Posted on 07/21/2004 6:09:46 AM PDT by Nasty McPhilthy
Your analysis seems to be the best explanation that I've seen - especially regarding any hand written pieces in the original file.
Good post, thanks.
The question of whether Berger took home original documents (indicating he was seeking to purge the record) or copies (indicating he was merely careless and/or sneaky with homework) has become muddled. As a matter of fact, it's muddled in a way that makes Berger look especially shady. According to John Solomon's original AP story, Berger attorney Lanny Breuer, "said Berger believed he was looking at copies of the classified documents, not originals." Translated from the indirect dialect, that means Berger did take home originals, and may or may not have done so innocently.
The tale of the other documents is also interesting: Somebody familiar with classification protocols can make the decision about whether a former national security advisor (presumably a person with a very high security clearance) should have to shoplift his own notes on national security. House rules or no, it's another indignity for a man who couldn't even do wrong right.
Did he admit hiding them in his clothes? I've been out of pocket and didn't read that.
BINGO! I think you're exactly right. And, if we find out that the missing documents are one or more of these iterations, THAT will be the reason Berger took them.
I had read this yesterday in a different article (obviously) but couldn't find it again. Making note for future reference.
If each copy of the millenium report was fifteen to twenty pages, it is immpossible for a page or two to "inadvertantly" get mixed in with notes. He zeroed in on this document, went back again and zeroed in, it is a large document. He had criminal intent. He is also stupid. But I wondered why the staff of the archives set up a sting and then told justice. Seems like justice should have been told immediately. And it also makes me wonder, how many other people went in and took Documents. I also read that Bruce Lindsay was in charge of picking the docs to give to the commission,,did anyone else hear that?
Byron York also reports, no cameras in the room. It's not the same article I read yesterday, but it looks like the reporting was solid: No tape.
bookmark
Not if the memos were of different revisions.
Exactly! It's not clear that other copies of every draft are available. Also, it's not even clear how many actually unique revisions of the documents existed. Someone might have changed content within the document but not changed the cover pages or date so as to conceal the fact that changes had been made. Presumably neither the archivists or anyone else had done a line-by-line comparison of each draft, but Berger made have ascertained via multiple visits to the archives and he may have known which copies were where. He had time to look around and confer with associates about who had which versions. So he may have gone back to the archives to get specific documents after ascertaining which specific documents were still around.
Political pressure might have been brought to bear to expunge sensitive information from earlier drafts. Berger would know that, and he would also know that he could get in a lot of trouble for stealing the documents from the archives. But he did it anyway. Berger was caught with a smoking gun.
I also read that he put some documents in a leather briefcase besides hiding some in his clothing. He calls this being sloppy! I call it treason.
Slick made a CYA statement today on Fox saying that on the way over - he was laughing about this. He said that anyone who knows Berger and has been to his office always finds him under his papers.
Slick's statement says a lot about the kind of person he picked for a national security position. One thing for sure is that the Slick crowd can be counted on to do whatever it takes to decieve and connive to keep from going to prison.
Berger was caught stuffing "hand written notes" into his pants/socks/jacket.
What is not made clear is if these were his own notes or was he stealing the comment notes made by others that were attached to the documents during their circulation.
He also stole entire documents, maybe because they had been commented in the body of the work instead of by attachment.
This makes sense to me, he appears to have been sanitizing the report by stripping out anything derogotary to the clinton regime.
Come now! As a former-Marine you must surely know that the government is the last to implement any new technology. Seriously, cameras in a secure-reading room might be used to resolve what is actually on the page being read. Bad idea. Gotta have that compartmentalized security, ya know.
What I'd like to know is why Sandy Berger was permitted to take a briefcase into the Reading Room. I've done contracting work at the US Mint and I can tell you THAT is absolutely not allowed (plus you get a 'wand-job' on the way out).
Bush Aides Block Clinton's Papers From 9/11 PanelThe general counsel of Mr. Clinton's presidential foundation, Bruce Lindsey, who was his deputy White House counsel, said in an interview that he was concerned that the Bush administration had applied a "very legalistic approach to the documents" and might have blocked the release of material that would be valuable to the commission.
Mr. Lindsey said he first complained to the commission in February after learning from the archives that the Bush administration had withheld so many documents.
"I voiced a concern that the commission was making a judgment on an incomplete record," he said. "I want to know why there is a 75 percent difference between what we were ready to produce and what was being produced to the commission."
I want to know:
1) Why they contacted Lindsey and
2) Why they allowed him to leave with the documents.
The hand written notes were the dodge, if he got caught well they were just my notes. Figuring the people wouldn't have even noticed the extra papers stuffed in the briefcase. Second, why is he even allowed to bring an attache case into a secure room like that. Makes no sense, no notes allowed, can't take anything out, etc. Another case of two sets of rules
1) Why they contacted Lindsey and
2) Why they allowed him (Berger) to leave with the documents.
Good questions. Professional courtesy? The documents went missing in October (2003) but the FBI wasn't involved until January? Perhaps the Archivists were giving Berger a chance to 'come clean', and when he wasn't forthcoming they decided to contact the FBI and wash their hands of it. Perhaps someone on the 9/11 Commission requested one of the documents in question....and low & behold the Archivists couldn't produce it. Busted!
It IS interesting that Mr. Bruce Lindsay knows A LOT MORE about the specifics than the investigators at this point, since he was involved before they were and may have been directing this whole Op on Clinton's behalf.
We'll know soon enough...
Finally someone gets it! ... the 'why' would Berger steal so many 'copies' of the same memo. There must have been some very damning mrginal notes on those copies that circulated among the criminal clintoons.
Here comes the cover-up...DON'T THEY EVER LEARN.
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