Who will rid me of these troublesome records?

[avram]

Remember how there was some dispute about Bush’s military service? About how he might not have actually served out his term in the Texas Air National Guard? And remember how Bush kept claiming that he’d released all the relevant records, only there kept turning out to be more records each time that hadn’t been released?

And remember how the Associated Press finally filed suit a few weeks back to get all the records?

Well, whoops!

HOUSTON, July 8 — Military records that could help establish President Bush's whereabouts during his disputed service in the Texas Air National Guard more than 30 years ago have been inadvertently destroyed, according to the Pentagon.

It said the payroll records of "numerous service members," including former First Lt. Bush, had been ruined in 1996 and 1997 by the Defense Finance and Accounting Service during a project to salvage deteriorating microfilm. No back-up paper copies could be found, it added in notices dated June 25.

The destroyed records cover three months of a period in 1972 and 1973 when Mr. Bush's claims of service in Alabama are in question. [...]

There was no mention of the loss, for example, when White House officials released hundreds of pages of the President's military records last February in an effort to stem Democratic accusations that he was "AWOL" for a time during his commitment to fly at home in the Air National Guard during the Vietnam War.

(Via The Poor Man)