Posted on 05/15/2005 8:52:59 AM PDT by Libloather
Former adviser Berger expects another domestic terrorist attack
BY KEN MCLAUGHLIN
Knight Ridder Newspapers
Posted on Wed, May. 11, 2005
SAN JOSE, Calif. - (KRT) - Two former national security leaders say they are perplexed that suicide bombers have not targeted Americans on U.S. soil.
"The threshold of entry into this business of suicide bombs is not very high," said Sandy Berger, national security adviser in President Clinton's second term. "All you need to do is strap something to you and walk into some place where there are a lot of people. It's a little bit of a mystery to me why that hasn't happened ... given the resentment of the United States in many areas of the world."
Berger appeared Monday night with Robert Gates, a CIA director in the administration of the first President Bush, at the Leon Panetta Lecture Series in Monterey, Calif.
"I too am puzzled by the fact that there haven't been suicide bombers," said Robert Gates, who reportedly declined President George W. Bush's recent offer to be the country's first director of national intelligence. "That's not an invitation, just an observation. We should count ourselves very fortunate."
The comments of Berger and Gates represented only one of many chilling scenarios laid out Monday as they visited the Panetta Institute for Public Policy at California State University-Monterey Bay.
At an afternoon news conference, Berger said he fully expected another major terrorist attack in the United States, in part because not enough money has been spent fighting terrorism on the home front. His statements come at a time when his reputation has been tarnished for removing classified documents from a high-security building.
"We've broken bee hives but not found all the bees," Berger said of the fight against terrorism overseas.
Only 5 percent of cargo containers at U.S. ports are inspected - and chemical plants and other toxic facilities are still not adequately protected, Berger said.
He also chastised the Bush administration for not actively engaging North Korea, which he said would not hesitate to sell nuclear material to terrorists.
"I do not want our children to grow up in a world where Al-Qaida can drop a nuclear bomb" on New York, Berger said.
Both he and Gates were critical of an intelligence apparatus that allowed President Bush to receive false information concluding that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
"Fundamentally, it was just a lousy piece of work," said Gates, now president of Texas A&M University.
Gates blamed the bad intelligence on "groupthink" and field agents and analysts presenting out-of-date information as current.
Berger was a senior adviser to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry during the 2004 campaign. He was widely believed to be in line to become the first secretary of state in a Kerry administration. But Berger resigned his post after it came to light that he had removed sensitive documents involving anti-terrorist policy from the National Archives the year before.
Last month, Berger pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. Federal prosecutors are recommending he be fined $10,000 and stripped of his security clearance for three years.
"I've made a mistake and I've taken responsibility for it," Berger said Monday when asked by a reporter if he saw the prosecution as politically motivated. "I'm ready to move on and not cast blame."
Where was this perp's advice before 9/11?
amen, brother, on that one!
Look in his pants
He did warn about this. Why its in the documents he brought in his sox.
"not cast blame"????
Did someone shove the docs into your socks...or did someone make you do it...hmmmmm
He was protecting the ZipperZoomer & WandaDaWitch
Ah, didn't MOST of that information come from Clinton's appointees -- you know, the ones Berger supervised?
As usual, the media acts like bad intelligence began on January 20, 2001.
Could it be because many terrorists have gone to Iraq to fight us there? I guess the whole point of this is that Bush is just lucky.
Ping me when the burgler is writing articles from a federal penitentiary.
"Last month, Berger pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. Federal prosecutors are recommending he be fined $10,000 and stripped of his security clearance for three years."
Why should he *ever* be given a security clearance again? Ever?
Brings back old times, don't it?
A classic Clintonian response.
With media complicity, of course...
Well since only Sid knows the secrets of the stolen security memos he destroyed, we will have to take his word on this.
""We've broken bee hives but not found all the bees," Berger said of the fight against terrorism overseas."
Well, Mr. Berger, this administration has the bad guys on the run.Yours did not.It is a bit harder to organize attacks when you are running or hiding for your life.
Exactly. The man NO LONGER SERVES THE WHITE HOUSE. He should be as locked out as any other ex-employee of a firm and as vanilla as any civilian.
He should know. Unfortunately "the threshold of entry into the National Archives" is not very high either.
Let alone sitting at your desk receiving oral sex while deploying troops abroad.
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