Grow up, terrance.
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.
Kerry is a girlie guy.
Now that's an interesting observation; if we knew, why not let it drop while Clarke was testifying.....after all, suposedly the missing documents are several REVISED documents he wrote.........wonder why he had to keep revising them.
Good points, all. If Bubba says he knew about Burglar since last October, why didn't he say something to Kerry ? If he did, and Kerry went ahead and hired him, what was Kerry thinking ? If Kerry didn't know and Bubba knew he didn't know...well, something's very wrong somewhere.
Let's just say that the White House did leak this. So what? We, the American people have a right to know what has gone on in OUR house as well as the kind of people speaking on our behalf. How were we going to learn? The media, the Clintons, the Democrats, how about the Kerry group. In my opinion, we should be informed of this type of criminal activity the minute it happens by whoever has the authority to tell us.
Grow up, terrance.
Jonah Goldberg is right -- this has Lanny Davis written all over it. First, it was leaked to the AP reporter that was Davis' favorite for deliberate leaks of information damaging to the Clintons. Second, the initial stories were larded with quotes from Berger's lawyer, not from the Justice Department, White House, or the 9/11 commission. Third, it was timed to hit after the nightly news, so by the time it hit the big papers it would be easier to claim the leak came from pro-Bush sources. Fourth, the Dems just happened to have their talking points and their "most credible" spokespeople, e.g. Gergen, lined up to hit the talk shows as soon as the story hit the wires. It's all tooooo convenient. Shame on any reporters for falling for this scam and not focusing on WHAT'S IN THE DAMN DOCUMENTS!!!!
What makes you think that Sandy Berger was NOT notified by the Justice Department? There are several sources who say he has been cooperating with the DOJ. The Kerry campaign, Terry McAulliffe or anyone else is NOT entitled to notice of the criminal investigation. Since Berger may very well be helping DOJ, just who do you suppose is getting very nervous?
INCREDIBLE! And as usual the mediaWHORES will side and cover up for the JERK! Notice how QUICKLY those bastards are at blaming the pubs! They turned it around like they did the memos. They didn't let the scandal fester not even 24hrs before the whole HORDES of RATS came to Burglar's defense! I just wish the pubs would play hardcore with the RATS like they do with us...:(!
Even if it was President Bush himself who called the reporter (which I am sure it wasn't), is that illegal?
They did this same sh** with the Judicial Memo (Kennedy and Leahy hearing from special interest groups about when each Judge should come up for a vote), and about the Memo that said the Senate Intel Committee would drag its feet until it was politically convenient for the Dems. I realize that the Memo-leak cases were also about computer hacking (which turned out not to be hacking after all), but how many times will the Dems play this game and keep getting away with it.
I am going to stop calling Kerry Flip-Flop, and start calling him the Whiner. Every single word out of his mouth is "Those Mean Republicans aren't playing fair".
A-HA! You see the Bush minions, acting on orders from the Bilderbergers, actually decided to leak this now, so that they can't be accused of "dirty tricks" if they would have leaked it next week.
MUHAHA, MU-HAHAHA!
Let us not forget that the Archives didn't first call the FBI. They called Bruce Lindsey, counsel to the Clintons.
Actually, for one very good reason - he's guilty as hell.
The first question from the reporters to President Bush was if he had any comments on the Berger affair.
He said it was very serious and that the DOJ would carry out a full investigation, and that he would not make any further comments. Of course the reporter was not satisfied with this but repeated the question, whereupon the President repeated the answer, somewhat more forcefully.
No further questions on Berger, but some re 9-11 Commission who will release its report tomorrow.
Maybe the GOP is weak but I think you underestimate GW Bush. He should himself to be a tough street-fighter during the Florida debacle, and he has not wavered in the WOT since 9-11.
I don't think he intends to let the DNC get away with anything.
His comments on CNN were just right: presidential, and without saying much he made it clear this may be a crime, and crimes are handled by the legal authorities not the WH.
Kerry and the DNC look very small by comparison.
< /SARACASM >
And guess who's perfectly willing to carry the water for him??:
http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2004/cyb20040721.asp#2
Rather Reserves “Carefully Orchestrated
Leak” to Items on Dems
Dan Rather reserves his “carefully orchestrated leak” formulation, to discredit revelations, to those stories harmful to Democrats. A review of the MRC archive and a cross-check with Nexis located four instances in the past six years or so in which Rather has applied the formulation and in every instance the disclosure was about a Democrat.
