Posted on 07/21/2004 1:15:11 PM PDT by The_Victor
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites)'s presidential campaign accused the Bush White House on Wednesday of disclosing the existence of a criminal investigation against former national security adviser Sandy Berger for political advantage.
The objective of such a leak, the Kerry campaign said in a political memo distributed by email, was to take attention away from a report to be issued on Thursday by the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The criminal investigation of Berger began last October but only came to light this week.
"The timing of this leak suggests that the White House is more concerned about protecting its political hide than hearing what the commission has to say about strengthening our security," the Kerry campaign said.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the White House had nothing to do with the disclosure that Berger, who was national security adviser under former President Bill Clinton (news - web sites), was under investigation for removing copies of highly classified documents from the National Archives.
"I'm not aware of how this story came about. I know of no one in the White House that is aware of how this story came about," McClellan said.
He said officials in the White House legal counsel's office were made aware of the Berger investigation some time ago because they were in charge of putting together documents for the Sept. 11 commission to see.
Complaining of the "questionable timing" of the leak, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee (news - web sites), Terry McAuliffe, filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking the release of any correspondence between the Justice Department (news - web sites) and the White House on the Berger probe.
Berger and one of his lawyers said on Monday he had inadvertently removed copies of a classified memo, as well as his notes on the material, as he reviewed it to determine what Clinton administration-era documents could be turned over to the Sept. 11 commission.
Republicans have accused Berger of stealing the documents for use by Kerry's campaign. Berger was an informal foreign policy adviser for Kerry until he stepped down on Tuesday in the heat of the flap over the documents.
The Sept. 11 report is expected to detail as many as 10 missed opportunities to head off the Sept. 11 attacks but stop short of saying the attacks could have been prevented.
Another Whopper from the Berger camp.
Oh, SHUT TF UP!
God, how I loathe these people.
Textbook Clintonista tactics.
I'm somewhat surprized that it took them this long to blame the President.
Excellent idea! Let's hope they do it!
Evidently, committing a crime is not a crime for a DEMO(N)cRAT, but publicizing a crime committed by a DEMO(N)cRAT is.
Bush planted those documents on Berger is what I think happened.
I would be surprised if the WH leaked this. Clinton has admitted to knowing about the investigation for months. Did Bush call up Clinton and tell him? Or do the RATS have sources? I suspect they do. Why wouldn't they? And why wouldn't they themselves leak it to prevent it from coming out just before the election that Kerry's top National Security Advisor was caught stealing top secret docs related to the 9/11 investigation.
So the Whitehouse leaked this news BEFORE the Democratic Convention? How is that any different from the Democrats leaking a 30 yr. old DWI arrest a week before the election? It's politics. Everyone with a brain knows that politics is a dirty business. Get over it.
Kerry is such a metrosexual whiner that it's hard to believe he's a "war hero".
And like a good Democrat, he complains about the timing of the leak versus the substance of the leak.
Here we go again! This is Kerry's way of trying to throw a smoke screen up around Berger's actions.
If this was advantagous to us, it would have been leaked NEXT Wednesday.
Hey, the Rats play themselves as victims. They have to do something wrong to be a victim.
Bill was a victim, Hillary was a victim......
"If this was advantagous to us, it would have been leaked NEXT Wednesday"
Or perhaps in October.......
They won't. When encountering a conflict with the rats, the Republicans instinctively assume the fetal position.
This is news to me. And, did they? I mean, is there any sign in their policy papers or anything that they had access to information they shouldn't've?
Hey F'ing, how about the timing of the Gore/NAALCP campaign ad JUST before the elections in 2000 accusing President Bush of killing James Byrd? Just coincidental too? BULL$#!+!!
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