NEWS

WIRES

OTHER

Bogus Bush Biography Found by Hugh E. Scott Sent on U.S. Embassy WebsiteTo FBI

On October 22, 2005, investigative journalist Hugh E. Scott sent the FBI copies of a falsified White House biography he found on the Internet. The text claimed that claimed President Bush had flown Texas Air National Guard jets almost six years when the actual time was 27 months.

Additionally, the text asserted that after Bush spent two years on active duty operating F102 interceptors, he was on "part-time status, flying occasional missions" for nearly four years into 1974. However, official copies of Air National Guard records in Scott's possession show Lt. Bush quit interceptors in April 1972, was grounded on August 1, 1972, for failing to take a mandatory medical exam and missed Guard drills later that year after transferring to a non-flying ANG unit in Alabama.

Scott discovered the phony history on September 29, 2005, on a website maintained by the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi. A week later, on October 6, when he accessed the website again, Bush's biography had been deleted. Scott believes his October 4 e-mails to Washington news outlets alerted the White House of the 3,900-word text, which he believes it erased.

The cover-up came too late, however. During his first visit to the website, Scott made a printout of the suspicious document and mailed copies to friends for safekeeping.

In his letter to the FBI, Scott said he wasn't sure a crime had been committed, but "it certainly smelled like one." Because of the indictment of Vice President Dick Cheney's top aide, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, for perjury and other criminal charges in the Valerie Plame case, Scott believes the Bureau will take his complaint seriously.

In February 2004, Scott found an identical bogus biography on another State Department website. With what appeared to be smoking-gun evidence of an aborted GOP scheme to embellish Bush's military record before the 2000 election, Scott called the Boston Globe. Impressed, it reported his discovery on February 28, 2004, under the headline, "Bush Bio on Web Inflates Guard Service," and credited Scott as its source.

In response to the Globe story, the White House refused to disclose the author of the phony history or how the State Department got a copy. Instead, spokesman Dan Bartlett said Bush's biography "does not reflect the facts of his service. It will be corrected."

Both bogus bios can be seen on Scott's website, PhonyFighterPilot.com.