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 ...
Old Friend is correct someone friendly just dropped a huge stink bomb in the Kerry camp.
This could possibly be the drop of water that breaks the Dam. THINK ABOUT IT, We already know that Clinton is involved and we have classified documents stolen from the national archives about the Intel leading up to the most devastating attack on our soil this country has ever seen, and Sandy Berger is admitting he took classified documents and kept them from the 9/11 commission, and this is after he was instructed by Bill Cl;inton!!!!!!!!
This is Thermo Nuclear
Berger: ...I inadvertently took a few documents from the Archives -- and I stuck them in my jacket and down my pants.
he only lied about classified documents!!!!! this is a personal matter!!!
Saw it on the FNC web site. SO I am sure that when I gander over to the others....I'll find it there.
I am sure that fatboy Matthews will be talking about this for weeks...and showing pictures.
mentioned on MSNBC also, Keith Oberman I believe. Did not hear exactly what was said.
Kerry's foreign policy Staff
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/05/31/MNGK86UH4E1.DTL
Indeed, no aspect of the campaign has been more transformed. Rand Beers, a counterterrorism specialist who quit President Bush's National Security Council in March 2003, remembers working from home after agreeing to head the Kerry campaign foreign policy staff -- of one -- less than two months later. Back then, he often communicated to the campaign via e-mail. By August, he and two young aides had an office, of sorts, in a basement apartment with one window.
"We were truly the foreign policy team in the sense of being foreign from the campaign," Beers recalled.
Since Kerry essentially wrapped up the Democratic presidential nomination in March, however, many of the party's all-stars have signed on to the campaign. Now in the midst of an 11-day blitz on foreign policy, Kerry also is being advised by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former diplomats Richard Holbrooke and Bill Richardson, former Defense Secretary William Perry, former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. John Shalikashvili, former NATO commander Gen. Wesley Clark and Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware.
Rubin likened it to a government-in-exile, because most served in the Clinton administration -- a stark contrast to the previous two Democratic presidents, who had to build staffs and formulate positions after long periods of the party being out of power.
Kerry relies on his foreign policy staff less for tutorials and positioning on policy than for a sounding board to refine details, according to aides.
For now, the Kerry campaign's foreign policy focus is on four concerns: Iraq, the Middle East, terrorism and nonproliferation.
From Berger's testimony.
"...In late 1999, as we approached the Millennium celebrations, the CIA warned of five to fifteen plots against American targets. This was the most serious threat spike of our time in office. My judgment was that it required ongoing attention at the highest levels of government. Accordingly, I convened national security principals, including the Director of Central Intelligence, the Attorney General, and top FBI, State and Defense officials at the White House virtually every single day for a month. I am convinced that our sustained attention and the rigorous actions that resulted prevented significant losses of life..."
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4593926
Or, the Rats will find out that the National Archives employee who reported Berger's theft once refused to give a dollar to a homeless guy, then use the media to hound him as a heartless mean-spirited partisan pawn who was ordered by Bush to frame Berger. Michael Moore will hide a webcam in his bathroom and broadcast footage of him grunting on the pot, George Soros will dispatch legions of trial lawyers to sue him for code variances on his home, and the DNC will give his email address to every spammer on the planet.
Or, not.
Now, perhaps someone in the administration went and reviewed those documents first. And perhaps they found the incriminating evidence.
What to do? Well, make additional copies of the incriminating evidence and put it somewhere safe (note that the Archives says they may have copies of some of the things he took). The reason I think this is that he was allowed to remove the stuff and wasn't stopped on the spot.
Then, after he has left the building with the documents (and no doubt witnessed doing so and maybe on tape as well) he is notified that some documents are missing.
He returns everything except the incriminating stuff. Voila! A slam-dunk case.
Now, if he was under investigation and had his home searched by the FBI, it would seem to me that this is information Kerry knew about, either from Berger, or from someone in the government who would be duty bound to notify Kerry that one of his advisors was a potential security risk. Kerry HAD to have known.
Now, what does this tell us about Kerry? Either he is unwilling to dump a Clintonista for fear of the wrath of the Clintons, or this isn't a big deal to him, since he himself pulled such a move with the POW information. And there is every possibility that Kerry was in on this plot.
Life is good. W is playing hardball, and things are going to be very interesting the next few weeks.
Of course.
This degenerate----reminds me of a fugitive from a chain gang---- got paranoid when he spotted the documents.
Musta broke out in a cold sweat knowing the 911 Commission had the goods on the Clintons.
Depraved Berger's fervid mind was working overtime trying to figure out how to ditch the docs.
So the figging a**h**e stuffs them in his pants.... like he's a cheap crook shoplifting underwear at Wal-Mart.
This from an individual who held a top post in the US government?
I wouldn't let this jerk walk my dog.
May he rot in a 8X8" cement cell.
It was Richardson who interviewed Monica or a United Nations job, which she and her mom deemed beneath her.
I hear you..
It was Richardson who interviewed Monica for a United Nations job, which she and her mom deemed beneath her.
Are they sure these are the only docs that Berger grabbed? Could there be anything else missing they either don't know or aren't talking about?
LOL, I would like to check it out myself, but I just cant stomach that bunch :-)
Thanks for lowering yourself to check inb on them :-)
I bet you are right. I also bet BJ suggessted some particular documents be misplaced (heh, heh, if y'all know what Ah MEAN, Sandy!)
what is fun is knowing about this stuff before it's reported in the MSM, and seeing how long it takes to "hit".
it just bubbles up to the surface after all that activity (drudge, talk radio)....and then BAM!
wtf ever happened to kerry's intern in africa?
Like Susan McDougal, Web Hubbel, etc. Another one bites the dust.
This is hugh. This could be what we all suspected and hoped would get out. Maybe the teflon is gone-- Kerry is screwed. Berger is a Kerry adviser. Kerry is in deep doo doo.
This is a great time for this to come out-- next week this time Clintoon will be speaking (lying) in Boston.
This is swell news.
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.