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 ...
Hopefully, Justice will be done.
Wow, I gotta go find the Dramamine. All that spin left me queasy!
Who's next? God, I hope Jamie Rubin gets wrecked like Wilson and Berger.
It simply doesn't get any better than this :-)
In other words, the "wall of separation" constructed by Jamie Gorelick made it virtually impossible for U.S. authorities to stop Ahmed Rassam, the "Millenium Bomber," by design or intention. It was left to blind luck. The NSC's Millennium After Action Review — which, based on Attorney General Ashcroft's testimony, must be devastating in its analysis of not only this event but of the Gorelick policy — remains classified. And, most significantly, it's likely the Review's criticisms and warnings were either ignored or rejected by the Clinton Justice Department.
Somebody should "alert" her to this ongoing, breaking news story and get her views on it. :-)
After all, she's been DENIED access to ALL the records, hasn't she?
Government and congressional officials familiar with the investigation, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because the probe involves classified materials, said the investigation remains active and no decision has been made on whether Berger should face criminal charges.
In the FBI search of his office, Berger also was found in possession of a small number of classified note cards containing his handwritten notes from the Middle East peace talks during the 1990s, but those are not a focus of the current criminal probe, officials and lawyers said.
The missing documents involve two or three draft versions of the report as it was evolving and being refined by the Clinton administration, officials and lawyers say. The Archives is believed to have copies of some of the missing documents.
I don't know AP sourcing conventions -- can a former official like Berger be identified as a "government official"? If so, this story is so full of passive voices and uncertainties that I wonder whether the Berger legal team is preemptively leaking it, having gotten wind of some investigation moving farther up the food chain. "Lawyers" is surely a Berger attorney, so "officials" probably would be on his team too. Just wild speculation, of course, but it's as good as anything given the info we have so far.
Limbaugh posts a transcript I believe
"....But if I understand other posters on this thread correctly, then he stole the documents sometime last October. If Berger was in the National Archives looking at the same Millenium material Ashcroft testified about five months later, that seems to reinforce what Ashcroft was saying about something even more explosive than the Gorelick bombshell."
Richard Clarke was writing his book at this same time frame. He takes the credit for no attacks during Y2K.
There was no doubt in my mind with Ashcroft's words and Gorelick's face that she knew darn well what he was saying, while I didn't have a clue.
So that's why it was so important to rewrite.
Night Wolfstar.
My head is about to explode.
I'm fixing to call it a night too.
Very very clear. You are a great asset to FR.
Not long as it's stated in the article posted in thread1,079.... "Clinton asked Berger last year to review and select the administration documents that would be turned over to the commission".
We'll see. The media is very good at ignoring things that destory the Left.
No it doesn't .. *L*
I know, but the mainstream media will avoid reporting it for as long as they can. Sorry for not making my statement more clear
You're absolutely right,on all accounts.I just wish more people knew this.
Has it been determined when Berger took these documents!
Thanks for that newer article. So Clinton asked him to review docs in October, Berger testified in April as I recall watching on television, and he was already under investigations and this is the first we've heard of it????
If it had been a Republican, the leak would have been the day after it happened in October.
And Berger has retained counsel.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.