Posted on 07/20/2004 10:21:48 AM PDT by we_will_prevail
7/20/2004 12:54:00 PM
To: National Desk
Contact: John Feehery or Pete Jeffries, 202-225-2800, both of the Office of House Speaker Dennis Hastert
WASHINGTON, July 20 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Today, House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) released the following statement regarding allegations that former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger removed highly classified terrorism documents and handwritten notes from a secure reading room during preparations for the 9/11 Commission hearings:
"I am profoundly troubled by allegations that former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger removed highly classified documents from the National Archives regarding the Clinton Administration's handling of terrorist attacks prior to the September 11th attacks.
"What could those documents have said that drove Mr. Berger to remove them without authorization from a secure reading room for classified documents?
"What information could be so embarrassing that a man with decades of experience in handling classified documents would risk being caught pilfering our nation's most sensitive secrets?
"Did these documents detail simple negligence or did they contain something more sinister? Was this a bungled attempt to rewrite history and keep critical information from the 9/11 Commission and potentially put their report under a cloud?
"It is my understanding that Mr. Berger shoved this classified information into his clothing to smuggle them out of the National Archives. Press reports indicate that Archival staff became concerned when documents began to disappear and specifically marked additional documents to track them. A number of those documents also turned up missing.
"Mr. Berger has a lot of explaining to do. He was given access to these documents to assist the 9/11 Commission, not hide information from them. The American people and the 9/11 families don't want cover-ups when it comes to the War on Terror. They want the truth. And so does the U.S. House of Representatives."
His legacy is already down the toilet so he hasn't much to lose.
The tipoff will be if and how often the press mentions Berger's ties to the Kerry campaign. Never count them out.
How bout "scrotum-gate"
LOL. I heard someone on the Jerry Doyle show last night call it "MasterGate"
You do not understand the rules for secure reading rooms. YOU MAY NOT TAKE ANYTHING from it at all...if you make notes they must stay there to be either archived or destroyed. The guardsx on duty should have arrested him on the spot and I am more than a little perplexed as to why this didn't happen. Classified documents, even if they contain publically known informaation, cannot be copied or taken from the rooms. I know this for a fact having had to read some classifed papers that contained equations needed for some work I was doing...I would have to check into the room, memorize as much as I could, and then leave and write it down at my desk....This guy is toast
Exactly! Why Berger? Why would someone no longer having a need to access those documents have access to them? That is the question that bothers me. When you have had access to classified information and leave that unit or line of work, you are debriefed and sign nondisclosure statements, you are also removed from access to any classified information.
Why Berger?
"I wonder if Karl Rove had this in mind the other day when he said three huge things would happen before Nov.?"
Hmmmm. Hadn't considered that, thanks.
Pinging you to this thread in case the other one gets deleted for being a duplicate.
Right.
Cannot omit the Clinton's.
This statement confuses me a great deal. Most people interpret this to mean they were suspicious that documents were disappearing. But marking them to confirm this is totally unecessary. All classified documents are numbered and logged. The only reason to "specifically mark" a classified document beyond its original state would be if you suspected it was being changed.
plight of Chickens at KFC!
Oh no! Sunday we a had a couple of buckets of KYC chickens, the family, grandkids and all. Did we do something wrong? Eat a poor mistreated chicken. All I know is that they were finger lickin’ good!
Press reports indicate that Archival staff became concerned when documents began to disappear and specifically marked additional documents to track them. A number of those documents also turned up missing.
The statement from Berger and his attorney yesterday left the dintinct impression that it was a one-time situation. Clearly it was not. Yet that false impression was reinforced by Gergen this morning.
The truth is that Berger went back to the archives several times. Enough documents disappeared that it caught the notice of the staff. A sting operation was set up using marked documents. Even "a number" of those documents disappeared.
There's something very deep and disturbing about all this. Something more than the usual scenarios many of us conjure up when Clinton's involved. I hate to speculate ahead of knowing so few facts, but alarm bells are going off in my very bones, so to speak.
Not speculating here, but I do think it's reasonable to ask this devastating question: Is it possible that a President of the United States knew something like 9/11 was coming, and that he and members of his national security team KEPT THAT KNOWLEDGE FROM THE INCOMING BUSH ADMINISTRATION?
The very fact that Berger's actions can lead to such a devastating, but honest question, just screams out the reasons why this time we simply cannot let this story die a premature death. We have to know the truth, because terrorism in the modern era can be even deadlier than a hundred 9/11's given the right set of circumstances.
The only way I can interpret it is that: (1) Berger went back more than once and took documents on more than one occasion. (2) They marked documents as a means to prove beyond doubt who was stealing them. In other words, the marked documents were part of a sting operation.
Yes, and the orchestrated effort goes beyond just Clinton and his goons. Remember the Rockefeller memo that Sean Hannity published? Those idiots, Roberts and Frist, fired the Republican staffer rather than go for Rockefeller's political jugular.
Or his staff. Something vague like...the earlier drafts contained a mention of hijacking planes, that was taken out for some reason...Next mention of planes, the August 2001 memo to Bush.
There are three possible reasons that I can suggest to have them deliberately disappear "inadvertently". They would be to protect the past (Clinton), protect the future (Kerry), or to protect the person (Berger). Two of the three might require tinfoil (C&K), but none of them absolutely require a conspiracy if Berger took it upon himself to unilaterally take the action.
The only real way to get the truth is to sweat Berger hard and that could simply be done by holding him to the same standard of punishment I would be subject to if I had done what he did. Years and years of breaking rock at Club Leavenworth.
Will it happen? I doubt it simply because there are too many in Congress and the Whitehouse who will only see this in terms of short term political advantage - either good cop bad cop - in the eyes of the "uncommitted middle".
God Save the Constitution.
Is it possible that a President of the United States knew something like 9/11 was coming, and that he and members of his national security team KEPT THAT KNOWLEDGE FROM THE INCOMING BUSH ADMINISTRATION?
OMG!
I am keeping the Bayer folks in business today.
Wait a minute.
Wasn't Berger involved in the Chinese getting
classified info via Loral Corp and wasn't Berger
also up to his neck in some other suspicious dealings
during his tenure with Clinton?
This is a CYA, with a lot of A's that need covering.
Can you comment on CNN's reporting that these were "Q" Level documents?
Does that raise the stakes?
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