Posted on 07/19/2004 5:07:42 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
AP: Clinton Adviser Probed in Terror Memos
3 minutes ago Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo!
By JOHN SOLOMON
WASHINGTON - President Clinton (news - web sites)'s national security adviser, Sandy Berger, is the focus of a criminal investigation after admitting he removed highly classified terrorism documents from a secure reading room during preparations for the Sept. 11 commission hearings, The Associated Press has learned.
Berger's home and office were searched earlier this year by FBI (news - web sites) agents armed with warrants. Some drafts of a sensitive after-action report on the Clinton administration's handling of al-Qaida terror threats during the December 1999 millennium celebration are still missing.
Berger and his lawyer said Monday night he knowingly removed handwritten notes he had taken from classified anti-terror documents he reviewed at the National Archives by sticking them in his jacket and pants. He also inadvertently took copies of actual classified documents in a leather portfolio, they said.
"I deeply regret the sloppiness involved, but I had no intention of withholding documents from the commission, and to the contrary, to my knowledge, every document requested by the commission from the Clinton administration was produced," Berger said in a statement to the AP.
Berger served as Clinton's national security adviser for all of the president's second term and most recently has been informally advising Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites). Clinton asked Berger last year to review and select the administration documents that would be turned over to the commission.
The FBI searched Berger's home and office with warrants earlier this year after employees of the National Archives told agents they believed they witnessed Berger put documents into his clothing while reviewing sensitive Clinton administration papers, officials said.
When asked, Berger said he returned some of the classified documents, which he found in his office, and all of the handwritten notes he had taken from the secure room, but said he could not locate two or three copies of the highly classified millennium terror report.
(Excerpt) Read more at story.news.yahoo.com ...
From DU...
librechik (1000+ posts) Mon Jul-19-04 08:30 PM
Response to Original message
2. Ashcroft has nothing better to do except stir up political trouble
WTF
CityDem (358 posts) Mon Jul-19-04 09:00 PM
Original message
This looks bad
Berger and his lawyer said Monday night he knowingly removed handwritten notes he had taken from classified anti-terror documents he reviewed at the National Archives by sticking them in his jacket and pants. He also inadvertently took copies of actual classified documents in a leather portfolio, they said.
What the hell is he doing sticking classified documents in his pants? This will really be a blockbuster if they have this on video. Berger just made it a lot easier for the repubs to blame Clinton for the lack of attention to security prior to 9/11. Also, can Kerry keep Berger on as an advisor? I think not.
DerBeppo (83 posts) Mon Jul-19-04 08:33 PM
Response to Original message
4. whoa.
not good. just the perception of impropriety will equate to something very bad. i don't think this will effect the election numbers, however. but it will facilitate more clinton blaming for 9-11.
wishlist (137 posts) Mon Jul-19-04 08:45 PM
Response to Reply #5
11. He claims he took them to study in preparation for his testimony
so that he could more accurately provide details to the commission. Apparently he has returned most of them but discarded some of them believing that they were duplicate copies of originals. He calls it sloppy, I would call it incredibly stupid.
lancdem (1000+ posts) Mon Jul-19-04 08:51 PM
Response to Original message
15. We should be thankful that he's identified as a Clinton adviser
when he's also an informal adviser to Kerry. "Kerry adviser subject of probe" would be worse. It sounds like this investigation has gone on for some time. News probably was leaked now to embarrass the Dems before their convention.
NYT finally picked up the story 10 minutes ago
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/20/politics/20document.html
(SNIP)
Clinton Aide Took Classified Material
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: July 20, 2004
ASHINGTON, July 19 (AP) - President Bill Clinton's national security adviser, Sandy Berger, said Monday night that he had removed highly classified documents from the National Archives while preparing for the Sept. 11 commission hearings and, as a result, was now the focus of a criminal investigation.
Mr. Berger and his lawyer said that he had knowingly removed handwritten notes he had taken from classified antiterrorism documents he reviewed at the National Archives by sticking them in his jacket and pants. He also inadvertently took copies of actual classified documents in a leather portfolio, they said. Mr. Berger was reviewing the documents at Mr. Clinton's request to select material to be turned over to the commission
LOL! Looks like Lindsey should have checked Sandy's drawers for the other 75 percent!
Damn, you beat me to the 1000th post.
Oh I love that one.......but be careful over there!
He KNEW what Sandy did and was preempting any story that might have come out at the time. Sleaze ball.
oh my. i don't recall this story.
Sandy should have just gone with the standard "No comment".
I've been thinking about the replacement documents. In order to replace a document (at this level) you would have to be darn sure it didn't look 'fake'. That sounds like 'forgery' to me. When I think 'forgery', I remember Niger...Wilson...forged documents...uranium...
I voted for him to take the documents before I voted for him to replace the documents.
I'm getting fuzzy, warm feelings as the days to election dwindle down to a precious few, LOL.
Leni
That sounds like the Keystone Kops Republicans on the House Intel are gearing up to slam the Bushies on process. It's always a circular firing squad with those guys.
The Real deal is that Kerry's foreign policy guru is a crook. I'd love to know what Kerry knew and when he knew it.
This also destroys Kerry's "I knew Ahmed Chalabi is was a heel, but the Bushies didn't" line. Clearly, Kerry had at least two bad actors -- Berger and Wilson-- in his inner circle. Kerry is a total zero, a crapstorm should engulf his campaign over this.
Perhaps Sandy runs his own documents store out of his pants.
Damn, you beat me to the 1000th post.
Well I didn't plan it.
I don't watch such things. :)
Thank you. But I was wrong in one stunning aspect. The 15 minute old, expanded AP story says the Archive Officials didn't go to what I called the "Feds" - they tried to get the documents back themselves, one of the archive officials went to Bergers' home.
Susicious favortism...but then, maybe very clever.
Must be SOME dirt. This was a helluva price to pay on Berger's part. I mean honestly, how far does Clinton loyalty really go? Of course, others have found there to be unusual circumsances....
Prairie
Been here before, done this hundreds of times.
Delay, delay, delay,
deny, deny, deny,
accuse, accuse, accuse.
That's about it. Guess what, it's not working as much anymore.
The media has been scratching in this boring news cycle before the rats conventiom for a huge story. Not what they wanted. There are so many angles to this we will stay glued to freerepublic 24/7. This will be at least several weeks news cycles cause it ties into so much else. This will overshadow the newsmedia lovefest for the two johns.
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