Posted on 07/21/2004 6:11:49 AM PDT by Isara
Scandal: Remember Sandy Berger? He was Bill Clinton's national security adviser. Until Tuesday, he was a top adviser to John Kerry. Now, he's in big trouble.
The former Clinton White House official is being investigated for taking notes and classified documents from the National Archives as he prepared for the 9-11 hearings.
Berger claims he accidentally took the documents, some of which he later threw out. He claims further he wasn't trying to hide anything from the 9-11 commission and would cooperate with any investigation. He blamed it all on "sloppiness."
Sorry, but Berger's bizarre behavior raises many questions. Included among those are some hypothetical ones, such as:
What if President Bush's National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice had done the same thing?
Can anyone seriously doubt the media would today be asking, "What did the president know, and when did he know it"? Or that media pundits would be calling for Rice's resignation?
Yet, the Berger story mainly got covered by the unconventional Web-based media. It was buried in both the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, and got only cursory treatment elsewhere.
Once again, so much for media objectivity.
Of course, Democrats see a GOP plot in all this. But that's a little far-fetched. Berger was caught by National Archives employees stuffing classified documents into his jacket and pants. That doesn't sound to us like the theft was "inadvertent," as Berger says.
With the 9-11 panel's final report due this week, we may never know whether the missing documents would have cast a damning light on Clinton's anti-terrorism efforts.
As the Associated Press reported, Berger discarded "two or three copies of the highly classified Millennium terror report (that) included critical assessments about the Clinton administration's handling of the Millennium terror threats as well as identification of America's terror vulnerabilities at airports and sea ports."
It's hard to have much sympathy for Berger. He's one of many Clinton administration officials who has ripped Bush and his top aides for "incompetence" in the war on terror — a war we think should have begun under Clinton's watch, but was left to Bush.
Now, the incompetence shoe is on the other foot.
Berger was a top national security adviser to John Kerry. So was diplomat Joseph Wilson, another Clinton appointee, who lied about Iraq seeking nuclear materials in Iraq. See a pattern here?
Kerry hoped to show the Democrats could be tough on national security. Instead, by relying on Clinton administration retreads, he only raised questions about his own campaign's integrity.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
With classified documents, they are either there or not.
No, not really, especially with something (a draft) like this. Here is the way it would work.
The author (Clarke) would write his rough draft, then there would be copies made, probably something like 10. Each copy would be labeled (for instance Copy 2 of 10) then each copy would have a routing memo attached and circulated around for comments from all relevant people. People would mark up the draft with their comments (Crossing stuff out, adding comments in the margins, possibly attaching a page with additional comments, changing emphasis whatever). Eventually all of the copies and the comments would make it back to who ever was going to finalize it, most likely the original author. They would incorporate or ignore the comments.
The point of this is that each of the copies is different...it has different people's comments on it. So while a copy or two might be still be in existance, all of the copies would have different comments by different people. I think it likely that those comments are the evidence that Burglar was trying to destroy.
I don't know who said what, but someone said something in their comments that would be damning with the hindsight of 9/11. It could very easily be Clinton himself, or Burglar or someone else senior making a comment about minimizing the threat of terrorism or arguing that we don't need to do anything about the Islamic terrorism threat. Or even more likely, that the political cost of taking appropriate security measures was not worth it.
After all, this was an after action report after they did nothing, and nothing happened and a little basic law enforcement caught the bad guy. Clarke's original purpose in writing the report was to agitate for more focus on counter terrorism...and it didn't happen. Someone said something in their comments that made it not happen. And that someone had to be high up.
You scared me.
What did we do ? What crime did we commit to deserve the Clintons ?
As Roger L. Simon, the blogger, pointed out, the issue is Kerry.
Now that Bill Clinton has said that he knew about the investigation for a long time, the question is what did Kerry know and when did he know it?
Did he know that Berger was under investigation, yet continue to rely on him as a Presidential candidate? This would show incredibly poor judgment.
Or, did Berger and Clinton keep this potentially devastating information from the putative Democratic candidate?
Inquiring minds want to know.
We allowed Ross Perot to become relevant.
About 35% of our population is terminally stupid.
Interesting take but I would think that the Archives would treated marked up copies as ''originals'' & issue duplicates of the original marked-up ''copy''.
No they don't. They only say it's a GOP plot to divert attention from their thieving party hacks.
Well see how far this one goes. Already the perps are accusing the victims. The major networks are portraying it as 'politics as usual'. Will the American electorate wake up from its stupor and read the writing on the wall?
Letters to the Editor...all across The Country...
"The local press in every community is much more independent..."
Karen Hughes
LOL.
And a lot of the rest of us occasionally terminally stupid.
The Archives would probably only make a copy if it was supposed to leave their possession. For issuance only to a safe room, it would have likely been the original...it was never supposed to leave the room. And it is a giant PITA to make and then destroy copies of classified docs...it is best (and usually) avoided.
I think this is likely SPOT ON.
Good insight, thanks.
(BTW - NAACP = National Association for the Advancement of Communist Principles)
Killing millions of babies is a pretty good window on hell.
Rebelliousness rampantly glorifying itself in the media is another.
Hostility to God, righteousness, goodness, Christianity, God's priorities--another pretty strong reason.
Forsaking our founding priorities and values as above, is not a good survival habit.
Teaching children that rank sin; doing their own thing--often in public; that there is no right or wrong--just whatever feels good; Not even tolerating the 10 Commandments in the public arena; glorifying alcoholism and spouse/child abuse; glorifying dysfunctions in families . . .
The reason Billdo was reelected was--he was the paragon example of too large a portion of the electorate.
WHEN WILL THE SHEEPLE WAKE UP?
--WHEN the gate to the prison camp closes behind them.
--WHEN the lever on the guillotine is pushed.
--WHEN they are given the choice to worship the world leader and be SLAGGED/receive the chip implant or DIE.
--WHEN RUSSIAN, CHINESE, CUBAN, MEXICAN, NORTH KOREAN AND FRENCH TROOPS are guarding their intersections and Walmarts.
--WHEN (as some visions, dreams have indicated) aborting mothers want their kids . . . for food; and others wait for sick relatives to die (some with a bit of an assist) . . . for food.
--WHEN a loved one is nuked in a distant city.
. . .
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