Posted on 07/22/2004 3:47:06 AM PDT by kattracks
(CNSNews.com) - Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) says the House Government Reform Committee will investigate "the wayward actions" of former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger."The American people deserve to know why Mr. Berger apparently skirted the law and removed highly classified terrorism documents, purportedly in his pants, from a secure reading room at the National Archives and then proceeded to lose or destroy some of them," Hastert said in a statement.
"How could President Clinton's former National Security Advisor be so cavalier?" Hastert asked. The Republican leader had other questions as well:
-- Was Mr. Berger trying to cover up key facts regarding intelligence failures during his watch?
-- What happened to those missing documents?
-- Whose hands did they fall into?
-- What kind of security risk does that pose to Americans today?
"I know Chairman Tom Davis (R-Va.) will work to get the full truth of what really happened and help all of us better understand why Sandy Berger, a person who should fully understand the gravity and importance of sensitive national security materials, would operate with such overt negligence and apparent disregard for the law."
While Republicans concentrate on an apparent national security breach, Democrats are concentrating on the timing of the leak about Berger.
Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe reportedly has filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act, hoping to get a look at correspondence between the Justice Department and the White House regarding the Berger investigation.
McAuliffe is among the Democrats who view the leak about Berger as a political ploy to deflect attention from alleged security lapses by the Bush administration.
WHAT ??? The first committee that should be investigating this in both houses of congress is the Intel. committees. What are these guys thinking ?
Exactly. This thing has Bill Clinton written all over it. I don't think the fact that Berger was hooked into the Kerry campaign has anything to do with it. And, if Berger's association to Kerry's campaign should harm Kerry's chances, oh well. At least Slick Willie's legacy was protected.
Thing is...if billy the intern porker clinton has known about this treachery for months...why in the hell didn't big bill TELL kerry about it when kerry got the nod for the party's presidential candidate? I mean....wouldn't a dedicated DEMOCRAT warn kerry of this, even if berger did not have the decency to do so himself?
Because Slick does not want Kerry/Edwards to win. A Kerry win means no possibility of a Hillary run. Therefore, expect to see obvious efforts on Slick's part to sabotage Kerry. This Berger fiasco sure could be one of them. I'm sure we'll see more obvious signs of Slick's desire to quash the Kerry run as we get closer to November.
I agree. It looks to me that the DoJ is just trying to be careful and thorough in its investigation. If they go after Berger too hard prematurely, they risk losing the case and he'd be seen a martyr. The satisfaction of watching him being carried away just isn't worth the huge backlash that would follow.
Tom Davis lost constiuents on 9/11......he BETTER see to it that the TRUTH comes out and that Berglar is PROSECUTED to the FULLEST.
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