

CNN

TRANSCRIPTS

CNN WOLF BLITZER REPORTS

Mudslides in California; Does Pentagon Have New Plan to Take Out Insurgents in Iraq?

Aired January 10, 2005 - 17:00 ET

CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, this was a report that was three months in the making. A lengthy independent review of just exactly what happened at CBS News with that September 8 broadcast. The lengthy review offers an unflattering assessment of the breakdown of journalistic standards at CBS News.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): In early September, veteran CBS News producer Mary Mapes thought she had the story of the presidential election. That George W. Bush had shirked his duties in the Texas Air National Guard and that four letters reportedly written by Bush's commanding officer at the time proved it.

DAN RATHER, CBS NEWS ANCHOR: Tonight we have new documents and new information on the president's military service.

HUNTINGTON: In fact, all that Mapes had were four ragged photo copies that neither she nor her colleagues at "60 Minutes Wednesday" nor several document specialists could authenticate at the time. Now a 224-page report prepared by former U.S. attorney general Richard Thornburgh and Louis Boccardi, the former CEO of the Associated Press finds, quote, "considerable and fundamental deficiencies relating to the reporting and production of the September 8 segment." That, quote, "myopic zeal to break the story ahead of other news organizations resulted in a rush to air that overwhelmed the proper application of CBS News standards."

ALEX JONES, SHORENSTEIN CENTER: I don't think there's any more destructive element in television news now than the competition to be first. This is a story about newspeople who fell in love with a story, and falling in love is a kind of madness. And that afflicts people in the news business just like it afflicts all of us sometimes.

HUNTINGTON: Thornburgh and Boccardi present a revealing look at the chaotic pressure cooker at "60 Minutes Wednesday" trying to push through a controversial story in just a few days including Mapes and an associate producer scrambling over Labor Day weekend to find document experts just days before the report would go to air. Mapes is described in the report as dismissing objections raised by those experts and then convincing CBS News executives that the documents had been validate. Dan Rather is described as out of the loop, covering Hurricane Frances in Florida. But Rather did tell CBS News president Andrew Heyward that, quote, "this story could be radioactive" and that Heyward should have it checked out thoroughly. Heyward then e-mailed Betsy West the executive overseeing "60 Minutes," "we're going to have to defend every syllable on this one." Betsy West as well as two other executives at "60 Minutes Wednesday" have lost their jobs all because a veteran producer thought she had a scoop.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The vetting process didn't work, that people trusted the word of one person without checking the documents or the experts that produced them.