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Mr. Berger's Incredible Misadventure (NYT Editorial)
New York Times ^ | 07/23/04 | New York Times

Posted on 07/22/2004 10:37:58 PM PDT by conservative in nyc

Mr. Berger's Incredible Misadventure


Published: July 23, 2004

Exactly why Samuel Berger removed copies of classified documents from the National Archives last October is not clear. Mr. Berger, the former national security adviser to President Clinton who was a Kerry adviser until Tuesday, wasn't going to be able to alter the records or give John Kerry an edge. The missing documents were copies of memos, which Mr. Kerry would have had access to anyway.

If, as Mr. Berger says, the removal was simply a blunder, it was inexcusably careless legally and daft politically. Senator Kerry can't be too happy that Mr. Berger compounded his initial sin by not informing him of the Justice Department's inquiry when it began in January. Mr. Berger and his lawyers may be indignant about the investigation being leaked, but they must have known it would get out.

Meanwhile, the Republican hyperventilating is overdone. The same Congressional leaders who shrugged at the leaking of a C.I.A. agent's identity to punish her husband, a critic of administration policy, demand hearings on Mr. Berger. The politicians should all let the Justice Department do its job.

Of real concern is that bleeding, yet again, of politics into criminal justice. After initially claiming it knew nothing of the case, the White House has had to admit it was informed. That sort of heads-up taints both sides. It leaves the White House open to questions about whether it timed a leak to the release of the 9/11 panel's report, and it feeds cynicism about the independence of federal prosecutors. Mr. Kerry, by the way, ought to stop stoking that cynicism with groundless claims that the prosecution of Kenneth Lay was improperly delayed.

For its part, the White House's denials about this leak would sound more credible if it assigned some urgency to solving the C.I.A. leak case.


TOPICS: Editorial
KEYWORDS: berger; sandyberger; slimes; soxgate; spin; trousergate
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To: conservative in nyc

"Meanwhile, the Republican hyperventilating is overdone. The same Congressional leaders who shrugged at the leaking of a C.I.A. agent's identity to punish her husband, a critic of administration policy, demand hearings on Mr. Berger. The politicians should all let the Justice Department do its job."

Too bad this writer does not do what he requires the "politicians" should do, as of yet there has been no finding that anyone leaked "Valerie's" name to punish her husband. Only accusations by a serial liar, her husband.



21 posted on 07/22/2004 11:57:08 PM PDT by Just mythoughts
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To: conservative in nyc

Again.... would this have been the editorial had Condi Rice been caught stuffing top secret terrorism documents in her bra to smuggle them out of the National Archives?

The NYT is an utter fraud...


22 posted on 07/23/2004 12:08:30 AM PDT by Tamzee (Tell me honestly, Honey... do these classified documents make me look fat?)
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To: diotima
Don't read this with any blunt objects in the vicinity.
 
: |

23 posted on 07/23/2004 12:27:49 AM PDT by AnnaZ ("We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good." :::Hillar(ed)y!::: 6/28/04)
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To: conservative in nyc
If Berger was a Nazi and Bush was a Jew, the New Your Times would report that Bush had prior knowledge of the gas chambers and allowed himself to be gassed just to make the Nazis look bad for the next election.
24 posted on 07/23/2004 12:57:23 AM PDT by Bluntpoint
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To: Jenya
The NY Slimes spins more than my clothes dryer.

More like my "ter-let" (to quote the great New Yorker, Archie Bunker). Contains the same stuff as well.

On a more serious note, the writer that pointed out that the Washington Post's coverage of this story has been faster, more accurate, and more thorough, is correct.

It's not just this story. The Times is full of itself (see my first paragraph for a graphic simile that fits) and is arrogant enough to believe that it can do stuff like: bury this story and put it down to deadline (hot tip: the Post's deadline is within minutes of the NYT's, and many dailies that covered the story close editorial earlier); continuously slime the troops (40 days and 40 nights were enough for God to drive the iniquity from the earth, but not enough for the Times to exhaust the front-page potential of Abu Ghraib); and, last but not least, run the Elisabeth Buhmiller front page spin-push editorial on Cheney (that ran using the worst of the Post's techniques -- nameless sources who may only be Elisabeth's imaginary friends from when the other kids shunned her in childhood). They (the Times editorial staff, not Elisabeth's fantasy playmates) think they can do this, and the years of Jayson Blair, and Charlie LeDuff's front-page completely plagiarized story (with no consequences to Charlie: unlike poor Jay he's a hip minority), and Dowd's ellipses, without taking a credibility hit.

Press here to flush.

Recently other papers have been gloating over the Newsday/Hoy/Chicago Tribune/etc circulation scandal (the papers claimed hundreds of thousands, in the aggregate millions of readers that they never had -- and have been fleecing their advertisers of millions for years) but the Times, usually so quick to air other's laundry (geez... we're back in your dryer... we have to stop meeting like this!) hasn't had a lot to say. I wonder if their ABC circulation is a valid number, or if it's only as reliable as the information in the paper.

