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 ...
Inadvertant and sloppy are two words I don't associate with Clintoon's minions.
Cold...calculating...intentional THOSE are words I associate with them.
And that's what...IMHO...should be used to describe what Sandy Berger did.
The committee rightfully should be called the Kerrystone Kops if the members have the stupidity of Sandy.
Leni
IF he gets any time at all, which I doubt, he will be falling on his sword for the Clinton's as most have. This was to protect Bill and Hillary Clinton from the truth of whatever is in those documents, trust me.
This is big, How long before we hear that Clinton is who asked him to go to the National Archives?
In testimony before the 9/11 Commission in April, Attorney General John Ashcroft detailed the highly classified March 2000 document, saying it contained a set of sweeping recommendations on how to combat the al Qaida threat that were completely ignored by the Clinton White House.
"The NSC's Millennium After Action Review declares that the United States barely missed major terrorist attacks in 1999 -- with luck playing a major role," Ashcroft told the Commission.
"Among the many vulnerabilities in homeland defenses identified, the Justice Department's surveillance and FISA operations were specifically criticized for their glaring weaknesses."
"It is clear from the review," declared Ashcroft, "that actions taken in the Millennium Period should not be the operating model for the U.S. government."
The Millennium plot review warned the Clinton administration "of a substantial al Qaida network and affiliated foreign terrorist presence within the U.S., capable of supporting additional terrorist attacks here," the Bush attorney general said.
"Furthermore, fully seventeen months before the September 11 attacks, the review recommends disrupting the al Qaida network and terrorist presence here using immigration violations, minor criminal infractions, and tougher visa and border controls," he explained.
Ashcroft's comments suggested why a former Clinton national security official might not want the information contained in the Millennium review to ever see the light of day.
"Despite the warnings and the clear vulnerabilities identified by the NSC in 2000," he told the Commission, "no new disruption strategy to attack the al Qaida network within the United States was deployed. It was ignored in the Department's five-year counterterrorism strategy."
Has there been a comment from the Senate Intelligence Committee ??
BTW .. Isn't Edwards on that Committee??
My mother LOVED these books,as a girl,kept telling me to read them,when I was growing up,but I could never fins Any of the books in a library;not a one.Then,in early 1973,the series was republished in paper back and I have all but one of the books.
Now,even though this series was written by a damned SOCIALIST,they are VERY interesting and full of factual historical tidbits,known about when they were written,but NOT known about today.
When I first heard about these Lannys,I immediately thought to myself.....I BET THEY WERE NAMED FOR LANNY BUDD! And so they were.Each said so,early in,in the Clinton years,during T.V. interviews.
And now you know the story and I am even farther behind in catching up with this thread,than I was before. LOL
That's some heavy imagery, Petronski! ROFL!
Me, too. Oooooh, Schadenfreude. It feels so good!
"Well we know who sent him in to get these don't we? How stupid do they take us to be? Of course he didn't accidentally take them, nor did he "discard" them by mistake either.
When is the public going to realize what criminal thugs the Clinton regime was and still is? NEVER, as the media will continue to cover for them.
Can you imagine the reaction if a republican did this? They would be calling for the heads of all of us!"
This is what these lying crooked liberals have been sitting on for over 9 months. No wonder they had to resort to calling President Bush a liar, VP Cheney contract fixer, etc...
None of the articles I have read tells from WHOM they learned this information and if it had come from the Bush administration they would have made sure that was part of the story.
SO who leaked the story about Berger stealing documents? Who does it hurt and who does it help?
A lot of the stuff coming out is confusing b/c it has yet to be connected to realtime events. Apparently the incident took place over a nine-month period and entailed back and forth activity between Berger and the Feds.
However, I would not believe any of Berger's published comments. Anything he says is suspect and meant solely to save his stinking skin.
its on MSNBC too
Goodness gracious!
"That tells me he was attempting to get all the copies of a particular report (or draft version) - and perhaps replace it later with a fake?"
Or take the copy out of the committee's vault and destroy it so they wouldn't see it. Don't know what you don't have.
Either works. Something was being hidden for a very good reason. The criminal charges here are not trivial.
A FReeper named renotse dubbed this scandal TROUSERGATE on another thread. LOL
LOL.
Don't forget the bongo drums. [triviata]
Hit it hard, hit it often. This has the WHOLE WEEK to play out!
This has probably already been posted but I've been away for a few hours. On another thread, Washington Post article, this:
Buried on Page 2: "Breuer said the Archives staff first raised concerns with Berger during an Oct. 2 review of documents that at least one copy of the post-millennium report he had reviewed earlier was missing. Berger was given a second copy that day, Breuer said. Officials familiar with the investigation said Archives staff specially marked the documents and when the new copy and others disappeared, Archives officials called Clinton attorney Bruce Lindsey to report the disappearance."
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