One of Hailey's biggest doubters, Kevin Aylward, questioned the validity of Hailey's research while it was under way and did his own investigation, the results of which can be found at wizbangblog.com/archives/003865.php.

"He really glossed over a lot of details that are now known and just sort of dismissed them," Aylward said of Hailey. Those details include how other "experts" have claimed the four documents, which attempt to highlight a black mark on President Bush's military career, are fakes.

Those documents, which Hailey says he downloaded from the CBS Web site for his research, were aired in a story by CBS News anchor Dan Rather last month. Rather later apologized on air for presenting them as authentic.

"An independent panel is examining what happened with the (Rather) report," CBS News spokeswoman Kelli Edwards told the Deseret Morning News, but offered no further comment.

Aylward got involved when he thought CBS might consider using Hailey's research as evidence to suggest the memos are real. Aylward had also heard a major newspaper was looking at Hailey's study, found at imrl.usu.edu/bush_memo_study/index.htm.

What Aylward and others, such as those who created the Web pages at volokh.com/archives/archive_2004_10_00.shtml#1096716102, have done is to dissect at least some of Hailey's research, and determine it is flawed and therefore not reliable.

"His conclusions weren't supported by his data," Aylward said.

Hailey said he eventually will have a test posted at the USU Web link that people can reproduce to reach the same conclusion, which, Hailey says, is that the memos were typed.

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E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com