Posted on 07/19/2004 5:07:42 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
AP: Clinton Adviser Probed in Terror Memos
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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 ...
Exactly. And no one who routinely works in and around highly classified documents "inadvertently" puts them into a leather portfolio and whistles his way out of the building. This stinks but I fully expect it to come to nothing. By week's end it'll be reduced "everybody does it". Have any Repubs apologized yet?
B.S. Have you ever seen a Democrat in trouble, yet? It ain't gonna happen this time either.
It's gonna be Bubba and/or Hillary. There is no one else to benefit.
"Thermonuclear....."
That word reminds me. Maybe there's a connection with Los Alamos.
democrat talking point:
Kerry is a vietnam vet who recieved THREE purple hearts!
Someone needs to photoshop *****(take your pick of the DEMS)***** as a soap carving on this rope.
From DU..."This one's gonna sting I have a feeling. Damn!"
May he hang until dead - slowly.
I'm sure someone will be along shortly to explain it to us!
OH, GAWD....I am deliriously happy..........LOL.
DH heard it on the top of the hour news on the way home. I believe our local talk radio uses CBS, but not sure. Could be FOX.
It hits the wire and it is public.
I want to know what John Kerry knew and when he knew it.
Shermy DC isn't that big a town....when the FBI knocked on Bergers door the whole cocktail circuit knew it hours later.
Don't forget the "two tours". Something I can't quite figure out, he's there three months and that counts as two tours according to McAuliffe.
I think you hit the nail on the head.
Thankfully he was seen, but why did the archive staff contact Clinton's lawyer, instead of security?
When asked, Berger said he returned some classified documents that he found in his office and all of the handwritten notes he had taken from the secure room, but could not locate two or three copies of the highly classified millennium terror report.
"In the course of reviewing over several days thousands of pages of documents on behalf of the Clinton administration in connection with requests by the Sept. 11 commission, I inadvertently took a few documents from the Archives," Berger said.
"When I was informed by the Archives that there were documents missing, I immediately returned everything I had except for a few documents that I apparently had accidentally discarded," he said.
I say he stays on. He may know more than any RAT around...
Google News currently has 156 individual articles linked to this AP report.
The exact timing of this theft, and the discovery of same would help explain the motivation.
I can believe Kerry was in on it. Or if Kkerry was ignorant, Kerry could be counted on to co-operate, ex: supply a pardon. If true, then even if he's not involved in this particular nightmare, someone's got their hooks into Kerry bigtime. Which would make Kerry just as big a menace to my mind.
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