DSM COUNTER-MEME

On one of the local wingnut radio shows, a caller claimed that the Downing Street Memos were forgeries. I had read this claim in comments on right-wing blogs but I wasn't sure how widely it had spread. Today an LTE in the local paper repeats this meme:

Eager dupes
Re: the June 23 opinion "Memos chip away at administration war motives."

This editorial accepted the unauthenticated Downing Street memo of information copied by a reporter named Smith who told The Associated Press he had protected the identity of the source of the documents by typing copies on plain paper and destroying the originals.
The "news" is in the slant, and we don't know what was selectively excluded or included.
Added to that is their dubious authenticity and the purported reason for their destruction. Destroying source identification by destroying originals means the source was allegedly printed on the documents. Cutting or blacking out names and origins has been suitable security for over a hundred years when using documents as evidence.
These memos are either false or have been altered to an agenda. The hue and cry is ridiculous and the huers and criers are become eager dupes.

Bill Heuisler
Writer, Tucson

UPDATE: I found another one from earlier in the week.

In response to the June 19 “British memos paint picture of prewar doubt, support memos online”

It was with interest that I read the Associated Press article about these secret memos, but what struck my interest was, “Smith told the AP he protected the identity of the source he had obtained the documents from by typing copies of them on plain paper and destroying the originals.”
Well, I guess British reporter Michael Smith had remembered what happened to Dan Rather and Columbia Broadcasting System with their false memos, so it would be better to destroy the evidence.
And it would be easier to use a typewriter then a computer to copy the text of the memos. That way Smith could not be called a liar when his memos were found to be fake.
Please, give me a break!

Currie B. Clement
Retired fraud detective, Tucson