I have an opinion on how reliable that is but I shan't bore you with it.

The New York Times. Don't forget to put down the lid.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

25 posted on 07/23/2004 1:55:56 AM PDT by Criminal Number 18F
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To: the Real fifi
read his book

Apologies, but I can't figure out whose book you mean. Did Lanny Davis write a book (will paper bear that?) Or the reporter? Or do you mean Clinton's thousand-page Reich of navel-gazing?

I wouldn't buy it but I'd pirate the audio if I had a long flight coming up.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

26 posted on 07/23/2004 1:59:18 AM PDT by Criminal Number 18F
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To: the Real fifi
Re the CIA leak case it appears to have evaporated--The Washington Times reports today that Plame was outed twice before--once by a spy and another time more recently when Cuba had access to what was supposed to have been a sealed document disclosing it..That case is done.

Yep. And according to Martin Peretz of The New Republic, who is a longtime Democrat, Valerie Plame's identity was an open secret in the Georgetown cocktail party set.

27 posted on 07/23/2004 3:27:32 AM PDT by NYCVirago
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To: conservative in nyc

Just another data point of the Jayson Blair Chronicles that proves the best use of this fish wrapper is material for the compost pile!


28 posted on 07/23/2004 4:41:31 AM PDT by leprechaun9
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To: conservative in nyc
Mr. Berger, the former national security adviser to President Clinton who was a Kerry adviser until Tuesday, wasn't going to be able to alter the records...

Wanna bet?

29 posted on 07/23/2004 4:43:32 AM PDT by mewzilla
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To: conservative in nyc
Well, you have to consider, someone has to take McAuliffes insane mutterings, and transcribe them into english.

The difference between DRAFTS (with handwritten NOTES on them) and Copies, is the thrust of the distortion, that is not being adequately pointed out, by Our Side.

30 posted on 07/23/2004 5:10:32 AM PDT by hobbes1 (Hobbes1TheOmniscient® "I know everything so you don't have to" ;)
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To: mewzilla

Gee, who mentioned altering records...?


31 posted on 07/23/2004 5:17:46 AM PDT by mewzilla
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To: conservative in nyc

Once again...why is it so difficult for the supposed "elite intellegentsia" to comprehend that what Bergler pilfered were not "copies" of anything. They were instead "original drafts" of a report in progress. Each one of these "original drafts" was unique in that it contained handwritten notes from various contributors.

If a little old lady like myself can grasp that, why can't the the "smartest people in the world"?


32 posted on 07/23/2004 6:19:35 AM PDT by randita
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To: randita

BINGO!

These are not COPIES - they are all ORIGINALS and ONE-OF-A-KIND ... Probably with HAND-WRITTEN marginal notes and REDLINED by SPECIFIC Cabinet Members and the President and Vice-Pres, etc.

Right now, the DEMAND should be that the Archives release information as to WHICH copies are now gone (probably forever) --- does it include the copies with Berger's notes on them? Clinton's? Half-Bright's? Clarke's? ... WHOSE COPIES are gone?

I do NOT want them to release the 15-30page document itself, just reveal which copies Berger eliminated.
.


33 posted on 07/23/2004 7:38:13 AM PDT by AFPhys ((.Praying for President Bush, our troops, their families, and all my American neighbors..))
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To: the Real fifi

Your post needs repeating on EVERY Burglar thread.


34 posted on 07/23/2004 7:43:07 AM PDT by Ann Archy (Abortion: The Human Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: AFPhys

I would also LOVE to know what was editted into and out of the final document as a result of these marginal notes and redlines of these drafts, but again, that might be damaging to security.

I would NOT be at all surprised if there was allusion to the Sudan/OBL incident... (that the 'Toon keeps saying didn't happen) --- the 9/11 Commission may have come to a very different conclusion about the significance of that if it were referred to in one of the marginal notes of a draft of this document.


35 posted on 07/23/2004 7:43:11 AM PDT by AFPhys ((.Praying for President Bush, our troops, their families, and all my American neighbors..))
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To: conservative in nyc

Apparently this editorial has selectively forgoten that the whole leaking of CIA members names was a complete LIE by democratic activists.......

Ah, the Great Grey Whore continues her march into hell.


36 posted on 07/23/2004 7:48:45 AM PDT by HamiltonJay ("You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.")
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To: Criminal Number 18F

Truth to Tell:Tell It Early , Tell It All,Tell It Yourself:Notes from My White House Education, Lanny Davis' opus on selectively leaking damaging information at a time of your choosing.


37 posted on 07/23/2004 11:15:39 AM PDT by the Real fifi
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