corrente

Has David Bossie rented himself out to the Canadians? Or is doctoring tapes just a part of the Conservative DNA? Just when the Liberals seemed headed for a no-confidence vote in the midst of the so-called "sponsorship scandal" (no cutesy "-gate" suffixes here), the Conservatives seem to have overreached, first by releasing a tape showing one of their own apparently chatting about favors in exchange for going over to the Liberal party, and now with the revelation that the tapes themselves appear to have been altered:

The Tories released the recordings to bolster their claims that the Liberals had offered Mr. Grewal and his MP wife, Nina Grewal, government appointments if they agreed to switch sides in the crucial May 19 confidence vote in which the government survived by one vote....

Yesterday, Jack Mitchell, a U.S. forensic audio expert who conducted a preliminary review of portions of the originally released recordings, said they had been altered. He said he did not believe the changes occurred in the digital-copying process.

"These tapes have been edited. This is not a maybe. This is not something that's unexplained. This is not, 'Oh, this is odd.' This is a definitive statement. The tapes have been edited," Mr. Mitchell said.

He said he could not say with certainty how the alterations occurred, or conclude definitely that it was done intentionally.

However, Mr. Mitchell said that he not only found instances of possible edits, including sections where it appeared that phrases had been added to the recordings, but also a telltale repeat of a brief snippet of conversation that was repeated exactly.

"The entire thing repeats exactly. It's not the speaker repeating his phrase. This repeats exactly in the same way, with the same rhythm, with the same timing, with the same noise signatures. This is impossible," he said.

(via Globe and Mail)

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. In my mother country, doctoring evidence of malfeasance is no barrier to career advancement, just so long as long as you pick on Democrats. Hell, you can even be a member of the MSM.