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.
"Why would Archives call a Clinton lawyer and not the proper authorities? Anyone seen an explanation?"
This has been troubling me also. Further, if archive employees saw him taking docs out, why didn't they stop him? Something like "excuse me, sir, but you are not allowed to etc...."
Lame as a two legged dog.
1:00 PM EASTERN: Answer the DNC charge, "Yes. We did leak it. So what."
2:00 PM EASTERN: Have former NSC Chief Berger arrested for federal crimes.
Sheesh. That will happen when Castro gives back Elian.
I am like so prepared to mail copies of Sun Tzu to all the White House staff and RNC officials, but I don't want to waste any time nor postage.
1. Every one who has accused this White House of wrongdoing has been proven to be a liar: Michael Moore, Joseph Wilson, Richard Clarke, Kerry and the Democrats (re: Bush lied about WMD), etc.
2. This scandal can only hurt the Democrats, so how is the White House protecting itself?
3. The SSCI just issued a report recently exonerating the president of lying about WMD or pressuring the CIA into issuing flawed intelligence reports; the British government just issued a report showing that Joseph Wilson was lying about Bush and the Yellowcake brouha-ha. So, given that, why would the White House drop its trump card now? Why not wait until there was bad news?
4. If the GOP leaked this to hinder the Democrats, then why not do it during the Abu Ghraib incident, the week Edwards was named as the VP candidate, or next week during the Dems' convention?
5. This White House does almost nothing to trumpet its own successes (e.g. When has it played up the findings of the Iraq Survey Group re: bio-agents and sarin found?). I'm not being Pollyannish by saying that Bush, Cheney, or any other major figure would not have done this. At most some low-level staffer doing it on the sly, maybe, but a cabinet-level official or above, no.
6. The attack and spin by the Dems is exactly what we saw for eight years under Clinton, and also during the time since he's been out. They can't deal with the facts on the table: It must be someone else's doing; the evil Republicans leaked it; Berger is an over-worked public official who made an honest mistake while working so hard for us; documents remain missing, but "everything requested has been supplied to the committee..."
I agree, but the Dems would reply that accusing the Republicans about the "timing" is just politics too -- and they'd have a point. It was their strongest card so they played it. Of course, anticipating this would have been a nobrainer, so hopefully the Pubs have prepared a countering move.
The worst case scenario might be that the leak *wasn't* planned and that the administration was caught off guard and wasn't prepared to counter what will now be a coordinated attack by the Dems and their media allies. The Dems seem to have an edge in these sorts of transient developments since they get their ducks in a row more quickly.
We really don't know when the investigation started on all of this, do we? We know Berger's first documents theft occurred in October, but from what I understand, Bruce Lindsey was contacted and the documents were returned. We've been told that he pilfered documents on more than just this occasion, and that his home and office were searched in February (I believe). This leads me to believe that the criminal part of the investigation didn't begin until the searches were conducted. Is there a specific date given as to when he became a Kerry adviser? Since he wasn't on the payroll, he could have been advising Kerry from the start.
I dont understand that, remember Hailburton made over 100 trips with Ron Brown looking for business under the Clinton regime. Haliburton and Enron were big players with Clinton, they are equal opportunity.
Just once, I'd like to see the Republicans stand up and say "Yep, you got it. We did leak this, and we did it hoping for maximum political benefit. Now that we have that out of the way, I'm sure you'll all want to focus on the grave crimes Mr. Berger has apparently committed. Right?"
Rush Limbaugh articulates their defense mechanism and rationalizing very well. He exposes them before they even make their lame press conferences.
These people helped foster that National Culture, in great part, between 1993 and 2001. Straight from Bill and Hitlery and their Inner Circle. It was Trickle Down Immorality. And they are still at it, even if out of office and out of power (which they lust for).
What liars and irresponsible nihilists!
Another democrat felon is caught.
There is a real indication of the credibility and potential damage of any issue. If it is a minor issue the tact is to trivialize. If it is serious the strategy is attack, attack, attack. Based upon the magnitude of hte response I smell blood in the water.
It would seem to rule out a videotape, too...
Thank you for echoing my earlier comments.
bttt
Actually, the way the dimwits have been acting has seriously demonstrated that they are hiding something. At first glance it appears that they were hiding Clintons culpability (otherwise known as his honest mistakes or just poorly doing his job) in allowing the US to be surprised attacked by al Qeada terrorists just 8 months after leaving office. We have Bush officials admitting that information concerning al Qeada was not revealed by CLinton et al at the transfering of power. In fact, back then the dimwits had just spent almost amonth whining about Bush and the Supreme Court stealing the lection. Now we have Berger caught in the act of stealing documents and keeping information from the 911 commission. So we have Berger caught trying to hide something from this commission which ultimately means hiding it from the american people.
It has become more then obvious that the dimwits arein hyper denial mode because they are covering up serious deriliction of duty committed by Clinton et. al.
What anyone did when Clinton was in office was GOOD.
Remember?
Clinton = Good
Bush = Bad
It is a trick right out of clintoon's bag. Blame everyone else to drown out the real, substantive matter and deflect responsibility away. And clintoon's "we were all laughing" lies were pure damage control that a liberal media was and still is happy to swallow. It is pathetic, you are right.
We have to keep hitting them hard on this one to keep the facts out there; it is up to the GOP mostly, though. They don't do too well, I'm afraid.
Who was the leaker? Maybe it will remain a secret... like in Watergate. Instead of "Deep Throat," we will now have to wonder who is "Gold Toe."
I understand the frustration of you both. The RNC, Bush/Cheney '04 Campaign, Chairman Gillespie, Marc Racicot and "Fat Boy Scott McClelland" are the biggest bunch of panty-waist, meely-mouthed, wussy, wimpy, girlie-men I've ever seen in my life. WHERE IS LEE ATWATER WHEN YOU NEED HIM?
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