Posted on 07/20/2004 1:11:47 PM PDT by gopwinsin04
SEN. SAXBY CHAMBLISS: 'Reportedly these documents are related to homeland security and then suddenly we see the Kerry campaign came forward with what may have been illegal documents. This is sensitive stuff and was a significant breach of security...Kerry knows better than to use these documents,' Chambliss says in a press conference.
SEN. GORDON SMITH: 'There is a curious connection between the removal of these documents and the Kerry press conference on port security..It's disappointing what people might do as they try and take the President down.
The pundits say this is nothing to worry about. I was just watching Countdown and Olberman had a guest on who says this is much ado about nothing . . . at which point Olberman goes on to the big news of the day . . . that some Republicans made a bumper sticker that Kerry is Osama's man.
In freaking credible.
Yep. But some folks just get lucky.:>)
I just wonder how many here have filled out the paper work and undergone the investigation that is done by the FBI prior to being granted a high security ( mine was a DOE Q clearance )?
You are given multiple briefings and sign some heavy legal papers designed to impress you with the serious nature of the classification scheme of the Federal Government and that just because you hold a clearance you are not entitled to have free access to classified documents but must have a need to know, must follow rigorous procedures regarding those documents and failure to do so may likely lead to serious consequences....
Now I guess that is for the Worker Bees because here we have this CLOWN (The Bungling Berger ) thinking to himself.....
I would rather have these at home where things are more comfortable and I can take private notes.....and this scheme of classified doesn't really apply to me.....
It just makes me very angry, and angry with anyone who defends this CLOWN....
You've been on this thread for hours,but all your protestations,now,are concerning what you "heard" UNNAMED GOP Senators say on T.V.,which is beyond the point.
And rapid backpedaling won't help you on whit.
If the ONLY two things you are capable of doing,are to attempt to smear GOPers and make excuses for Sandy B./Kerry,then just stop posting. Nobody here is interested in any of that.And,if you think what's going on,on FR today,with speculation vis-a-vis Berger and the Clintons and Kerry,you should have been around SIX YEARS AGO,newbie...you would have imploded. LOL
Catpuppy write: "As for his legally signing out documents, that can only be done when authorized and when such documents are to be transported to another secure area with proper security procedures being followed along the way. Evidently, Berger did not have authorization, did not follow the proper security procedures, and did not take the documents to a secure area. The average bureaucrat who did something like Berger is alleged to have done would be facing serious prison time."
I guess we don't know if Berger had authorization to take materials away. If he didn't, I think it would make it difficult to get his testimony ready for the 9-11 Commission. If the government expects a former official to testify, then he should have easy access to the documentation he needs. The situation at the archives is not easy.
If he did have permission to take the documents away and didn't use this permission, then I would wonder more what was up.
I expect the media will find out if he had this permission. Has anyone heard this?
That was Carl (Mr. Watergate) Bernstein who thinks this is a non-story.
Rush was obviously up all night working on this. Good analysis. Thanks for the ping!
As one has had a very high clearance, I am appalled at the rats and some of the trolls on Free Republic trying to compare this a law school discovery field trip.
There is a current thread that goes into to how top secret material is handled:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1175150/posts
On the word "inadvertently" (From someone who has worked with classified documents)
Captain's Quarters ^ | 7/20/04 | Captain Ed
Posted on 07/20/2004 4:25:43 PM PDT by Brian Mosely
The Washington Post essentially recaps the AP story last night on Trousergate, Sandy Berger's theft of classified documents from a secure room last October, although they manage to leave out the trousers from their article. However, the story has shifted into a more muted tone in the hands of Susan Schmidt and Dan Eggen:
The FBI is investigating Clinton administration national security adviser Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger's removal of classified documents from the National Archives, attorneys for Berger confirmed last night.
Berger inadvertently took copies of several versions of an after-action memo on the millennium bombing plot from the Archives last fall, said his attorney Lanny Breuer. The lawyer said one or more of the copies were then inadvertently discarded. ...
Berger discovered several versions of the classified memo in a leather portfolio he had taken to the Archives, his attorney said. He returned them and papers on which he had taken notes about materials he had reviewed. Those notes, Breuer said, were not supposed to have been removed from the Archives without review by employees there. Berger's actions, said Breuer, were the result of "sloppiness" and were unintentional.
For my money, that's at least one "inadvertently" too many, and that is not a literary criticism. Perhaps this explanation will fly for those who have never worked around classified documents, but since I spent three years producing such material, I can tell you that it's impossible to "inadvertently" take or destroy them. For one thing, such documents are required to have covers -- bright covers in primary colors that indicate their level of classification. Each sheet of paper is required to have the classification level of the page (each page may be classified differently) at the top and bottom of each side of the paper. Documents with higher classifications are numbered, and each copy is tracked with an access log, and nowadays I suppose they're tracking them by computers.
Under these rules, it's difficult to see how anyone could "inadvertently" mix up handwritten notes with classified documents, especially when sticking them into one's jacket and pants. Furthermore, as Clinton's NSA, Berger would have been one of the people responsible for enforcing these regimens, not simply subject to them. The DOD makes these rules crystal clear during the clearance process at each level of access, and security officers (which Berger clearly was) undergo even further training and assessment on security procedures. "Inadvertent" and "sloppiness", in the real context of secured documentation, not only don't qualify as an excuse but don't even register as a possibility.
Please go to this thread to read more besides this excerpt:
This was a deliberate crime and an act of treason.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1175150/posts
This statement tells me all I need to know about you!!! The media will find out!? He wouldn't be under FBI investigation if he hadn't stolen the documents? As a matter of fact your precious media has all ready reported he admitted to the theft. Spin, spin, spin.
This whole incident is so representative of the Clinton's cavalier attitude toward
Our National Security
This is but the latest incident of manifestation of the looseness of the administration....
To have a poster on this forum defending his actions says "that said poster doesn't understand "
I forgot to ping you on this reply and the thread I referenced.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1175150/posts
That's GREAT! Many thanks for posting it. :-)
One thing I know, my son took his security clearance VERY seriously but my guess is that the X42 administration certainly treated security very casually. Just think, they moved Monica over to the Pentagon where she had security clearance.
Finally...
'This is background, right?'
John Kerry has one eye looking past Super TuesdayBy John Mercurio
CNN Political Editor
Friday, February 27, 2004 Posted: 9:05 AM EST (1405 GMT)SNIP
Kerry's major public event today is a speech on terrorism and national security at UCLA at 1 p.m. ET. Two hours before that, the three wise men who helped craft Kerry's speech -- former Clinton national security adviser Sandy Berger, former U.N. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke and Kerry's foreign policy adviser, Rand Beers -- will hold a conference call to brief reporters on the speech.
/SNIP
"Has Kerry been seen in public today?"
Have you checked the firing ranges, bike trails, football fields, skating rinks, bowling alleys et al?
He was seen kite surfing today. He didn't look a bit worried about our NATIONAL SECURITY!
Remember when Al Gore was caught taking a bust of Abraham Lincoln from the White House?
An ex-Gore staffer told the GAO that other Gore aides had "inadvertently packed" the Lincoln bust and shipped it off to the Gore homestead, reported the New York Post.
-PJ
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.