Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Ashcroft: Berger 9/11 Docs Reveal Clinton Security Lapse
NewsMax ^ | 7/19/04 | Carl Limbacher

Posted on 07/19/2004 7:24:23 PM PDT by wagglebee

A sensitive after action report on the foiled Millennium bomb plot, portions of which were allegedly pilfered by former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, sounded the alarm that al Qaida operatives had entered the U.S. and were preparing to strike.

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."


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 911; ashcroft; berger; captainunderpants; doj; sandyberger; trousergate
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120121-127 next last
To: Howlin
Didn't Berger also take his classified, archived notes from some Mideast Peace Talks in the 90s?

The notes taken within the secure room at the Archives may have been taken because they needed the exact wording. Berger is no longer young and we all know how memory deteriorates.

I have this mental picture that the viewer watched this take place, while cameras recorded it, after Berger *lost* a previous copy of this document and was given a marked 2nd copy and then, after he left, they sat there dithering "What to do? What to do?" and finally first called Bruce Lindsay instead of the FBI?

Who called the FBI and when?
101 posted on 07/20/2004 4:10:10 AM PDT by reformedliberal (Proud Bush-Cheney04 volunteer)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47 | View Replies]

To: wagglebee

No, they always say they did something stupid and "didn't know" so they can deflect from their flaunting of the law.
Not unlike Craig Livinstone, et al.
So typical.


102 posted on 07/20/2004 4:13:23 AM PDT by mabelkitty
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Howlin

Bless you!


103 posted on 07/20/2004 4:13:43 AM PDT by reformedliberal (Proud Bush-Cheney04 volunteer)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 65 | View Replies]

To: wagglebee

What useless scum.

This is the true Clinton Legacy.


104 posted on 07/20/2004 4:20:32 AM PDT by Stallone (Make love not war! ~ Lynndie England)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: cyncooper
There is some obfuscation going on in the media reports (surprise):

Berger not only took his notes on the Millennium Report out of the secure reading room, he also had in his possession handwritten classified note cards from a Mideast Peace Talk in the 90s. I am not clear if he had these already classified and already archived note cards from the 90s in his possession when they searched his office for the current missing documents. If so, then this is not the first time he has pilfered from the archives and who knows what has been doctored and returned previously or is plain missing from the record. Someone hopefully is reviewing the Archives tapes from previous Berger visits as we speak or has already done so. Berger's lawyer is already trying to spin this down to a technical rule violation, which isn't going to wash if there is a pattern of this behavior.

NSA. God help us all.
105 posted on 07/20/2004 4:22:22 AM PDT by reformedliberal (Proud Bush-Cheney04 volunteer)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 79 | View Replies]

To: wagglebee

OK. Now this needs to be capitalised upon. Do what the Dems would do if it were the other way around. Lets start a freeper e-mail campaign to start congressional hearings. This coulkd be almost as big as Watergate. I'm e-mailing my senators today. Get on board.


106 posted on 07/20/2004 4:24:34 AM PDT by dokmad
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Tamsey

BERGER, SAMUEL
WASHINGTON,DC 20016
STONEBRIDGE INTL/PRESIDENT/PRESIDEN
10/11/2002
$1,000
Andreasen, Steven Peter




I remember this name. Clarke also donated to this guy, who was a DFL (Democrat Farm Labor=socialist) candidate for Congress in MN and a former NSC advisor. There was another MN DFLer that Clarke donated to, also a former NSC advisor.


107 posted on 07/20/2004 4:30:14 AM PDT by reformedliberal (Proud Bush-Cheney04 volunteer)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 88 | View Replies]

To: reformedliberal
Fox and Friends this morning (Tues.) had a copy of the NYT. Searching it for the Berger story, they finally found it on page A-17......at the bottom of the page!

Does anyone here have a copy of the front page and can tell us what the NYT considered MORE important news?

108 posted on 07/20/2004 4:41:06 AM PDT by Carolinamom (The media are not elected; THEY are selected.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 107 | View Replies]

To: Toespi
When asked why he took the documents Berger said...

"Because I could."


