Posted on 07/21/2004 1:15:11 PM PDT by The_Victor
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites)'s presidential campaign accused the Bush White House on Wednesday of disclosing the existence of a criminal investigation against former national security adviser Sandy Berger for political advantage.
The objective of such a leak, the Kerry campaign said in a political memo distributed by email, was to take attention away from a report to be issued on Thursday by the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The criminal investigation of Berger began last October but only came to light this week.
"The timing of this leak suggests that the White House is more concerned about protecting its political hide than hearing what the commission has to say about strengthening our security," the Kerry campaign said.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the White House had nothing to do with the disclosure that Berger, who was national security adviser under former President Bill Clinton (news - web sites), was under investigation for removing copies of highly classified documents from the National Archives.
"I'm not aware of how this story came about. I know of no one in the White House that is aware of how this story came about," McClellan said.
He said officials in the White House legal counsel's office were made aware of the Berger investigation some time ago because they were in charge of putting together documents for the Sept. 11 commission to see.
Complaining of the "questionable timing" of the leak, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee (news - web sites), Terry McAuliffe, filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking the release of any correspondence between the Justice Department (news - web sites) and the White House on the Berger probe.
Berger and one of his lawyers said on Monday he had inadvertently removed copies of a classified memo, as well as his notes on the material, as he reviewed it to determine what Clinton administration-era documents could be turned over to the Sept. 11 commission.
Republicans have accused Berger of stealing the documents for use by Kerry's campaign. Berger was an informal foreign policy adviser for Kerry until he stepped down on Tuesday in the heat of the flap over the documents.
The Sept. 11 report is expected to detail as many as 10 missed opportunities to head off the Sept. 11 attacks but stop short of saying the attacks could have been prevented.
Unfortunately, I think it was a low level Archive Employee, wait for the Video to be released or leaked.
Yep, Cheney said "stuff it" and he did -- down his pants. It's all Cheney's fault -- or maybe its all Bush's fault. I forget.
No, and the question should be asked by a reporter, but they're too busy writing about the "timing of the leak."
Here's my guess. The Archives knew that Berger was there on behalf of Bill Clinton, who wanted to whitewash the legacy of his administration with regard to terrorism. When they discovered the missing documents, someone friendly to Democrats at the Archives made the decision to attempt to resolve this discreetly. A call was placed to Lindsey, Clinton's attorney, to tell Berger to quit stealing documents and return all of them.
Berger realized he was busted, and returned most of them. Unfortunately, he couldn't return the ones he had destroyed. At that point, too many people knew about the pilfered documents and the Archives had no choice but report it to the DOJ.
It has to be one or the other. I've only heard shadowy rumors so far. John/John will leak the whole Bush/Cheney planted the documents on Berger story when the time is right.
Lesson Number 1 from the Era of the Clintonistas:
It is worse to make the deed public than it is to commit the act of wrongdoing and cover it up.
"Copies?" There are still files missing that have never been recovered, aren't there?
Is the AP spinning for the wonderful liberals again?
Sorry. "Reuters." :)
Three Steps to Successful Stonewalling: Deny, Mislead, Make Counter-accusations.
The 'rats can kiss my butt.
7 Full Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires
Amen Brother
peace....D
They never give an inch. They always play the game of communist dialectic.
Kinda slow getting around to it, It took their camp all of two days to dream this up? What a farce!
According to the original AP story by John Solomon of the AP, the RATS were the first to know:
Officials familiar with the investigation said Archive staff specially marked the documents and when the new copy and others disappeared, Archive officials called Clinton attorney Bruce Lindsey to raise concerns.
Berger immediately returned all the notes he had taken, and conducted a search and located two copies of the classified documents on a messy desk in his office, Breuer said. An Archives official came to Berger's home to collect those documents but Berger couldn't locate the other missing copies, the lawyer said.
If true -- and this is the original "leaked" story -- I'd say Clinton was among the first to know after the fact (of course, he very likely knew before the fact, but that's a different topic).
After reading dozens of stories about Bergler, I haven't seen anyone address or explain the actions of the "Archive officials." They witnessed a breach of Federal law with the theft of classified documents, then -- instead of confronting Berger, or contacting LE -- they called an ex-president's attorney.
Do these documents belong to BJ Clinton, or do they belong to the Federal Government?
Apparently, the FBI came late to the dance -- after damage-control by Lindsey, and very likely after the disposal of still-missing documents, at any rate.
"And knowing that it would eventually come out, why would they put a burglar like Berger on as an advisor."
I have been troubled by the very same question. I just can't figure out how Kerry thought this was going to work. Did they think this would NEVER become public?
But it is ok for the 9-11 commission (Dem) members to leak info about their report. /sarcasm
C'mon. Get serious. I was in the next room and I saw Barbara Bush stuff those documents in Sandy Berger's pants.
I really couldn't care if it was the WH. This should have been made public when first discovered.
YEEEEEAAAAAAAH! Works for me!
What is it going to take? Short of taking up arms, what can we do?
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