Sandy's socks
Linda Chavez (back to web version) |
SendPosted on 07/20/2004 9:59:23 PM PDT by hope
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Sandy's socks
Linda Chavez (back to web version) | Send
July 21, 2004
Surely it was an innocent mistake, former Clinton National Security Adviser Sandy Berger's stuffing classified documents into his pants, jacket and perhaps even his socks before leaving the National Archives building last fall. After all, what could he possibly have been trying to hide? Berger had been asked by President Clinton to review documents that had been requested by the 9/11 Commission relating to the Clinton administration's handling of terrorism during its eight-year tenure. And we know from no less an authority than former Clinton terrorism czar Richard Clarke, not to mention Berger himself, that the Clinton administration viewed fighting terrorism as its No. 1 priority.
Of course, neither Clinton nor Berger publicly declared terrorism enemy No. 1 when they were in office -- citing such things as Haiti, environmental degradation and, surprisingly, containment of Saddam Hussein as their priorities at the time -- but I'm sure that's simply because they didn't want to clue Osama bin Laden in on how committed they were to catching him before he could kill innocent Americans.
Now I know there will be some conservatives who think I'm being naïve. How is it possible, they'll ask, that Berger went back to the Archives on two separate occasions, according to Archives' staff, asking for copies of the same document he had inadvertently taken from the building on previous trips? First, let's look at the document in question. Why, it was just a draft of what's known as an "after-action report" from the foiled Millennium plot to blow up Los Angeles International Airport during the New Year's Eve 2000 celebrations.
Apparently, there were at least a couple of versions of this report, and I'm sure Berger just didn't want anyone bewildered by reading earlier versions that might have been unduly critical of the administration's efforts. So, he was probably just cleaning up the sloppiness of others who hadn't bothered to cull the files to remove such confusing material before they left the White House when Clinton left office.
Or maybe he thought they were duplicates and so no one would miss them if he stuck one in his pocket -- or his shoe. You know, maybe he wanted to keep it as a memento, and the government is so sticky about not taking any original documents with you when you leave, especially if they're marked Top Secret, or worse, SCI (for special compartmented intelligence) with some silly code name. The Clinton appointees never had much patience for such cloak and dagger stuff.
Look at former Clinton CIA director John Deutch. He got himself into a passel of trouble when he downloaded some 17,000 pages of classified material onto a home computer, which he then kept after he left his government post. There was such a stink at Deutch's putting national security secrets on an unsecured computer that President Clinton had to issue one of those 11th-hour pardons the day before he left office, nullifying a Justice Department plea agreement in which the former CIA director admitted he was guilty of mishandling classified documents.
The current fuss is the same kind of narrow-mindedness that forced Berger's predecessor at the National Security Council, Anthony Lake, to withdraw his name from consideration after he was nominated to be CIA director in 1997. Lake never informed President Clinton that the Chinese government had tried to influence the 1996 Congressional elections by funneling $2 million to Democrat candidates, even though Lake's staff had been thoroughly briefed on the plot by the FBI. Imagine those stuffy Republicans thinking that this oversight ought to disqualify Lake from being the head of U.S. intelligence, along with Lake's failure to keep Chinese agents and international criminals from meeting with the president.
It just goes to show how uptight and suspicious some people are. I, for one, am going to withhold judgment, though I do hope he finds the still missing Archive documents. I'm sure they're somewhere on his messy desk, or maybe they got stuck between the soles of his loafers.
Linda Chavez is President of the Center for Equal Opportunity, a Townhall.com member organization.
©2004 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
Contact Linda Chavez | Read Chavez's biography
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or worse, was his family threatened?
bttt
Dunno. What would you put past the clintons?
Socks and Flip Flops
Socks and Flip Flops
go together like...
Help me here someone!
...crooks and bad cops
I'm here to tell ya brother
Sandy and Johnny are liars.
YESSSS!
lol.... :-)
Where's DFU's rendition of the "Sandy Pants Man" based on the "Candy Man Can".
Yes --- what kind of socks could hold documents? I can see putting money in your socks but it would be hard to stuff the kind of documents he was sneaking out with in dress socks. Same goes for trousers --- you really couldn't walk around without them falling down your legs because nothing in trousers would hold the papers up. It had to be his underwear.
*slaps forehead* Duh! Page the expert!
You've established premeditation...
It’s a tactic that seemed to be used often in Arkansas.
No kidding.
What, exactly, would you put past the clintons?
OK, OK, I'll quit. Good luck on your parody!
There are sooooo many word plays thrusting forth from this event ... that alone should throw DNC honchos into agonies, regardless of the facts.
Did you see "Finding Nemo"? There was a character named Sandy Plankton who was always offscreen but often quoted as an authority by Nemo. In my little world where my brain offers unsolicited mnemonics, Clinton's former National Security Advisor will always be Sandy Burgler.
I also can't help but think of the ubiquitous Socks the Cat.
Doesn't Bush (or maybe it was clinton) have a pet named Socks? Maybe he had a loose rubber band around his leg or orthopedic socks?
Excellent!
Red
It maybe that the sock that Berger was stuffing, with the briefs, was not on his foot, but in his pants ~ ala Al Gore and who knows who else in that administration. He did get the command from the clinton administration, he said, and we know what their fearless leader's first priority was and is ~ no bones about it.
The Clinton's had a cat named Socks at least for a while until they decided Bill needed to look more manyly by getting a dog --- then I think they got rid of that cat. Maybe Berger had some kind of big hose type socks that would work out real well for stealing documents --- orthopedic hose would probably work --- but I still think he just put the documents in his briefs.
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