After all he is a Clintonista... and they are never held responsible for anything they do.
109 posted on 07/20/2004 4:49:03 AM PDT by RedEyeJack
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: MojoWire
Senator Kerry,

If you are elected will you pardon Sandy Berger for his crimes against the security of the U.S. the way Bill Clinton did for so many of his political supporters?
110 posted on 07/20/2004 4:52:02 AM PDT by RedEyeJack
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: upchuck
Time to let "Ashcroft be Ashcroft" and truly make a federal case out of this. Partisan Republicans need some red meat to rally around and this looks bloody...
111 posted on 07/20/2004 4:56:19 AM PDT by RedEyeJack
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: upchuck

>> But there comes a time when even the nicest of guyz has to stand up and fight.

Agree. If President Bush is the Christian he claims to be he will follow James 4:7, which reads, "...Resist the devil, and he will flee from you".


112 posted on 07/20/2004 5:10:26 AM PDT by PhilipFreneau
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: cyncooper

Yes, that's why I used the words "much of."


113 posted on 07/20/2004 5:14:51 AM PDT by ScottFromSpokane (Re-elect President Bush: http://spokanegop.org/bush.html)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 79 | View Replies]

To: plain talk
Why weren't they trashing the dems and Clinton admin over their screwup on national security for years?

The dems are still trashing President Bush for the low down dirty campaign he ran against Gore. Everyone and their dog (think Helen Thomas) reported that the campaign contradicted the "new tone" claim. Their biggest gripe - that then candidate Bush had the audacity to state that he and Cheney would bring honor and dignity back to the White House. Can you imagine the uproar if Clinton's cornucopia of national security failures were even mentioned much less completely exposed?

114 posted on 07/20/2004 5:27:05 AM PDT by Quilla
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Don Joe

No. It's not FBI files or such hogwash. Not every single Republican congressman or administration official is being blackmailed. That's nonsense. What I am talking about extends across the board to all of them. It's really very simple. They're all intimidated by the left controlled media. They go on a talk show and it's two to one. They were briefly confident after 1994 but it disappeared with the the government shutdown fiasco.


115 posted on 07/20/2004 5:36:28 AM PDT by plain talk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 86 | View Replies]

To: Quilla

Right. The Republicans aren't supposed to say squat and just act like neutered pups. Even FReepers on this thread are scared to death of what Helen Thomas is going to say about Bush's "new tone" and thus don't want him to fight back for fear of offending the media. It's cowardly.


116 posted on 07/20/2004 5:42:53 AM PDT by plain talk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 114 | View Replies]

To: plain talk
I'm all for exposing each and every failure of the Clinton Administration. That's what brought me to Free Republic in the first place. I want that man behind bars.


117 posted on 07/20/2004 5:47:17 AM PDT by Quilla
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 116 | View Replies]

To: wagglebee


The New York Times: (212) 556-7652
The New York Post: (212) 930-8000

ABC: 212-456-7777
CBS: 212-975-4321
NBC: 212-664-4444
CNN: 404-237-0234
Fox:1-888-369-4762
NY York Daily News (212) 210-NEWS


118 posted on 07/20/2004 8:20:50 AM PDT by votelife (Calling abortion a women's issue is like calling war a men's issue!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ScottFromSpokane

Bill O'Reily
E-mail: oreilly@foxnews.com

Sean Hannity
hannity@foxnews.com

Let's FREEP Alan Colmes while we're at it!
colmes@foxnews.com

Phylis Schlafly
eagle@eagleforum.org

Oliver North
http://www.northamerican.com/-cybercall/pg-call.htm

Janet Parshall, conservative talk show host
(703) 276-8597
Fax: (703) 516-7212
E-Mail us at: info@jpamerica.com

Brit Hume
Special Report with Brit Hume
Special@foxnews.com

Hugh Hewitt (conservative talk show host/columnist)
http://www.hughhewitt.com/

Michael Medved (conservative talk show host/columnist)
http://www.michaelmedved.com/contact.shtml


119 posted on 07/20/2004 9:50:37 AM PDT by votelife (Calling abortion a women's issue is like calling war a men's issue!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: MizSterious
it's revealed that Berger stuffed them in his pants to sneak them out

"Is that a secret document, or are you glad to see me?"

120 posted on 07/20/2004 9:53:48 AM PDT by steve-b (Panties & Leashes Would Look Good On Spammers)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120121-127 next last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson