Posted on 05/05/2008 4:06:54 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Clinton Library Won't Release Berger Documents By Fred Lucas CNSNews.com Staff Writer May 05, 2008
(CNSNews.com) - The William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library will not make available to the public the documents that former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger illegally took from the National Archives in 2003.
A letter from the library said the total 502 pages from the Millennium Alert After Action Review (MAAR) are "restricted in their entirety," under federal law and that the documents are "classified in the interest of national defense or foreign policy."
Further, the library stated the documents contain "confidential communications requesting or submitting advice between the president and his advisors, or between such advisors."
The library's letter was in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from Cybercast News Service . The library has responded to several other requests, but in those cases it was to inform CNSNews.com that library staff was processing the request.
Berger, who was national security advisor for President Clinton from 1997 to 2001, took five different copies of pages from the classified MAAR out of the archives by stuffing them in his suit and exiting the archives building. Berger did that at a time (September-October 2003) when the 9/11 Commission was beginning to investigate both the Clinton and Bush administrations' handling of the terror threat in the led up to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The Millennium Alert After Action Review was reportedly a 1999 assessment of how the nation was handling terrorist threats. The assessment was distributed to only 15 people in the Clinton administration and contained 29 recommendations, according to published reports.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
Trying to get so many copies of the same document suggests that he wasn't interested in destroying the original, but rather handwritten comments on some copies. I wonder if XXX-42 said something about Osama bin Ladin which people in a meeting wrote down that would be damning to his administration after 9/11.
Yes, they all have national security vaults run by the Archives and the material is only available to scholars with the appropriate clearances and approvals. This is separate from the non classified papers which still require you be an approved scholar and approved to see the papers you’ve requested. The President (or his representative) can with hold documents. For example Lyndon Johnson’s financial records are still pretty much sealed from public view. His estate is preventing people getting a look. From reading Caro’s books on Johnson you know there was a lot of corruption (he was the wealthiest president: at least when he left office though most was in his wife’s name.)
If the liebrary has the documents, it’s game over anyway. What ever secrets Burglar risked all to hide have been sanitized out of the documents. Why GWB let Sandy off so easily is beyond understanding.
Nixon tried that for years by setting up a separate foundation but that finally got folded into the National Archives system a few years ago. Johnson’s library has lots of stuff that scholars can’t see. I think both the Kennedy and Roosevelt libraries still have a lot of sealed material.
Yes a presidential library is allowed to hold classified documents form the time of that president. I tried to get a job a few years ago at the Nixon library which required a high level clearance due to papers concerning the Vietnam war in its archives.
Every time I read something about the Hamburgler I get really steamed. It reminds me that the Clintons are the LAST people we need in the White House.
From
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=/Nation/archive/200805/NAT20080505c.html
Berger later called the archives to tell them he found two of the documents, but not the other two.
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Inexcusable how these documents got out, inventory should have been high priority. The 2 Berger found will keep Clinton out of the White House if unreleased, I suspect, the people’s curiosity will override their love for the Clinton’s.
a deal was cut with the Bush administration, heck Bush even got them to reduce sandy burlgar's already low judgement
Anyone else would’ve done at least 10 years in a federal pen.
Meanwhile, the revered Lee Hamilton sits on Sandy Berger’s Board of Reference at Sandy’s Stonebridge International consulting firm. What a joke.
Nothing will ever override a Clinton worshipper’s love for the Clintons.
As part of his conviction agreement, Berger was to surrender himself to the FBI for a polygraph test.
He hasn’t showed up yet.
Maybe not, but here's something we DO know:
The risk involved in NOT taking them was obviously more than the risk of the punishment FOR taking them.
Do you know where those documents have been?
Berger acts like a common crook, yet he’s still regarded as some kind of national security expert, which he is not. He’s a lobbyist for the People’s Republic of China. He obviously took the documents because they were empbarrassing - after he made a phone call to Clinton’s lawyer.
The William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library will not make available to the public the documents that former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger illegally took from the National Archives in 2003.A letter from the library said, "Since Sandy Berger illegally took the documents from the Archives they technically don't exist so it follows that we don't have them."
There fixed it.
Clinotian parsing added for clarity :-)
You know, Hillary has had so much experience from the White House days. Will McCain bring up anything about the ongoing deplorable Clinton charade that is being swallowed up by socialist media and the enablers? Nah, that wouldn’t be prudent.
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