On Guard: 'Globe' Reporter Explains Timing of Latest Bush Probe

By: Joe Strupp Walter Robinson, the lead editor and writer on The Boston Globe's sure-to-be-controversial major story Wednesday that concluded President George W. Bush did not fulfill his military obligations, said the timing of the report had nothing to do with the beginning of the fall campaign or the recent attacks on Sen. John Kerry's Vietnam service.

When asked why the story ran in September when it refers to documents made public as far back as February, Robinson responded, "We publish as soon as we have the story, irrespective of what it is. If we had this in June, we would have published in June."

The story points to two key documents, signed by Bush and promising to meet training requirements or face a call-up to active duty. One from 1968 "has received scant notice," the Globe observed. The other, from 1973, "has been overlooked in news media accounts," the paper said.

Robinson pointed out that other documents had been released since February, but would not say how much of the story came from more recent information. "We are talking about several hundred pages of records that most people would not understand because they use a lot of military parlance," Robinson said. "That means it takes a lot of effort."

In 1999, the Globe story observed, Bush spokesman Dan Bartlett told the Washington Post that Bush finished his six-year commitment at a Boston area Air Force Reserve unit after he left Houston. Now Bartlett, presently the White House communications director, concedes, ''I must have misspoke."

The Globe's re-examination of the records showed that Bush, a fighter-interceptor pilot, performed no service for one six-month period in 1972 and for another period of almost three months in 1973. In fact, the records, the Globe said, "along with interviews with military specialists who have reviewed regulations from that era, show that Bush's attendance at required training drills was so irregular that his superiors could have disciplined him or ordered him to active duty in 1972, 1973, or 1974."

Lawrence J. Korb, an assistant secretary of defense for manpower and reserve affairs in the Reagan administration, said after studying many of the documents that it was clear to him that Bush ''gamed the system."

''It appears that no one wanted to hold him accountable," Major General Paul A. Weaver Jr., who retired in 2002 as the Pentagon's director of the Air National Guard, told the Globe.

The Globe story, a front-page offering reported by the paper's Spotlight Team, included bylines for four reporters and Robinson, who wrote the piece.

"There are five names on the story and that suggests that a lot of time and resources went into it," Robinson said, declining to elaborate further on how the story came about. "In terms of our decision-making and our reporting and the steps we took, we are in a competitive situation and I just can't go there."

Robinson would not comment on whether further stories on this subject are in the works.

Editor Martin Baron also declined to comment on the story, referring inquiries to Robinson.

The Globe first reported on Bush's questionable military service as far back as May 2000, citing holes in his military record and questions about whether he served his full time in the Alabama National Guard.

The issue came up again via several media outlets earlier this year but then faded. The latest revelations come at the end weeks of attacks against Sen. John Kerry's Vietnam War record by a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

Robinson said the story had already solicited a number of phone calls and e-mails, both positive and negative, but did not know exactly how many.