In addition to the news about Sandy Berger which Rather only reluctantly reported, as detailed in item #1 above, in June of 1998 Rather asserted that the "carefully orchestrated leaks" of Lewinsky tapes released earlier, which “were damaging to the Clinton camp, may not have told the whole story." Exactly two years later, on June 22, 2000, Rather introduced a story about how “Vice President Gore is also on the spot tonight over a new, carefully orchestrated leak involving accusations about Gore's past campaign fundraising practices.” On the night Al Gore was set to address the Democratic convention in August of 2000, Rather intoned on the CBS Evening News: “Al Gore must stand and deliver here tonight as the Democratic Party's presidential nominee. And now Gore must do so against the backdrop of a potentially damaging, carefully orchestrated story leak about President Clinton.” Rather used the same formulation later during CBS’s prime time coverage but, in fact, the leak came from a Carter-appointed federal judge.
Full quotations of those instances of how Rather framed the stories:
-- June 22, 1998 CBS Evening News. Rather: "It appears tonight that carefully orchestrated leaks of secretly recorded tapes of Monica Lewinsky, that were damaging to the Clinton camp, may not have told the whole story. Also today, weekend reports of what Lewinsky is or isn’t prepared to tell special prosecutor Ken Starr, may not be wholly accurate either. CBS News chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer is here with a reality and accuracy check for you."
Referring to a tape excerpt obtained by U.S. News, Bob Schieffer contended: "Now this conversation suggests that White House aides were trying to help Miss Lewinsky find a job long before Paula Jones’s lawyers were trying to track her down and question her under oath about her relationship with the President. This is significant because the independent counsel has been investigating whether the White House aides were trying to find those jobs for Miss Lewinsky as a reward for her denying that she had an affair with the President."
For more, see the June 23, 1998 CyberAlert: www.mediaresearch.org
-- June 22, 2000 CBS Evening News. Rather: “Vice President Gore is also on the spot tonight over a new, carefully orchestrated leak involving accusations about Gore's past campaign fundraising practices. A Justice Department official is calling for an independent investigator in the case. CBS News chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer has the facts and the context on this.”
-- August 17, 2000 CBS Evening News, in a formulation he repeated during CBS's prime time convention coverage, Rather intoned: "Timing is everything. Al Gore must stand and deliver here tonight as the Democratic Party's presidential nominee. And now Gore must do so against the backdrop of a potentially damaging, carefully orchestrated story leak about President Clinton. The story is that Republican-backed special prosecutor Robert Ray, Ken Starr's successor, has a new grand jury looking into possible criminal charges against the president growing out of Mr. Clinton's sex life. CBS' Jim Stewart in Washington has that story and the context."
The next night Jim Stewart insisted: "Yesterday the White House, Democratic Party officials and just about everyone in Washington who follows politics were in agreement that it had to be a Republican that leaked the news that a new grand jury was looking into the Monica Lewinsky affair.” But, he conceded, “now, a federal judge has stepped forward and volunteered that he was the leak. And not only that, the judge was appointed by a Democrat." Jimmy Carter, in fact.
For more on CBS coverage of the matter, including an excerpt of Dan Rather’s online essay titled "Low-Road Politics: Clinton Grand Jury Leak Carefully Orchestrated," and for a RealPlayer video clip of Rather in high-dudgeon, see: www.mediaresearch.org
-- Four years later, Rather regurgitated his formulation, announcing on the July 20, 2004 CBS Evening News: “Sandy Berger, who was National Security Advisor under President Clinton, stepped aside today as an advisor to Senator John Kerry. CBS’s John Roberts reports this was triggered by a carefully orchestrated leak about Berger, and the timing of it appears to be no coincidence.” See item #1 for more.
How about "alleged" war hero?
Exactly. And Clinton knew about it, and Kerry knew about (I don't buy that Kerry's camp didn't have Berger completely vetted).
I was once accused of violating a confidence, except the person I revealed the "confidence" to already knew it.
That's what I'm saying. Berger knew, he had to. The others, may have known too from "contacts" or just plain gossip...
In so far as "RAT" sources don't forget that the first official calls about missing documents went to Klintoon's lawyer buddy...not the FBI (that only came later)
Lie, deny and launch counter accusations!
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